Responding to a question in the October 7 Sun-Gazette, State Rep. Jeff Wheeland (R-83) reportedly said, “I do not support minimum wage. I think the market should dictate what people are paid. Government should not interfere.”

As one of Mr. Wheeland’s constituents, his answer makes me wonder where he stands on, say, child labor laws, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, or the eight-hour workday since, as he stated, “the market should dictate” and “Government should not interfere.”

If the market did dictate, we could perhaps get rid of those annoying mandatory school attendance laws and put children back to work for twelve hours a day, seven days a week, in coal mines without any safety precautions and pay them a buck an hour. (Some Republicans, remember, “dig coal.”)

A vote for Mr. Wheeland, it seems to me, is a vote to turn back the clock to the dark days of Herbert Hoover — a time before the minimum wage, OSHA, the eight-hour day, child labor laws, and Social Security.

It’s a turn I certainly don’t want to take.

Lawrence F. Bassett

Williamsport

Submitted by Virtual Newsroom