Robert Reich was asked just recently what he thought about the minimum wage issue. He noted that if wage increases had followed productivity gains and adjustments for inflation (as they should in any fair system) then the current minimum wage would be about $15/hr. This is all well known to anyone who can look at Dept Labor statistics. For the last 40 years the employers and wealthy have ripped off the productivity gains of working people but simply holding wage increases down. The result is no different than if they had snatched their employees wallet every pay day and simply taken out what they could grab. Thievery. Just plain thievery.
Of course it's important - but this speech isn't anything new. He's talked about raising the minimum wage since 2008 (see: http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/05/markets/thebuzz/), but he hasn't *done* anything about it. He's really adept at mouthing platitudes to distract the base from his shortcomings.
Indeed, Propertius. He's also very aware that under his watch, an increasingly large number of Americans are having to rely on minimum-wage jobs. So throwing the rubes some bread to keep them quiet and postpone the firing of the torches, well, it is an easy gesture. Obama is very good at easy gestures. He's no good at all on real substance.
But at least many of the people who work for Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, qualify for food stamps. So there is that. How do you like having part of your taxes go to subsidize the billionaire Walton family?
5 comments:
Raising the minimum wage IS unimportant - to the nattering nabobs of the Free market/Big Business cult who bow and scrape before Big Capital's BS.
Robert Reich was asked just recently what he thought about the minimum wage issue. He noted that if wage increases had followed productivity gains and adjustments for inflation (as they should in any fair system) then the current minimum wage would be about $15/hr. This is all well known to anyone who can look at Dept Labor statistics. For the last 40 years the employers and wealthy have ripped off the productivity gains of working people but simply holding wage increases down. The result is no different than if they had snatched their employees wallet every pay day and simply taken out what they could grab. Thievery. Just plain thievery.
Of course it's important - but this speech isn't anything new. He's talked about raising the minimum wage since 2008 (see: http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/05/markets/thebuzz/), but he hasn't *done* anything about it. He's really adept at mouthing platitudes to distract the base from his shortcomings.
Indeed, Propertius. He's also very aware that under his watch, an increasingly large number of Americans are having to rely on minimum-wage jobs. So throwing the rubes some bread to keep them quiet and postpone the firing of the torches, well, it is an easy gesture. Obama is very good at easy gestures. He's no good at all on real substance.
But at least many of the people who work for Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, qualify for food stamps. So there is that. How do you like having part of your taxes go to subsidize the billionaire Walton family?
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