- Sep 26, 2000
- 28,559
- 4
- 0
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...137597.html?utm_hp_ref=business#slide=1762404
8 Insane Arguments Business Owners Used To Oppose Basic Human Rights, Social Safety Net
A Huffington Post search of nearly two centuries of archived news reports reveals that pretty much every law passed by Congress since, well, slave times has sent our nation's executives to paroxysms of hysteria.
Child Labor Prohibitions Will Ruin Us:
"The new child labor law making the willful employment of children under the age of fourteen years a misdemeanor.. will be fought both in and out of the courts by the glass manufacturers..who claim the glass industry will be ruined by the measure."
Without Slavery We'd Have No Cotton:
"The first and most obvious effect, would be to put an end to the cultivation of our great Southern staple... Imagine an extensive rice or cotton plantation cultivated by free laborers, who might perhaps strike for an increase of wages, at a season when the neglect of a few days would insure the destruction of the whole crop. Even if it were possible to procure laborers at all, what planter would venture to carry on his operations under such circumstances?"
8 Hour Work Days Doom The Railroads
"The railroads have estimated that it would cost them $50,000,000 a year to give the members of the four brotherhoods the eight-hour day, and they are by no means assured that other workers, such as telegraphers and switchmen will not try to come in under its benefits, thus increasing the cost still further."
Social Security Will Kill American Prosperity
"One employer tells me this law will increase his costs between 10 and 15 percent. If this is added to selling prices, what will it do to sales, and hence employment? If it is taken out of the labor fund, what will it do to the purchasing power of all who work for a living, and hence to national prosperity?"
Ban On Cigarette Ads Is Silly!
"The Tobacco Advisory Committee, representing the manufacturers, called the ban unjustified and said it would not solve the question of smoking and health. A spokesman said that all cigarette advertising was brand advertising and that there was little or not evidence that this had increased the consumption of individual smokers."
Cigarette Taxes Will Kill Small Business Owners
"Re-enactment of the city's 1-cent-a-package tax on cigarettes will defeat its own purpose by driving thousands of small retailers out of business, the finance committee of the City Council was told yesterday at a public hearing."
Minimum Wage Laws Will Hurt Old People
"The first ill effect of raising the minimum wage to the standard of the average wage would be to cause the weak, slow, and the aged--and especially unskilled young women and girls--to fall by the wayside. These classes of workers are always a drain upon the employer, for the overhead charges of a factory are just as great whether the places be occupied by good, quick workers or poor, slow ones, therefore a smaller output of the latter causes a loss by raising the percentage of these overhead charges. An advance in wages... adds to this loss and forces the employer to discharge the sub-average, giving preference to strong workers who already earn the minimum."
Seatbelts Laws Shouldn't Be Legislated
"The auto industry's Big Three told congress today that the public should be educated to use auto safety seat belts and not forced into it by legislation."
Twenty years from now you can add Obamacare to the list of things
8 Insane Arguments Business Owners Used To Oppose Basic Human Rights, Social Safety Net
A Huffington Post search of nearly two centuries of archived news reports reveals that pretty much every law passed by Congress since, well, slave times has sent our nation's executives to paroxysms of hysteria.
Child Labor Prohibitions Will Ruin Us:
"The new child labor law making the willful employment of children under the age of fourteen years a misdemeanor.. will be fought both in and out of the courts by the glass manufacturers..who claim the glass industry will be ruined by the measure."
Without Slavery We'd Have No Cotton:
"The first and most obvious effect, would be to put an end to the cultivation of our great Southern staple... Imagine an extensive rice or cotton plantation cultivated by free laborers, who might perhaps strike for an increase of wages, at a season when the neglect of a few days would insure the destruction of the whole crop. Even if it were possible to procure laborers at all, what planter would venture to carry on his operations under such circumstances?"
8 Hour Work Days Doom The Railroads
"The railroads have estimated that it would cost them $50,000,000 a year to give the members of the four brotherhoods the eight-hour day, and they are by no means assured that other workers, such as telegraphers and switchmen will not try to come in under its benefits, thus increasing the cost still further."
Social Security Will Kill American Prosperity
"One employer tells me this law will increase his costs between 10 and 15 percent. If this is added to selling prices, what will it do to sales, and hence employment? If it is taken out of the labor fund, what will it do to the purchasing power of all who work for a living, and hence to national prosperity?"
Ban On Cigarette Ads Is Silly!
"The Tobacco Advisory Committee, representing the manufacturers, called the ban unjustified and said it would not solve the question of smoking and health. A spokesman said that all cigarette advertising was brand advertising and that there was little or not evidence that this had increased the consumption of individual smokers."
Cigarette Taxes Will Kill Small Business Owners
"Re-enactment of the city's 1-cent-a-package tax on cigarettes will defeat its own purpose by driving thousands of small retailers out of business, the finance committee of the City Council was told yesterday at a public hearing."
Minimum Wage Laws Will Hurt Old People
"The first ill effect of raising the minimum wage to the standard of the average wage would be to cause the weak, slow, and the aged--and especially unskilled young women and girls--to fall by the wayside. These classes of workers are always a drain upon the employer, for the overhead charges of a factory are just as great whether the places be occupied by good, quick workers or poor, slow ones, therefore a smaller output of the latter causes a loss by raising the percentage of these overhead charges. An advance in wages... adds to this loss and forces the employer to discharge the sub-average, giving preference to strong workers who already earn the minimum."
Seatbelts Laws Shouldn't Be Legislated
"The auto industry's Big Three told congress today that the public should be educated to use auto safety seat belts and not forced into it by legislation."
Twenty years from now you can add Obamacare to the list of things
Facebook
Twitter