Dude, Where's My Country_ - Michael Moore [82]
When employees are not making a living wage, they often end up having to seek food stamps or other public assistance. Who is paying for that? YOU. Why do you want to pay higher taxes for stuff like that when you can pay them directly and look like the good guy? Cut out the middleman and reap the benefits.
When you pay your employees more money, what do you think they do with it? Invest it in stocks? Horde it in offshore accounts? No! They spend it! And what do they spend it on? The stuff you make and sell! The working class is the consumer class that gives you your profits because they are not saving anything—they are roaming the aisles of Sam’s Club buying things they don’t really need. So every dollar you and other bosses put out there in wages is almost immediately recycled right back to you, improving your profit margin and making your stock rise. You get doubly rewarded.
If you pay people squat, or lay them off, they can’t buy your stuff. They become a drain on the economy; some turn to crime, and when they turn to crime, it’s your Mercedes they want, not some junker Oldsmobile in their poor neighbor’s driveway. Why put yourself in a position where you might become a victim? Pay a living wage, give raises, provide good benefits—and then you can go home to your palace knowing that right now those happy workers are not taking the hood ornament off your car but rather they’re out tossing all their cash right back at ya.
“Health Insurance for everyone will make you money!”
Brother-in-law, you are an employer, and your employees don’t have health coverage, this costs you a lot of profit. They miss work—you lose money. They’re absent longer—you lose money. Others work overtime to pick up the slack—you lose money. They get other people sick—you lose money. They work sick—you lose money. But employees who have health insurance go to the doctor right away and get medicine and get better quickly. If they are given paid sick days, they stay at home for a couple days and are back at work in no time making you money—and they feel better about their jobs because they’re treated well, so they will work even harder. Employees whose health insurance allows them to see a shrink or avail themselves of preventive medicine are more productive and contribute more to the company. The short-term outlay of money for a group health plan has enormous long-term benefits that, in the end, will save you a bundle of money.
“Providing day care for your employees will make you money!”
Absenteeism is a huge drain on our gross national product. Estimates put its cost to our economy as high as $50 billion a year. The average employer loses almost $800 a year per employee due to unscheduled absences. Forty-five percent of the time an employee is a no-show for personal or family reasons. Which means that mom or dad has taken time off from work because the babysitter didn’t show up, or the babysitter got sick and needed to go home early, or the kids were sick and needed to go to the doctor, or the babysitter’s kid got in trouble at school and the babysitter had to leave, etc., etc. This, my conservative friend, costs your business money. For the price of an on-site day care room or facility, the company can make more money, you can make more money, and the babysitters can get real jobs with benefits. And millions of lawbreakers who pay their child care people under the table can stop leading a life of crime!
“Joining a union will make you