The University of California (Berkeley) has ordered the return of new displays to native American tribes under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). That is hardly news except that the items were not human remains or relics, but corn, corn cobs, peas, beans, and other seeds. The university has decided that even such scientific samples are prohibited items of “cultural patronage.”
The Act requires the return of human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony. “Cultural patrimony” is defined as “an object having ongoing historical, traditional, or cultural importance central to the Native American group or culture itself.”
However, according to a federal notice, these were old corn, corn cobs and seeds, beans, and other items used for research and display by the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology. They will now be returned to the Pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico, a Native American tribe.
Old corn cobs linked to a Native American tribe are being removed from an anthropology museum at UC Berkeley in accordance with a federal “repatriation” law.
According to a June 4 federal notice, 24 items, including corn, corn cobs, peas, beans, and other seeds, are being removed. They were part of the collection at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology. They will be returned to the Pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico, a Native American tribe, to comply with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
The notice from the school states that “Between 1940 to 1941, George F. Carter collected 24 lots of seeds via `field research with Native American agriculturalists’ across the Southwestern United States, including Pueblo of Isleta in New Mexico.”
I understand how one can read the federal law broadly, but this seems wildly out of sync with the purpose of the law. These are plants and seeds used for field research to better understand the food chain of the early periods of life in the Americas. The use of the federal law so broadly undermines the study of these tribes.
Obviously, corn and other crop staples were key to the culture of these tribes, but so was water, wood, and other sustaining resources. I do not understand why the tribes themselves do not want to encourage such research on their heritage and history.
The university could clearly decide that it no longer needs the items or that the items hold more value to the tribes. However, to say that they are compelled under federal law is a dubious reading of the federal statute.
The College Fix quotes Elizabeth Weiss, professor emeritus of anthropology at San José State University, as objecting to the interpretation: “Objects of cultural patrimony are defined as objects that cannot be owned by a single person, and, thus, cannot be sold or given from one person to another. It is hard for me to understand how plants and seeds could fall into this category.”
This is something that the Department of the Interior, Justice Department, and Bureau of Indian Affairs should clarify in the interest of continued research and historical work in this area.
Performative nonsense from U C Berserkley.
There is absolutely nothing performative about this.
UC Berkeley did not initiate this return of artifacts. They were compelled to do this as required by NAGPRA.
UC received a valid petition from a Native American tribe to return certain artifacts as prescribed by NAGPRA. Under NAGPRA the definition of culturally significant artifacts lies solely with the petitioning Native American tribe.
UC formed a committee to consider the petition, and decided that they were compelled to follow the law as written in NAGPRA.
They therefore returned the artifacts.
UC was simply following the law, and you seem to find this outrageous.
Did I say it was outrageous? That’s outrage inflation on your part. I find it to be ridiculous and silly.
OldFish,
“. . . outrage inflation . . .”
I need to use that one in the future.
I will H/T you!
OK, this “NAGPRA” assumption has me LMAO. Sounds like the type of discussion issue brought up after one too many pitchers of inexpensive beer late night in a college bar – and probably would have evoked the crowd chorus “Chug, Chug, Chug”.
Stated simply a very obvious use of a complex question (also often referred to as a loaded question) equivalent to the classic “Have you stopped beating your wife lately”. “UC Berkeley, Have you stopped beating your NAGPRA lately?”
Probably would not have scored well as an essay answer in a course exploring Rhetorical Logic. 🙂 🙂 🙂
99 on the Gunning Fog Index.
“Under NAGPRA the definition of culturally significant artifacts lies solely with the petitioning Native American tribe.”
Where in NAGPRA does it state that?
Let me save you the time: It doesn’t.
did the tribe also ask for their land back? or did they just want corn? This is similar to how we tricked them into selling us manhattan.
