That Joyous Moment…
By Mitch Berg
…when liberals actually realize they have to pay for the “progressive” legislation they demanded.
A cafe in Stillwater tacked on a “Minimum Wage Fee” to their bills, to show their customers – this being Stillwater, mostly DFLers – what their “generosity” with other peoples’ bottom lines was costing everyone.
Sally Jo Sorenson – one of the handful (literally – maybe five, no more than ten) liberal bloggers in Minnesota who don’t belong under police surveillance – just doesn’t like those peasants getting uppity:
The restaurant industry had tried–but failed–to make the case to the Minnesota legislature for a “tip credit” system under which wait staff could be paid less than the new minimum wage. New legislation raised the state’s minimum wage to $8.00/hr on August 1, with new raises for workers until the wage is $9.50/hr in August 2016.
Accurized: The restaurant industry’s case had no more chance of being heard in a legislature dominated by a DFL that owed their union benefactors big bucks than Ice Cube has of getting applauded at a Ted Nugent concert. The minimum wage was going to pass, no matter what.
And once the DFL has spoken, to the left (via Sally Jo Sorenson), people should just shut up and forget all that “free speech” and “protest” crap.
The cafe in question should oughtta be careful, of course; next, it’ll be the IRS.
Reading the smug, PC commenters (as if Sorenson deigns to print any other kind) is just precious.
I’d like to find out what the cafe is, so I can grab breakfast there this weekend and thank them for forcing the Minnesota left to marinade in its own cowardly hypocrisy.
August 5th, 2014 at 11:42 am
The cafe owner explains:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204311066163447
806 Main Street, Stillwater. I’m definitely going to have to visit.
August 5th, 2014 at 12:11 pm
Nate, that’s quite the thread. Dozens of lefties screaming “la la la I can’t hear you.” It’s one thing to be ignorant of economics. It’s quite another to have a willful commitment to ignorance.
August 5th, 2014 at 12:54 pm
Money spent on one thing cannot be spent on something else. The receipt image nate links to shows a $0.35 additional charge on a $15.37 bill.
1) What would the $0.35 be spent on if it wasn’t absorbed by the minimum wage increase (multiply by, say, 250/day * 365 for that particular restaurant)?
2) The tab was a bit over $15. This wage increase is not being payed by the 1%’rs.
3) more people are willing to pay $15.02 than are willing to pay $15.37 for the same meal. The increase necessarily decreases demand for the product. You have to add more value, somehow, to make the same number of consumers pay more for the same product. The value added cannot be used elsewhere, i.e., spending more on advertising to attract the same number of customers willing to pay the higher price means that the money spent on advertising cannot be spent elsewhere (renovations, improved menu items, better cleaning service, etc.).
The restaurant in question seems to be the River Oasis Cafe: https://www.google.com/maps/@45.050035,-92.800821,3a,75y,241.1h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sbRs0ti9mquy4J28IGR90_g!2e0
Definitely not a 1%er hangout.
August 5th, 2014 at 1:09 pm
I’m kinda tempted to go there for breakfast on Saturday, and see how many other people I can get to show up.
August 5th, 2014 at 1:40 pm
A Wisconsin businessman had an op-ed in the Milwaukee Journal about a month ago. He explained in detail what was wrong with Wisconsin under Diamond Jim Doyle, why he chose to expand in Iowa instead of Wisconsin during this time, and why he is now hiring in Wisconsin under Scott Walker’s reforms.
Then you read the comments. The left just did vicious nasty personal attacks. They didn’t refute any of his assertions, but just went jihad on him.
The left does not like to hear the truth.
August 5th, 2014 at 1:56 pm
Liberals would do well to be more self-critical. The minimum wage in the context of tipped wait help at restaurants is a very parochial concern. I imagine that for most liberals these are the only minimum wage earners that they know. Working as wait help may be the only minimum wage job they ever held. They may identify with minimum wage earners at restaurants far more than, say, an immigrant packing chicken for Tyson foods.
Only a small percentage of restaurants cater to the wealthy. The vast majority (like the River Oasis Cafe) serve working people and middle class families. That is who will pay for increases in restaurant wages.
Most restaurants operate on very small profit margins. That is why so many fail. My wife was a managing chef at several restaurants. Cost control makes or breaks a restaurant. You don’t make a profit by selling sirloin tips and broccoli to the dinner crowd, you make money by using the left over broccoli in the next morning’s breakfast special.
August 5th, 2014 at 6:24 pm
Odd, nobody seems to object to government TAXES being listed as a separate line item on the bill. Why should this government action be any different?
August 5th, 2014 at 8:17 pm
I think that I’ve said this before but it bears endless repetition.
Isn’t it funny that dope head Dayton is all for the minimum wage hike, after his family screwed their employees over wages and benefits for years. I remember working for Target, while still under the heel of the Dayton’s boots. They mandated that no part timer could work over 33 hours. This helped them avoid paying benefits.
Now, some lefty PAC is going after Stewart Mills because he is an heir to a family fortune. Of course, we all know that the left wing retards are fine with their minions screwing the middle class that they constantly lie to.
Makes me want to go find Matt Entenza and punch his lights out.
August 6th, 2014 at 9:41 am
QUOTE: Money spent on one thing cannot be spent on something else.
Demand shifting is 1000% stupid. The problem is the WHOLE ECONOMY. We need output and purchasing power, not forcing a wage with legislated central planning. It creates NOTHING.
August 6th, 2014 at 2:29 pm
Some people, including the prez and nobel prize winner Krugman, Think that borrowed money at 0 percent is free. Borrow, spend, stimulate the economy. Not true — the more you borrow, the more consumers in an economy become forward looking, and decrease their spending in anticipation of future tax increases and benefit decreases.
August 6th, 2014 at 6:46 pm
Don’t understand the Facebook comments that say Oasis Cafe is making their employees look like the bad guy. Everyone knows that the employees did not pass the legislation. However, by vocally urging people to not support the cafe, the employees they pretend to care so much about could lose their employment. And I would have thought that people who supported the legislation would have been happy to share their wealth, so what’s the problem with the 35 cent fee? Here’s a business that asks us all to take responsibility. I’d say the outrage makes supporters of legislation like increasing the minimum wage look bad.
August 7th, 2014 at 3:06 am
http://bit.ly/1pd9UMb
August 7th, 2014 at 9:46 am
[…] IN MINNESOTA: “Clearly the owner of the cafe hates his employees, because he’s making the minimum wage an issue on his receipts. So we’ll show our concern for the employees by boycotting the place and trying to put the […]
August 7th, 2014 at 12:22 pm
[…] this week, Sally Jo Sorenson of Bluestem Prairie unleashed the nagging, hectoring, joyless scolding hordes of the Minnesota left on the River Oasis Cafe in […]