Laws Are For the Lawless

Some thoughts on the Obama Admin's new overtime law.

Here's a surprise for some no doubt... I'm with Obama here. To me the problem with unions, union rules and government meddling with business, is that the unions lost their focus on supporting the general workforce and focused instead on simply helping themselves.

The forty hour week -- the assuring that working people should be able to have a life for themselves and their families -- is a great good. That law had to mandate this was and is a shame, but ending sweatshops and crushing work demands sadly DID require intervention.

Today many employers have looked for and found loopholes to allow them to demand long hours far beyond the forty hour week. Calling a mid-level worker a "manager" or worse, a "management trainee" has simply become a way to take advantage of workers -- making them give the employer what amounts to unpaid time, often doing things that are a far cry from "management."

Should the government have to intervene? No. But businesses have  brought this upon themselves. (Those who have practiced no such abuse will see little if any change in their labor costs.)

The argument that this will "cost" workers hours seems to me bunk.  What it will "cost" them is UNPAID hours - a price that I expect most are more than willing to pay.

Don't like regulations?  Then regulate yourselves! Law is, as the old proverb says, for the "lawless."