When someone’s arguments take the form of personal attacks and name-calling it’s a pretty clear admission that they don’t have anything valid or worthwhile to say. You used the following words in your two responses to my posts:
stupid, ignoramus, stupid and dishonest, nonsense, silly, ignorance, malice. You are part of the problem
By devolving into name-calling you’ve revealed the bankruptcy of your position. Thanks for making my point for me.
Beyond your personal insults and negative value judgments, the next argument you made was the claim that I represented the views of conservatives in a way that made them look like bad people.
That’s untrue for two reasons:
1) The title of my post said in very big type “Many Conservatives” not “All Conservatives.” (The Real Reason Many Conservatives Hate A Living-Wage Minimum Wage)
The first paragraph of my post said:
“Before you decide that I’m unfairly bashing conservatives, let me tell you that this article isn’t about all conservatives. It’s an observation about the psychology of some conservatives.”
I made it inescapably clear that I was talking about some, not all, conservatives, a distinction you chose to ignore.
It’s self-evidently false to claim that no conservatives in the entire world oppose raising the minimum wage because they feel that unskilled workers don’t deserve to be paid that much money.
I don’t think anyone, including you, believes that no conservatives feel that way.
Of course, some conservatives do actually and in fact oppose increasing the minimum wage because they think that minimum-wage workers do not deserve to be paid that much money .
If anyone doubts that I would suggest that they talk to their conservative acquaintances and ask them the following question: “For the sake of argument if it was stipulated that raising the minimum wage to a living wage would not result in a net loss of jobs and also stipulated that it would not materially increase the cost of anything you regularly buy, would you still oppose that increase in the minimum wage to a living wage?”
For those who say “yes” ask them why.
2) The second reason your comment is false is that I never said that opposing an increase in the minimum wage because you believe that unskilled workers don’t deserve to earn that much money makes someone a bad person. That was your conclusion.
If you want to believe that someone is a bad person because they think that it’s wrong for workers to be paid more than their unskilled labor is worth that’s your value judgement, not mine.
My post discussed the psychological attitude of some conservatives that makes them oppose raising the minimum wage to a living wage. That’s an absolutely valid and useful discussion. It helps us understand one of the reasons why some conservatives oppose increasing the minimum wage.
Though you have decided that people who oppose raising the minimum wage because they feel it is morally wrong for unskilled workers to be paid more than a market rate for their labor are bad people, I’m happy to leave the good/bad determination to each individual person who thinks that’s a relevant or important question. Personally, I don’t think it is.
In my opinion, assigning pejorative labels to people based on their political or economic beliefs is pointless.
I’m happy to stick to saying: “This is why some people take this position on this issue” and leave it there. Whether others consider the people who hold those beliefs to be either good people or bad people is irrelevant, unimportant.
I’ll leave the name calling and labeling people as “good” or “bad” to you, whoever you are.
–David Grace