OT
AI Overview
A coalition of Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, operating under CENTCOM, forms a regional superpower that technologically outmatches Iran through superior air power, advanced armor, and a combined force of nearly 1 million personnel including Israeli reserves. This alliance holds overwhelming superiority in the air with over 800 modern combat jets against Iran’s roughly 200 older aircraft, alongside a modernized tank fleet (Merkava IVs, M1A2 Abrams) that outclasses Iranian armor.
OK, this one made me laugh too, but it invoked debate consideration on the use of the word “hallucination” within AI responses – and the traditional Turing test designed to assess a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to that of a human by imitating interactive dialogue.
I would love to take the negative on this debate – and base it on the assumption that humans such as Hakeem Jeffries, Katie Couric, Hillary Clinton, etal, are incapable of exhibiting intelligent behavior in interactive dialogue. Ergo: the Dialetheism assumption of the debate resolution makes the affirmative response a falsehood.
98 on the Gunning Fog Index.
There is no Iranian air power or armor. Trump took that from them.
It’s only a matter of time now. NewIran
Follow the science, they say. We trust the science, they say. Well, why does the party of “science” reward those people who believe in “sacred” this or “holy” that when it comes to skeletons and artifacts? Oh, right, because science only applies to white Europeans. Everyone else gets preferential treatment.
Can anyone cite the Constitution for a legal basis for Congress to tax for or fund “college grants” and the like?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
AI Overview
There is no text in the U.S. Constitution that mentions or establishes a legal basis for “college grants” or higher education funding.
Wait! Wait! Wait!
Celebrity chef, Bobby Flay uses blue corn masa harina in some of his recipes for tacos and tortillas.
Didnt some Native Americans also grow and eat blue corn?
Bobby Flay is committing not one but two! TWO! Acts of appropriating TWO different cultures!! A white man! A rich white man!
This is like a national security threat!!!
/sarc
Upstate Farmer, maybe the USA should demand that all other nation forsake nuclear weapons on the basis of cultural appropriation….
Not outraged, I’m appalled! To think UC Berkeley would return corn cobs but so absentmindedly forgo – or refuse – to return petrified ancient Native American turds (so-called-for-the-purpose-of-scientific-study, “coprolites”) is just, well, unfathomable! Whatever would the great Sun Mother think?
Ah, yes, that good old, reliable biological science, scatology.
They probably just needed the room.
“What’s this old corn here for?” “I don’t know but we can get virtue-points if we give it to some indians!”
Professor Turley: Was this an attempt to overshadow the abomination that has been committed by the USDA over the last 6 years?
Part of reversing the process of creating collectivized farming by making it impossible for multi-generational land owning agricultural stewards of the land that have produced the food on our table – and then making sure it went easily into the hands of foreign investment who were not held to those standards.
It was attempted through the NEPA “cloak” by generating unfathomable complexity in regulation and approvals (AKA Environmental Review Actions and other bureaucratic morasses) to be administered by new State/Regional organizations whose real purpose was to slow walk ANYTHING until bankruptcy or simply giving up. These are NOT rich people. Running an agriculture business is work before dawn until after the setting sun.
If you need more information, look at this and ask Secretary Rollins or perhaps one of the bureaucratic cleansers who have helped make this happen. OH WAIT. They work 20 hours a day, 7 days a week – you’ll have trouble finding them participating in mutual fake news and propaganda generating at the National Press club.
“USDA have shown they can reduce environmental review timelines by up to 80%. These faster, more efficient reviews are saving the Department millions in taxpayer dollars. Those savings benefit the American people, and quicker reviews mean the loans, critical infrastructure, and forest health projects our farmers, ranchers, and rural communities depend on can move forward sooner.”
https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2026/04/07/usda-finalizes-historic-regulatory-reform-national-environmental-policy-act-final-rule
The Department of Agriculture is Wholly Unconstitutional
An Illicit Figment of the Imaginations of Corrupt Liberal Judges
_____________________________________________________________________
AI Overview
There is no citation in the U.S. Constitution that provides a legal basis for the Department of Agriculture. The word “agriculture”—along with “farming,” “crops,” and “food”—does not appear anywhere in the text of the document. If you read the Constitution cover to cover, you will find zero mentions of this department or its subject matter. The Constitution does not authorize it. Instead, the department was created in 1862…not by any provision written into the Constitution itself. …Any power not explicitly granted to the federal government is reserved to the states or the people under the Tenth Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Because the power to regulate or manage agriculture was never delegated to the United States in the text, a strict reading of the Constitution means there is no constitutional basis for the department.
