Uncle Bonior’s misguided compassion

Congressman David E. Bonior from Michigan is among chief advocates of raising the federal minimum wage to $6.15 by the year 2000 (next year). He too supports the inclusion of the Northern Marianas under such proposed legislation, including the denial of local immigration control. What’s wrong with this proposal?

It is the notion to forcibly impose federal policies without a realistic study of the impact such policies would have against resource-poor island economies. It’s a proposed policy that doesn’t include the view points of the NMI in any form or fashion. It turns participatory democracy on its head.

For your information, Congressman Bonior, over 1,080 tourism-related businesses have closed shop over the last year as a direct result of the Asian crisis. More are in the wings to follow suit this year wary that the effects of the Asian crisis has yet to bottom out; therefore, it is senseless staying around when bankruptcy is the next order of business. With a deepening economic crisis, is it appropriate to impose an increase and inclusion of the NMI under such a policy when nearly every guest worker here makes more than $6.15 an hour when salaries and benefits are combined? They’d be making over $12 an hour under your proposed scheme!

The fallacy that has escaped the nimble minds of most proponents of mandated wages are two fold: 1). It eventually pushes higher unearned wages at the entry level that subsequently forces manufacturers to relocate to either Mexico or some friendlier investment venues. 2). It awards unskilled workers wages paid for by hardworking Americans, therefore, the goal of education where opportunities abound to build lifetime skills becomes secondary or inconsequential. After all, they’d be contented with high entry level pay, so why must they learn lifetime skills? It’s what I call a “misguided compassion” of the worst order.

We must not sympathize but empathize with those who need help move from the welfare rolls to gainful employment. To sympathize is to award them their unearned loot and would rely on the hard earned taxpayers money for their annual salary increase. To empathize is to find educational opportunities where they can learn lifetime skills and free themselves from helplessness and joblessness as they know it. It’s a whole new world of opportunities if we grant them the chance to learn and hone lifetime skills. With marketable skills, mandated minimum wage becomes inconsequential.

It would do Congressman Bonior a whale of good if he takes the opportunity to learn first hand the real economic conditions that exist in the islands today. To rely on the US Department of Interior’s trumped-up report is to deny yourself the grand opportunity to understand and appreciate the difficulties of wealth and jobs creation that we had to build over the last 20 years. You’re dealing with two sets of entirely different economic foundation: A robust US economy versus a ravaged island economy where realities no longer fit the definition of the word “gulf” but “ocean” of differences that exist.

Finally, it is your fiduciary responsibility under the terms and conditions of the Covenant Agreement to help the Northern Marianas “attain a progressively higher standard of living” as granted other communities across the country. To push for legislation to include the NMI in federal minimum wage and the subsequent denial of control of immigration would be devastating for our island community and would force more of our people to swallow their pride and dignity extending their hands for more hand-outs or freebies paid for by other hard working American taxpayers. We do not wish to see this day of helpless and joblessness nor do we wish to reinvent our bright vision and hope of “American the Beautiful”. Si Yuus Maase` yan ghilisow!