FOX News Is Once Again Spewing Falsehoods About Seattle's $15 Minimum Wage

I saw that which you see here on Facebook today. A lot of what I see on Facebook appalls me.

I really think Obama should come up with a 21st century version of John Adams' Alien & Sedition Act and use it to shut down spewers of corrosive misinformation.

Like FOX News.

Back when Seattle passed its $15 minimum wage hike, FOX News came up with a totally bogus story which quickly spread to all the conservative nonsense purveyors of the talk radio sort, such as Rush Limbaugh.

FOX News claimed that four Seattle restaurants had closed due to the new minimum wage.

There were two problems with this piece of FOX propaganda. Number one was the fact that when contacted by legitimate journalists all four restaurant owners said their restaurant closures had nothing to do with the new minimum wage, and, in fact, they supported the $15 minimum wage.

Whoops.

It gets worse.

It was not possible for the new $15 minimum wage to cause a Seattle business closure because the new minimum wage had not yet gone into effect. The increase to $15 is being phased in over a three year time span.

Whoops again.

And now a new bogus FOX News story about Seattle's $15 minimum wage has become fodder for the doddering right wing chattering chicken head types.

The new claim is that Seattle's $15 minimum wage is causing minimum wage workers to ask for fewer hours because making more money will cause them to lose their welfare handouts, like food stamps and rent subsidies.

The reality is the Seattle minimum wage is currently around $4 shy of that $15 mark. Legitimate journalists were again unable to find any worker who was asking for fewer hours so as to be able to keep getting food stamps.

And, as was the case with the first bogus FOX News story about this subject, the Seattle minimum wage has not yet been raised to $15. Yet the FOX "news" story falsely makes the $15 claim.

FOX News online has now pulled their latest Seattle $15 minimum wage story.

Doesn't anyone at FOX News ever get embarrassed at some of the garbage they spew? Shepard Smith seems like a decent fellow. Why does he continue working for FOX News? They must pay him a lot.

And another thing. Right wing conservative naysayers opine that Seattle's $15 minimum wage is economic idiocy. And that Seattle is a socialist hell on earth.

Well, Seattle does have a socialist mayor, along with one or two socialist city council members. Seattle is one of the most liberal, if not the most liberal city in America. Along with being one of the most progressive.

Socialist Seattle also has the fastest growing economy in America. I read today that there are so many construction projects under way in Seattle that there is a shortage of construction workers.

I suspect construction workers in Seattle are paid a wage much higher than the minimum.

Maybe towns like Fort Worth should try the socialist, progressive approach and see if that produces better results than the current construction crane free skyline of downtown Fort Worth....

Some Genius: Albert Einstein Wanted Socialism To Eliminate The Evils Of Capitalism

There are way too many people, saying way too much, way too often, that the Health Care Reform Bill will ruin the Republic and turn the U.S. into a Socialist State.

It makes my head hurt.

My Uncle Albert liked the idea of Socialism. He seemed to understand what Socialism actually is. In 1949 Albert Einstein had the following to say about Socialism. Does this sound like he's describing the bill that the House passed on Sunday?

"I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate (the) grave evils (of capitalism), namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow-men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society."

Uncle Albert was a pretty smart guy. He escaped Nazi Germany to come to America.

Canada has Universal Health Care. The last time I visited Canada it did not seem all that much different than America, sort of like America Lite, with an annoying tendency to end every sentence with "eh".

The bill that passed on Sunday does not change the American Health system into a government run, owned and controlled operation.

I'm of the opinion that it would not be a bad thing if somehow a way was found to provide Americans Universal Health Care. I saw a little girl, about 9, last week at Wal-Mart, with a very bad club foot. This is a treatable condition. Anyone seen any 9 year old Canadian kid with a bad club foot?

I don't get how people can rail against this Health Care Reform bill as being a big, bad, socialist thing.

These same people don't seem to be upset by our public school system, which is a socialized school system.

Or with our public road system, which is a socialized road system.

Or with our military, which is a socialized defense system.

Or with NASA, which is a socialized space system.

Or when a state or the federal government builds a dam.

I'm sure there are plenty of other examples where the government does something that benefits everyone.

The presidents prior to, I think, Andrew Jackson, believed it was not the government's business to build roads or canals.

Would America of 2010 be better off if the government did not act for the collective good? If the government left it to private business to build roads, levees, schools, libraries, dams, power plants or space vehicles?

Anyway, those who are all in worry mode that all is lost and we are sliding down a slippery slope towards a Socialist non-Utopia, read the Wikipedia article about Socialism to get an idea what the word actually means.