Re: 'Higher wages bring layoff' [Village News, Letter, 4/11/24]

My lifetime friend Rod Smith who lives in Fallbrook shared the article "Higher wages brings layoffs," a very well written and factual article by the way. Rod asked for my thoughts and I sent the email below to him. Upon reading my email Rod asked me to submit my email to your paper. So here is what a small business owner and entrepreneur thinks.

A new policy of any sort is spun with the idea of good intentions with politicians knowing full well or even denying what the actual results will be. Whoever proposes such ideas knows that most people pay attention to the sound bites of the good intention and don’t know how to think through the unintended consequences.

When the unintended consequences or bad results follow, these same politicians blame the heartlessness of small businesses or blame greed or blame whatever.

The lifecycle of headline grabbing policies all have the same pattern. Politicians come up with headline grabbing policies or ideas that are spun as good intentions and then, when the results are not realized, they blame whoever or whatever.

These politicians (mainly Progressives) gain political capital with the introduction of the new policy or new idea and later, when the intended results don’t materialize, they gain more political capital by looking virtuous in their attack or blaming others.

Tom Kern