Liberal advocate for raising minimum wage getting lesson on being an employer, as labor market causes his petition measure to fall flat.

Well the irony is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

Cory Heidelberger, Democrat Socialist who has advocated for an artificially inflated higher wage found out the hard way that the labor pool isn’t subject to his whim – it’s actually based on supply and demand as Cory’s latest petition effort fell flat on it’s face because of “a labor shortage.”

I have ended the People Power Petition Drive. Weekend before last, I surveyed my circulators to find out how many initiative petition signatures they had in hand. I had just over 6,000 in my file box; the tally from circulators who responded was not quite another thousand.

and…

Circulating was also hampered by the tight labor market. Our petition strategy depended on being able to complement volunteer circulators with a few paid circulators who could be required to produce a predictable quota of signatures. I encountered the same workforce shortage that other South Dakota employers have noted for years: pretty much everyone with employable skills seems to be employed. $15 an hour was not enough to draw out the small corps of reliable, paid, full-time circulators I was looking for, and I didn’t have the budget to raise wages.

Even if paid circulators had been available, managing them requires another level of staff at multiple sites—at least in Sioux Falls and Rapid City—to hold paid circulators accountable daily, count signatures, check residency, and issue payment. Such accountability staff requires much higher salaries, offices, and other overhead.

Read that here.

Sounds like Cory found that as an employer, wages drive a huge part of the equation, and that market forces are the primary driver behind what people are paid, no matter what anyone attempts to legislate.

It probably didn’t help he had a product that was a difficult sell, at best, especially when it was designed to restrict information and rights from South Dakota voters.

A good plug for workforce development as has regularly been promoted by Republican administrations, eh?

43 thoughts on “Liberal advocate for raising minimum wage getting lesson on being an employer, as labor market causes his petition measure to fall flat.”

  1. Workforce development? You mean training workers for companies that can’t employ them for more than a year because of their slave wages and horrible company culture. Remember when Republicans did that for welders and they had all left the state in a year? Might not want to tout such a socialist program of using taxpayer dollars to subsidize company work forces. They can train and pay their employees a livable wage and the govt wouldn’t have to do their job for them.

    1. We teach our kids in schools so they will be able to have communication and learning skills to be employable when they get on their own. It is for their own benefit. Training them in a skill they want is an extension of that education. LATI in Watertown, and probably the other tech schools in SD, Have a placement rate of 95%, many are hired before they graduate at $35,000 to $50,000. It is for their benefit that we train them. And, for society’s benefit because they become productive members, not a drag on the taxpayers for their entire lives.

      1. I forgot to mention that the tech students do pay tuition for their education so it is not as if the taxpayer is totally footing the bill.

        1. Yes they pay tuition and many are in debt before they are hired. Before we headed down the road to serfdom, companies hired and paid employees while being trained. Sad that the media and Establishment politicians promote the lie that this is somehow good for citizens.

          1. er, Steve: vocational employment broke the union stranglehold on job training via apprenticeship, remember? You had to have a union card before the company could hire you?
            The serfdom was to the union bosses and their Democrat enablers.

            Not that the current system it greatly better, but, let’s not revise history too much, OK?

          2. Just looking at the MIT cost projection, tuition and books run for a program can run anywhere from $6000 to less than $30000. There is room and board to consider as well. Most students are able to find some kind of work to help defray the costs. If a student is smart in high school, he can save money from a part time job that can go a long way towards paying some of the costs. There are also some programs in which companies are willing to pay for the schooling to get the employees they need. This is a world in which employees need to be trained. Coming into the company at least trained in the fundamentals helps everybody. Finding a job that starts at $30K is not a bad place to start. Figuring out how to pay for it before actually applying is also a good way to start. My daughter graduated from college in 3 1/2 years and was able to graduate with $0 owed because she took AP classes, was smart and earned scholarships, and saved her money from working in high school. This is not serfdom. It is using the tools available to make it so you do not have to keep paying for your tuition 10 years or more down the road.

