The Press-Dispatch

Opinion C-2 Wednesday, December 18, 2013 The Press-Dispatch Observations by Thomas Sowell Christmas books As Christmas approaches, the shopping mall can become a shopping maul. One of the ways of buying gifts for family and friends, without becoming part of a mob scene in the stores, is to shop on the Internet. However, for many kinds of gifts, you want to be able to see it directly, and perhaps handle it, before you part with your hard-earned cash for it. One gift for which that is unnecessary is a book. Books are ideal Christmas presents from the standpoint of saving wear and tear on the buyer. There are the traditional coffee table books, featuring marvelous photographs by Ansel Adams or the moving human scenes in the paintings of Norman Rockwell, both of which are very appropriate books for the holiday season. But there are also more Don't hike the minimum wage By Ed Feulner Hike the minimum wage. For politicians trying to show their concern for those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder, it's a simple solution. And it's catching on again, with several states and municipalities approving local hikes, and a proposal before Congress to hike it an unprecedented amount, from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour over the next two years. Unfortunately, this seemingly obvious remedy is also a very bad idea, not only for the economy as a whole, but for the low-wage workers it is supposed to help. Indeed, studies show that the latest congressional hike would likely eliminate some 300,000 jobs per year and lower our national economic output (GDP) by more than $40 billion annually. Why? Because raising the cost of labor naturally makes it more expensive to hire, leading cash-strapped employers with no choice but to slow down or freeze hiring. Those who blithely propose large minimum-wage increases are ignoring a basic economic truth: When you raise the cost of something, you slow down the rate at which people purchase it. They buy less. So an employer who might decide to hire another worker when the cost is relatively low will forgo that expense when it gets too high. That, in turn, can be bad news for those who already work for that employer. He may have no choice but to work his other employ- ees harder, when he could have taken a chance on an unskilled worker and given that individual a chance to prove himself and move up. That, incidentally, is the great truth that all too many people on both sides overlook: Relatively few people actually earn the minimum wage. Less than 3 percent of all workers earn $7.25 an hour. For the vast majority of low- or unskilled workers, that amount is simply a starting salary that gets them in the door and gives them a chance to advance. And most workers do just that. They move up. After being hired for the minimum wage, they learn valuable skills that help them move up the economic ladder. Two-thirds of them get a raise within a year. Many of today's entrepreneurs and success stories began their careers in very humble employment circumstances. "Actress Patricia Richardson, star of the ABC sit-com Home Improvement, scrubbed bathroom floors and toilets in a hotel," notes Policy Review. "Telecommunications executive John J. Sie worked on the assembly line of a stapler factory. Ivan Seidenberg, the chairman and CEO of NYNEX, was a janitor." Not everyone rises to the top, of course, but entry-level jobs such as these—the same kind that will be in shorter supply if the minimum wage is hiked precipitously—have helped millions of Americans (most of whom are between the ages of 16 and 24 and work Continued on page 3 No spin zone—by Bill O'Reilly Merry Christmas, 1913 One hundred years ago in America, Christmas was a mighty different situation. Based on newspaper reports, MyHeritage.com recently put together a list of the most-asked-for gifts by children who lived back then. Here are the top five requests: •  Candy. •  Nuts. •  Rocking Horse. •  Doll. •  Mittens. It's a modest list, to say the least, but reflective of a time that was far less complicated than society is today. Now, kids rule in many homes. And Santa is under siege. This year, the top five kid-wants according to retailers are: •  Furby Boom. •  Teksta Robotic Puppy. •  LeapPad Ultra. •  Flutterbye Flying Fairy. •  Big Hugs Elmo. Let's begin with Furby. This is a robot toy that resembles an owl. The "all new" Furby has a mind of his own and can interact with the tykes. Let's hope Furby isn't a member of the Hells Angels. The Teksta puppy is allegedly just like a real dog except there is no bathroom component. Teksta will dance and respond to your hand gestures—not including the middle finger. The puppy can even perform back flips that will amuse and amaze. I guess. The LeapPad Ultra is yet another high-tech gizmo that will hypnotize your child. It's a tablet that kids can write on, as well as summon apps, videos and games. If your child isn't an Internet zombie by now, he or she will be once the LeapPad gets inside the house. The Flutterbye Flying Fairy is marketed toward little girls and, according to the manufacturer, puts "enchanting" fairy flights directly in the hands of the child. There's never been a more magical