The following comes from a May 21 blog post by Cardinal Roger Mahony:
The Los Angeles City Council has voted to increase the minimum wage in the City to $15 per hour by the year 2020. Thirty years ago when I first became Archbishop of Los Angeles, I would never have thought it necessary to take such an enormous leap in low-end worker salaries.
Not any more.
There are many reasons for the hike, but two of them are really important:
1. In past years, minimum wage jobs were also relatively short-term jobs. They were meant for young people working part-time or others just entering the job market. No one expected such jobs to be long-term and permanent work. These jobs were to get a foothold in the work field, and then to move on to better middle class jobs.
2. The number of next level, middle class, jobs across southern California have all but disappeared. Recall after the Second World War how our area became a great leader in aerospace and defense companies. Hundreds of thousands of people were employed in these good paying, middle class jobs over the years. But gradually, because of many factors, those companies and those jobs began to disappear.
The result? People desperate to provide for their families are increasingly stuck in low-paying jobs, most paying at or below minimum wage. This is particularly true for our immigrant brothers and sisters. There are no “better jobs” to move on to.
And it’s not just the wages. Minimum wage jobs almost never offer benefits such as health care, retirement plans, or other amenities from previous generations. Many companies limit the hours for such employees in order to avoid having to pay for medical insurance. Shifting schedules makes it difficult for such workers to get to other low-wage jobs, or to take some classes.
Another worrying result is the rapid expansion of low-income families, and increasing wealth of high-income families, and the narrowing group in the middle.
The real issue is not just about minimum wage jobs. Rather, our goal must be to look for ways to narrow this growing gap between people at the top and those at the bottom.
The gap is not only economic. In so many places across the country, it is also a racial divide. Studies show that the minority communities of our country consistently remain on the lower rung of the economic ladder. Both divides need our focused attention, and I hope that the 2016 Presidential candidates will engage our country in this discussion–and that they be required to lay out concrete plans to ease the divide and to provide greater economic opportunity for everyone.
Just a few areas might help move us in the right direction. Home ownership has always been a past measure of success for our families. We need to make home ownership more readily available to all of our people–through new qualification parameters, lower down payments, and other means that do not jeopardize either the families or the economy.
Most lower paying jobs offer no pension plan opportunities. Even if companies offered a very simple plan these families could begin acquiring some equity for the future.
Social Security could raise the cap on payroll taxes so that the more affluent can contribute their fair share into the plan which will benefit them.
The City of Los Angeles plan will go a long way to help our poorer families. But all of the incorporated cities in Los Angeles County need to match this new increase in the minimum wage for it to have its full effect. If a company in Los Angeles City just moves a few miles to a small city with a lower minimum wage, then everyone loses.
The widening gap between those at the higher end of our economy and those at the lower end of our economy must return to its former, historic narrow range.
I must grit my teeth and agree with the “good” Cardinal. It is long past time to slowly and predictably return the minimum wage to an inflation-adjusted par with its value of approximately 1970. The stopped clock is right twice a day, and this is one time. Build in delays or breaks for small businesses and non-profits, but do it.
Cd Mahony, like Ted Kennedy is REALLLLLY generous…with other people’s money. It shows how far he is from Catholic teaching that he talks about things in a political manner. I totally agree that people should be earning more money and that the minimum wage is too low…but as long as obama keeps bringing in illegal immigrants and the Catholic bishops and cardinals keep promoting him and them, there will always be people to undermine that dream and work at slave wages and bring the poor down to the level they are in China.
Thanks to Mahony looking the other way and sending abusive priests to other parishes, he has wrecked the economy of many parishes. The less out of him, the better. He should worry about doing penance for all the damage to to the Church he has done.
If it were not for the statute of limitations Roger Mahony – – – belongs in Jail for his personal role in aiding and abetting child abusing Priests.
