Is The Minimum Wage Too Damn Low?
Well, check out this info, and decide for yourself:
As you can see, if you adjust for inflation, wages have fallen 30%, yet gas prices have increased close to 70% and homes %40. Bread prices have fallen, which is good if you’re trying to avoid a Les Miserables situation. But it didn’t fall enough to match the amount pay has. In 1968 you could afford to buy seven loafs of bread with an hours pay, while now just three.
Now, you might be thinking that’s too much bread to buy, it’ll go stale before you eat it all. Alright, but you are missing the point. We can buy less than we use to. An hour of work use to get you about five gallons of gas, now just barely two.
And what about rent? Here in New York you’re lucky if you get an apartment with one bedroom for $1000. If you are making minimum wage you would only have about $200 left after you pay the rent for the rest of your expenses in an average 4 week month. Car payment, gas, food, phone, God forbid internet or some kind of entertainment.
In a recent poll, %70 of Americans, including %50 of Republicans, said they were for increasing the minimum wage. How do feel? Should minimum wage go up $9.00 as Obama proposed? Is that even enough? Should everything just be free, like some kind of wonderful Utopia?
