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Odds and Ends:  William Bennett’s Gambling, Living Wage Laws, and the Louisville Orchestra

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

1.       Bill Bennett - It is a shame that people are finding such pleasure in attacking Bill Bennett.  Bennett has tried to do what he thought would benefit others, by publishing his “Book of Virtues”, a compilation of stories intended to inspire children to be virtuous.  The fact that Mr. Bennett now appears to have a gambling problem does not change the value of his work. Of course, Bennett also has been this country’s Drug Czar, promoting laws that throw other people into prison for their bad habits, and perhaps it is this irony that makes the controversy interesting.

          In the critiques and defenses of Bennett, it appears that Bennett’s critics think we should have a libertine society in which all behaviors are considered acceptable, and his defenders seem to think we should use the force of law to discourage a wide range of bad behaviors, including those in which all the parties involved are consenting adults.  I would like to suggest a better alternative.

          Let’s accept that, in a properly-functioning society, there should be many behaviors and activities that are considered to be bad or unwise without being illegal.  Instead of passing laws and pointing guns at people, let’s use social pressures to discourage people from doing things that are bad for themselves or for their community, such as engaging in excessive gambling or in using dangerous, mind-altering drugs, and let’s use social pressures to encourage people to act in responsible, socially beneficial ways.  Social pressures may take the form of sermons in church, shunning, losing a job, praise, public honors for those who do good works, and so forth.  We should not underestimate the power and the beneficial force of these social pressures, which respect people’s legal right to behave badly while not approving or condoning the bad behavior.  And let’s reserve the force of  law for punishing aggressive acts against innocent victims, such as fraud, robbery and rape. 

          We need to be sure not to confuse legality with social acceptability.  So, by all means, condemn Bennett’s gambling habit, but don’t promote a new law that would throw him into prison for his gambling habit, despite the fact that Bennett himself strongly promoted throwing people into prison for their drug habits. 

2.       Living Wage Laws – Louisville is still debating the “living wage law” that was passed by the board of aldermen prior to merger.  Minimum wage laws are sold to the public as being a form of compassion for the poor, on the premise that employers are evil and greedy and will only pay a fair wage if there is a law forcing them to pay that wage.  But that premise is very flawed.  Wages are established by competition in the marketplace, in the same manner as are the prices for products, and it is neither necessary nor beneficial to workers to prevent that competition from functioning freely.    Any employer who wants to hire an employee must offer that potential employee an attractive rate of pay, or the potential employee will go elsewhere.  The profit motive or “greed” of business owners generates competition among businesses to hire employees who can help make their businesses productive and profitable, and the greater value an employee can bring to a business, the more money an employer will have to offer that employee or else risk losing him to the competition. 

          Workers of all skill levels are free to take their services to the highest bidder, which forces employers to pay a reasonable wage for the services that are being offered, paying more to employees who generate greater profits and less to employees who are not as skilled.  Unfortunately, the proponents of the “living wage” or “minimum wage” law want to prevent the free market forces from working in the employment marketplace for low-skilled and unskilled workers.  They think that, by mandating a minimum wage, below which employers are not permitted to pay, they will improve the job outlook for unskilled workers.  While some unskilled workers, who are currently employed, would benefit at least temporarily, such a law makes matters much worse for most unskilled workers.  A minimum wage law will force employers to say to many prospective workers, “Because you do not have enough skill and will not generate enough profit to justify my paying you $X per hour, I can’t afford to hire you.”  The minimum wage law also will prevent a worker from saying, “I know that my skills are not very good, but if you’ll take a chance on me and hire me at a low starting wage, I will become a valuable employee.”   Passing a law that makes it very difficult or impossible for low-skilled or unskilled workers to get a job is not my idea of “compassionate”.

3.  Louisville Orchestra  - The Louisville Orchestra is in a financial bind.  There is not enough money coming in to meet the payroll, and the members of the orchestra are being asked to make wage concessions.  Of course, in the end, the orchestra cannot pay more in wages than it takes in as revenue or donations.  However, it appears that the orchestra is being short-changed by the Louisville Fund For The Arts, which requests donations from the community for a wide range of artistic endeavors and then divides up the donations among various arts organizations, including the orchestra.  Apparently, the orchestra is receiving a far smaller share of that income than in the past.  In order to be a part of that fund, the orchestra is prevented from doing its own separate fundraising, in which it would be competing with other arts organizations.  So here we have a form of voluntary socialism, which is not working to the benefit of the orchestra.  The orchestra might be better off to opt out of the socialist model, to break away from the Fund for the Arts, and to establish its own separate fundraising entity.  In that way, people who want to ensure that the orchestra can remain in the community will be able to donate directly to the orchestra, without having their money siphoned off to other organizations.  Perhaps the Fund for the Arts can be persuaded to turn over a reasonable share of its endowment to the Fund For The Orchestra, since the donors who created that endowment surely intended that money to be used to benefit the orchestra, but handing over some of the endowment would also mean handing over control, and that rarely happens.  Still, the orchestra needs to make a major change in its financial picture if it is to survive.

See:  Voice of the Louisville Orchestra http://www.savethelo.org/index.html

Is the fund for the arts putting the orchestra out of business? http://www.savethelo.org/fund.htm

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