          3. wow – I’m not tracking the “many are in debt before they are hired” comment. Steve, just pretend you were a capitalist for a moment. The students are buying something valuable – a skill, and they pay for it. In America, if you aren’t one of the wealthy that can pay cash for everything, and if you are of good character or meet certain criteria, you can access funds via borrowing. Debt is what normal people get when they borrow for something big they are getting – like a lifetime skill that creates the opportunity to economically raise them and their future family. Now, explain to me again in your non-capitalist world why that is wrong?

            1. A capitalist believes that a company is entitled to a trained employee? This only provides another example of how capitalism and socialism are cousins, and not on opposite ends of a spectrum.
              This is wrong versus the scenario that the employee achieves the same skills while on the job making money, instead of paying tuition by borrowing money. It is a lot easier to start a family while pulling a pay check. Debt makes you a slave to the lender. That truth is from the Bible, Lee.

              1. Mr. Sibby, the bible is a work of fiction. A collection of shortish stories made up by a variety of deluded, or if you think like grudznick does, imaginative writers.

      2. Wow. A whole 35k to 50k? Like I said, they stay a year to get experience and then jump the border for 60k, better benefits, and better chances at advancement. Education is important, but doing it for specific companies like Republicans have done in the past didn’t pan out.

          1. Not enought to eat up the increase. This is why I laugh at people who get worried about paying 2k a month in rent to work in a big city. Big deal. You can make twice as much and still put more away into savings. Work for 60k here and put 10k a year in retirement or work for 150k a year in California and put away 30k a year in retirement. Oh but the living expenses are more….pft. I know people who will retire at 45 and move back to SD to live like Kings while we slave away until 65 and still have less money.

            1. its a published number, you may want to look it up, but I know it is in excess of 80% and I think it might be 90% of technical institute graduates stay in South Dakota. The ” they stay a year to get experience and then jump the border” must be in reference to the borders between Hamlin and Codington Counties, and Lincoln and Minnehaha, and of course Hanson and Davison

        1. Some of the most intelligent, creative and innovative people I associate with have 8th grade educations.

  2. Why didn’t the potheads with all their out of state industry money help Heidelberger out and get his petition signed too?

    1. Cory’s pot smoking pals who make up 99% of his blog as usual chose their drug over anything else. Gettin and stayin high is is all that matters.

      1. 100% of the people who follow Cory’s blog also drink water. Coincidence? I think not ..

        Many republicans use cannabis. Some are also raging boozers and cigarette hounds .. I mean .. ardent alcohol users who enjoy an occasional puff of tobacco.

        Perspective is everything.

        Reeferring to Cory’s readership as potheads marginalizes many republican conservatives who also partake, but are forced to keep it a secret. I predict we will be shocked at the conservative support for cannabis legalization.

        1. Shocked? No because those few states that legalized later found out it was a very small but vocal population of potheads and those looking to profit off them that drove it. Most were hard lefties and libertarians. It was always grossly overstated as to the numbers that supported it.

          1. Were you shocked when Trump signed the Ag bill that legalized one form of Cannabis, industrial hemp?

            How and why could we make the raw material on which the Constitution was written illegal?

            What happened in our country that up became down and down became up (alcohol is righteous, cannabis is evil)?

            Regarding the profit motive, there is no denying that. The apparent MPP/Soros affiliated group that is pushing for legalization and medical is lining-up to create a state sponsored monopoly for a plant that grows easier than cucumbers.

            Disclosure: I am running a full legalization initiative as well, but I don’t have Soros money (they called me last Spring, but I was not interested). Here are the details: https://PlainsTribune.com/cc4l

          2. Who wants to bet this person is over the age of 50? The only repubs still completely against marijuana are from the reefer madness generation. I know hundreds of young Republicans who are all for legalization. Just watch as medicinal passes once it is on the ballot this year. Kristi is going to push people to the polls because of her dictator like position on the topic. She is going to get it passed because she is so obtuse. She is only helping the legalization effort by taking a big govt stance. Apparently we are too dumb to choose for ourselves, at least that is what Kristi and the Anne Beals of the world say.

            1. This seems like veritas. Bravo ..

              But the legislature will be under immense pressure to tool the bill(s).

