by Haruo » Thu Aug 15, 2013 1:18 am
So now our consensus is down to 67%, and the people who think "the poor are always with you" is an injunction to make sure wages aren't raised too high are whittling away at my retirement. Let me see if I understand: Everybody who is currently making less than $13.50 an hour will be given a raise to $13.50/hr, and everyone earning $13.50/hr or more will keep their current pay rate at least for the moment? Or will those currently making more than the current minimum get $13.50 plus the difference between their current rate and the minimum? Or will the difference between rates be compressed but not eliminated for those currently below $13.50? And will there be some sort of upward adjustment to welfare and social security payments to keep those folks from becoming the really poor? And will all those extra wages come out of profits and executive salaries, or from where? Or will a bunch of people have to lose their jobs so some others can achieve a "living wage"? I make slightly over $10/hr now myself, but the minimum wage here in Washington is over $9, so I'm much closer to the bottom of the heap than if I were in Mississippi, except that in Mississippi my job wouldn't exist and the closest thing to it would pay the MS minimum, not $10/hr...
I guess I mean the whole issue is quite complicated, and while I am in favor of raising the minimum wage, I think a lot of other aspects of the issue need to be addressed simultaneously.
Haruo = Leland Bryant Ross
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