Primary ballot propositions

[Jack_DeLeon]

Proposition 1:
Do you support lifting millions of families above
the national poverty line by increasing the state
minimum wage above its current level of $5.15
per hour?

Proposition 2:
Do you support the restoration of Texans' full
rights to a trial by jury in civil cases?

I know that since this is a primary ballot that these are just a way for the party to gauge how the voting public feels about this, but I was just curious to see what yall think about it and to discuss.

I voted against prop 1. I dont think raising minimum wage does anything to get people out of poverty. So what if someone gets another dollar or two more, its counter acted because the price of everything will just go up to compensate. Also it doesnt do me any good, I make $9 an hour, if minimum wage goes up I wont see it, but I will still have to pay for it when I buy stuff that now costs more.

I voted for prop 2. I had a question on this? Do we not have a right to trial by jury in Texas if we are sued, or if we sue someone? I definately support the right to trial by jury, but what is the case here?

[johncoby2]

1. You dont have the right to a jury trial in Texas

According to the US constitution we have the right to a civil trial in any grievance over $20.

But.....buy a new car, new home, get a credit card, get a job, and you sign away this right. Instead you are tricked into thinking arbitration is faster, cheaper and better. And it is, but not for the consumer.

The party has realized that this force arbitration is a hoax. Most people don't understand just how bad it is until they need legal help, then it is too late.

Arbitration has been studied for the last 3 years with 4 different studies in the Texas House and Senate. and yet nothing has been done about it.

So vote YES on 2.

See http://www.hadd.com/states/texas.php look under arbitration for more info.

[sonias]

2. I can't believe you voted no on Prop 1

"I make $9 an hour, if minimum wage goes up I wont see it, but I will still have to pay for it when I buy stuff that now costs more."

Sounds a little selfish to me. I got mine, so you get yours. Way to think about your brothers and sisters trying to make a living on $5.15 an hour. A person making minimum wage, working 40 hours a week makes $824 a month or $9,888 a year. So just because the costs of things for you might get higher, too bad for them. Perhaps they can add that second or third job to keep them from being homeless.

I hope that you take some time do so some research on this issue and reconsider your position if this does ever make our ballot.

I support a universal living wage.
http://www.universallivingwage.org/

Sonia

[Texacrat]

11. Actually, he's cognizant of economics

To say that someone who makes $9 hour is rich or well off is off base.

I do believe the minimum wage should be increased, but I can see where he's coming from.

[Czolgosz]

3. No on proposition 1? That's too bad.

Here's what other states do:

ALASKA - $7.15
CALIFORNIA - $6.75 (San Francisco - $8.50)
CONNECTICUT - $7.40 (soon to be $7.65)
DELAWARE - $6.15
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - $7.00
FLORIDA - $6.40
HAWAII - $6.75 (soon to be $7.25)
ILLINOIS - $6.50
MAINE - $6.50
MASSACHUSETTS - $6.75
MINNESOTA - $6.15
NEW JERSEY - $6.15 (soon to be $7.15)
NEW YORK - $6.75 (soon to be $7.15)
OREGON - $7.50
RHODE ISLAND - $6.75
VERMONT - $7.25
WASHINGTON - $7.63
WISCONSIN - $5.70

It is incorrect that you will have to pay more when you "buy stuff" as a result of minimum wage laws. You can compare the cost of living in Florida cities (with minimum wage laws) that are located adjacent to otherwise comparable Georgia cities that don't or you can compare Pennsylvania cities (without minimum wage laws) that are located adjacent to otherwise comparable New Jersey cities that have such legal protections -- there is no difference in the cost of living based on minimum wage laws. Also, you may have noticed that the cost of living has been rising in Texas, but the state and federal minimum wages here haven't, so where's the connection?

If you think that that laws only benefit you if they directly apply to you, you are not considering the benefit to you from shrinking the welfare roles (one effect of minimum wage laws), increasing consumer spending (another effect of minimum wage laws), decreasing reliance on public health care (one more effect of minimum wage laws), and -- most importantly -- the benefit of living in a society that has less poverty generally and less child poverty specifically (children in poverty are most likely to have parents whose incomes would be effected by a rise in the minimum wage).

Also, your skepticism about raising the minimum wage is not shared by most Democrats and -- get ready for this -- most Republicans. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press did a recent comprehensive study, Beyond Red vs. Blue, of the public's attitudes on issues at the heart of the differences between Republican and Democratic policy solutions. Here's a link: <http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=943>. Here are the study's findings on minimum wage laws: "overwhelming support for an increase in the minimum wage extends across all groups, again with the exception of Enterprisers. Overall 86% of the public favors a hike in the minimum wage from its current level of $5.15 to $6.45 per hour. More than 90% of Pro-Government Conservatives, Conservative Democrats, Disadvantaged Democrats and Liberals support such an increase. Among Enterprisers, however, a plurality (49%) opposes the move, although nearly as many (46%) favor it." Here's a graph:



Raising the minimum wage is the exact sort of initiative that would pull moderate Republicans away from the neo-con-fundamentalist-corporatist Perry wing of the Texas Republican Party. Just as Republicans and their control of the media hold the debate on issues that divide the Democratic Party (Karl Rove's "guns and gays" media plan), we need to shift the debate to issues which divide the Republican Party and where the public favors Democratic solutions: living wages, access to health care, tax equity, free high-quality public education and affordable access to higher education, regulation in favor of the public interest and against corporate misdeeds including environmental protections, international cooperation instead of unilateralism, etc.

