This LTE writer only restates what I have been saying for twenty years! The basic minimum wage job does not afford one the luxury of living, much less exisiting!

Most basic human beings can do the math without having to read the report of any institute to see that the situation DOES NOT add up!

Shalom

So every few years we inch up the minimum wage in a vain attempt to catch up with the increase in the cost of living spurred on by the last increase in the minimum wage (among other factors).
So what is the answer? Provide the redistributionists with their ultimate goal- set the minimum wage at $50,000, and bankrupt the country back to pre-industrial revolution days.
The answer doesn’t lie in artificially inflating wages, it lies in cutting the tax rate that burdens the working class to pre WW I levels.
“Dissent is patriotic, hating America isn’t”

I just want someone to exlpain inflation to me. Where does it come from? Where does it start? Who is selling what and wanting more money for it that it filters down to us. I am paying twice as much for gas as I did 4 years ago, but am only making 5% percent more then I was. When gas went up after Katrina I sure didnt get a raise. I truly believe that inflation is a relative thing that gets made up and used in order for someone somewhere to make more money. Does anyone out there have a clue?

Excess and inequality of taxation, however disguised in the means, never fail to appear in their effects. As a great mass of the community are thrown thereby into poverty and discontent, they are constantly on the brink of commotion; and deprived, as they unfortunately are, of the means of information, are easily heated to outrage. Whatever the apparent cause of any riots may be, the real one is always want of happiness. It shows that something is wrong in the system of government that injures the felicity by which society is to be preserved.

But as a fact is superior to reasoning, the instance of America presents itself to confirm these observations. If there is a country in the world where concord, according to common calculation, would be least expected, it is America. Made up as it is of people from different nations,*[16] accustomed to different forms and habits of government, speaking different languages, and more different in their modes of worship, it would appear that the union of such a people was impracticable; but by the simple operation of constructing government on the principles of society and the rights of man, every difficulty retires, and all the parts are brought into cordial unison. There the poor are not oppressed, the rich are not privileged. Industry is not mortified by the splendid extravagance of a court rioting at its expense. Their taxes are few, because their government is just: and as there is nothing to render them wretched, there is nothing to engender riots and tumults.

littlebuddababy,

Inflation - A persistent increase in the level of consumer prices or a persistent decline in the purchasing power of money, caused by an increase in available currency and credit beyond the proportion of available goods and services.

Inflation refers to the decline of purchasing power of your money. Your income has nothing to do with inflation, and it doesn't operate in conjunction with inflation. Your income is a function of the value of your services as seen by your employer. If you ever had a course in economics, inflation would have been one of the first concepts that you would have learned.

Does this give you a clue? If you want more information on inflation, check out this site:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation

Darryl,

It is reported that 1/3 of students that enter high school drop-out and don't graduate. Dropouts are more likely than other citizens to draw on welfare and other social programs throughout their lives. A growth of unskilled laborers in low-wage jobs will increase the trend toward developing a large American underclass which some analysts argue threatens the continuing existence of a democratic way of life. Income differences between dropouts and other citizens can be expected to widen as the economy evolves, pitting Americans with less education against computerized machines and people in low-wage nations.

Is there any doubt that the solution to the poverty problem in this country lies in education? People without an education and no work skills will find it very difficult to exist above more than a minimal level regardless of the minimum wage. People need to take responsibility for their own lives, get an education and work skills, or they will continue to lose ground.

Excellent letter. And as I am already called a doom and gloomer by some, I must say that it will only get worse. When the credit cards run out, many more will be on the street.

Education is one answer. However, we can hardly promise a high school graduate more than minimum wage. Higher education and training are needed.

One of our guidance counselors had a great poster: You have a greater chance of winning the lottery than making it as a professional athlete. (Some kids who are average high school athletes think they are going to be pros and don't need to study)

WJ, most who make min wages get most of their taxes back at the end of the year and some even get income tax credit money back. They still don't have enough to live on many times.

When our society pays the unreal salaries to athletes, rock stars, movie stars, and CEOs, and a care giver in a rest home or a teaching assistant can hardly get by, teachers, policemen, cafeteria workers, and nurses are underpaid, etc., what does that say about our future?

Amen Carol! And have you ever noticed one other thing that goes hand in hand with the rise in the cost of living and contributes to increasing the poverty level is the entrance of government into any purely economic system? Medical service and doctors were affordable by most middle and even lower middle class people and doctors even made house calls before the advent of Medicare and Medicaid. College was affordable to most middle an lower middle class kids who worked on the side until the advent of student loans, Pell Grants and so-called scholarships. ( My entire college education thru three degrees costs just $8,000. The same college 10 years later after all things I mentioned above cost $8,000 per year!). Welfare is the single most destructive element in the decline of marriages and the increase in fatherless children which in time increases the crime rate all of which costs us more and more tax dollars. It has all but destroyed Black society in this country. Just check out the statistics on birth and marriage before welfare and since. Now we have the Senior Drug Plan . If you think drugs are out of sight now just wait another few months and see what happens. The key to ending most of the poverty and the poor getting poorer is getting government out of our lives. However since that is not about to happen I will quote another revolutionary hero, Thomas Jefferson said, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” perhaps it is time to refresh and get the ‘tyrant’ government off our backs.

