Comments on: U.S. Chamber’s “Ten Most Ridiculous Lawsuits”

By: Jason Barney

Jason Barney — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 21:24:45 +0000

Fine then–instead of community service, sentence the thugs to confinement and then charge them the daily hotel rate for the taxpayer-provided lodging.

By: Jim Collins

Jim Collins — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 19:49:50 +0000

I know that Hugo. I also know that in my area you have to pay a fee when you are assigned community service, that covers the administration costs. I was just wondering if this lawsuit was ever to become successful, would the SEIU try to organize them.

By: Hugo S. Cunningham

Hugo S. Cunningham — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 17:46:03 +0000

@Jim–

The community service is supposed to be a penalty. If you are concerned that penal community service workers will undermine wage scales for free workers, one could provide that the penal minimum wage be forfeited to a restitution fund or similar purposes.

I gather that many community service jobs are ones that in theory could be done by paid workers, but do not in fact rank high enough on a priority list.

By: Jim Collins

Jim Collins — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 16:17:30 +0000

I can almost see where the “minimum wage for community service” makes sense. My question is who did the work that people get assigned to for community service before there was community service? Were these paid positions that were eliminated by community service?