Quote:
Originally Posted by Bikeracer2009
In the 50's a carpenter could have a house, a wife that didn't work and put his kids through college before he retired. Wages started to stagnate as cola went up. By the 70's double income households became the norm as more women entered the workforce to maintain their lifestyle. The 80's brought on credit debt to keep things going. The wage divide has increased in non-union companies between the top earners and the bottom dwellers. The minimum wage increases are at least a decade apart but cola keeps chugging along so each year you technically make less money if you're paid a minimum wage.
My mother worked for minimum wages her whole life, raised two kids without a father and died without a funeral. Life was a struggle and homelessness was a yearly experience. Going days without eating, no heat in the winter or a/c in the summer.
I think the minimum wage should be a living wage. Take the average 1 bedroom apartment, the cost to live in it and the bare minimum it takes to survive in that state, divide that into an hourly pay and set that as the minimum wage for that state.
The last job I had the CEO made 8 million a year and got a 12 million dollar bonus. The workers paid more for their Healthcare. Seems fair.
|
Apart from the "arguments" concerning effects, pro and con, of minimum wage, I would like to salute you. I, like you and many here who have commented, have had some rough times, but to go days without eating (and probably those were the days when you were not fed anything at public schools either), and to live in a cold climate with no heat at all, is a testimony to you and your determination (which you must have had in spades to be able to retire and enjoy the life we have here), and hard work. It made me remember what my mother told me, no matter how difficult we had it (mother also widowed and with no particular skills plus did not even drive !), that there is always someone who has it tougher. Good for you, if only these days people had what you had inside to overcome such a horrific life, and not just to survive, but to truly overcome as you have, such people today who take personal responsibility and don't look to the government to improve their lot in life, are rare, and you and others in "our generation", perhaps a buzz word today but so true, are among the hearty, and determined, folks who really made this country what it is. Imagine being not only without food for days as you were, and without heat or shelter, and then taking off in a wagon to the complete unknown in search of a better life. Hope you and I are not a "dying breed", but I fear younger folks today could not make it.