[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 60 (Thursday, April 29, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H2523]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              MINIMUM WAGE STIFLES GROWTH, CREATIVE SPIRIT

  (Mr. DICKEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include extraneous 
material.)
  Mr. DICKEY. Madam Speaker, I would like to place in the Record an 
article written by Leo Collins and published in the Pine Bluff 
Commercial on April 27. Two significant points were made.
  First, it stated:

       In many ways it seems that the only people who benefit from 
     guaranteed minimum wage are those high school dropouts with 
     lost ambition. We should not promote a permanent minimum wage 
     mentality in anyone by convincing them that they can only 
     expect an increase in wages if the government gives it to 
     them. On the contrary, we should encourage them to look to 
     their willingness to prepare themselves and use their 
     ambition as their ticket to higher prices.

  On another subject Mr. Collins talks about good educational programs 
like Trio being sooner or later: ``Bushwacked and slowly ground into 
government pork.''
  Without his knowing it, the opportunities afforded by Trio to 
students who want to try are being threatened by a new proposed program 
called Gear Up. The threatened dilution of Trio has been prophesized in 
this article. Mr. Collins' wisdom on each of these issues is 
remarkable.

            [From the Pine Bluff Commercial, Apr. 27, 1999]

              Minimum Wage Stifles Growth, Creative Spirit

                            (By Leo Collins)

       As long as I write an opinion column or do radio 
     commentaries, which I have done 30 years or more, I will from 
     time to time voice an opinion against those who buy into the 
     minimum wage concept.
       And I will also get branded from time to time as one of 
     those black conservatives who doesn't want to see all 
     Americans with enough financial resources to sit around the 
     dinner table and feast on pheasant washed down with vintage 
     wine.
       Well, those who identify me as a black liberal half of the 
     time are about right. Those who identify me as a black 
     conservative the other half of the time are probably right 
     also.
       Some of our well-meant social programs are not much more 
     than social crutches that are both addictive and non-
     productive and often do nothing more than provide feather 
     bedding posh jobs for those charged with overseeing these 
     types of programs.
       But there are many government programs that do tons of 
     good: Headstart, TRIO Programs (Talent Search, Student 
     Support Service and Upward Bound) all come to mind. They help 
     provide all kinds of educational supplements for students who 
     are at a disadvantage or who are educationally abandoned.
       We don't want to throw all social programs out the back 
     door. Most government programs start off with all the good 
     intent in the world, but along their voyage down the road of 
     good intentions, these programs get bushwhacked, are slowly 
     ground into government pork and get branded often as 
     government waste.
       There are times when our elected officials make political 
     hash out of well-meaning social programs because they seem 
     directed toward a certain racial or ethnic group. So when we 
     evaluate the outcome of these types of programs, they will 
     not have had a national impact on America; but they will have 
     helped a large segment of the populace in certain areas of 
     the country.
       Over the years social programs that were designed to help 
     the poor have always been branded as pork. But Pentagon waste 
     and aid to huge corporations have always been labeled as 
     programs aiding America, or it's done under the guise of 
     keeping America strong.
       The concept of minimum wage has always sounded like a good 
     idea. No American, according to those who advocate it, should 
     earn less than a set wage.
       All of this sounds good, but is it good? Not to me! It 
     stifles individual growth, it dampens the creative spirit and 
     it gives the illusion that your lifelong economic dreams have 
     been fulfilled even though you can never quite figure out why 
     you never seem to take enough pay home to make a down payment 
     on a new car. In many ways it seems that the only people who 
     benefit from guaranteed minimum wage are those high school 
     dropouts with lost ambition.
       In a small business the owners may not earn enough to pay 
     minimum wage, but this is an ideal climate for young people 
     to learn something about what it requires to make it in an 
     economy based upon free enterprise. That is more important 
     than earning minimum wage.
       No, I don't believe in child labor and slave wages, but I 
     do believe in organized labor, providing that labor leaders 
     require the membership to deliver high quality performance 
     after management concedes to their demands. Wage wise indeed, 
     there ought to be some kind of collective bargaining, but it 
     should be between workers and management, not necessarily 
     between government and management.
       The government only needs to raise its powerful fist when 
     management is obviously abusing labor by not providing safe 
     working places, health insurance, etc. It just seems to me 
     that wages ought to coincide with net profits, but there 
     should be no guaranteed minimum or maximum wage. Too 
     frequently, I must admit that management does not pay labor 
     its fair share.

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