Bad for business

Bad for business

Commentary

Living Wage has brought good competition to Los Angeles International Airport

L.A.'s Living Wage Ordinance Isn't a Job Killer

September 21, 2011

Despite the dire warnings of former Mayor Richard Riordan, the L.A. Chamber of Commerce and many other business organizations, which opposed requiring airport contractors to pay a living wage, competition for LAX food concessions is more vigorous than ever. More proof that businesses and good wages and benefits for workers can coexist.

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The Great Regulation Charade

September 20, 2011

A new study finds that the big problem faced by businesses today is economic uncertainty, not regulatory uncertainty. Business owners may not like new rules (who does?), but their real problem is a lack of customers.

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Cry Wolf Quotes

If you were to force the industry to spend $300,000,000 or 50 cents on every ton they mined, you would destroy the industry.… I am sure that the committee realizes that the very life of many industries is involved in this question of industrial pollution. In the first place, industrial America, with its hundreds of billions of dollars at stake, is in fact the backbone of our American way of life.

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Harry Gandy, Jr., National Coal Association, Testimony, House Committee on Public Works
06/11/1947 | Full Details | Law(s): Water Pollution Control Act of 1948

The truly attractive targets would be the overwhelming majority of businesses which are honest, ethical, and legitimate—large companies because of their assets and small merchants because of their vulnerabilities.

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William B. Norris, Chamber of Commerce, Testimony, Consumer Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee,” Chamber of Commerce Public Presentations.
03/18/1970 | Full Details | Law(s): Class Action Jurisdiction Act

The proposed regulations would also produce a loss in sales of at least $400 million because of the labeling requirements and the shut down of operations where two fibers [are] technologically unfeasible. A number of companies have already indicated that they do not believe a two-fiber standard is feasible in many operations, and that if such a standard is promulgated, they will close down those operations immediately rather than spend millions of dollars in a vain attempt to achieve the unachievable. The loss of jobs will be substantial.

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Albert H. Fay, vice-president of Gold Bond Building products division of National Gypsum Company. President of the Asbestos Information Association.
03/15/1972 | Full Details | Law(s): OSHA's Asbestos Standard

[The right-to-know bill would be] a serious case of overkill….[and] would make it very difficult to maintain a business in the city of Philadelphia.

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Thacher Longstreth president of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and former Republican city councilman.
10/08/1980 | Full Details | Law(s): Philadelphia Worker and Community Right-to-Know Act
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