Some people call it corn, I call it maze… Magazola…corn goodness 🤣
Contra wikipedia Maize is not corn anymore than Chimpanzees are humans.
Corn only superficially resembles Maize – just as humans resemble monkeys.
But it we are going to give corn back to indians – they should return horses and guns, and alcohol and myriads of things they have goetten from the west.
And I would add that MAGA morons only superficially resemble humans, and are far outmatched by the intelligence of chimpanzees.
How does it feel to get owned daily and repeatedly by the Magamorons that are outmatched by Chimpanzees?
Wheels?
John
Apparently you are not old enough to remember the Mazola commercials of the mid to late 60’s. It was a spoof of that, it was a laugh intended for the last of the real men generation here.
This comment simply confirms that the regulars here are nothing more than a motley collection of grumpy old geezers, with nothing better to do than sit on the front porch whining and complaining about anything and everything, and yelling at the kids to get off the lawn.
Get off my lawn you little weirdo!
Confirmed
and your comment confirms that a bunch of wilding children do not have sufficient parental attention.
The native americans have a special word for this sort of corn-gifting.
They call it ‘virtue signaling’
This is pretty low on the totem pole for outrage. Just can’t get shook up about it.
@Gary
It isn’t outrage, just astonishment, and it isn’t for what transpired, but what it portends. These are absolutely our future leaders if we don’t do better.
I agree.
Turley has finally jumped the shark in his pathetic attempts to stoke outrage in the MAGA mob that follows him here.
He is relentless in his attempts to stoke the rage of the MAGA mob, the very rage that he so hypocritically and disingenuously decries in his stupidly absurd little books.
However, Turley’s latest attempt to stoke rage is pathetically absurd and irrelevant, but unfortunately most of the MAGA mob here dutifully responds with their ridiculous comments.
Not stoking outrage, just showing virtue signalling at it’s most laughable
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You keep saying this over & over. If you don’t like what Turley talks about. Find another place to complain.
Some people are so darn weak.
You could not be more wrong.
As James points out above, Lawrence J Feldman and DustOff below, it is absurd, laughable, sad and nothing more than virtue signaling.
The good professor points out, time and time again how absurd wokeism really is.
We are not outraged.
Just amazed at how grown adults are behaving like eight year old children.
Fake Farmer
You seem to think that it is wokeism for UC Berkeley to follow the law as written.
This is the typical disregard for the law that is typical in the MAGA cult.
I have pointed out here several times that UC is simply following the law.
NAGPRA requires the return of any Native American artifacts, NOT simply “graves and remains”. Those categories of artifacts are specifically defined, but there is also a catch-all category of any artifacts that a Native American tribe deems to be of cultural significance. That definition of cultural significance is to be determined by the tribe.
The law also creates a framework for the tribes to formally petition for the return of any artifacts they deem to have cultural significance. Such a formal petition was in fact presented to UC Berkeley, specifically for return of the seeds and artifacts in question. In response, UC formed a committee to consider the claim, and eventually decided that they were compelled to follow NAGPRA as written.
UC Berkeley is simply following the law, but you, in your fevered MAGA mind, believe that this is wokeism.
They are not following the law anywhere near as written – while the law itself is idiotic.
It is one thing to return sacred items that were stolen from graves – it is entirely different to prevent the meaningful study of other cultures.