Finally, this is one issue that separates Bell from Gammage. If none of this research persuades you, you may prefer a Bell nomination because Bell favors leaving the minimum wage laws to the federal government (but he does favor a higher federal minimum wage). If you are persuaded that Texas should have a statewide minimum wage, Gammage is your candidate.

[Jack_DeLeon]

8. minimum wages in other states

ALASKA - $7.15
CALIFORNIA - $6.75 (San Francisco - $8.50)
CONNECTICUT - $7.40 (soon to be $7.65)
DELAWARE - $6.15
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - $7.00
FLORIDA - $6.40
HAWAII - $6.75 (soon to be $7.25)
ILLINOIS - $6.50
MAINE - $6.50
MASSACHUSETTS - $6.75
MINNESOTA - $6.15
NEW JERSEY - $6.15 (soon to be $7.15)
NEW YORK - $6.75 (soon to be $7.15)
OREGON - $7.50
RHODE ISLAND - $6.75
VERMONT - $7.25
WASHINGTON - $7.63
WISCONSIN - $5.70

Yes all those states have a minimum wage that is higher than in Texas. Yet I'm sure they all still have plenty of people who are still impoverished. It would be better to also show thier poverty rates in comparison to Texas. That being said even that would probably not be enough to tell the whole story.

I think proposition 1 on this ballot was a loaded question, and one of the reason I disliked it. Because the way it is worded by voting no, I guess I have said that "I do not support lifting millions of families above the national poverty line..." That is not the case.

IMO raising the minimum wage hurts far more people than it helps. If raising minimum wages eliminates poverty then why do we still have poor people? Have we just not raised it enough? If you paid everyone $10 an hour, or $20 an hour I'm sure we would still have people in poverty.

There are other things that can be done to reduce poverty (I dont really think it can ever truely be eliminated), such as improving education and more affordable housing, and in the grand scheme of things I dont think raising the minimum wages helps out nearly as much as some people think it does.

[WestHoustonDem]

9. Thom Hartmann disagrees

Step #4 in Ten Steps to Restore Democracy http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6546.htm:
4. A strong middle class is vital to democracy. In 1792, James Madison defined government's role in promoting an American middle class, "By the silent operation of the laws, which, without violating the rights of property, reduce extreme wealth towards a state of mediocrity, and raise extreme indigence toward a state of comfort." To say that somebody who earns millions a year by arbitrage "works that much harder" than a middle-class wage earner is simple nonsense. We recommend restoring inflation-indexed income tax and inheritance tax rates to those that were extant from the 1930s to the 1960s - during the golden era of the American middle class. We also recommend that government become the "employer of last resort" by taking on public works projects and supporting the arts, as it did during that era, and establishing a truly livable minimum wage.



See this review of Greenspan's Fraud by Batra http://www.buzzflash.com/hartmann/05/07/har05007.html

[Czolgosz]

10. Since you asked about the link between minimum wage and poverty:

10 STATES WITH LOWEST POVERTY RATES (4 have minimum wage laws)

1. New Hampshire 6.5
2. Minnesota 6.6
3. Connecticut 6.9
4. Iowa 7.4
5. Maryland 7.5
6. Indiana 7.7
7. Utah 7.7
8. Virginia 7.8
9. Alaska 7.9
10. New Jersey 7.9

10 STATES WITH HIGHEST POVERTY RATES (only 1 has minimum wage laws)

10. New York 12.0
9. Oklahoma 14.1
8. Mississippi 14.5
7. Alabama 14.8
6. West Virginia 14.9
5. Texas 14.9
4. Montana 15.7
3. Arkansas 16.3
2. Louisiana 18.3
1. New Mexico 18.8

You said it would be better to also show the poverty rates of the states with minimum wage laws in comparison to Texas. The comparison is that ALL states with minimum wage laws have a lower poverty rate than Texas.

[WestHoustonDem]

4. I've got to chime in here

Aside from the obvious compassionate considerations, raising the minimum wage is good for the economy. People who make minimum wage are likely to spend a greater percentage (if not all) of their income. Raising minimum wage puts more real dollars into the economy, as opposed to tax breals for the wealthy who already spend as much as they're going to.

[sonias]

7. Absolutely right WestHoustonDem

When people have more disposable income, they spend it, which in turn creates more demand, and more jobs. A real stimulus to our economy is a good paying job.

Sonia

[Czolgosz]

5. Proposition 2 is in response to the 'puke effort to insulate corporate

malefactors and wrong-doers from paying for their irresponsibility through the civil justice system. The Republicans have crippled the right to jury trial by promoting arbitration as a replacement for your legal rights, by adopting one-size-fits-all damage caps which are so low that they are capped below the cost of bring a suit in place of your right to have a jury decide damages on a case-by-case basis according to the evidence, by passing laws which preclude Texans from suing out-of-state companies who have hurt Texans when these out-of-state products malfunction here in Texas, by taking the justice system out of the jury's hands and placing it into the hands of all-Republican Texas Supreme Court, etc.

Proposition 2 asks, shall we fight back against this transfer of power from the people to the most irresponsbile corporations or shall we take it lying down?

[WolverineDG]

6. Guess what, Jack?

You're already paying more. Many employers now realize they can't keep employees if they only offer $5.15/hour. Kids at McD's & other fast food chains are making more than that. Besides, every time the minimum wage is increased, we hear the "prices will go up" whine. Prices are going to go up anyway, so why not pay the folks at the bottom a little bit more?

dg