experience, says the toymaker. Obviously, they've never been to a Metallica concert. And finally, the Big Hugs Elmo toy moves his arms to return hugs, plays songs, dances with your children and might even kick in toward their col- lege education. Elmo is for both girls and boys and is capable of making more than 50 animated sounds. If that sounds like your Uncle Vinny, it's a coincidence. The cost of these toys is substantial, and you'd better have an engineering degree if something goes wrong. The high-tech dog is especially interesting, conjuring up all kinds of horror movie possibilities. Don't tell me the toys don't have chips in them that can be activated by some crazy scientist in Bavaria. No way this thing is getting inside my house. I already have a dog named Fiona who would attack the bogus dog on sight. For my money, I think toys are too complicated these days. I like the rocking horse and toy train scenario. But if I gave those things to my kids, their response would be somewhere between the Bay of Pigs and Woodstock—a lot of angst and chaos. Luckily, Santa Claus has adapted, and his new high-tech sleigh and reindeer have him finishing his rounds in Guam long before dawn. But don't mention the Flying Fairy to old St. Nick. He's not into competition. Points to ponder—by Rev. Ford Bond Bad Theology Much has been in the Christian press about the doctrine of Dispensationalism and its blind allegiance to the modern nation of Israel. Dispensationalism is a core doctrine among Fundamentalists, Baptists, Pentecostals, and several other denominations. The roots of Dispensationalism begins in the mid 1800s with John Francis Darby and the Plymouth Brethren Movement. His teachings were absorbed by C.I. Schofield, who made it a mainstay in his reference bible, used by millions. Dispensationalist teaches the return of Christ is predicated upon certain happening before He can reappear. Most notably is the reemergence of Israel as a nation and the rapture of the church after a generation has passed. Though Dispensationalism has many nuances, the rebirth of Israel (1948) was to have started a countdown that was to have produced A woman's perspective—by Mona Charen Fight inequality and enhance happiness President Barack Obama spoke about income inequality in a recent address but failed to mention one of the most significant contributors to rising inequality in America: the marriage gap. Jobs are changing, international competition has driven down wages, top executives are pulling down enormous salaries, but it is cultural patterns—specifically personal decisions about cohabitation and marriage— that are most responsible for deepening the divide between haves and havenots in America. The contrast between the highly educated and the rest of the nation has become so pronounced that some are now calling marriage a "luxury good." If it becomes that—if the collapse of marriage as a norm continues among the poor and the broad middle class— much more than income inequality will result. We will institutionalize a productivity deficit, a healthy community deficit, a schooling deficit and a happiness deficit. Marriage is decaying very fast. As recently as the 1980s, only 13 percent of the children of moderately educated mothers (those with a high school diploma and perhaps some college) were born outside of marriage, according to research from the National Marriage Project. Today, it is 44 percent. Even more disturbing are the recent data showing that 53 percent of babies born to women under age 30 are nonmarital. Children of moderately educated parents are beginning to experience family dissolution, instability and pathology at rates more closely resembling the poor than the upper-middle class. If you graduate from college, you are likely to choose a family life similar, if not quite identical, to the 1950s ideal. If you are a high school drop- serious, or even grim, books that some people will appreciate as they read them in the new year. One of these latter kinds of books is the recently published "Why We Won't Talk Honestly About Race" by Harry Stein. It is a bracing dose of truth, on a subject where sugarcoated lies have become the norm. This book says publicly what many people say only privately, whether about affirmative action, Barack Obama or the ongoing obscenity of gross television shows about paternity tests, to determine the father of children born to women whose lifestyle makes it anybody's guess who has faContinued on page 3 out, you are unlikely to marry at all. If you have a high school diploma or some college, your family life in many cases is going to be chaotic, featuring cohabitation, short marriages and high rates of instability. W. Bradford Wilcox of the National Marriage Project reports that "cohabiting couples have a much higher breakup rate than do married couples, a lower level of household income, and a higher level of child abuse and domestic violence." Unlike trust funds, marriage is available to everyone and confers the same benefits on the rich and poor. There is no substitute for two married parents who care for each other in sickness, spell each other in child and elder care, watch the kids while a spouse takes night classes and contribute to