Even the funfimental core to the law – is irrelevant if the peoples being studied are long gone.
Should we return the viking long boats to Denmark – or possibly England where they were found ? Oppos that is where they are.
The vikinings are extinct. While there are ties back to scandanavia – less than 10% of scandanavians were ever vikings, and the culture and people died out almost a milenia ago – mostly they converted to catholicism, they married either other non-viking scandanavians, or the peoples of the countries they raped and pillaged.
or they stayed home – because politics changed and if they went off raiding – they were in danger of having other Scandinavians take Their homes, their wives, …
Regardless they are gone.
AS noted in other posts – MOST of the plains Indians are myths.
The horse and rifle were introduced to North america by Europeans. Most of the famous Plains tribes – did not come from the plains they came from further east,
They were pushed west by the westward settlement of the country. Most of the so-called plains Indians murdered and enslaved the actual inhabitants as they moved west. Their “ancient” burial grounds were more recent than Apollo 13 is today at the time of Custer.
Regardless, the law had nothing to do with corn and beans given freely to anthropologists 75 years ago.
These were not taken from graves. And they are about as much sacred artifacts as a big mac.
“NAGPRA requires the return of any Native American artifacts,”
No outside of graves and remains it requires the return of sacred items.
It does not require the return of corn and beans freely given to an anthropologists 75 years ago.
While this is not some great outrages – it is a beautiful example of he looney wokeism of the left.
Should leaky return Lucy and if so to whom ? Her Chimpanze predecessors ?
There is no law whose meaning is defined by the subjective standards of a some small group.
That would be idiocy. Something is culturally significan if THAT specific OBJECT holds obvious religious or cultural importance
It does not as an example preclude tourists from buying peace Pipes at a quickie mart on tribal lands.
It requires the return of SPECIFIC peace pipes that are actually of demonstrable importance.
Not some meaningless ears of con.
While your misreading of the law is absured – the whole issue here is absurd – as is common when dealing withe the left we are dealing with the “theater of the absurd”
With or without a law – I have no problem with UCB chosing to give to someone – something that person asked for – where that thing has any consequence at all.
The big deal here is the performative nature of this idiocy.
You left wing nuts actually get off on this nonsense.
You think this is some great positive good – when all it is is spectacle and virtue signaling.
It is not even the request or return it is the absurdity of it
I wonder at the likely truth of your claim this was a request – why on earth would any tribe wont back some corn cobs of no historical significance ?
But to you this is a big deal.
Pretty sure sitting bull would rather have a rifle.
It’s wokeism and you know it! you should be embracing your culture of pandering to ‘victims’ so we can laugh at you.
It seems to have outraged you that Professor Turley wrote about this. This is his blog. He can write about whatever he wants to. You can start your own blog and write about topics that are of greater interest to you. But that would be work. It is much easier and lazier to just anonymously troll someone else’s blog with insults. That is exactly the kind of rage addiction Professor Turley often mentions here. You are proving him right.
OldManFromKS,
Well said!
No one is outraged by this – we are just laughing at the idiocy of those on the left.
It is absolutely true that the left is immoral and violent.
But it is also true that they are stupid and performative.
No one cares about some 75 year old corn. But we can Laugh at the stupidity of left wing nuts using a law that CLEARLY has nothing to do with this to engage in ritual stupidity.
Please keep making fools of yourself.
Even god is laughing at you.
. . . to engage in ritual stupidity.
That phrase – “ritual stupidity” – is a great one. It succinctly describes the nauseating performative nonsense what we’ve been seeing from the Dems ever since they kneeled for George Floyd at the U.S. Capitol.
They did not want to anger Charlemagne the God.
😏
don’t confuse rage with pointing and laughing at you idiots with your cultural appropriation nonsense.
It is not outrageous – it is more an example of the idiocy the left will engage in. As best as I can tell from this article some gut 75 years ago was given by indians various vegetables, UC has had them for some time – now they are turrning them. because of some left wing nut guilt.
