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OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
OTHER VIEWS
S
Slow and steady
way to raise wages
Oregon’s minimum wage
increased 15 cents today.
The new rate — $9.25 per hour
— remains the second-highest in
the nation, behind only our neighbor
to the north, Washington. Yet
several Oregon politicians already
are ginning up support for a $15
minimum wage.
We’re pleased to read that Peter
Courtney, president of the state
Senate, is lukewarm to the idea. He
cautioned fellow Democrats not
to overreach on the issue, saying it
could jeopardize their party’s new
majority in Salem.
Courtney’s advice is wise for
more than reasons of political power.
A sharp increase in the minimum
wage in a state that is still recovering
from a brutal recession is risky
There is scant evidence that such a
economies.
The economic impact of hiking
the minimum wage is unclear. There
are dozens of research papers on the
subject and their conclusions are
Some argue that minimum wage
increases boost consumer spending.
Others say the impact is short-term
and encourages low-wage workers
to take on more debt.
Much depends on how employers
would react to a large increase in
the minimum wage. They could
hire fewer workers. Or raise prices.
Or lay off higher-paid employees.
Again, economists disagree on the
potential response.
Oregon’s minimum wage is
This has kept it at half the median
hourly wage for all Oregon workers.
That is a sound level for a wage for
unskilled workers compared with
employees with years of experience
or specialized skills.
The $15 minimum wage appears
to be the new gold standard for
activists, unions and others doing
battle in the name of economic
equality.
to make the leap, though its City
Council tempered the impact by
phasing the increase over several
years. San Francisco soon followed
suit.
Oregon legislators should at least
wait to see how those jurisdictions
fare under the $15 minimum before
following their lead. As Mark Twain
can distort them as you please.”
BY THE NUMBERS:
Oregon:
Clatsop County:
Umatilla County:
Morrow County:
Grant County:
Wallowa County:
MINIMUM
WAGE JOBS
102,485
1,215
2,113
256
170
142
PERCENT OF
TOTAL JOBS
5.7%
6.9%
6.9%
4.7%
8.1%
6.2%
Source: Oregon Employment Department. Estimates are for fi rst quarter of 2014.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher
Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
The Obama recovery
uppose that for some reason you
decided to start hitting yourself
in the head, repeatedly, with a
baseball bat. You’d feel pretty bad.
Correspondingly, you’d probably
feel a lot better if and when you
seem to have stopped tightening the
screws: Public spending isn’t surging,
but at least it has stopped falling. And
the economy is doing much better as
the kind of growth, in employment and
GDP, that we should have been seeing
improvement in your condition tell
all along — and the public’s mood is
you?
rapidly improving.
Paul
It certainly wouldn’t imply that
What’s the important lesson from
Krugman
hitting yourself in the head was a
this late Obama bounce? Mainly, I’d
Comment
good idea. It would, however, be
suggest, that everything you’ve heard
an indication that the pain you were
about President Barack Obama’s
economic policies is wrong.
fundamentally wrong with your health. Your
You know the spiel: that the U.S. economy
head wasn’t hurting because you were sick; it
is ailing because Obamacare is a job-killer
was hurting because you kept hitting it with
and the president is a redistributionist, that
that baseball bat.
Obama’s anti-business
And now you understand
speeches (he hasn’t actually
the basics of what has been
made any, but never mind)
happening to several major
have hurt entrepreneurs’
economies, including the
feelings, inducing them to
United States, over the
take their marbles and go
past few years. In fact, you
home.
understand these basics
This storyline never
better than many politicians
made much sense. The truth
and commentators.
is that the private sector has
Let’s start with a tale
done surprisingly well under
from overseas: austerity
Obama, adding 6.7 million
policy in Britain. As you
may know, back in 2010
compared with just 3.1
Britain’s newly installed
million at this point under
Conservative government
President George W. Bush.
declared that a sharp reduction in budget
prices. What held us back was unprecedented
turning into Greece. Over the next two years
public-sector austerity: At this point in the
growth in the British economy, which had
Bush years, government employment was up
by 1.2 million, but under Obama it’s down by
crisis, more or less stalled. In 2013, however,
600,000. Sure enough, now that this de facto
growth picked up again — and the British
austerity is easing, the economy is perking up.
