Hey Ohio: DUH!

Recently Ohio voted to raise min wage from $5.15 to $6.85 an hour. I think there was a record turnout at the polls. I'd never seen lines so long. Time to elect a President, everyone stays home to watch talk shows... but offer to raise the min wage and even the dead seem to crawl out of the woodwork.

All of a sudden our local paper is screaming with headlines that say: Will hike hit you in the pocketbook? Some say price rise needed for businesses to survive and Expert projects wage hike 'ripple effect' -- Well DUH! How else is McDonalds going to make the same kind of profit on a Big Mac? So here is what happens: The local teenager who used to make $5.15 an hour is now going to be replaced. By someone who is worth $6.85 an hour. Meanwhile, prices are going to go up all around to cover costs. Hours will be reduced. We'll get crappier service and lesser quality. Do you think I'll get an extra buck-seventy an hour because society feels sorry for me? Doubt it. Way to go voters!

Meanwhile the teenager who no longer has a job is now unemployable and will have to rob houses and sell drugs. They'll make more than ever. The middle class will no longer be able to support their fast food habit. Those people who never aspire to do more with their lives than minimum wage? Well, don't you worry... they will be OK!

My first 'real' job at 16 paid $4.30 an hour. Just above minimum wage at the time. Within a year I was making $7 an hour. How? I worked hard, I looked for opportunities. I always did more than was asked of me. I always did my best no matter how crappy I felt. I was dependable and made myself indispensable. I worked through college. Then I looked for a better job. The people I encounter working McJobs and bussing tables -- might be worth $4 and hour on a good day.

Really, society, give hard work a try. It's time to step out of the hand-out line.