To the editor:

When price goes up, demand goes down. In the example of labor and wages, when wages rise, the demand for employees will decline and unemployment will rise. One effect of artificially raising wages is lower-skilled workers will be replaced by higher-skilled workers.

Another effect of implementing a “living wage” policy, besides raising unemployment, will be the likely result that new businesses will elect not to relocate to and invest in our community. Our neighbors, colleagues and schools will never have the opportunity to benefit from companies like Serologicals that pay generous average wages (for instance, $45,000).

Who deserves to have a “living wage”? The Progressive Lawrence candidates claim that a “living wage” is needed to keep families out of poverty.

If they are truly concerned about the poverty levels of citizens who make less than $9.30 an hour then shouldn’t they be concerned about everyone in Lawrence who makes less than $9.30 an hour? Is it hypocritical to mandate a “living wage” on some businesses under the guise of poverty prevention while other businesses closely affiliated to two of the Progressive Lawrence candidates escape this law?

One of the Progressive Lawrence candidates said that if there are not some checks and balances put in place by the city, the free market will run amok.

The Progressive Lawrence candidates should solicit some information from the former Soviet Union about how well a government can control wages and growth. The laws of supply and demand work. The free market works in the United States and it works in Lawrence.

Clint Bradley,

Lawrence