Your Turn
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2013-02-14/your-turn
President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address, saying he wants to improve the fortunes of the middle class. Pope Benedict XVI says he will resign at the end of the month because his age is making it hard to carry out his duties. And the International Olympic Committee axes one of the oldest sports in the modern games -- wrestling -- so it can add something new. It's your turn to share your views on the news.
Comments
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Please no sneering when talking to your callers. You may well question the claim of the small business owner that he hasn't taken a salary in four years but your position as radio announcer doesn't confer on you a position of judgement. WAMU and NPR are very large corporations when compared to genuine small businesses such as the corner dry cleaner and the convenience store franchisee. The platform of radio call in show is always valuable, your perspective as an employee of a large corporation with a secure and well paying job may be less so on this topic.
Kojo,
Please report on the arrest of 40 leading citizens at the White House yesterday in protest against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline designed to carry Canadian climate-destroying tar sands oil to the Gulf Coast to be refined, much of the refined products to be exported to Europe and Asia. Among those arrested were Robert Kenneday, Jr, Julian Bond, and Mike Brune (first such action by Sierra Club in 120 years). [see today's WP]
Also, report that the largest citizens protest to date against the pipeline will occur this Sunday starting at noon at the NW corner of the Washington Monument. The following march will encircle the White House, and this will be a peaceful event with no civil disobedience planned.
Lowell Smith
Berryville, VA
I don't think the Congress in 1938, when they established the minimum wage, was thinking about it as an entry-level wage. They were trying to keep people who might be too easily exploited from being easily exploited.
And the people against paying a minimum wage? It's not because they've never imagined themselves trying to live on minimum wage. It's because they basically think hiring a person is an act of charity, doing a favor for someone, and not a calculation of the value of a necessary task.
The store owner doesn't hire a teenager because he wants to do a teenager a favor, he hires one because he needs the sidewalk swept.
Kojo Nnamdi is not an employee of WAMU or of NPR, which are two completely separate businesses. He is under contract to WAMU and that contract can be terminated at any time at the will of management.
Kojo is very well aware of what it is like to be self-employed. He may or may not pay himself a salary out of his earnings, that depends entirely upon how Kojo, as a small businessman, has set himself up for tax purposes.
You can rest assured that Kojo, as well as the "small business owner that he hasn't taken a salary in four years," is not working for free.
listening to those whiners going on about how they can't keep their businesses afloat without exploiting their workers just made me laugh. if you pegged the 1950s min wage to the cost of living, it'd be almost $11/hr. if you peg it to the productivity of labor, it'd be nearly $20.
to claim that your 'business' requires wages that are below the cost of living adjusted minimum wage, i say your business model is a failure. if you can't pay your employees a fair wage, then you are not an entrepreneur so much as you have failed in your attempt at becoming one.
i mean, if we accept their points as valid, how could we have possibly shut down the plantation system with the 14th ammendment? emancipation or jobs killer? we report, you decide.