Quote:
Originally Posted by Pairadocs
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.
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No one should HAVE to live like that. That's the whole point of minimum wage. That's why it was implemented in the first place, and that's what people are fighting for now. The right for their kids to NOT have to endure what this person endured in his life when he (or she?) was a kid. No child should have to live in poverty, because no parent should have to decide between feeding their kids or paying rent, while working 2 20-hour jobs with no benefits, because they were unfortunate enough to be born the wrong color, with parents who spoke with the wrong accent, or the white upstanding working-class Christian parents who lived in the wrong neighborhood, and therefore couldn't get their kids to the right elementary schools.
If you are "less than" as a result of your upbringing, it's very difficult to rise above when society keeps trying to keep you down. The wealthy don't WANT poor people to get wealthy, because then they'd be competing for the wealth. That is why minimum wage is no longer a living wage. The Flemingtons of the Houston Flemingtons, don't want to have to pay their live-in nanny a living wage, because it would mean their nanny might dare to ask for an extra day off - since they can actually afford it now.