Maine’s unemployment rate is at 4.3 percent because our minimum wage is at $7.50 per hour. There will be no influence to determine a higher minimum wage, from people who do not own a business with staff paid hourly. There will be no socialist revolution that will divide people into bullying employers to increase their starting wages. That tactic was used before to inject different forms of socialism into our capitalist system. That’s exactly why our economic recovery is weak.

The result of this may have made socialism trendy and cool, but it is no longer rebellious. Now those advocating separating socialism from capitalism are the rebels, fighting “the system,” and we will hold our ground defeating any attempt to increase the minimum wage.

The socialist experiment of increasing the minimum wage ended in Portland, and it will not expand into the rest of Maine. Every time the minimum wage goes up, available jobs disappear. The result forces minimum wage workers to labor even harder just to keep their jobs. Those competing for their jobs are turning in applications trying to replace them. That makes life more difficult for those employed at minimum wage jobs.

We should focus on decreasing our unemployment rate. We also should focus on transferring people from welfare to work. We need to concentrate on establishing secondary jobs to increase workers’ standards of living.

Finding employment for the 4.3 percent unemployed may be extremely difficult during our weak economic recovery from the Great Recession that put our country trillions of dollars more into debt. However, capitalism will work toward employing the 4.3 percent unemployed. It won’t be from forced socialism shoving us to increasing Maine’s minimum wage.

Douglas Papa

Hallowell