Due to Mahony’s personal behavior – the Diocese of LA (the Faithful) have had to pay out over $740 MILLION in settlements. (Nothing came out of his own pocket.)
https://articles.latimes.com/2014/feb/18/local/la-me-ln-la-church-settles-final-priest-abuse-case-740-million-spent-20140218
Court papers stated that Roger Mahony and his top aide Msgr Thomas Curry actively thwarted and mislead LA Police investigators at the time.
Mahony is at it again – LAW breaking –
this time, ILLEGAL immigration (rather than child sexual abuse)
– in violation of the Doctrine of the Faith which requires all immigrants to obey the law, including immigration law.
Mahony and his evil Democratic buddies are driving businesses out of the State.
The only options that are left will be: to raise prices to cover the increases making some goods and services more expensive than what they are worth, or
to leave the State.
The poor and lower middle class will become poorer due to high prices generated by higher wages.
” make housing ownership available – through new qualification parameters, lower down payments, and other means that do not jeopardize either the families or the economy.”
– Mahony has a very short memory.
This is what caused the 2009 collapse of the banks.
Loans that people could not pay back causing many evictions and millions of foreclosures.
It was the greatest financial depression since the 1930s.
They pulled this same garbage with restaurants in Seattle and within a year half of them went under. People with the Leftist mindset don’t realize people start business to make money not employee other people that is side effect. The minimum wage is set so that young folks can get a leg into the first rung of the work force it is not meant to be a job you stay at forever or start a life on.
Roger Mahoney enabled pedophile priests to continue molesting children by moving them from one parish to another, and even sending some of them out of state to avoid prosecution. He should have been prosecuted for these crimes. His crimes cost the L.A. Diocese millions of dollars that were paid to the victims of these priests. Archbishop Gomez said that Mahoney would no longer take part in official religious ceremonies, but that didn’t last long. Soon Mahoney was performing confirmations. Mahoney should be banished from the L.A. diocese, perhaps to work in Mother Teresa’s hospital in Calcutta. Now he wants to narrow the gap between those at the top and those at the bottom of the economic ladder. This is Marxism, as written by Karl Marx in his famous book Capitol. We don’t need any advice from Mahoney.
I do not like the shameful, liberal, immoral and scandalous Cardinal Mahoney! However– this article is excellent, and correct! Maybe his influence could help Los Angeles’ suffering low-income people– I hope so!!
The cost of all products will have to go up to pay for the higher wages. This will hurt the working poor and lower middle income.
….this will also destroy many small business owners who are even now struggling to keep afloat. It will also make it far more difficult for those with a mind to start a small business of their own from doing so. “Big” business will take over. (Having been a small business owner for 5+ years, I was there and now, there’s a Starbucks.)
And the other jobs that suddenly disappeared, those jobs that were meant to support families on, have been shipped overseas for decades by “big business” to increase the take of investors and board members. This dearth of manufacturing in the States is precisely what eliminates the middle classes – as there are no jobs.
A leopard never changes his spots, not does a tiger loose his stripes. Cardinal Mahoney was born a Catholic, but baptized a communist. Harsh words? Not really. He has no business instructing businesses on what the minimum wage should be. Not only is he retired, but he is supposed to be a shepherd leading souls to Christ, and not a promoter of mammon. Under his watch, socialism, liberalism and secularism have overrun the archdiocese dedicated to Our Lady, Queen of the Angels. Many of the Catholics of the area have completely abandoned the Catholic faith. A true shepherd would never have let this happen. Let the economists deal with the minimum wage.
“He has no business instructing businesses on what the minimum wage should be.”
Thank you Father Karl!
Countless souls were horrifically damaged under the watch of Cardinal Mahony. The greatest scandal that still continues today is the joint silence or collegial cowardice that shirks and hides from the priestly duty to publicly reign in and correct a brother priest who spiritually destroyed SO many souls. Cardinals and bishops are supposed to care about the souls of their brother priests. Fraternal correction shows true charity and concern for the soul. Cardinal Mahony still thinks he has a mass audience because his brother bishops and cardinals failed to reign him in for the sake of his soul. The on going silence continues to…
He has so damaged the church and it’s credibility by his actions that any commentary from him is suspect , it is all I can do to remain civil in this forum. On this subject he is ignorant in that he has no private business experience so things such as increased automation i.e. using apps and input devices at a retail store may have a new impetus as opposed to having the same amount of staff. Google OSHbot to see a example of this viable tech.
