Raising the minimum wage, but not enough, is just more Kabuki theatre by a Congress that is finally starting to realize they are in trouble with a 9% approval rating.

Lobo Gris

If the minimum wage got the same cost-of-living adjustments that Congressional salaries automatically do, it'd be over $15.00 an hour by now.

The whole idea of this policy stance is to marginalize and control as many people as possible. If people suddenly had access to more financial resources they will in turn have access to more informational resources. The reason people are so easily controlled is due to their lack of mobility. Informational mobility, Environmental mobility, Career mobility, ETC.

People who are poor tend to be under educated or not educated. They don't have access to good schools filled with diversity in people and in information. This puts poor people at a disadvantage when it comes to making key decisions in their lives. Limiting them to their crowded neighborhoods with like minded thinking people insures you can control that population by denying them their most basic needs, keeping them dependent on the brittle social and economical structures of that particular environment.

These marginalized individuals become so preoccupied with the every day hustle and bustle of making ends meet, they essentially become malleable. They become clay for the molding of political figures, corporate entities, and Government officials. They have no voice and they don't have a leg to stand on or a stick to fight with. These neighborhoods are then flooded with dependents such as alcohol and drugs (legal and illegal). Then they are flooded with illegal weapons to "protect" what little possessions they have left. So a T.V or a new pair of shoes becomes the last piece of wealth you have or the only piece of wealth you want.

By doing this you have essentially eliminated millions of watchful eyes to the wrong doings of an entire nation or on an even larger scale the entire world. This would explain why the news of their own country torturing people doesn't get immediate out rage from more people. With crafty terms such as "Enhanced Interrogation", it is easily devised by poorer a person that getting all "Jack Bower" on some Terrorist isn't such a bad thing.

People aren't as outraged about the FISA issue because they don't know that it's a violation of the 4th Amendment. There are not as many people screaming for impeachment because they actually think the president can do what he pleases. People actually believe what they read in history books because they don't ever get access to the truth of the events that actually occurred. This is why even though they are poor and taken advantage of; they still think the USA is the greatest country in the world.

This country has a callous disregard for its people. And we have proven time and time again we don't give a crap about our soldiers when they come home, we don't give a crap about fetuses ones they are born, we don't give a crap about our works as long as they work for us. We don't give a crap about our planet. We don't give a crap about our own health care.

We are easily side tracked, easily duped, and easily bought off with something shiny. The reason minimum wage hasn't risen is because we have not done out part to keep our elites in line. We vote on silly topics such as gay marriage and then this is what you get for your ignorance. Countries like France are enjoying shorter work weeks, universal health care, longer vacations, healthy food, longer maternity leave, etc. And mention this to the average American and what is their response?

"Well, we bail them out of every War!" Name a war that they have won".

Why? Because America is only good at destruction! We destroy our bodies with horrible foods, our minds with horrible legal drugs, our hearts and souls with wars, and our environment with atrocity and ignorant policies.

And we are still debating on voting for Obama or McCain. This is why nothing will ever change.

Thank you

Future.me

In 1981, minimum wage was $3.35 an hour, and when I began my freshmen year that September at a mid-sized, mid-priced state university, I initially paid $36.50 per credit hour or just under $1,100 for my first year's tuition. (No fees or other expenses).

Setting aside taxes, I could earn that gross figure, working 25 hours per week for minimum wage, in just over 13 weeks during the summer, and that's reasonably close to what I did do.

When my eldest child goes to college in September 2009, she'd pay at least $7,200 at that same public university for her first year's tuition. (Again, no fees or other expenses).

In order earn that kind of tuition money in just over 13 weeks, her wages would have to be just over $22 an hour.

Setting aside taxes, by working 25 hours per week at the new minimum wage for just over 13 weeks, she'd earn no more than $2,130 in a similar summer job. Which wouldn't even pay for one semester.

In order to make her full year's tuition, working 25 hours per week at $6.55, she'll need to be on the job for 44 weeks. Meaning she'll need to be employed continally while going to school full time. Or take out sizeable student loans.

Does anyone think this is good for the country?

If we want more people to become more educated to become more productive and earn more money in order to buy more goods and services (to keep the private sector afloat) and to pay more in taxes (to keep the government functioning) we aren't simply shooting ourselves in the foot, we're putting bullets into our own heads.

Nancy Pelosi sent us constituents a letter, "prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense", that showcased the raise in the minimum wage. Pelosi has said this and similar "accomplishments" are the reasons why impeachment (that her constituents voted she should pursue) is "off the table."

