A congressional hearing on the economic consequences of a $15 hourly minimum wage was cancelled this week due to revelations about bigotry penned under the guise of satire by one of its primary witnesses, San Diego State University economist Joseph Sabia.
The House Education and Workforce Committee was ready to feature testimony asserting poverty wages are in the national interest.
Sabia, an economist who penned a paper titled Minimum Wages: A Poor Way to Reduce Poverty, was to be their star witness until his past came back to haunt him.
The news came to my attention via Politico, who quoted Kelley McNabb, communications director for the committee’s majority confirming that “members were uncomfortable moving forward on the hearing” upon discovering the posts.
“Mandating a $15 Minimum Wage: Consequences for Workers and Small Businesses” was to be the very first hearing devoted to this policy issue since Republicans won the House in 2010.
Its appearance on the calendar during the lame duck session was the GOP’s way of acknowledging the likelihood of a Democratic House supporting an increase in the federal minimum wage.
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Back in the day (the early aughts), Sabia’s personal blog “No Shades of Gray-The Ivy League’s premier conservative column” was all about angry mockery of liberals and the wrongheaded ways.
A post entitled Tax Gay Sex, triggered by news of a minor league lawsuit claiming fast food companies were misrepresenting their wares as good-for-you, rambled through the conservative litany of government transgressions against various industries.
“Leaders on the fascist left,” Sabia posited, were certain to get behind taxing Big Fat because they “will use any excuse to advance socialism and diminish personal liberty.”
The agenda for liberals, of course, is the same as it was when they went after the tobacco industry: first demonization, second regulation, and finally taxation.
His solution to imagined future legislative anti-fat/tobacco fiats attaching an amendment on such bills taxing and regulating homosexual acts.
Okay: har, har, har… typical libertarian “humor.”
Except that Sabia kept going. And going. And going.
In gay sex, we have an activity that is clearly leading to disastrous health consequences. What rational person would engage in this sort of activity? There is only one solution – let’s tax it.
“Come on, Sabia,” you say, “how are you going to enforce these taxes? Are you going to send government officials to peep into everyone’s bedroom?”
Eventually. But first we have to mount the assault on Big Gay (no, I am not talking about Rosie O’Donnell). We can tax gay nightclubs, websites, personal ads, sexual paraphernalia, and so forth. Talk about a sin tax!!! We can cripple gay-related industries and get them right where we want them. All gay clubs will have to feature huge, flashing warning signs like “CAUTION: Entering this nightclub may increase your chance of contracting STDs and dying.”
He concludes by getting serious, saying it’s none of the government’s business if smokers, fatties, or gays to make bad choices, as long as they don’t “look to the public dole for relief.”
Sabia’s underlying motivations are better understood by reading his essay entitled College Girls: Unpaid Whores.
It’s a meandering word salad through the premise that feminism is linked to the moral decay destroying the privileged, white male world order.
Women are no longer “the civilizing forces for men.” And the Bible, says Sabia, tells us that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
It should surprise no one that sexual activity has historically been more frequent among gay men than among heterosexuals. This is because there is no civilizing female force in the gay community. Whenever men want to have sex, they just go ahead and do it.
Neither of the partners has much of an incentive to refrain from sex since monogamous relationships and traditional familes are generally not the final goals of these partnerships. Recently, the behavior of young heterosexuals has begun to resemble that of gay men because young women are imitating men in their sexual promiscuity.
The result of young women’s abdication of responsibility has been significant moral decay on America’s college campuses. Can the moral high ground ever be reclaimed? Perhaps…one church pew at a time.
I think it’s safe to say two things are true about professor Sabia.
He’s from the “own the libs” school of political tactics, so therefore anything said in the name of right wing thought is supposed to be okay, no matter how offensive it is.
And he really is a misogynist bigot.
Countdown to The End. Friday, December 14, will mark the end of this version of the San Diego Free Press, along with this column.
I have been asked about my future plans, and the answer is: I’m still figuring it out. So if you have a niche for my talents, this would be a good time for us to talk. dougporter@sandiegofreepress.org
Doug Porter
Latest posts by Doug Porter (see all)
- Last Call. Last Column. - December 14, 2018
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- Mounting the Assault on Big Gay and Other Drivel From SDSU’s Minimum Wage Scrooge - December 12, 2018
