This page was last updated on August 31, 2004.

As of August 31, 2004, this editorial had not been published on the Times web site.

The editorial presents a view of the new overtime regulations that would make a labor union manager and a liberal proud.  Rather than address the editorial point by point, it’s probably better for me to refer you to a couple of analyses by The Heritage Foundation shown below.

If you have any question about which way the Times leans, consider the following comments.

·        The Times believes the changes are “one more ploy to widen the ever-growing gap between the haves and have-nots.”  Right, someone is devising a strategy to take money from one group of people to give it to another.  Oops, the Times is right.  That’s what politicians do every time they vote for tax increases or tax shifting.

·        The editorial refers to “corporate bean counters” and concludes, “And those new rules allow for insidious corporate greed.”  The editorial fails to mention that the vast majority of workers in the United States are employed by small businesses.  Of course, the assumption is that business owners are inherently bad persons looking to cheat people out of their “fair” pay.  While there are always bad actors in any group, how liberal for the Times to assume the majority of business owners are “greedy.”

Here are the papers I referenced above.

Who Benefits From the New Overtime Regulations? (Center for Data Analysis Report #04-08); Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.; The Heritage Foundation; August 16, 2004.

Modernizing Overtime Regulations to Benefit Employers and Employees (Backgrounder #1789); Paul Kersey; The Heritage Foundation; August 16, 2004.

© 2004 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.