The good retired cardinal archbishop appears to be unaware that a 3.8% surcharge on “high earners” (single filers earning over $200,000, married-filing-joint earning over $250,000 on certain income already has gone into effect “for medicare” (effectively a social-security tax) and .9% additional taxation on wages and self-employment income in addition (Jan, 2013).
The top 1% already pays more income tax than does the “bottom 90%”. The top 20% pays 94% of all income tax. (taxfoundation.org statistics).
Now, the good retired cardinal doesn’t know or care, because he likely has structured income tax on his retirement pension that puts him in the 15% income tax bracket, and is now probably not paying any social security tax (unless he has wages from the LA archdiocese still). Ah, the inequity, the iniquity!
The minimum wage became an early cause of the eugenisists as a means to identify the underclass and increase welfare/charity as a burden on the middle and upper classes. Then they called for contraception and abortion to curb the growth of these unwanted. In the guise of social justice Cardinal Mahoney is no more than a shill for the population control establishment and abortion industry.
I guess he doesn’t care that small business cannot afford this and will not survive. More people will just be out of work.
Another inequity the good retired image-rehabilitating cardinal overlooks: surcharge taxes on investment income, as well general investment income taxation (1) hits the elderly and retired more heavily, and (2) is taxing for a second time income upon which the corporation has already paid the (nearly) highest corporate taxation rate in the world: another reason that job production has sagged in the US since 2008.
In fact, all social security taxes are wage and income taxes: the neat false delineator that they are “a different tax” studiously ignores that each wage-earner no matter how modest, must pay 7.5% tax on their income, as “soc. security & medicare” tax—and the business has to chip in an equal amount. And no wonder our economics and job production continues, and will continue, to decline.
Oh I don’t know about that. We have had one of the longest streaks of continuous job grown in history, and San Francisco which has some of the highest state and municipal taxes in the country, has virtually no unemployment. I don’t have the latest numbers, but I think it’s in the vicinity of 1.5%.
There is no job growth. The US Government under Obama has changed they way they calculate the unemployed.
Those who are not looking for work, are not counted.
Obama is BREAKING the LAW by no longer requiring all mentally and physically able persons to look for work in order to obtain government assistance.
(This law was passed under the Republican Congress, and signed into law by Bill Clinton.)
Obama fosters laziness and government dependence.
In the beginning minimum wage rates were instituted to put an end to near slave wages that some employers paid. Usually these were the lowest skilled jobs, or as has been pointed out, for entry level positions. Over the years the minimum has been raised to try to span the breach between the poverty line and an inability to provide a decent living. Every time the notion of a higher minimum wage enters the national discussion, companies say that it will put people out of work and force companies to go outside our borders to compete. Yet, there is little evidence that companies go out of business. We are just now coming out of the great recession. The economy is booming and unemployment is the lowest it has been in a decade.
Bob One.. ha ha ha ha the economy is booming, only if you believe the false stats generated by this corrupt government. We have 92MM people not in the work force, if they counted the unemployed and included those not in the work force (stopped looking for work) the rate of unemployment would be anywhere from 10-13%. All liberals believe that company exists to provide employment, no they exist to turn a profit to the owners.
