Isn't It Just Raising The Bar On Poverty?

Well the end of this month the Provincial Government (Ontario), who brought us harmonized tax all in the name of business, which by the way I am a fan of, and feel it will absolutely be a benefit to businesses across the spectrum, now however raises the minimum wage to $10.25 at the end of March, 2010. The Government giveth, the Government taketh away. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise, however all levels of government are under incredible pressure to eliminate poverty and/or do what they can to reduce it. I'm a HUGE fan of reducing or even the loftiest of goals, eliminate poverty. Everyone from me to Donald Trump want more financially independent consumers in the market place, can you just imagine the surge in the global market with poverty eradication? I would probably say, capitalists are just as in favour of poverty reduction/elimination as socialists are, maybe more so, the difference is in how it happens. Socialists believe that poverty reduction or elimination can only happen on the backs of business, wow, they are correct, in fact, they've hit the nail right on the head. Business is the only societal function that produces money, every other function in society spends the wealth business produces. So, poverty fighters, does it make sense to reduce the opportunity for business to generate wealth, the only mechanism in society that actually can generate it? Or would it make more sense, to tear down the barriers, and create opportunities for business to generate more, create more jobs and put a greater percentage of the population to work than ever before. Clearly, anyone can see, raising the minimum wage means very little to most employers. They already pay more than minimum wage anyway. So who is this going to help? No one is the answer, who is it going to hurt? Every retail business employee, is the answer. The business will do what it needs to in order to remain profitable, prices go up, if the economy can stand it, if not, employees get let go. Government should indeed, eliminate income tax on any earnings below the poverty line. It seems almost damming that government feels it has the right to take earnings from someone who is defined by the governments own benchmarks as being the working poor. The magic of politics, which cup is the ball under? I suspect all of them or none of them, whatever works to make the show go on. Good thing those politicians don't run our businesses, there would be nothing left to help anything. Great move, real heads up thinking by someone. I suspect it came from those who believe that business is bad. Bad as it is, without business we have nothing, not even the shirt on our back.