As Holly Sklar points out, this minimum wage increase is pathetically short of what's adequate to run stable households. She might also have mentioned that the wage was higher in real terms in every year between 1956 and 1982. The Democrats don't even have the guts to restore the minimum wage to what it was under Kennedy and Johnson.

Of course, if they did, they'd get some real opposition from our criminal-in-chief president. As it was, the increase was so small that even Bush had no trouble with it. Apparently, today we have a bipartisan consensus on how many crumbs they will let dribble down to us common folk.

Pelosi is boasting about her accomplishments? And I thought she had no balls.

If I had her money I'd buy myself some dentures that fit.

If I were one of those over paid parasites who insulted the poor like that I'd be ashamed for my family to find out about it.

Fast food consumers aren't thinking about slavery when they order a kentucky bucket or a meatpie, but without thinking, and just consuming, they are condoning exploitation.
Include Starbucks, who pay slightly more then minimu wage. Sure, Jane can go to college or live at home with his parents and pour espresso, but no one can work as a barista at Starbucks and afford anything, don't believe the lies, or the ingenious marketing to squelch any accusation of just offering more lame "McJobs"
Corporate profit has always hid the dirty details of it's backroom slaughters and worker abuses in order to deliver colorful product. White collars, far away from the horrors of minimum wage, can suddenly find themselves on the street faster then Jurigis from Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle". In China, where workers can be treated even more barbarically, and the concept of "rights" is extinct, McDump was guilty of paying less then China's required slave wage. (which is less than US $1)
No one is talking about the abysmal state of affairs for most American workers these days. It's completely off the radar, but as long as corporations are profiting, workers are frequently slaves. Revenge!

Scholar July 24th, 2008 4:32 pm

My question is do you have any explanation of the explosion of cost for college? I can't find a rational explanation for it myself.

"Pelosi is boasting about her accomplishments?"

Shouldnn't take more than a microsecond.

Future.me,
thank you for putting together so eloquently the disjointed thoughts that bounce around almost constantly in my head these days.

Aren't educated don't know...Fisa... and what of those of us who are educated? Or, our elected officials who have passed something which is blatantly against the Constitution? And why am I the first to go to the paragraph that the top 1% have taken and amassed more than at any time since 1928, the year before the Great Depression? Which is an oxymoron if there ever was one. While I didn't live through it myself, having talked to some who did in my life there was nothing "great" about it. How close is the next one folks? I have seen cows with rings in there noses not as easily led to slaughter as "WE THE PEOPLE" have become. And, while a living wage might be nice, by continually raising it while not reigning in inflation and criminal behavior of government and corporations nothing will ever be solved. We need to rework more than the minimum wage problem in this country.

Actually, the CPI figures have been so understated, especially since the Clinton years, in order to reduce COLA's and SS payments, that according to Shadow stats, a 1968 minimum wage would pay well over 30,000 today.

http://www.shadowstats.com

If the minimum wage does not pay a salary that one can live on working 40 hours a week, WTF good is it. Obviously, it makes more sense to be on welfare, and so it frees up those jobs for illegal immigrants.

As for the cost of college. I got a 5 year engineering degree between 1978-1982 and total cost was 15,000 -commuting (paid for with 7500 student loans which was the max at the time and the rest by working summers and part time during the school year). Using real inflation data from Shadow Stat, that would be about 75,000 today, but minimum wage pays about 1/2 what it did then, and if you live in a dorm, the costs are much higher. I undersand the actual costs are something around 150,000 today.

I have no idea how people at normal wages can afford to send the kids to college. Of course, back in my day, parents had 6 kids, and today they have 2, but the minimum wage is so low that most likely most parents must take out a ton of debt in the form of federal and private student loans whose payments start immediately fed, and the kids also take out student loans.

Your debt makes the financial oligarchs happy, wealthy and wise. Must be a conspiracy with the colleges. If the parent default on the debt, or the kid does, then the house gets taken or wages get garnished. So the college and bankers make out like bandits w/little risk.

The country does not need more people with education. They want to keep you dumb. Besides, they are providing tax incentives that necourage compnaies to move out or outsource jobs. It's been a 30 year plan to reduce standards of livings, and they have done a good job at it. The reason is Globalization and the march toward one world government, where our living standards need to be low enough to comfortably merge us with the developing world. Brzezinski told us the plan in 1970 in his book before the Trilateral Commission was founded in 1973. The TLC took control under Carter in 1978 and it's been all downhill from there.

The TLC's cofounder is Brzezinski, and key adviser for Obama, so don't be expecting any changes, for the better that is.

