Scott Lemieux points out who the real agenda setters are in the GOP: small business owners. I can remember how Clinton and even Obama lauded these hardy emerging capitalists as the backbone of America. However, a sizable number of them really only want to be able to squeeze every penny from the sweat of their worker's brows.
I was at the gym and the owner of the local pizza place was there in the sauna with me and another guy who runs a small IT company. Pizza Guy (and I love his pizza) was complaining about how minimum wage laws were requiring him to raise his prices which upset his customers. And I'm sure that's true! However, it's precisely because we have minimum wage laws that none of his competitors can undercut his wages and lower prices. (This is leaving aside the argument that a tight labor market means wages would be rising anyway.)
Races to the bottom are a real problem that can lead to deflation and recession. That's why we have labor regulations. The current crop of laws passing through red states are like the abortion laws I wrote about a half an hour ago. They can't help themselves. Prohibiting water breaks in Texas and Florida? What in the chicken fried fuck is that all about?
In 2016, I described Trump voters as "WWC" which stood for both White Working Class and Whites Without College. I think the latter is a better descriptor. These aren't "working class" in the sense of working for someone else in return for wages. These are reasonably well off people who want to be millionaires and labor laws appear to be standing in their way. They combine with White Evangelicals to create the base of Trumpsitan.
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