thriving communities. In-laws give loans, jobs and other support they are unlikely to extend to live-in "significant" others. In "Coming Apart," Charles Murray pleaded with the educated uppermiddle and upper classes to "preach what you practice." But, so far at least, very few are willing to. Carolyn Hax, for example, a usually sensible advice columnist, responded to a young lady wondering whether to move in with her boyfriend by sneering, "Your mother sounds like a stealth subscriber to the why-buy-the-cow mentality, which is nothing but a bad deal for women…Yuck." Actually, cohabitation is a very bad deal for all concerned—especially women and children. The children of cohabiting couples do worse than those living with a single mother if the boyfriend is not the biological father of the children. The breakup rate among unmarried cohabiting couples is much higher than among married couples, with all that entails for disruption, poverty and pathology. Fear of divorce is part of the reason many young couples move in together. (The divorce rate is actually lower than people imagine—only about 30 percent of first marriages end in divorce.) In a 2001 survey, two-thirds of respondents approved of living together before marriage. Even then, data suggested that couples who cohabited before marriage were more likely to divorce than those who went straight to the altar, but it wasn't clear if this was a result of selection bias (i.e., those more committed to marriage as an institution would be less likely to live together first). Newer research is showing that both men and women have lower standards for a live-in than for a spouse. The data also show, as Wilcox notes, that "children living with their own biological cohabiting parents tend to do almost as poorly as children living in a cohabiting stepfamily, as well as children living in a single-parent family. And the association between both types of cohabitation and negative child outcomes persists even after controlling for a range of socioeconomic factors." Men cohabit with less expectation of permanence than women do. Many couples not destined for marriage waste good years in impermanent arrangements, often becoming parents. And, by the way, women do far more housework than men in cohabiting relationships. Without the basics of security and permanence in their personal lives, people find it much more difficult to rise out of poverty or maintain middle class lifestyles. They are also far less happy. If you care about the poor and the middle class, you ought to worry about marriage. by 1988 the rapture of the church and the seven year tribulation period. As one is able to discern by reading this column, it has not happened. A foundation of this teaching is the misapplication of the promise given to Abraham found in Genesis 12:3—"I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." The dispensationalists (mis)apply that passage to the modern nation-state of Israel and pronounce the anathema of God upon anyone who criticizes Israel. Former presidential candidate Michelle Bachman uses this passage constantly for her support for Israel. She is entitled to support anyone she so chooses, but a misapplication of scripture doesn't give Israel the moral to act with impunity. The historical church taught that the patriarchal blessing given to Abraham was passed through his descendants until it rested upon Christ—the messiah who "all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Christianity teaches this came to pass. However, Ju- daism, which rejected their God, still awaits their messiah so they can complete their ascension to the pinnacle of world nations, while Christians are told by bad theology teachers to bless their endeavors and utter no words of protest. Dispensationalism negates the sacrifice of Jesus. The salvation he purchased was for all, and is offered to all—which blesses the entire world [read Galatians 3:14]. The apostle Paul makes this clear where he writes to the church at Galatia "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus [Galatians 3:28]." By practice Dispensationalism creates a dual covenant, one for Jews and another for non-Jew. John Hagee is a major promoter of this heresy and in his recent book "In Defense of Israel" makes the case: "The Jewish people have a relationship to God through the law of God as given through Moses . . . I believe that every Jewish person who lives in the light of the Torah, which is the word of God, has a reContinued on page 3 The P Dispatch ress- MR. AND MRS. FRANK HEURING, PUBLISHERS ANDREW G. HEURING, EDITOR JOHN B. HEURING, ADVERTISING MANAGER Wednesday, December 18, 2013 Entered at the Post Office in Petersburg, Indiana for transmission through the mails as Periodical Mail, Postage paid at Petersburg, Indiana. Published weekly. Change of Address—Subscribers changing addresses will please give old address as well as new one along with phone number. We cannot guarantee prompt change unless this is done. Postmaster: send changes to Post Office Box 68, Petersburg, Indiana 47567-0068. Phone 354-8500 • FAX—354-2014 P.O. BOX 68, PETERSBURG, INDIANA 47567 E-mail—subscribe@pressdispatch.net (604-340)

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