Pelosi is quite accomplished at staying in an absurdly highly compensated job by merely saying she is serving the people. Then she rams a large object up the ass of the electorate without lubricant and they vote her in for two more years.

Are the American people that into pain?

And oh yeah, Pelosi too could be added to the list for IMPEACHMENT AND PROSECUTION. If we got rid of all those in Congress who have given up their Constitutional duties there would be more jobs available and a lot of them. Some might even pay a 'living wage' and I hear they have some really nice benefits.
How many of you realize that if impeached and prosecuted you can never work at any level of government again. (that's city state or federal, as a bonus they would lose their retirement benefits as well)
Imagine sitting in your office and receiving a request from one of them for help? Now be nice, remember you are not them.

If it was possible to live on minimum wage, this wouldn't be the 'boomerang' generation. How many twenty-somethings are moving back home with no jobs and lots of debt after college? It's not a college degree means you'll be gainfully employed like people seem to think. For a decent job, you need a Masters or better in highly technical fields.

"If it was possible to live on minimum wage, "

Minimum wage was never "meant for" living. People who make minimum wage for the most part have few skills and experience.

" For a decent job, you need a Masters or better in highly technical fields."

Or a trade school certificate. Check what plumbers and auto mechanics make, and that's not going to be outsourced.

The minimum wage should be a LIVING wage. There's no good reason why a person sweeping floors can't make enough to live comfortably. Do people even realize how many minimum wage jobs are stressful and dangerous? I've been there. I once got 7 stitches in two fingers working in fast food. I had a friend in high school who got 2nd degree burns.

Even jobs that pay above minimum wage don't pay enough. Look at nurses aides and pharmacy techs. Those people get certificates and everything.

On the other hand, there are those with the means to buy degrees and have the connections that enable them to get relatively high paying cushy jobs where they play Solitaire and d/l music all day.

Ya think maybe people might actually do a better job too if they were making more? It's funny how the same people who are against the living wage also complain about shoddy service.

It's all about stiflinf upward mobility and keeping the working poor under a bootheel.

Oh yeah, free education and health care too. Then those people can get better jobs w/o going into debt to learn skills and be healthy.

Future me-I also enjoyed your post.
The minimum wage in Australia was $10/hr. years ago.
Once Raygun took the unprecedented step of busting Patco-union influence has withered.The percentage of union members is now so low that prospects for a recovery are dim short of a revolution.
There is also now such surplus of workers in the US that this situation allows the worst cos.to be even more abusive.
The US-being the only wealthy country in the world with a third world neighbor-has never done the smart and neighborly thing and uplifted Mexico's poor allowing them to stay on their lands.Has Obama said anything to improve this?
I have one thing to say to filthyrich who continue to exploit workers. I'm an old man in poor health-yet I harbor massive hatred toward them.I'm too sick to take direct action against them-but the young aren't and maybe even Blackwater won't step the necessary revolution.Live in your gated communities and never venture out-or flee to some dictatorship that welcomes your kind. You'll be equally hated there.

Well, Thomas More, I have no special insight into why college costs are going up other than their costs-of-doing-business are going up, so they're passing them along to the consumer.

But in most situations, when the cost of a product or service rises sharply, demand tends to fall as well, thus giving the producer powerful incentives to keep a lid on costs or people will learn to do without. A university education doesn't fit the equation because the widespread perception is that, while you might not be able to afford a college degree, you *really* can't afford to be without one.

If good-paying jobs were plentiful without degrees, rational people could and would choose to forego college. Enrollment nationwide would fall, some schools would close entirely, others would adapt by lowering costs to survive.

Demand for education remains high, so rising costs can be passed along and are passed along. The suppliers -- colleges and universities -- have little incentive to cut costs so they don't try very hard.

I'm not at all suggesting there's a sinister conspiracy at work. Rather, this is a function of trying to operate a free market system in a situation that's not really free functioning.

Corporate greed and Congressional compliance have pushed the economy beyond the point of sustainability. It only takes one trip wire to begin a cascading set of rapid collapses leading to a world depression.

One canton in Switzerland has a referendum for a minimum wage of 3500 CHF a month. The dollar is about equal to one CHF. Many workers are paid 13 months. That's a minimum wage people can live on even when prices are high.

In the European Union, minimum wage is the buying-power equiivalent of $15-17 per hour...

plus free healthcare - which in France even includes paid recuperaton time in the mountains or the Riverera for some serious illnesses.

plus free university educaton

plus up to a year paid maternity/fmily leave

plus a minimum of one full months of paid annual vacation

plus much broader laws protecting the right to orgainze a union,

...and somehow, it's economy is doing just fine, and it's business people aren't threatening to overthrow the government as would happen if such social benefits were proposed by our government over here.

