Pushing for a $15 minimum wage, the Star-Ledger pays its drivers $10 an hour (are any undocumented?)

The Star-Ledger doesn’t report the news.  As Editor Tom Moran wrote (November 1, 2018):  “Our core mission is helping voters decide which lever to pull.” 

That’s right, the Star-Ledger is a advocacy organization.  First and foremost, you can always depend on the Star-Ledger to lobby for its own bottom line. 

For years, the newspaper was a strident supporter of the New Jersey State Supreme Court’s Abbott Decision – which forces working class families in suburban and rural New Jersey to subsidize the property taxes of wealthy corporations and professionals in urban areas.  Among those wealthy corporations was the parent corporation that owns the Star-Ledger, whose property holdings were so extensive in Newark that the city named a street… no, make that a plaza, after the Star-Ledger. 

Now comes this new hypocrisy.

A few days before Christmas, the New Jersey Globe reported that while editorializing for a $15 minimum wage, the Star-Ledger  was paying workers at $10 an hours, with no benefits.  The corporation that owns the Star-Ledger is itself owned by one of the richest families in America. 

Here’s an excerpt from the New Jersey Globe:

The state’s largest daily newspaper ran an advertisement in Wednesday’s print edition seeking drivers for newspaper deliveries willing to work 2-3 hours daily, “starting around 3 AM,” with a typical bi-weekly compensation that starts at $400.   That could mean less than $10-per-hour.

To get a job like that, applicants must have their own cars. Star-Ledger drivers – they call them Delivery Service Providers — receive no benefits; they “are independently contacted, meaning they are self-employed” and receive 1099s.   Minimum wage laws do not apply.

There is no paid vacation time, no workers compensation, and since drivers do not handle collections, there are no gratuities involved.

“The job, once the bastion of neighborhood kids looking to make a few extra bucks on their bikes, has evolved into a grueling nocturnal marathon for low-income workers who toil almost invisibly on the edge of the economy,” wrote Associated Press reporter Michael Levenson in 2016.

Today the Star-Ledger once again editorialized for drivers’ licenses for resident undocumented immigrants illegally in the United States.  Is this another self-serving position for the owners to take?  Will this help drive down the cost of newspaper distribution?  We wonder if there are any internal memos on this?

While the Star-Ledger and its owners are up on all the latest virtue-signaling, paying just enough lip-service to reassure the cocktail set that they are good and worthy people, their actions seek to drive down the wages of American workers, while creating an immigrant class of toiling wage slaves.  Raising the minimum wage is a farce until you can control the gray economy that doesn’t abide by such rules.  Normalizing the gray economy (by things like drivers licenses) will only solidify its position as an alternative workforce.

And while the Democrats talk about the minimum wage, Governor Murphy is doing his utmost to flood the state with illegal labor that every economist tells us will drive down wages.  When there is more of something, you pay less, we all know that.  Either the Democrats are well-meaning but stupid, or they are engaging in the very same hypocrisy that the Star-Ledger is engaging in.

Here is the original New Jersey Globe story:

https://newjerseyglobe.com/media/star-ledger-editorializes-in-support-of-15-hour-wage-but-pays-drivers-much-less/

AFP: The pothead/ amnesty for illegals wing of the GOP

“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” (Eric Hoffer)

Is AFP even conservative anymore?

Looking at their positions on some of the major issues facing New Jersey, you would have to conclude NO.

Establishment GOPers are very good at worming their way into conservative causes and turning them into husks.  A short history of this could occupy a chapter in a book -- or a lengthy article.  A good starting point would be what happened to "Hands Across New Jersey" after the Whitmanites offered their help and money.  And the 2009 gubernatorial primary with Brother Todd and his checkbook would make interesting reading too.

GOPAC was once a dynamic organization and a pillar of the conservative movement.  Today -- in New Jersey at least -- it is run by Ocean County GOP boss George Gilmore.  Would anyone in their right mind describe George Gilmore as a "movement conservative"?

Establishment types apply the word "conservative" the way old tarts apply makeup -- to hide many sins.  But trust one and see what you are left with.  It won't be fresh faced idealism. 

They say they are "conservative" and then they vote to make your daughter share her high school shower with someone sporting a penis.  They vote to confirm a judge who backs COAH and Abbott.  They vote to obstruct a woman's ability to obtain a legal handgun to protect herself and her family.  They vote to fund abortion. 

Last year, we suggested an alternative to the "screw card" put out by AFP.  We said it should be based on the highest authority in the Republican Party -- the platform of the Republican National Committee.  Well, a couple people took up the idea and word is they'll soon have the money necessary to publish and distribute a score card that is truly representative of the conservative movement in New Jersey.

Of course, there are those within the NJGOP who will feel threatened by this and who will work against it, as they work against all alternative ideas.  They don't like the First Amendment, preferring worship to speech.  But they shouldn't be threatened, because nothing attracts and grows a cause or a party better than open debate and free participation.  It breaks the stale boring monopoly of establishment language and ads the spice of truth.

Loosen up and all will be well.