Higher minimum wage short on virtue

David Borris' letter of Feb. 22 categorically extols the virtues of a higher minimum wage. Let us address each of them.

He claims he pays all his workers a "living wage." What he doesn't say is, he pays them what they are worth. I am sure he would not be paying them that wage if they were not worthy of that wage. The only employer that does that is the federal government.

He also likes the idea of "adjusting for inflation." Inflation does not go up or down evenly over all businesses. If your profit did not keep up with inflation, you, as the owner, will be obligated to give your employees a raise whether your business earned more because of inflation or not. Washington is the only employer that creates the inflation by its reckless spending, adjusts their workers salaries for inflation, and then hands out bonuses for a job well done. What a country!

Regarding Henry Ford's unilateral near doubling his workers' salaries: He did this without any pushing or threats from the government; he did it in his own interest. He saw that his profit (that dirty word) would rise if he could hang on to his trained workers. His workers had the skills and he bought those skills. If you have no skills you do not have much to sell. With the exception of our Congress, that is how capitalism works.

Dushon Lipensky

Wheaton