6STUDIES SHOW REPUBLICAN THINKING ERRORS ON KEY ISSUES rollingstone/politics/news/six-studies-that-show-everything-republicans-believe-is-wrong-20140423#ixzz3B07nyX00 1. The Minimum Wage Doesnt Kill Jobs. The Republican story on the minimum wage takes the inordinately complex interactions of the market and makes them absurdly simple. Raise the price of labor through a minimum wage, they claim, and employers will hire fewer workers. But thats not how it works. In the early Nineties, David Card and Alan Krueger found no evidence that the rise in New Jerseys minimum wage reduced employment at fast-food restaurants in the state. Since then, international, national and state-level studies have replicated these findings – most recently in a study by three Berkeley economists. Catherine Ruetschlin, a policy analyst at Demos, has argued that a higher minimum wage would actually boost the national economy by giving workers more money to spend on goods and services. The most comprehensive meta-study of the minimum wage examined 64 studies and found little or no evidence that a higher minimum wage reduces employment. There is however, evidence that a higher minimum wage lifts people out of poverty. Raise away! 4. Global Warming is Caused by Humans. Even as global warming is linked to more and more extreme weather events, more than 56 percent of Republicans in the current congress deny man-made global warming. In fact, the infamous Lutz memo shows that Republicans have actually created a concerted campaign to undermine the science of global warming. In the leaked memo, Frank Lutz, a Republican consultant, argues that, The scientific debate is closing [against us] but not yet closed. There is still a window of opportunity to challenge the science. In truth, the science of global warming is not up for debate. James Powell finds that over a one year period, 2,258 articles on global warming were published by 9,136 authors. Of those, only one, from the Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences, rejected man-made global warming. That one article was likely motivated by the Russian governments interest in exploiting arctic shale. Another, even more comprehensive study, examining 11,944 studies over a 10-year period, finds that 97 percent of scientists accepted the scientific consensus that man-made global warming is occurring. This is not an abstract academic debate. The effects of climate change will be devastating, and poor countries will be hurt the worst. Weve already seen the results. Studies have linked global warming to Hurricane Sandy, droughts and other extreme weather events. More importantly, doing nothing will end up being far more expensive than acting now. One study suggests it could wipe out 3.2% of global GDP annually. Read more: rollingstone/politics/news/six-studies-that-show-everything-republicans-believe-is-wrong-20140423#ixzz3BcuIOhwW Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook Read more: rollingstone/politics/news/six-studies-that-show-everything-republicans-believe-is-wrong-20140423#ixzz3BcsGMlrV Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 02:12:54 +0000
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