Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Progessive Theory: Mandatory Sick Pay


The Progressive Socialist Democrats are in charge of the City of Madison and know that Wisconsin law allows them to pass any legislation that does not directly contradict State legislation. They are using their power to attempt building their model of a socialist community at the municipal level. Their next proposed City Ordinance is a MANDATORY requirement that all employees in Madison get paid sick leave.
Council Members Want All Madison Workers To Receive Paid Sick Time : Russell McDaniel says a doctor told him to stay home sick from his job as a janitor. "I took the days off, but I didn't receive any pay. This is ludicrous and very unfair.
Progressive Socialist Democrat theory requires that all individuals have a cash flow. The government can provide the cash flow if necessary, but it is preferable to have private business pay money to employees. Because individual income is the primary goal, it follows that that employer rights need to be secondary.
Coalition proposes paid sick leave law within city: The city should pass a groundbreaking law to require employers to provide paid sick leave because employees in lower-income families too often lose pay, jobs and even housing when they must miss work for illnesses, said Vicky Selkowe, a leader of the coalition and an attorney for the UW Law School Neighborhood Law project.

The coalition is not proposing specific details for a city law yet but hopes a discussion will begin around a proposed federal law that would require a minimum seven days of paid sick leave annually, Selkowe said. … The federal proposal by Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass, is supported by Sen. Russ Feingold and Rep. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, but its chances are uncertain in a Republican- controlled Congress, Selkowe said.
Vicky Selkowe could be the poster child for youthful idealism. Her young life has been a narrow path through the larger reality. In the broadest terms, money transfers in three ways. First by coercive taking. Second by free transactional exchange between individuals. Third by pleading and gift. What seems to have been left out of Vicky Selkowe’s education at the University of Wisconsin Law School is any understanding that America is the predominant economy on the planet because of maximizing the buyer - seller exchange. Selling your labor is part of this equation.
Vicky Selkowe: First, Vicky Selkowe, a former student of the EJI’s Neighborhood Law Project who will graduate from the Law School in June 2003, was awarded a nationally competitive and highly prestigious Skadden Fellowship to join the Institute as an attorney. The Fellowship funds Ms. Selkowe’s position for two full years.
There are many reasons to oppose this proposition as detrimental to small business and therefore, to small business employees, but the reason that impresses me is Lola’s observation that employers could simply cease to hire employees and just utilize independent contractors. It might be interesting to see the reaction of the working poor when they have to pay the full total of the Social Security Tax burden for the benefit of wealthy retirees in Florida.