Canisius, you are right and wrong again, in the same paragraph. All of the macro economic indicators are positive. Yes, we have a huge amount of loans that will have to be paid off sometime. I just don’t believe that the statistics are the work of a corrupt government. The Commerce Department has been absolutely reliable in its reports for hundreds of years; you can trust them. The key problem for the country is that the economy is improving without enough new jobs, as you pointed out. Where are those jobs? Overseas? Sent there by whom? Is the SOLE purpose of a business to make a profit? No! It is the job of the company to manage the profit, so that there is enough for growth, research, product development, employee benefits,…
No Bob One I am right and you are wrong as usual. When a person or persons start a business its main purpose is to turn profits not provide benefits or jobs. The government has its boot on the throat of business, we should have economic growth north of 3.5% and its only around 2. You believe everything in the end belongs to government. I believe government should be brought to its knees and bureaucrats should get the businesses permission not the other way around.
Gosh, I wonder if the companies are making so much profit, paying everyone except the top top employees such low wages, that they cannot afford to spend excess money on any kind of “economic growth”. If I make $10 an hour, it is unlikely I will spend any money on anything except rent and food, an occasional movie, and my transportation. If I make $30 an hour, then I might begin to spend a little extra money on a new VCR (shows how old I am!!), a night out at a restaurant, or a nice gift for a friend’s birthday. If I make $70 an hour, then I might have enough money to start thinking about savings for a house, putting some money into investing for retirement, and the like.
Canisius, I believe in very limited government. But also believe in the Constitution which states in the Preamble:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense,[note 1] promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. We are constantly working to establish a just society, promoting the general welfare of the people and ensuring tranquility. Companies have to do the same thing.
Bob One you believe in limited government as much as the communists do. You have contempt for the companies and entrepreneur that is plainly obvious, we currently live under some kind oligarchy in which crony capitalist can get government $$$ while others are left to struggle. Government needs to be smashed and reduced to its size before the evils of the New Deal .
All government agencies (especially Agency Directors) work for directly Obama (the sitting President).
He can have them fired in a heartbeat if they do not do his bidding.
Nothing can be trusted under this President.
I take it you trusted the prior President, who took us to war over Agency intel that was faulty. He could have had that Agency head fired in a heartbeat. Did he? Billions spent, thousands of lives lost. A country that is now the breeding ground for ISIS. This is the legacy of the last sitting President.
YFC, why do you keep bringing up historical stuff that can not be changed?
When are you going to learn that the things you post are not going to draw away attention from the evil being done TODAY ?
Post about today, and tomorrow – things that can be changed, and we can move forward getting rid of Democrats that are damaging our Country and State right now.
YFC, I never said anything about Pres. Bush one way or another.
Isn’t Mahony still active in his REC (Religious Education Congress) that booked homosexual speakers who bad mouthed the CCC this past year ?
Since Mahony cost the faithful in the LA Diocese $740 MILLION in sexual abuse settlements,
why is Abp Gomez still allowing Mahony to advertise his own blog site on the LA Diocese web site ? ? ? ? ?
It is sad indeed that this archbishop when making a statement about the economy and more mandates and taxes, gets any attention. The tendency to look to government for economic solutions is an addiction sewed into the American fabric by clerics like him. Economic and political freedom will go far to help the people and the poor–not this nonsense.
When ‘catholic’ (Small ‘c’) Leaders Hire Non-Catholics to do work paid for from the donations of the Faithful in the Pews (And Fill the Schools with Anti-Catholic Political Activists), they not only betray their concern for the good of today’s Flock – but future generations as well.
How Many Billion$ of Donations meant to do good in this world – have been used to Pay for the Evil of the Homosex Ephebophile Attack on the Church?
Excellent post Michael McDermott!
McDermott asks, regarding hiring non-catholics, “How Many Billion$ of Donations meant to do good in this world – have been used to Pay for the Evil of the Homosex Ephebophile Attack on the Church?”
He forgets that all the “ephebophiles” in the Catholic Church were Roman Catholic Priests.
