Raising the minimum wage is the only tax on the rich that would go directly into the pockets of working Americans. Not bank bailouts, not stimulus projects and not welfare leeches -- working Americans.
If the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation since the 1960s, it would be near $10.50 an hour now. But it
hasn't, and working people who have jobs are hit the hardest.
Raising the minimum wage makes economic sense because no small business can survive if its customer base can't afford what it's selling.
This is why it's insulting when people yell "get a job" at local demonstrators. First, people already have jobs. Second, most of the other job openings pay comparably low wages. Third, today's jobs pay even less than jobs in the 1960s. Fourth, many low-wage workers are forced to watch videos stating how proud they should feel to work for such a successful company. And fifth, many of the people who yell "get a job" are the same people profiting as a direct result of low-wage labor.
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Now, look at food stamps. In what world should people working full time still require public assistance? Essentially, the government is forcing taxpayers to subsidize the fortunes of corporate executives who refuse to pay their workers a livable wage.
Raising the minimum wage would allow people to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" while lowering taxes for public-assistance programs.
If you do not support raising the minimum wage, then it follows that you support lowering it. And by supporting the reduction of wages you also support the impoverishment of your fellow Americans and the end of the American Dream -- where every American has the opportunity to achieve upward mobility through their own hard work.
Codie Leseman
Duluth
