I’m responding to the front-page article, “Voters may decide minimum wage hike,” March 5. If the minimum wage goes up in Maine, a number of people will be priced out of the job market. If people on General Assistance can’t get a job at $7.50 per hour, how can they land a job at a higher wage?

This article provided a formula using minimum wage and a 40-hour work week. Ever since Obamacare took effect, some of those 40-hour work weeks went down to around 30 hours. That’s what happens when socialists have their way in laws affecting labor.

A number of individuals didn’t vote to re-elect Gov. Paul LePage because they worship him. The reason he got their vote is because he’s guaranteed to veto any bill authorizing an increase in minimum wage. If people are willing to overlook LePage’s faults to ensure the minimum wage stays at $7.50, they would never forgive any state Legislature that caves into socialism to vote for an increase.

America won the Cold War against Soviet socialism. We didn’t push for this victory only to become socialists ourselves after just a few decades.

The socialist-like Maine People’s Alliance is not the almighty political voice of authority that installs fear into both state Legislatures and voters. Just because it is pushing for a higher minimum wage, doesn’t mean we have to kow-tow to its demands. If we could stand up to Soviet socialists in the 1980s, we sure can give these homegrown socialists a political fight they’ll never forget over raising Maine’s minimum wage.

Douglas Papa

Hallowell