European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 6, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes columns & comments thursday augus 6, 1587 Andrew j. Glass Fine print could Block arms Accord bold headlines trumpet a new soviet overture to ban both medium rang and Short Range nuclear missiles throughout he world. Bui the Tine Prim in the Kremlin plan could wind up blocking an Accord. The key Concession advanced by Kremlin Leader Mikhail Gorbachev yields on an earlier demand that 100 soviet warheads be retained in Asia. Naturally Gorbachev expects the United states to renounce its reciprocal right to deploy 100 com parable weapons in Alaska. Since the Gorbachev offer seemingly mirrors what Washington had already said it wanted the superpowers have apparently moved closer to concluding an arms pact one to he capped by a Gorbachev Reagan Summit Gorbachev delights in upsetting Reagan s calculations. His latest inducement follows the tame pattern. Gorbachev has scored some anti nuclear Bonus Points in Asia. But his real sights Are set an Europe. The Kremlin chief senses thai the ideological Unity within the soviet bloc never firm is breaking up far reaching economic accords Are forging Ever tighter links across what Winston Churchill called the Iron curtain. Gorbachev wants political arrangements in Europe to con form to the newly emerging economic realities. Germany has always been the Pivot to euro Pean economic and political integration. Thai s Why any new arms control package hinges largely on the insistence of Bonn and Washington that some missiles be excluded. They hold that West Germany should retain 72 perching mis Siles. Each has an american controlled nuclear warhead which if fired could barely strike rus Sia s westernmost Frontier. But Moscow says no. And Moscow s stance scums to carry some logical weigh. If the missiles Are american the soviets say Ihen in s Only fair that they be included under the so called double Zero option. Gut if they Are German and there lord excluded then the Ger mans arc breaking l air own anti nuclear Laws. As Well As a raft of International treaties. To complicate matters. West germans them selves Are ambivalent on whether these per things should slay. Typically Helmut Kohl the West German Chancellor plays it Lough. And typically Washington tells Bonn that so Long As Bonn remains Resolute . Arms negotiators will take a hard line in Geneva. Front to Back these Pershing Are Politi Cal missiles. They Don t make a Whit of differ ence in the genuine balance of Power in Europe. They neither prevent nor retard the Remote Chance of a soviet onslaught. Yet for some West germans they serve As a highly valued Symbol of ongoing strategic and tactical cooperation Between Western Europe s most powerful country and the mighty United slates a trans Atlantic military partner of 40 year standing. The 250,000 . Troops deployed on German Ioil share a common Battle Jan wit i 485,000 West German troops. The German air Force s fighter bombers arc capable of undertaking nuclear missions missions to which americans hold the key. Similarly the germans have nuclear capable Field artillery guns to which once again. Americans hold the nuclear key. The real soviet political target if to Cleave this entire network of German american cooperation within the confines of nato. As the communist nations of the Warsaw pact increasingly look to the West for their economic salvation so if longstanding soviet ambition to neutralise nato swells into a Paramount Security goal. The soviets know that whatever happens the pc Shingi will be outmoded within a few years. Bui the soviet desire to Denu Clarize and Cut Rattre Europe shout no sign of abating. Minimum James Kilpatrick minimum wage hike adds up to much less for Many More Joann Peters in. Is an attractive Young woman not Overly endowed in the brains department who was graduated a few weeks ago from her Small town High school. She has no great interest in College and no funds for tuition. She is living at Home with her Mother and a younger brother. Her Mother earns 19,360 a year As an Ironce in a local laundry. James Cnnon 41, is manager of the Steamboat restaurant at 23rd and main streets. His franchised fast food operation is in heavy Competition with the sizzling Sicak and the Happy crab. Kennon works seven Days a week but his food costs Are rising and his rent Jusi went up. In slow weeks he has a Tough time meeting his payroll. The Steamboat now employs 10 persons per shift at the minimum wage of $3.35 an hour and two others at 14 an hour this figures out to labor costs of Juji. So an hour or $332 for an eight hour shift. He really could use an 11th worker to Clear tables and Wash dishes but he hesitates to add to his payroll when his margin of profit is so Small. Very Well. Joann Peters and James Kennon meet sen. Edward Kennedy. The gentleman from Massachusetts is about to complicate your lives. He and rep. Augustus Hawkins a Calil Are pushing hard for a Bill that would increase the minimum hourly wage in 1988 from $3.35 to $3.85, their Bill would mandate a mini mum om4.65 in 1990. Joann would like to work at the Steamboat. Jim Kennon would like o his Joann. This would be her first Job. And there s an opening on the floor. She s �ood-hear1ed but a Little careless she needs the experience of holding a Job and showing up on Lime. All of us know such Joanne. But this is How Jim Kennon looks at Ike situation the Kennedy Hawkins Bill would require him to pay his 10 lowest level employees j3.8s an hour or per hour. The two Cooks would have to be raised to 54,so an hour to preserve a reasonable differential. If he keeps everyone employed he in now looking at labor costs of$380 a shift two shifts a Day compared 10 his present $332 a shift. He is looking at added labor costs of $35,000 a year with no increase in productivity or service. Goodbye Joann and Tough Luck Kij. Ifuku Ujj of 10 full time hired hands at s3 35, Kennon will hire eight persons full time and one to work six hours a shift at the required 13.85. Assuming the raise of 50 cents an hour for the Cook the Steamboat will now have labor costs of $341.so per shift. Trie manager will be spending roughly $7,000 More a year for labor he will have nothing to show Tor it and Joann will he just kind of you know hanging around Home. The example is hypothetical of course but this is How the real world works. In the idealistic world of messes. Kennedy and Hawkins an inc Cuc in the statutory minimum wage is a great thing for the poor folks. Don t you believe it. Every study that has been nude of the economic benefits of a higher minimum wage demonstrates that an increase harms the very class of unskilled workers it is intended o help. Who Are these workers on minimum wage the department of labor says there Are about 5 million of them of whom 3 million Are in the 16-Io-24 age bracket. Nearly 40 percent Are teen agers. One third Are men two thirds women. Only about 1.7 million work full time the other 3.3 million work part rime. For the great majority a minimum wage Job is their first Job. It s the Bottom rung of the ladder for person who Lack higher education and sophisticated skills. Clearing tables at the Steamboat May not sound like much but in Marks the beginning of real world responsibility. Here the willing Joanne have an Opportunity to earn an honest wage o acquire experience and to demonstrate la the Jim Kenyons that they have the ambition and the personality to move up. Kennedy and Hawkins with the very Best Mien Lions suppose thai a higher minimum wage will reduce welfare costs and lower the number of families at the so called poverty level. No evidence support this surmise. On the contrary for every increase of 10 percent in the minimum wage we May anticipate a loss of 80,000 to 240,000 jobs for teen agers. To the client that higher labor costs result in higher prices to Consumers we gel into the kind of inflation that Nulli fies the increase in hourly wages. Grammarians define an oxymoron As t Combina Tion of contradictory words. The example usually Given is cruel that says All that needs to be said of the Kennedy Hawkins Bill
