9.07.2007

HYPOCRISY
I actually don't care that much for the hypocrisy claim, as it doesn't actually invalidate the argument. Nonetheless, it is always amusing to point out. The "Living Wage" movement is one area that provides some excellent examples. The following is excerpted from Reason:
The labor activist group ACORN is largely credited with jump-starting the national living wage movement. But ACORN itself has a notoriously shabby record when it comes to paying its own workers. In fact, not only did the group once sue the state of California to exempt itself from the very living wage it helped the state to pass, ACORN actually used free market critiques of the minimum wage in its brief (ACORN argued that if it had to pay existing workers more, it wouldn't be able to hire more workers).

As for Maryland, this would be the same state that attempted to pass legislation directed solely at Wal-Mart because of the allegedly low wages and benefits Wal-Mart pays its workers. Average starting wage at Wal-Mart: Just under $10 per hour. Average Camden clean-up worker pay: $7 per hour.

Again, just because someone is a hypocrite doesn't mean they are wrong, but I love that ACORN made the classic argument against minimum wages.

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