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GLENN: Now, the State of Oregon, not exactly known for its ultra pro business environment. I mean, unless you're setting up a Save the Owl store. You have a lot of red tape to go through, you know, the environmental restrictions, the owls, the environmental restrictions. A lot of stuff you have to go through when you're doing business, you know, that can add to your overhead there in Oregon. That's one reason why their unemployment rate is usually higher than the national average. But I guess they like it that way in Oregon. Back in 2002 Oregon passed a law that indexed the minimum wage to inflation. I actually love this law because it proves a point. It gets rid of all the political game for politicians, they can't make any speeches. Every election, you know, they're telling people, "I'm here for you, I'm going to raise minimum wage, vote for me. He hates people who are working on minimum wage." It automatically rises. That way, hey, you don't need the politician anymore. I love it for that reason, and it also proves a point. If politicians actually cared about the minimum wage, everyone, including those in Washington, would do it. But the problem is and to me it's an advantage it highlights what a bad idea the minimum wage is because when tough times come, there's nothing you can do about it. You don't have the opportunity to, you know, just push off a minimum wage hike. It's coming whether you like it or not because you, the voter, said we shouldn't use our brain. We should just let it automatically raise up. We shouldn't think about any other conditions. Well, that's what's happening now in Oregon. Unemployment rate rising more than 1% per month. Oregon had no choice but to hike their already high minimum wage by 45 cents to $8.40 per hour. The effect? Well, Oregon, which usually has an unemployment rate that is 1% higher than the national average now has the second highest unemployment rate in the country, unless you're an owl. They are just behind Michigan. Oregon's latest numbers show unemployment at 12.1%, four points, four points ahead, or behind, however you want to look at it, the national average. When you have a high minimum wage environment and times are normal, sure, you'll fall behind, you know, the rest of the country a little bit, but you can survive it. But when you have a financial meltdown and you're asking business owners to pay far and above the market value for labor, you're just begging for 12% unemployment, or even higher, and it's coming. And it has longer term ramifications as well. If you want to hear your teenager, if you want your teenager to learn how to work and really develop a work ethic, how can they find work ethic when they can't find a job? The national unemployment rate for teenagers is 21.7%. We're not forcing them to do anyone at home and now they can't find a job. Who's going to pay $8.40 per hour for a teenager when you can get a white collar worker to now work under those conditions? There are jobs that Americans just won't do? The height of insanity, the one thing that we should regret ever, ever uttering, when everybody was saying, "Oh, there's jobs that Americans just won't do." Really? We were that arrogant? I wonder how many of those jobs are still not occupied by Americans by choice. How many Americans are passing, when you've got states like California, they are actually the cities are actually having to look into licensing and how to, you know, license hot dog vendors because you have so many white collar workers that are like, "I'm going to go into the hot dog vending business; I've got to feed my family." We are now in the 21st century versions of selling apples or pencils in some parts of the country. But the good thing is when you don't have your teenagers working, you have future workers without a work ethic and then you have even more people who want to vote in minimum wage increases and guaranteed job programs. So you see, socialism really does solve everything.
VOICE: That was even more overwhelming evidence that we are destined to be a bunch of socialist pigs very, very soon on the Glenn Beck program.
