Seattle Liberals Kill Subway Sandwich With Minimum Wage
“There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” as the old saying goes. Now, thanks to liberal meddling, there’s no such thing as a cheap Subway sandwich, either — at least not in Seattle.
The well-known sub chain recently reintroduced its “Five Dollar Footlong” promotion that was a major success years ago, driven by one of the most effective ad jingles in recent memory.
At least one Subway in Seattle won’t be participating in the promotion, however. It turns out that stifling regulations and the constantly-rising minimum wage aren’t magic solutions after all.
“We are not participating in the $5 Footlong promotion,” a sign spotted at the restaurant explained.
“The cost of doing business in the City of Seattle is very high. We are balancing the highest minimum wage in the nation, paid sick leave, ACA, Secure Scheduling, Soda Tax and much more,” owner David Jones wrote.
Seattle Subway says so long to the $5 foot long! https://t.co/4noT5G4kVr #Subway #Seattle #Waleg pic.twitter.com/aSNDD193gU
— Washington Policy (@WAPolicyCenter) January 9, 2018
Conservatives have often warned that a society cannot endlessly increase wages without the cost of living being impacted. When every employee demands more money, the cash has to come from somewhere… and almost always, it results in inflation that negates any benefit of the raise increase in the first place.
“The biggest cost driver, as Jones’ sign mentions, is Seattle’s highest-in-the-nation minimum wage. It went from $9.47 to $11 per hour in 2015, then to $13 per hour in 2016, with a further increase to $15 per hour planned,” explained Reason Magazine.
“The result? According to researchers at the University of Washington’s School of Public Policy and Governance, the number of hours worked in low-wage jobs has declined by around 9 percent since the start of 2016 ‘while hourly wages in such jobs increased by around 3 percent’,” continued the magazine.
“The net outcome: In 2016, the ‘higher’ minimum wage actually lowered low-wage workers’ earnings by an average of $125 a month.”
Well done, liberals.
Once again, a Democrat policy ends up hurting the same people Democrats claim to “help.” Promising to raise the minimum wage might garner votes from those who are not financially literate — which means liberals — but it’s only a matter of time before the economy corrects and low-wage earners are the hardest hit.
Think about it: If minimum wage could be magically increased with no side effects, why don’t we simply make minimum wage $100 per hour tomorrow?
The answer, which almost everyone knows intuitively, is that this isn’t sustainable, and it would be only a few days before every business was in the red. Business owners don’t have a bottomless pit of cash, or they wouldn’t need to run a business at all. Revenue must come from somewhere.
If $100 per hour continued, every store would have to hike its prices to compensate. Gas would be over $20 per gallon. Grocery costs would skyrocket. Even casual observers understand that this wouldn’t work.
Yet that’s exactly what the left tries to do, on a slightly smaller scale. They promise wage increases while pretending that there will be no ill effects… but the world doesn’t work that way.
A more expensive sub may be just an inconvenience, but every other area of Seattle’s economy is inflating and adjusting to the increase at the same time.
Everything is connected, and nothing comes for free.
America should watch this failing experiment closely, before it comes to your city next.
Like and share this on Facebook and Twitter to remind everyone there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
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