...As quoted in one of the following articles/discussion pieces I found on wages whilst doing some net surfing. According to what I read, the federal minimum wage should be closer to $9.50/hour. Sounds about right. If government had done it's job (worked for the people), they would have been working to ensure the minimum wage continued to keep pace with inflation. 1968 was the last time the minimum wage was just above the poverty level. History shows us raising the minimum wage doesn't hurt business. In fact, job creation typically increases upon such increases. I did note something of interest on a PDF chart: during the (disasterous) years of Bush Sr. and Reagan, the minimum wage remained stagnate. No surprise there, eh?
Uncle Sam continually gives itself pay raises. Uncle Sam gladly receives the best health care plan in town. All at our expense.
And there are still private citizens who vocally resist the concepts of government-funded health care for all and raising the minimum wage so that it once again becomes a true living wage and yet don't say a damn thing about the privileges Uncle Sam bestows upon itself, at our expense?
Unbelieve. They gotta be in bed with Uncle Sam as well. Or else utterly asleep at the wheel. Zzzzz...
Happy reading.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20041220/dreier
http://www.manilasites.com/citizenjoe/business-economy/minimumwage
http://www.racewire.org/archives/2007/07/minimum_wage_goes_up_today_jul.html
http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/dpc-new.cfm?doc_name=fs-108-2-122
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I just read the Nation article. very good stuff. it gives me hope.
One thing I thought of while reading it is that indeed, those of us around the poverty level spend every penny, unfortunately much of that goes to Walmart (and other giant corporations), which as we all know, takes most of it for profits, gives some to their own minimum wage slaves, and gives a little to the Chinese manufacturers who take their profit and the crumbs go to their (real) wage slaves. Its a tough thing to ask, but if we can spend those precious pennies locally, we keep that money within our local economies and that makes things better for low-income folk in the long run. People in China should localize their economies also. Localization is the antidote to feeding multi-national corporations coffers. We need to be more vigilant about where our dollars and cents are going.
I thought the author could have addressed the class warfare issue better at the end there. its not what's needed, its been going on since the beginning of history, the rich have been the ones waging it on everyone else, especially the poor. as i said, perhaps coincidentally (or not) in my latest posting, we're not waging a war, we're fighting for survival.
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