Bootstrapping* ourselves to riches. Iowa, as a relatively rural state, tends to have a lot of lower-paying jobs. Nationwide, it ranks 35th in terms of average personal income. Not surprisingly, many people in the state feel compelled to try to do something about this state of affairs:

Philip Sanchez, political officer for the PACE Workers union in Mason City and an employee of Holcim Cement, thinks the issue is far bigger than dollars and cents.

"I look at wages as a human rights issue," he said. "Better wages means better living. Better living means better health care, better buying power, better everything."

And the way to ensure better wages is (drumroll please)...

"I'd like to see city councils and economic development boards establish `living wage' standards for new companies and even offer incentives to help them meet the living wage level," said Sanchez.

Ah, yes, how stupid not to have thought of that. If we just order businesses to pay people more, prosperity will hop into our waiting arms. And on the unlikely chance that some company can't afford to pay people more, we'll just take more money from other businesses and taxpayers instead.

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* In the original Munchausian sense, that is.

Posted by David Fleck at 13 March 2005 06:13 PM