Liberty Drip

2020 has been the year of the new normal. Masks have become such a part of our lives that seeing someone in a public place such as a grocery store seems wrong somehow. Signs on the floor and tables in restaurants barricaded by chairs or crime scene tape are expected. But our story begins in 2000. Right here in Broward County, FL. It’s the story of the Chad family. There was Hanging Chad, Dimpled Chad, and all the other little Chads. Broward became the focus of the nation and indeed the world as the charming but incompetent Supervisor of Elections Miriam Oliphant and her department fumbled the presidential election. You know the rest. The 2000 fiasco changed the world in a lot of ways. It made both of the legacy parties aware of the advantages of having an army of lawyers at the ready come election time. The parties also learned to use electoral disinformation more effectively to convince people of the outcome they desired and to get popular opinion on their side. Now, with social media

  The voters of the state of Florida passed a law which will result in a $15 minimum wage by 2026. The bill passed with just over 60% of the vote. Some will say this is a victory for workers’ rights, and equality and fairness and all that blah blah blah. I am willing to bet it will be the opposite. Full disclosure: I am a business owner. I have hourly employees. All of them make more than the current minimum wage. Not all of them are at or above $15 per hour. I have a problem with the minimum wage that has nothing to do with how it may affect my business. See, I will treat payroll as I treat every other expense. I will pass on the additional cost to my customers. I hope they will benefit from the wage increase as well, because they’re going to pay more for everything they buy and every service they contract. Actually, I take that back. I hope they don’t benefit from the wage increase. I hope they don’t see themselves as minimum wage people. I hope they believe in themselves a little mo