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Minimum Pay
Several years ago I watched my husband change light bulbs. The problem was that the ceiling was 18 feet high. He had to bolt 2 X 4s to the bottom of the ladder and then he needed a step ladder to get to the bottom rung. Probably the biggest misconception is that minimum wage is designed to help those on the lowest end of the ladder. Actually, the opposite is true. Minimum wage raises the height of the lowest rung of the ladder, making it more difficult to find gainful employment.
I’m getting weary of candidates for public office saying they are going to create jobs. Really??? Businesses don’t have the same goal as government. Businesses don’t open up so they can create jobs. They open up so they can engage in an industry the owners find meaningful and so they can make a profit and then hire more people to keep growing. If they don’t make a profit, they naturally go away.
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How to Shop!
You are voting with your pocketbook
Dennis Nett/The Post-StandardThe former Muench-Kreuzer candle factory on Syracuse’s North Side is being converted into 40 apartments and some commercial space by developer Cosimo Zavaglia. His company paid $80,000 for the 60,000 square foot building at 617 E. Hiawatha Boulevard. Zavaglia plans to spend about $3 million on the project. He said the apartments will be ready for occupancy in August. You can tell what a person values by looking at his credit card statement. We vote with our wallets every day for what we think is important. Does anyone remember about 20 years ago when Walmart boasted about selling “Made in the USA” products? If you are too young to remember, you will have to take my word for it.
People like the price of Chinese-made goods, but when our factories go out of business, we act surprised. This Christmas season when I attempted to place my Christmas candle order, here is what I found:
Syracuse used to have a thriving candle manufacturing industry with five candle companies. Two brothers — Alexis and Norbert Muench — started Muench-Kreuzer in 1925. They were executives at another local candle company — Will & Baumer. Will & Baumer had been in the Syracuse area since 1855, but moved to Tennessee in 2009 to become a candle importer.
