Let's make min. wage $100 per hour

You can tell presidential politics is heating up, especially among the growing number of Democrats tossing their name into the hat promising this and that – from Bernie Sanders' plan to forgive more than a trillion dollars in student debt and making college free for everyone to the rest of the group that vows to raise the federal minimum wage to at least $15 per hour.

I'll give Sanders credit, he doesn't shy away from saying he's a socialist and the United States needs to be a socialistic society. At least you know where he stands vs. others who campaign on capitalism and quickly turn to socialism.

Sanders' cry for free this and free that and the distribution of wealth sounds good to a lot of millennials. But when you ask where is the money coming from to offer all these free government services, you can't get a straight answer.

It's our so-called 'free' giveaways that have put this country in such bad shape. Ronald Reagan once said “We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much”.

I hear a lot of Democratic candidates and those now serving in Washington talking about how we, as a nation, need to reach out to help those in need. Right now it's the refugees trying to illegally get into the United States. Some have said President Trump's tactics are immoral and that we have better values than that.

I wonder how compassionate the people of the United States really are. I think I've said it before, but if we as taxpayers had an opportunity to decide where our money went I think we'd find out we are not such a compassionate nation. On the tax form, add check boxes. Check whether you want your money to go toward national defense, education, roads and bridges, public safety, illegals, food stamps, welfare, health care and more, I think you would be surprised. Especially if your answers could eliminate some reduce your tax bill. It's one thing to give your money out of the goodness of your heart, but another when the federal government is simply taking it.

Minimum wage is now a big topic among Democratic candidates seeking that party's nomination. A handful, including Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden, have said they will fight to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour if they are elected president.

The federal minimum wage was first created under President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he signed the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938 setting the rate at 25 cents per hour.

It rose to the current level of $7.25 per hour in 2009. In 1997, President Bill Clinton signed a law that allowed states to set their own minimum wages.

Currently there are 21 states that go by the federal minimum wage of $7.25 – Alabama is one of those. The highest I saw was Washington, D.C., at $14 and the states of Washington, Massachusetts and California at $12.

I personally think the market place should set the wage salary, not the federal government.

If you live in Alabama right now making $7.25 per hour, I'm sure you'd be happy to see it jump to $15. But how happy would you be if you were one of the employees laid off because the company couldn't afford to pay everybody $15? A company with 20 employees may have to cut back to 15. The minimum wage hike didn't help those five who lost their jobs very much.

Once you raise the minimum wage the price of goods goes up. That $4 hamburger now costs $6 because it costs more to make.

Some say the federal government would boost the pay of about 40 million workers if the minimum wage was raised to $15. I didn't see a figure about how many of those 40 million would lose their jobs.

Why stop at $15 per hour? If we want to raise the standard of living, why not $50 per hour or $100 per hour?

The federal government needs to stay out of the free market that has made this country so great. I'll quote Reagan again: “The most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the federal government and I'm here to help'.”