And scholar,

The reason state-university education has becomeso expensive is the deep cuts in state funding to the universities.

And, the paucity of comment on this topic and labor issues in general does seem t osay something about the CD readership.

"The minimum wage should be a LIVING wage. "

Just one problem arises when I ask you to define *exactly* what "LIVING" entails, as far as food clothing shelter etc. are concerned.

"In the European Union, minimum wage is the buying-power equiivalent of $15-17 per hour…"

And given also the difficulty in firing someone, employers are often relectant to hire.

Well jake, the facts are, from both personal experience and staristics, that working-class Europeans, even when unemployed, broadly enjoy a far better standard of living than working class USAns.

"Well jake, the facts are, from both personal experience and staristics, that working-class Europeans, even when unemployed, broadly enjoy a far better standard of living than working class USAns."

I would certainly be interested in seeing the statistics you refer too. The stats do show that the per capita levels are lower than the US.

"The stats do show that the per capita levels are lower than the US."

And for the most part, higher unemployment and chronically low GDP growth.

It takes about 100K to fire someone in France, ergo their quality of living is much better then for the majority of Americans who are savaged regulary by "at will" or "right to work" assaults. Many US corporations, through tax law actually are *profiting* from throwing another body out on the street and quickly rehiring another temp. You tend to be a better motivated employee when you're working for your pension , benefits and so forth knowing that some SOB doesn't in fact own your livelihood.

"free healthcare "

Nothing is "free". Nations with universal health care have high income tax rates.

"It takes about 100K to fire someone in France, ergo their quality of living is much better then for the majority of Americans who are savaged regulary by "at will" or "right to work" assaults."

Assuming you actually have a job, perhaps. Unemployment among the young is very high. Remember the riots a couple years ago?

http://www.inequality.org

"It takes about 100K to fire someone in France"

And knowing this, as an employer, wouldn't I be *very* careful about hiring someone? And as an employee, wouldn't there be a greater tendency to be lazy and unproductive?

Job growth over the past 7 years is the worst on record and continues on a downward spiral. If we continue on this insane path, people will be killing one another for those minimum wage jobs.

"If you are worried about terrorists, you don't know what worry is." - Paul Craig Roberts

http://www.economyincrisis.org/articles/show/1195

"Job growth over the past 7 years is the worst on record "

Nonsense.

jakenewton July 26th, 2008 8:18 am

"Job growth over the past 7 years is the worst on record "

Nonsense.

jakenewton,

If you view reality as nonsense - so be it. However, I'm sure others on this site who are more grounded in reality will appreciate viewing John Williams' website at http://www.shadowstats.com/.

Williams is a highly renowned statistician, especially with regard to exposing government "misrepresentations" of our true economic state. At present, he estimates that U.S. unemployment is at 14%.

Nonsense?......I don't think so!

Scholar July 25th, 2008 1:18 am

Thanks. I was wondering what their increase in costs was for. What requires such an explosion of costs.

I got my degrees in 73-75 for a combined cost of $9700. What costs so much more? Thats what I wondered.

"At present, he estimates that U.S. unemployment is at 14%. "

Who else beleives his stuff besides him? Pretty much nobody with any standing. I await your response as to why we should believe him, including who else with any standing endorses his views.

"Nonsense?……I don't think so!"

Actually, when you stated the problem as "Job growth over the past 7 years is the worst on record " you left a lot undefiend and thus really didn't say anything. Growth in absolute terms or percentage of work force or population? Over any other seven year period or under any other administration? I don't really think you knew what you are declaring to be true. A anxiously await your response.

As long as we're sharing websites, anyone interested in this should check out dollarsandsense.org. Some websites do American domestic economics, and some cover international economic issues, but dollars&sense covers domestic issues from ALL countries. They had a great article on Venezuela's cooperative revolution a while ago.

Here's a post I recently made on a message board about the minimum wage (starting with a quote from the European poster I was responding to):

>>>"How does economic growth correlate with hours worked? I hear that Americans (are made to?) work longer hours than Europeans."

Full time here is 40 hours/week, longer than most developed countries of which I am aware.

The U.S. federal minimum wage is calculated to keep a full-time employee just above the federal poverty threshold (which is set absurdly too low). It occasionally falls below this, which is typically when they make an upward adjustment. So not surprisingly, people with minimum wage jobs must work well over the standard 40 hours/week if they don't want to live like crap.

According to Wiki: "The federal minimum wage in the United States has been $5.85 per hour since July 24, 2007" (from article, "Minimum Wage in the United States").

