Monday, November 02, 2009

Dems determined to cost Americans their jobs

What to Do About High Unemployment? Make Labor More Expensive!
The National Federation of Independent Business has estimated that an employer mandate would cost 1.6 million jobs over the first five years, and cut GDP by $200 billion. Whether or not you choose to believe that estimate, it's clear that taken together, the provision would make it far more costly for businesses to hire new workers and maintain current staffing levels, by raising the price of labor as well as the regulatory burden.
According to this chart from Google's public data, unemployment is currently hovering around 9.5 percent. Yet, in pursuing an employer mandate, House Democrats are pushing a policy that would pretty plainly make labor more expensive.
Where have we seen this kind of thing before?
Reluctant to lower wages due to Hoover's entreaties, employers in the manufacturing sector responded by reducing the work week and laying off workers. By September 1931, the manufacturing sector was already hurting: Hours clocked by workers had fallen by 20 percent and employment by 35 percent.
There's no reason that history won't repeat itself if the Democrats continue on the warpath determined to make having employees more expensive than they are. Those that go on welfare can become addicts of big government and those that are "lucky" enough to keep their jobs will become slaves of big government, forced to work to pay for the addicts.