Monday, February 23, 2009

Sick and Tired of Iowa Being a Low Wage State

I try not to rant too much on this blog. I will leave that to Krusty. But after the prevailing wage bill failed to pass in the Iowa House I have to get something off my chest.

I am sick and tired of Iowa being a low wage state. There is no reason that we have to be a low wage state except that some Iowans think things shouldn't change, that things should always remain the way they used to be. They think that because they grew up watching Leave it to Beaver in small town Iowa then it should just stay like that. I wouldn't be surprised if these people want to change Iowa's name to East Dakota.

Iowa has one of the oldest population and more and more of Iowa's young adults are leaving the state. Iowa must make a commitment to raise wages in this state. The prevailing wage bill was just one way to demonstrate that Iowans are serious about paying a decent wage for a hard days work.

I wrote last week about the need to attract and retain young people in the state. We spend around 60% of the state budget on education and our return on investment is horrendous. The cream of the crop flee the state as soon as they graduate for 1 main reason: they can make more money elsewhere.

2 comments:

desmoinesdem said...

Republicans go on and on about why taxpayers should be able to keep more of their own money, but for some reason they can't see the economic benefit of having taxpayers EARN more of their own money.

Haven't they talked to any small business owners lately? Business is slow. Having people earn better wages, so they'd have more money to spend on goods and services, would be a plus.

Anonymous said...

Real smart, desmoinesdem. Who do you think would have to PAY the higher wages?

This is what passes for intelligence among "dems."