$5.85 x 40 x 50 (yes, we *really* only get 2 weeks' vacation per year) = $11,700/year.

Again according to wiki: "In 2007, in the United States of America, the poverty threshold for a single person under 65 was US$10,787" (from article, "Poverty Threshold").

Sometimes I think that our congresspersons have been reading Charlie Marx:

"The average price of wage labor is the minimum wage, i.e., that quantum of the means of subsistence which is absolutely requisite to keep the laborer in bare existence as a laborer." (from the Communist Manifesto)

Indeed, even WIKI says (albeit without citation):

"Another possible explanation for why the current minimum wage laws may not affect unemployment in the United States is that the minimum wage is set close to the equilibrium point for low and unskilled workers. Thus absent the minimum wage law unskilled workers would be paid approximately the same amount. However, an increase above this equilibrium point could likely bring about increased unemployment for the low and unskilled workers" (from article, "Minimum Wage").

Pretty infuriating, eh?

This guy is more or less an anarchist so I knew he'd agree it was infuriating. :)

"The average price of wage labor is the minimum wage"

How can that be? In the US, only around 5% of all jobs are minimum wage, and tha fact is the average wage is *much* higher.

jakenewton July 26th, 2008 9:05 pm
"At present, he estimates that U.S. unemployment is at 14%. "

"Who else beleives his stuff besides him? Pretty much nobody with any standing. I await your response as to why we should believe him, including who else with any standing endorses his views."

"Pretty much nobody with any standing."

If you consider people with "standing" as being some of the Wall Street analysts/economists we have seen on corporate-controlled news channels who bloviated about how great the economy was doing before taxpayers got stuck with major corporate financial bailouts; and simultaneously regurgitated the manipulated and misleading government statistics on GDP, unemployment numbers and the like, then no, it wouldn't be these alleged gurus of "standing" that I'm talking about. Are these people of reliable standing? Should we continue to respect their views after we've been railroaded by their BS analysis...or should I say, deception?

In fact, Jake, many successful analysts, economists, statisticians, financial planners, venture capitalists, etc. rely on John Williams' statistics and/or his methods of calculating the realities of this economy.

You can find many of these people at Financial Sense dot com. Here's one you can start with: http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/stathis/2008/0722.html

Case closed!

I had an issue with the strict State ( Maine) regulations that hinder runing a small business, and called my State Senator to discuss it. I was connected with the Republican state Senate office. The person I talked to d-said yeas the state is not small business friendly........but YOUR GOVERNOR ( Dem. Baldacci) just raised the minimum wage, his fault! ( It's now $7.00)
I was shocked! Do THEY really think that way????
$7.00 is nothing giventhe distances people have to drive and almost NO public transportation in the state.
The shoemakers are gone, the shirt makers are gone,. ( thanks "cool" CEO's who wore black Tshirts to the office for a decade!) The Republican Admin,. has brought back the shirt & tie, but the shirt factory is gone! Warren Buffet has it's name Hathaway!

Gail, in your last post you have lost focus. You were going to show why we should beleive Williams' alternate numbers or to produce someone with recognized authority who endorses his alternate numbers. In doing so you produce an interesting article about GDP by Mike Stathis. Let us count the problems:

Why should I accept Stathis as an authority?

No where in the article does Stathis endorse Williams' views or even mention him.

The article tells us why GDP is an imperfct indicator of the economy, wich *everyone* already knows, and says nothing about the numbers reported being wrong.

So obvoiusly the question as to why we should beleive Williams' alternate numbers remains unanswered. I would also add that from what i can tell, Williams' actually does accept the reported numbers and just massages them to reflect what he sees as wrong. He certainly doesn't duplicate the extensive and expensive survey work done that produces the originals.

Also remaining on the table is your silly claim that job growth in the last seven years is the worst ever.

"Case closed!"

You don't close a case by simply opening amother one.

"Warren Buffet has it's name Hathaway!"

No relation to the shirt company.

jakenewton, that quote predates the first *legal* minimum wage (in Australia) by several decades. Hence it is referring to something else.

"The average price of wage labor is the minimum wage [that] ... is absolutely requisite to keep the laborer in bare existence as a laborer"

I think it's talking about a completely laissez-faire, unregulated capitalist economy, and one without unions. In such an economy laborers would be paid the bare minimum necessary to keep them both alive and productive.

"jakenewton, that quote predates the first *legal* minimum wage (in Australia) by several decades. Hence it is referring to something else."

Perhaps, but if so I don't see how you are lead to your particular take on it.