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on a post by KVAL.com -----
"I feel like I have already commented on this post... but there seem to be quite a few about minimum wage levels these days. It seems to me that it is a cost of business... a much more important priority than it is considered... replacing employees costs a lot of money, a decent wage might keep them. More than that, workers have a right to receive a decent wage for their efforts to make a company... profitable... EVERY employee is important to the success of a company... those on the bottom of the pay scales are often a lot more important than the chief executives because they are the ones that have direct contact with the customer and deliver the products they are selling. If top levels can earn exhorbitant salaries, bonuses, and benefits... a redistribution of the labor budget is in order, starting with the bottom and working its way up to the top. How much does it cost to live in your city? in your neighborhood? in your state? The minimum wage needs to provide a full-time worker enough money to live in decent housing, buy food and clothes and other household necessities, and get to work. That isn't asking too much."
http://www.kval.com/news/local/Supporters-of-15-minimum-wage-plan-to-rally-in-Eugene-325494831.html
[The spelling error is mine... some words just never seem to stick in my memory! :-) --- I don't think the world will fall apart, but I didn't know if I should correct it.]
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I suppose the main issue is "How much is enough?" What do we need to take care of our basic needs? How much is going to provide for us, our children, our retirement, emergencies, etc... Having grown up in the area around Hollywood (CA), the idea of how much is enough came up in divorce news. Our lifestyle choices can dictate what we think is the least amount necessary, but that doesn't mean that is the real amount it takes for an ordinary person to survive. A Hollywood divorce standard isn't the same as the survival standards of poverty.
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While I was searching for the above quote, I found another comment I put on a post by Richard Branson (I hope it's OK to share the photo that I was referring to. I managed to copy the shortcut link... I think.... so you can go there yourself.)
"Sounds good, grabs everyone's attention, is repeated every year.... poverty is a reality of life and needs to be factored into our long-term plans... a pathway THROUGH poverty needs to be figured out so that every new generation has options... something that will fund itself. Maybe a special bank that loans to people in need, with flexible payments, without usury, and not requiring collateral. Maybe housing options like building teams, land shares, farm co-ops, urban buildings that act as a passage to a better future... The poor need help in the beginning, not to recycle our "programs" over and over and over and over and over...."
https://www.facebook.com/RichardBranson/photos/a.10150152138395872.292541.31325960871/10153164020280872/?type=1
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The wage battle is really the same battle against poverty.
I have to say that one news item I heard tonight amazed me... it seems global pressure is dictating America needs to take some of the Syrian refugees into our national life... my first thought was our ongoing battles about immigration laws, and the Mexican refugees we keep complaining about. Both are fleeing violence and mayhem in their home countries.
Maybe we need to find a better way to deal with these issues...
