yes, paying workers "high" wages is always bad. just look at henry ford.
oh, wait a minute, maybe not. history, that pesky history, sometimes tells a different story. pity no one learns it, or from it.
Steven HillDirector of the Political Reform Program at the New America Foundation
Posted: January 8, 2007 06:07 PM
Henry Ford and the Minimum Wage
Politics News
By Dmitri Iglitzin and Steven Hill
As President Bush and the Congress prepare to debate an increase in the federal minimum wage, they could learn much from the economic wisdom of one of America's most successful business leaders -- Henry Ford.
Ford was, among other things, a famously domineering employer and a supporter of fascists, but he was also an economic pioneer. He not only perfected the techniques of mass assembly of automobiles, but he also foresaw that his efforts would not amount to great profits if average Americans could not afford to buy all those cars. He saw that putting higher wages in his workers' pockets was good for his own bottom line, and good for the national economy too.
So Ford shocked the world in 1914 when he unilaterally introduced his own minimum wage for his employees, more than doubling the average wage in the auto industry by raising it from $2.34 per day to $5 per day. As Ford put it, raising wages "has the same effect as throwing a stone in a still pond," creating an "ever-widening circle of buying" that increases everyone's prosperity.
It was a simple formula that the U.S. has utilized many times since: adequate wages create happier consumers which contribute to a humming economy.
read more
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-hill/henry-ford-and-the-minimu_b_38140.html
if you dare.
or bash the working man, if you wish.