Most assuredly Michael does not forget, yfc. How could he, or any of us? Apparently the Church has been absolutely riddled with homosexuals for many years like termites in a house who have caused much damage to the very foundations of the Church. It isn’t complicated. We have cardinals, bishops etc. who are promoting sin and calling it mercy. It wouldn’t take me five minutes to take care of the heretical, wicked German, French and Swiss cardinals. I’d send the whole sorry lot farther away than Malta, of that you could be sure. What the wicked few priests did to children these cardinals are doing the Church.
Wish this guy would just go quietly into the night.
….and what happened to (as another has commented) his being out of any kind of appearances any where in the diocese. Sounds as if our current Archbishop has back pedaled a bit, although it made good press when he originally came out with the banishment…..too bad it didn’t last!
Well, first of all our good Pope Frances would not back Archbishop Gomez on his handling of Mahony business – so there is that. Second, I don’t recall what office Mahoney said he was running for in the article!
Gomez is not required to give Mahony a place of honor on the LA Diocese web site, which gives a link to Mahony’s blog for the Mahony propaganda.
Gomez does have the authority to shut down Mahony’s REC – Religious Education Conference – half of which is heretical, political, and does not help people to get to Heaven.
For a moment– I will set the immoral, obnoxious “Cardinal” Mahony aside. (He should have been laicized and excommunicated, years ago!) Anyway– the greedy West Coast, is SCANDALOUS! The cost of an average little family home, in San Francisco– is one million dollars! The cost of an average little studio apt. to rent, for one person– is more than a thousand dollars per month!! Many decades ago, when people moved out to California, got good, middle- class jobs, and raised families– the world was so different!! Yet today, you see mainly either the upper middle- class and wealthy, or the lower middle- class! The normal American middle- class, has definitely shrunk, along with good job opportunities! Also, many fields of work…
Linda, the high housing cost isn’t about greed. It’s because there are a lot of really successful people in the SF area. Those Silicon Valley types make a lot of money because they make stuff that everyone wants. With only a finite amount of housing in good locations, the prices get crazy.
A lot of the middle class people get displaced to less desirable locations, such as across the bridge to Sacramento (and a long commute). Profit IS the no. 1 responsibility of a corporation, because if they fail to make a profit—the company dies. In high tech, or highly competitive fields, if you don’t profit maximize you can’t raise capital; this kills you in the long run b/c you can’t invest in R&D.
I will continue with my above post. Anyway– part of the economic problem, is that people are no longer brought up and inculcated in basic Christian morality! They do as they please, selfishly– refusing to operate by proper morality and ethics, for the well-being of employees, their families, and of our Nation! Money and greed are often of sole importance! The minimum wage rate is really not the heart of the problem– why must life be so complicated, and cost so much?? Why are money and greed so often out-of-control?? Why are so many fields no longer basically moral– medicine, law, the media, education, politics, everything!! Even the field of religion- is no longer moral!! WHY??
Mahoney was to Los Angeles what Obama is to the United States. They both have destroyed what they were entrusted to protect.
Pete – Amen to your post. Goodbye Cardinal Mahoney. You did enough damage when you were the Cardinal of LA. You should be in a monastery saying your prayers and asking forgiveness for the damage you did to your Diocese and elsewhere.
Cardinal Mahoney says, “Home ownership has always been a past measure of success for our families”. Really? Does “home ownership” spell success for the too many unfortunate children who are ordered to go back and forth between the homes of their separated mothers and fathers? Do the many children in the LA Archdiocese who are forced to move from foster home to foster home really benefit from their foster parents owning a home?
Yes, there should be a decent wage so the family can be provided for, but, by allowing all the illegal aliens into the country, you are destroying the blue collar workers of America. Look at all the jobs that are now gone, because the United States is no longer a manufacturing nation. The unions are partially to blame for this, as well as the greed of the CEO’s. Charity begins at home, so take care of Americans first. My parents came to America LEGALLY. By constantly preaching on the rights of illegal aliens to have all the benefits of citizenship is outrageous .Cardinal Mahoney is full of baloney, and has no business dictating economic issues. By increasing the wage, many middle class owners of small businesses will go bankrupt, and the…