Papa John's Reduced Hours are Liberalism's Fault

The CEO of Papa John's pizza, John Schlatter, says that he will instruct his franchisees to limit employee hours. The parent company of the Olive Garden restaurant chain has toyed with the same idea; no doubt that many other small businesses have as well. Why? Because the law will require that any employee who works over 30 hours per week have their health care paid for by his boss.

Before all you bleeding hearts decry this idea, ask yourself one simple question: what did you expect? Businesses always pass the cost of business on, either to their customers or through their workers in firings, layoffs, or reduced hours. They can't stay in business if they can't control their costs. Usually, the quickest and easiest ways to control costs are either to raise prices or reduce overhead. This is economics 101. It is so basic of an idea that you would have to be a blockhead to fail to comprehend it.

Unfortunately it is people with that mentality who gave us Obamacare and re-elected the President who gave it to us. Just make the government do it and all will be well.

We had hoped that that lame and thoughtless mentality had gone the way of the dodo. It really is no different and no less irrational than the idea that the way to make everyone rich is to print more money. Mandating something will not make it so. You cannot force businesses, who are, after all, moral persons themselves, do any particular thing. You can only cause them to react to circumstance. If a given circumstance means the need to cut costs, they'll cut them. That may well hurt individuals, but well, there comes a time when the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. If such and such a circumstance means layoffs or firings or the entire company will fold, then there must be layoffs and firings even though it obviously will be a crunch on the laid off or fired.

Or the ones whose hours are cut. To be sure, the higher ups who are (to a degree, anyway) immune to those government forces who order ill-advised mandates will keep their health care, but so? Rank has its privileges. It always has and, generally, should. But the bottom line is that people and businesses look out for themselves first. Even the poor and downtrodden do this: why else would they make even errant calls for bad ideas such as Obamacare otherwise? They want what they perceive as theirs inherently.

Ya gets what yas pay for. You pay for a President who blithely commands action, you get folks who blithely react. Don't be so shocked that you didn't expect it. Your lack of forethought isn't on us. Your lack of true concern for all people isn't on us either. It's on you, Democratic voter. You alone.