This is performative not meaningful.
John Say
No, they are not returning anything because of left wing guilt.
UC received a valid petition from a Native American tribe to return certain artifacts as prescribed by NAGPRA.
UC formed a committee to consider the petition, and decided that they were compelled to follow the law as written in NAGPRA.
They therefore returned the artifacts.
UC was simply following the law, and you seem to find this outrageous.
Those artifacts were NOT “prescribed by NAGPRA. Turley provided the statutory definition. Can you read, X?
It’s the precedent it sets up, not this particular incident but the fear this will be expanded in ridiculous ways once it reaches activists judges that now populate our courts!
Wait for it, because it’s coming soon!!
“It’s the precedent [that] . . . will be expanded in ridiculous ways once it reaches activists judges that now populate our courts!”
Can you spell ‘reparations’?
-g
I am a California taxpayer, and I have never benefited from the University of California (Berkeley)’s existence, and I have no desire to fund, or otherwise provide charity to, the University of California (Berkeley); consumers of the University of California (Berkeley) should pay for the University of California (Berkeley), and federal funding for the University of California (Berkeley) is illicit and unconstitutional and entirely without legal basis in the Constitution.
Well, knowing the Virtue Signalling left, it was the very, very least they could do to prop up their self images.
I do not understand why the tribes themselves do not want to encourage such research on their heritage and history.
That was my thought too. Why would Native Americans want steps to be taken that would erase the memory and knowledge of their history and culture. While not exactly the same, it reminds me of erasing Native American team names from sports teams. Why would tribes want modern society to be “cleansed” of these types of cultural reminders? Maybe there is a good reason, and I’m open to hearing it. But consistent with what the good Professor says, it at least seems counterintuitive.
There is no coherent structure or rationality in what the leftists say, even those speaking for the tribes. They have dreams that can never fully turn into a reality, despite those dreams inherently having some truth.
Is this stupid comment supposed to mean something?
It is just a bunch of words strung together with no obvious inherent meaning. If it is not simply some AI slop, then it is the product of a very low functioning mind, a mind typical of the low intellect of the MAGA mob that gathers here daily to lap up Turley’s slop.
“Is this stupid comment supposed to mean something?”
Too tough for you to understand?
Meyer – Ignore the troll. I understood your meaning.
Then you are just as low functioning as your MAGA friend, hardly surprising.
It is a particular MAGA ability to see meaning where there is none to any rational individual, and to ascribe meaning to aberrant, unintelligible nonsense.
If you could not understand what S. Meyer was saying, you have a reading comprehension problem and likely attended public education and a indoctrination camp disguised as “higher education.”
Are you a member of illiterate Anonymous?
I listen to you failing in your argument with Oldman. The contrast can blind one’s eyes.
OldManFromKS, S. Meyer,
Man is the annony, GSX, Gig, Esquire really having a mental meltdown today!
How marvelous!
And yet another low functioning, incoherent, minimally aware MAGA moron joins the chorus of sycophantic cultists.
Are there any more who wish to join this chorus of insanity ????
Annony, GSX, Gigi, Esquire is really having a mental meltdown today.
Is it the good professor’s article about the latest absurdity the cause?
Or, could it be their Nazi in Maine just got the boot? You know, the guy who was a known abuser of women, sexting while married, made insults against veterans, anti-semitic comments, and now the latest rape accuser. We all knew he was bad news from pretty much the start. Anyone with an IQ over 60 could see that.
“But! But! But! He is OUR NAZI!” they cried.
Look at all those Democrats who backed him and are now dropping him as they should.
Is there still a chance Democrats could win Maine and take back the Senate? Good question.
Another question, anyone think it is a bit odd for the Nazi to have the say in who replaces him? Kinda has that “Nice election you have there . . .” vibe. Like, he might be blackmailing the DNC or he does not step down by next Monday and stays on the ballot.