government claimed vindication for its
And what this bounce tells you is that the
alleged faults of Obamanomics had nothing to
No, not at all. What actually happened was do with the pain we were feeling. We weren’t
that the Tories stopped tightening the screws
hurting because we were sick; we were
— they didn’t reverse the austerity that had
hurting because we kept hitting ourselves with
already occurred, but they effectively put a
that baseball bat, and we’re feeling a lot better
hold on further cuts. So they stopped hitting
now that we’ve stopped.
Britain in the head with that baseball bat. And
Will this improvement in our condition
sure enough, the nation started feeling better.
continue? Britain’s government has declared
To claim that this bounceback vindicated
its intention to pick up the baseball bat again
austerity is silly. As Simon Wren-Lewis of
— to engage in further austerity, which does
Oxford University likes to point out, if rapid
not bode well. But here the picture looks
growth after a gratuitous slump counts as
brighter. Households are in much better
success, the government should just close
down half the economy for a year; the next
ago; there’s probably still a lot of pent-up
year’s growth would be fantastic. Or as I’d
demand, especially for housing. And falling
put it, you shouldn’t conclude that hitting
oil prices will be good for most of the country,
yourself in the head is smart because it feels
although some regions — especially Texas —
so good when you stop. Unfortunately, the
may take a hit.
silliness of the claim hasn’t prevented its
So I’m fairly optimistic about 2015, and
widespread acceptance by what Wren-Lewis
probably beyond, as long as we avoid any
calls “mediamacro.”
Meanwhile, back in America we haven’t
that baseball bat lying on the ground, OK?
I’m fairly
optimisitic
about 2015,
as long as we
avoid more
self-infl icted
damage.
austerity — but we’ve nonetheless had plenty
of austerity in practice, thanks to the federal
sequester and sharp cuts by state and local
governments. The good news is that we, too,
Paul Krugman joined The New York Times
in 1999 as a columnist on the Op-Ed Page
and continues as professor of Economics and
International Affairs at Princeton University.
LETTERS POLICY
OTHER VIEWS
Blood donation policy still
discriminates against gay men
The (Coos Bay) World
We’re sure that the Food and Drug
Administration means well with its
recommendation announced last week
to end the nation’s lifetime ban on blood
donations from gay and bisexual men.
We’re certain they didn’t intend to
simply recast the negative stereotype that
has persecuted homosexuals throughout
Western civilization.
recommendation to begin lifting the ban
next year was an insulting caveat — in
order to donate blood, gay and bisexual
men must have abstained from same sex
encounters in the previous 12 months.
How, by any stretch of the
imagination, is that an improvement in
policy?
The ban was put into effect as a
measure to combat AIDS 31 years ago
— an age when little was understood
about the devastating disease except
that gay and bisexual men were its
disproportionate victims. While the
policy seemed to make sense at the
time, it also gave an air of legitimacy
to already discriminatory practices
that even touched heterosexual AIDS
victims.
An Associated Press story on the
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues
and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper
reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and
products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must
be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number.
The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send
letters to Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801
or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
12-month abstinence issue last week said
that other countries, including Australia,
Japan and the U.K., have similar
policies. Studies in Australia show that,
after 10 years, there was no change in
the safety of the national blood supply.
Like all studies that involve surveys,
though, the research relies on honest
responses. There is no evidence to
suggest that gay men are any more
honest about their relationships than
any other segment of the population,
12-month abstinence in place or not.
done much to insure the safety of the
nation’s blood supply. All U.S. blood
donations are screened for HIV. The
American Red Cross estimates the
risk of getting an HIV-positive blood
donation is 1 in 1.5 million.
The problem with this policy change
is its continuing inherent discriminatory
nature. What other subset of the
population is being told to alter its sexual
practices in order to participate in a
charitable act? Heterosexuals? Not a
chance, right?
It is curious that the nation that
heralds itself as a beacon of freedom for
the rest of the world always seems to
approach freedom for its own with baby
steps.
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