2014/07/06/A Company Liberals Could Love
- when: 2014/07/06 (date: 2014/07/06)
- author: Ross Douthat
- source: New York Times
- topics: Hobby Lobby minimum wage liberal intolerance pluralism religious pluralism
- link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/opinion/sunday/ross-douthat-a-company-liberals-could-love-.html
- title: A Company Liberals Could Love
- summary: Douthat argues that liberals should support Hobby Lobby because of their internal minimum wage policy, and goes on to argue something about liberal intolerance of religious diversity.
- discussion:
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Woozle comments
«FOR a generation now, liberals have bemoaned the disappearance of the socially conscious corporation...» -- is that even true? I don't think anyone has been claiming that corporations used to be socially-conscious. They just weren't as bad as some of them are now.
Part of his argument seems to be that HL sets its minimum wage high, so that should somehow counteract the evil stuff they do.
- First: While this kind of one-dimensional ethical analysis is consistent with right-wing moralitarian thinking, it is not consistent with liberal/progressive ethics. It doesn't matter how well you're treating people if you're also screwing them over in other ways. The only positive argument I can see (which Douthat does not make) is that at least the women denied contraceptives via insurance could probably afford to buy them, given their higher wages. However...
- Second: This "minimum wage" only applies to full-time workers, not part-time -- and it is the part-time workers who generally need it the most, if I understand correctly. Part-time HL workers only get $9.50.
He then goes on to try and position the conservative position as "religious pluralism", versus liberal intolerance. This position has already been addressed over and over again (poke me if I need to spell it out); it's simply wrong.
...and I'm not even sure what he's trying to argue here: «Insist that for legal purposes there's no such thing as a religiously motivated business, and you will get fewer religiously motivated business owners.» -- is he suggesting that this is a bad thing, or that it's not true? He doesn't seem to make a clear argument for either one.
And finally: a business self-imposing minimum wage does not imply support for (government-maintained) minimum wage in general -- anymore than, say, Whole Foods's self-imposed employee healthcare plan implies support for government-maintained healthcare. So why should liberals even care that HL provides a very limited minimum wage for its own employees, much less exonerate them for their contraceptive idiocy because of it?