Wage Slavemaster

As expected Mayor Bloomberg vetoed legislation that would provide a decent wage for certain workers in projects that were subsidized by the city. Also as expected he resorted to hypocritical reasoning for explaining his action:

"But Mr. Bloomberg, a self-made billionaire, proceeded to lecture the council and the bill's backers about "the way the free market works." He warned that the prevailing-wage bill could thwart positive trends in the city economy that have helped it rebound from the 2008 recession and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He called the measure "a throwback to the era when government viewed the private sector as a cash cow to be milked, rather than a garden to be cultivated."

Let's get this straight. Mike Bloomberg, the Great Condemner of Private Property, is lecturing others about the free market system? Ho, ho  ho! What the mayor forgets is that the foundation for the free market system is the sanctity of private property rights-and there can be no greater violation of, "the free market," than the use of government to take away property from the little guys and hand it over to friends of the mayor.

Ask Nick Sprayregen about the so-called free market and how Bloomberg colluded with Columbia University to take away his property rights. Or how the mayor abrogated the leases at the old Bronx Terminal Market so he could deed the property over to his BFF Steve Ross-a fellow billionaire. And we haven't even talked about the land grab at Willets Point.
But that wouldn't be all the mayor is hypocritical about. As Speaker Quinn has pointed out,

"...the administration has doled out nearly $250 million in incentives to lure or keep businesses here, and that Bloomberg had no problem supporting prevailing- and living-wage requirements for home health aides, day-care workers and even some building- service workers in 2002. “This law covered 60,000 workers, making it the largest living-wage law in the nation,” she said of the earlier law Bloomberg approved. “Not only did it fail to undermine the free market, it helped tens of thousands of New Yorkers raise their families out of poverty to join the middle class.”

And when it came to the mayor's own pet projects: "Quinn further reminded the mayor that his aides negotiated wage agreements at city-subsidized Citi Field, Yankee Stadium and Atlantic Yards without any problems." So what Bloomberg wants is to be able to wheel and deal-but only on his own terms; legislating these rights usurps the ability of Mighty Mike to hand out the goodies at his behest alone.

The mayor talks about how these kinds of bills are job killers: "I share the desire to see people earn higher wages and salaries, but there are no short cuts. Government can’t bend the laws of the labor market without breaking the bank — and destroying job prospects for people who most need work."

Another knee slapper. The mayor is displacing 2500 immigrant workers at Willets Point with no regard for those workers, their families, and the city's tax base-all for a pie in the sky development that will be done by a company like Related with those close ties to their crony mayor. But the biggest joke-one that's on all of us-is the mayor prattling on about over-regulation:

"My business turned out to be successful, due to a lot of reasons — including a lot of luck. But the most fundamental is very simple: After a terrible decade in the 1970s, New York City was succeeding in getting people and businesses to come and stay, and invest in their futures. That is still true today — thanks to an awful lot of hard work. But we can’t take our economic growth for granted. As soon as we begin imposing costly conditions on companies to do business here, the smallest entrepreneurs and the biggest companies will decide to build their future elsewhere." (emphasis added)

This is from the master over-regulator of all of the city's 250,000 small businesses-burying them in fines and taxes while he screams if anyone dares to regulate his buddies in financial services.  The basic fact is that the mayor has squandered hundreds of millions of dollars on his real estate cronies while looking to squeeze immigrant small business for every penny they have. We applaud the speaker's actions here; it is time this hypocrite was shown the door.