Platner, Swalwell implosions raise question: What’s going on with Democrats’ vetting?
“Platner has until July 13 to step aside for the state party to be able to choose an alternative candidate.”
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/wedplatner-swalwell-implosions-raise-question-what-going-democrats-vetting
We were right.
Annony, GSX, Gigi, Esquire was wrong.
Again.
Fake Farmer
Shouldn’t you be out in the fields somewhere tending to your supposed “farm”, instead of spending all your time here everyday composing ridiculous comments such as the above.
Or perhaps your “farm” only exists in your fevered imagination along with all the other MAGA inspired fantasies that fill your otherwise completely empty head.
How marvelous indeed !!!!!!
^^^Anonymesses @ 1:01, 1:47, and 3:31.
Thank you for amusing us. Unfortunately, we cannot tell whether your motive and intent is to mess up Turley’s blog with wasted space and juvenile silliness, trigger something negative from us, or simply vent after receiving some past criticisms and embarrassments sent your way, -but it won’t work. You are clearly making us smile.
Lin,
Well said!
Watching the annony fail time and time again does bring a smile to one’s face!
🙂
They are bored with picking their noses, so they found something else to do.
Oh! Poor! Poor, annony! It must really hurt that we were right and you were wrong . . . again!
How many times is that?
Russian collusion.
Alpha bank.
Pee tape.
Dang near everything COVID.
Biden, “Sharp as a tack!” “Laser focused!” “Run circles around his younger staff!”
“As I watched it, I thought: ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke,’” she said. “And it scared me to death.” Jill Biden.
That is just off the top of my head.
Dont you ever get tired of losing all the time?
Yes. How marvelous indeed! 🙂
Upstate, be careful. It sounds like some of the pigs on the blog want to wallow with yours.
USF
I think they’re going to have to start cutting out the number of STD’s as being a qualifier for their candidates. Same goes for sexual harassment payouts, bad Democrats bad not good!
Eightball,
Dems Wishing There Had Been Some Sort Of Sign That Platner Was A Bad Person
https://babylonbee.com/news/dems-wishing-there-had-been-some-sort-of-sign-that-platner-was-a-bad-person/?utm_source=nypost
😵💫These are the people that want to lead the country?!
I wonder, if Platner won, would he spitefully vote against the Democrats?
Like I said, it woke up on the wrong side of its nozzle…
Much of what the left argues lacks a consistent, logical foundation, even among those who claim to represent various groups.
Their vision is rooted in ideals that contain elements of truth, yet they pursue outcomes that cannot be fully realized in practice.
FWIW: I am keeping my arrowhead!
This is yet another absurd push piece by Turley that serves no useful purpose other than to rile up the MAGA mob. And like Pavlov’s dogs responding to the bell, you all come running to vent your absurd opinions.
As Turley points out himself, there is in fact a federal law, NAGPRA, that requires the return of Native American artifacts, but that law is not particularly specific as to what artifacts are covered. The way the law is written is that the Native American tribes actually define which artifacts are of importance to them. The law also creates a framework for the tribes to formally petition for the return of any artifacts they deem to have cultural significance. Such a petition was in fact presented to UC Berkeley, specifically for return of the seeds and artifacts in question. In response, UC formed a committee to consider the claim, and eventually decided that they were compelled to follow NAGPRA as written.
UC Berkeley is simply following the law, but Turley and the MAGA morons here seem to think that it is outrageous that they choose to follow the law. This is typical of the lawless thinking of the MAGA cult in general and the Trump administration in particular, whereby adherence to the law is considered optional if it somehow does not align with the dogma of the MAGA cult.
The ONLY dog here is you ano.
Cry-baby.
Elizabeth Warren should be asked for her unique input as both a Senator and a Native American
Pocahontas?
