First New York, now California. The folks over at Free Republic have a name for people like Michael Bloomberg and Dick Riordan–Republicans In Name Only (RINO).

In today’s LA Times, Mr. Riordan, who is running for the Republican nomination for California governor, opines that “you can’t live on minimum wage.” I expect this kind of nonsense from a Democrat, but when a so-called Republican says it, I wonder what the point is of having two parties. In fact, as much as I think that Gray Davis is a political abomination, I’m wondering in what way that Dick Riordan would be an improvement. I suppose it doesn’t matter, because even though I own property in California, I don’t vote there. Unfortunately, I do pay property taxes, and I’m sure that I’ll eventually regret the outcome, either way. I was encouraged to see Rudy Giuliani endorse his former assistant Bill Simon in the race, but I suspect that such an endorsement will be of more benefit in the general election than in a Republican primary, since Rudy is somewhat of a RINO himself…

Oh, and why was what Riordan said nonsense, you ask? First of all, because it’s not true, there are places where one can live simply but comfortably, even in California, on the minimum wage.

But more to the point, no one is supposed to live on a minimum wage. If you have to support yourself, or a family, it is your responsibility to improve yourself, through education. experience and/or skills development, so that you’re worth more than that. No one is entitled to a given wage simply because they can fog a mirror.

What driving up the minimum wage does is throw people out of work whose labor is only worth minimum wage or less, (e.g., teenagers after school). When one considers the devastating unemployment rate of African Americans in the inner city, the minimum wage should be properly viewed as a racist plot to keep young blacks and hispanics out of the job market and force them into drug pushing and prostitution, where no one in Sacramento worries overmuch about their wages. I’ve never heard that argument made in either the LA or New York Times, though…