2196 Busi Bodies

Conservatives chafe at government intervention in things having to do with business. And seeing how certain regulations increase the burden of paperwork on small businesses it's easy to understand why.

So the new effort to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour has not gone down well with the small business community. Those extra dollars are the difference between being in business and being out of business. 

But some big employers, particularly their lobbyists in Washington, have been up to a little talking out of both sides of their mouthpieces. Or at least saying one thing and doing another. 

According to a new study reported in the Wall Street Journal, raising the minimum wage to $10.10 would take 3.5 million people off the food stamp rolls and cut federal spending on the program by $4.6 billion a year. But, the report goes on to say, many big employers rely on federal programs to provide food assistance to their workers. 

Basically, complaining about the cost of food stamps, big government, and federal intervention on one hand and then exploiting it with the other to pay less wages and pad their workers' bottom line. And their company's.

So hey. The ultimate judge of all things is happy; the stockholder.

But if U.S. businesses think they got it bad, intervention wise, try Canada. Broadcast regulators there reprimanded three erotic channels in Toronto for not showing the government-required 35% of Canadian content. 

Because you know, if you're going to serve up porn, an industry rife with misuse and abuse of their workers, you better make sure you take advantage of the appropriate percentage of local people and don't just import it from around the world from less sophisticated and less moral nations. 

You know. Think global, exploit local.

America, ya gotta love it.