To the Editor:

In response to the story “North Country Assemblywoman Russell Wants To See Minimum Wage Increased For All Jobs,” which can be views here; I agree it's dumb to raise wages forcefully for only one industry, and only those with 30 locations or more.

I also agree that wages should be tied to inflation; all wages, starting last year.

But I see no need nor success to arbitrarily raise wages as she wants to do. That's dumb too, because arbitrarily forcing wages to rise is of course, well, arbitrary. Where does she think the money to sustain those wages will come from? Us, that's who. Increases to these wages will vaporize before even the first check can be printed.

You also have to realize the fact that taxes will rise too with higher wages, for the workers and the employers.

I don't feel that she works for us, but for her position and the power she can gain, for this and a lot of other reasons.

More and more jobs will just be pushed overseas, even to Canada, since employers will close in the face of it, adding even more power to the big box conglomerates.

Tom Rivet`

Heuvelton