“To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.” This is often attributed to Teddy Roosevelt. A little searching shows there is no record of Roosevelt ever saying it and it isn’t found in searches before about 2007. Nevertheless, if it’s not true, it should be: Teddy Roosevelt spoke plainly and truthfully, most say, and apparently most of us wish there were more of that today.

One truth is, I believe, that we all despise having to make a decision with incomplete knowledge of the facts and uncertainty of what is true. But Mainers are faced with five ballot initiatives this fall. Those seeking to make a wise decision will find lots of loud voices advocating a “yes” or “no” but precious few giving thoughtful analysis and citing undisputed facts. I would hope, also, most of us would want our decisions to do more good than harm.

One reason we are not a democracy is that our founders knew such decisions should not be made emotionally and they should not be made with incomplete and false information. Our legislators spend days in committee consulting with experts, reading thoughtful analysis, and hearing the testimony of the public on every bill they send to the full body. They consult with each other, surely to persuade, but also to review the body of information so that the committee is voting based on the same facts. (At least we hope that’s the process in the work sessions.)

One of the five questions this fall is whether Maine should mandate a dramatic increase in its minimum wage. To be clear, I’ve already decided to vote ‘no’ on that question and the other four as well. The purpose is not to urge others to do the same, but I acknowledge the bias, and that it will annoy those invested in advocating “yes.”

I would first point out the real “minimum wage” is zero and far too many Mainers are receiving that. Throughout my lifetime, Maine’s economy has steadily shifted from manufacturing to services and unemployment. My grandparents worked in the mills of Jay, Strong, and Ellsworth, until they closed. In the 1960s, I recall seeing abandoned factories in Bangor and Brewer and knowing that those people would be unlikely to find another job locally that paid nearly as well. Our family was profoundly affected by the changes in America’s marketplace when plastics replaced wood, idling the lathes in my Dad’s factory that produced yo-yos, clothes pins, tool handles and parts for toys in what, ironically, had once been the Ellsworth shoe factory. At that time, the minimum wage was $1 an hour. I don’t know what Dad paid his employees, but I do know he paid himself $100 a week. I know that from seeing the stack of his uncashed paychecks in the office safe.

In 1960, when the minimum wage was $1.15, (the equivalent of $7 per hour today according to the U.S. Department of Labor) the only job I could find in Bangor was as a theater usher for 50-cents per hour. The following summer, I was delighted to get a minimum wage job sweeping floors in a Brewer mill. I received one night of “training,” which consisted of showing me which machines needed to be cleaned and where to dump the sawdust and waste wood in the boiler room. It never crossed my mind that it was my employer’s responsibility to consider why I was working that job, how I would spend the money, or what I “deserved” because I was saving for college. Neither did the University of Maine consider my “needs” in setting the prices for tuition, room and board, and (most egregiously) mandated textbooks. The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard never took into account my car payment when setting the student trainee wage at GS-2, Step 1.

I’d ask anyone still considering this ballot question to do the work of looking up the real statistics of who works for minimum wage, consider whether it’s the employer’s responsibility or the state’s business to adjust wages based on the employee’s “needs,” and consider whether there is any evidence that the solutions to unemployment and poverty in Maine are as simple as legislating an increase in minimum wage or whether the augments being made make any common sense. Has, in your experience, such legislation made things better or worse for you, your neighbors, or your community?

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Another View, a Maine Press Association award-winning column, is written on a rotating basis by a member of a group of Midcoast citizens that meet to discuss issues they think are of public interest.