Poke-a-huntress (lesbian, you know)
Nowhere, in the original statute, the law says that a sacred object is what an indian calls sacred. There is a definition of Sacred, and also a definition of “Indian”, and that HAS to be proven somewhat better than a random dude showing up claiming ownership for his own family.
More like cultural patronizing than patronage, it seems to me
Excuse me while I laugh.
It appears that the woke/prog extremists are grasping for relevancy with this. Shall we do the same for every invention that the world uses at this point. How about we force the return of all discovered ancient chariot wheel that now lays in museums to the Scythian empire? Wait, there is no extant Scythian empire these days, just as there is no Anasazi Nation these days. These academics and woke warriors are scraping the last bits of data to which they can cling to justify their relevance. I think we are tired of this nonsense and we should start clearing our world of academia of these addled old hippie warriors and their ill-indoctrinated progeny. If we stop this fish that is rotting from its head, we will eventually fumigate the entire culture of this nonsense.
It Figures. These Euro Anglo’s come and squat on Our Land (the N. American Continent) and come up with a phony Lease (The Dec. of Independence) and assume a claim on Us (Indigenous Natives – Owners). Then they manufacture a Blanket-Title (the Constitution) over it all and take everything and kill Us off (Guns Germs Steel and Economics), and now they send us some old corn cobs to make themselves feel better. I could tell you where you can put those Corn Cobs.
Pueblo of Isleta
White Eyes Shut is Estovir with another false flag post presumably by some wacky liberal. We’ve been seeing a lot of these lately.
^ The deranged moron who thinks everyone is Estovir ^
Are European Anglos like the White Hispanic call out in the Trayvon St Skittles case? I recall the most bloodthirsty people in history in that era were the Spaniards and their Catholic Church.
So says “Dances With Sore Losers!”
Oh, Good Lord! Sounds like someone is building a resume to run for office in CA.
Homeowner: I want to hire a worker to repair and paint my house, but that labor is worth no more than $12/hour.
Worker: Right now I’m receiving unemployment compensation from the government, but I want to get off of it and work as a painter and home repairman. However, I would need at least $12/hour to make that worthwhile for me.
Homeowner & Worker: Great, we have a deal at $12/hour. That amount benefits us both sufficiently for us to form a contract and get the worker off government welfare.
Senator Murphy: Hold up, wait a minute, no can do. I personally believe $12/hour is too low. Therefore, even though that hourly wage is acceptable to both parties of the contract, I decree that you two are not allowed to make that agreement.
Result: the work will not get done, neither party will benefit, and the worker will continue to draw public benefits funded by taxpayers.
OMFK, your example isn’t an academic exercise, it’s a true example of leftists hurting those they claim to help.
Rent control, open borders, defund the police, fight ICE from gathering up rapists etc etc. all harm the poor people.
Yes, and people who say low wages are not enough to live on, overlook that the employee is willing to accept it as better than his alternative, and moreover, most people working a low-wage job don’t live solely on the income from that job. Every little bit helps, which is why they’re willing to work for such wages. Both parties to that private contract would prefer that option not be taken away by a paternalistic, but economically illiterate, politician.
Minimum wage: Who does it help? Schools replacing apprentices: Who does it help?
it helps the left virtue-signal and that’s it. The hurt isn’t their problem according to them.
Virtue signalling only works on dumb people, so they have gone in whole hog as they have a lot of dummies to sway.
OMFK
What does that have to do with the price of corn, peas, and some shiny beads?🫣
Mr. Market sets the prices.
Senator Murphy and Congress have no legal basis in the Constitution to set prices, wages, rent or anything else related to private property, private property enterprises, and private self-regulating industries. Prices, wages, rent, etc. are functions of Mr. Market.
Wrong platform
This here’s about corn, corn cobs, peas, seeds and some fruitcakes in Bezerkley. You all are on the next forumication…
and Murphy, dragging his massive ego, goes back to his unearned home and feels satisfied with himself believing he is always right about everything.