So, we knew surprisingly little about the Jose Alba case in greater context, even with the video evidence of Austin Simon clearly getting what he deserved. One thing that wasn't clear for months was whether Alba owned the bodega or was simply an employee.
Either way, my upcoming point will be made; but, it ultimately turns out that Alba is simply an employee.
The owner of the bodega is now being sued because his employee clearly and obviously acted in self-defense on his property. The owner also took out loans, as most small business owners do, to open the business and hire Alba along with presumably other employees. One can speculate that the owner's weekly take-home has been higher than Alba's or any of his employees; but, one can easily, very plausibly speculate that the owner has a smaller net worth than any of his employees. Namely, the employees could be making the $14.20 an hour minimum wage in New York while the owner is making more; but, the owner may be a quarter million dollars or more in debt by investing in that business in the first place.
This lawsuit, even if the owner wins, is probably going to bankrupt him due to legal fees. The employees, other than Alba, are not faced with that possibility.
This one story should give the fight for fifteen people some pause if they have an ounce of intellectual honesty -- which they usually don't.
Can we all finally come to the realization that "corporation" or "business owner" doesn't mean, "Swimming in money like Scrooge McDuck..."? If we can finally do that, we can finally start to have a conversation in which both sides are honest, rather than just my side.
Can Amazon pay $25 an hour and still be profitable? Well, I'm picking that number because that was the latest number that was thrown out that resulted in a bunch of butt hurt leftists slamming me for saying that it's too high. Well, to an extent, yes. I'm sure they could figure it out. Can your local bodega figure it out? Can the Koch Brothers settle a dozen frivolous lawsuits a year and be fine? Yeah, they have and they do. Can your local bodega owner do that?
The "raise the minimum wage" crowd seems to like to think that the minimum wage should be raised in accordance with inflation. Well, inflation benefits the rich at the expense of the poor and the minimum wage benefits large corporations by pricing small competitors out of the market.
So, all of you people who pretend to be fighting the big corporations in support of the little guy are actually, out of your own hypocrisy, ignorance, and/or hubris, slavishly pushing for policies that help the rich, hurt the poor, and exacerbate inequality.