              As I discussed on my Internet radio show at https://PlainsTribune.com, if the rec initiative passes, the legislature will have the opportunity to tool that into hemp. I am looking forward to this next session.

              1. I tend to not click on the blue links Mr. Dale. A demon weed toker & former blogger over at DFP that is banned nearly everywhere used to post those blue links all the time it was always porn. My computer virus alarms went off and went on the fritz. It was in the shop for a week.

                1. Porter Lansing said the same thing .. I assure you that my privacy certified website https://PlainsTribune.com does not have any viruses. In fact, there are zero third parties allowed to track visitors, making it less offensive to privacy and more secure than (sorry pat) DWC.

        2. I, Mr. Dale, represent the 1% of Mr. H’s readership that does not toke on the Demon Weed. Yet, I remain the most loved Conservative with Common Sense on those bloggings.

    2. I think it is difficult to describe what Cory was trying to do. When I described it to folks as I was taking signatures, it occurred to me that I have an advanced degree and the ability to articulate the value proposal. Not many circulators can do that, and it was needed since the topic was complex.

      1. If you have to spend a bunch of time describing what you are trying to get people to sign, the measure is probably too complicated. When you walk up for signatures, most people do not want to be accosted for more than 30 seconds.

  3. “designed to restrict information and rights from South Dakota voters” — I think what Cory was doing with the people power petitions (I was a circulator in good faith) was a good and noble goal. The state of SD, worried about issues with the credibility and validity of signatures, put in place draconian measures to hamper volunteer circulators.

    I am a big fan of initiatives that, if passed, can be tooled by the legislature. It allows the people to validate their will to elected officials while still maintaining the good bits of the republic representation; avoiding tyranny of the majority.

    For controversial-but-correct initiatives like Cannabis, it chilled participation from volunteers and attracted MPP/Soros money to fight back against the ham-handed approach the SD legislature took to undermine the initiative process.

    Is the real reason that Cory had issues, though, because his base prioritized Cannabis over access to the process? They’re taking the money and running with it, and will likely come back around the bend with the people power issues? Also contributing to the complexity perhaps is the fact that there is some incongruity in values and thought among the base of Democratic party voters in SD. Also, as has been reported here often, the coffers have been dried-up by several of President Trump’s executive actions that cut ties with some strange monetary vectors to activists.

    For what it’s worth, I love the rivalry and barbs between DFP and DWC. It adds flavor. I don’t really have a horse in the race and appreciate having both outlets for my thoughts and writing.

    Lastly, something on my bucket list is to have the same article (that I write) published on DFP and DWC. We’ll see .. that might be a very tough ask. 😀

  4. grudznick’s take is that the people who do read the bloggings of Mr. H are so put off by the out-of-state name-callers that comprise the vast majority of his visitors it did not help this measure he was trying to initiate. I am sure this bleeds into votes for office as well, as I have conducted polls on the matter.

    1. If Mr. H were to move to Minneapolis, St. Paul, Denver or the west coast his chances of winning would be much better and would blend into the circus show. His supporters would then be the in-state name callers & protesters surrounded by copious amount of demon weed smoke.

  5. Reading Cory Heidelberger’s post that starts out with “Worthington Police Pound Another Brown Man” shows another piece of evidence that argues that nobody in South Dakota is more racist, and promotes more hatred, than Cory Heidelberger.

    1. Steve Cory’s bog should be renamed the “Do as I say not as I do Blog” by Cory Allan Heidelberger.

  6. This was posted by “Realist” on his blog today.

    “Cory – I like the theory you are proposing – i.e. not directly infringing on rights. But under your hypothetical, people who are learning firearm safety (at a range or hunter safety course) would be charged with murder if someone was killed while at that course. There are instances of people trying to actually learn firearm safety harm others or themselves. If this avenue is pursued, it may dissuade from actually learning firearm safety in the first place.”

    The Dems want you to fear learning firearm safety.

    They really are insane and ignorant.

  7. Thrasher,

    True or False:

    We are talking about ~30 troops.

    Democrats are so predictable and unintelligent.

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