Dear Lord, can just see the FBI at my doorstep now!

I'm goin' from memory, but I think the Minimum Wage has remained relatively unchanged for a while, and it is now about 60% ish of what it was perhaps 10 years ago - meaning it would have to rise to perhaps $10 / hour to catch-up with earlier balances.

Even at $10 / hour, that's $20,000 a year. i think the poverty rate for a family of 4 is like $25,000 - so your stuck with two-bread winners and the offsetting cost of day care or a diet of rice and water if one parent choses to stay home and raise kids in a meaningful way.

Bottom Line - it sucks to be poor.

Where does inflation come from? ORR provided a nice link, but a gerneralization is this: To provide the services the elected politicans promised, they need to spend cash. Since we're spending a lot more than we take in, and since by "coincidence" this same organization (the Federal Governement) actually prints the fancy colored paper we call money, they print enough to pay the bills, but then there is more cash than value to back it up. That's called inflation - more paper bills chasing less value.

Interestingly, there was a time when Gold was tied to the Dollar - so the gov't could not print extra money unless it had bullion literally in storage in Fort Knox. This so called "Gold Standard" was seen as an improvement over the previous system where one literally carried pieces of gold around to buy stuff.

$10 an hour doesn't necessarily mean $20,000 a year. That's assuming that you are working a 40 hour week, I guess. And, truth be known, most people who are financially successful and working are putting in more hours than that.

Yes, it sucks to be poor. But sometimes it sucks to not be poor when you consider what work and sacrifice goes into it.

One other thing that is just as important as what you make is what you spend. As JDR alluded to, you might be working a job just to send your kids to daycare.

Now along comes President Nixon. He decides the Gold Standard is also out-of date, and in 1969 or so, he abolished the system - at the time gold was about $35 / ounce - it floated a bit but it was generally a slow moving and hard fixed price.

go here ( a favorite link) to see how much that is in today's money.

http://www.halfhill.com/inflation.html

now contrast that with the current price of gold,and you'll get a partial feel for inflation.

I recently learned that at least one highly respected conservative economist - Bruce Bartlett - feel it was the political games Tricky Dick Nixon's played that was a major player in the hyper inflation suffered under Carter - and all this time the liberal bashers were blaming a cordigan sweater.

Bartlett also says we're in for a lot more, because bush is playing similar games - and whom ever takes over next will also be in for a wild ride - at least according to one much smarter than you or I.

W J Ellis:

Not sure I followed your post .. but as a redistributionists mysely - I disagree that the ultimate goal is to set the minimum wage at $50,000.

I DO argue the federal taxes should be re-set to working class to pre WW I levels, which was 0% for the first $50,000. as far as i know, the country was not bankrupt then .. although it was in less than 20 years - after 3 consecutive Republican adminstrations including at least one that was a big-time trade protectionist - as fwiw, Mr Bartlett argues the current Republican adminstrations is (big-time trade protectionist).

I'm just passing along what one smarter than you or I has figured out - don't be hating, take it up with him, but you'll lose big time.

BUT THE REAL PROBLEM - and this is my opinion - is not so much the minimum wage, but the lack of opportunity between "starter jobs" and "highly compensated salary".

The middle class opportinities - which have been solid factory jobs (now headed rapidly to china), steady construction work (mostly done by illegal imigrants - all 12-1/5 million of them), engineering and technical (now exported to china), and other steps -- GONE.

So your choices? A life at the bottom, a rich daddy, and the very hard working and tallented can still succeed - but the average kid is facing a difficult road.

ALL - in my humble opinion, of course.

By the way, Carol - I wrote a letter to the editor and my advance research came up with this:

7000 high schools play football on a given Friday night
350,000 kids play in those games
200 get on the NFL bench every year.

Odds for Basketball, worse

JDR was it not Roosevelt that did a way with gold standard to back our money??? Silver coins where last minted in 1964, was Johnson not the president, the the clad halfs 40% last minted in 1969. I think Nixon was president then.
Carol, do the poor get back sales tax, gas tax, property tax. Seems they are the main victims of these taxes.

From what I just read the gold standard, started vanising in 1914, Roosevelt outlawed the owning of gold coins, (except for coin collectors) the USA dropped the silver backing of money in 1964 and to get a silver dollar for your paper you had a set time limit. The final provision for the gold standard came in effect in 1971.

That sounds right, Dog - Nixon just drove the final nails; thanks for the clarification.

Good point on other taxes, dog. I just finished getting our taxes ready. Property taxes came up and we were discussing all the taxes we pay. Remember the example we were taught in economics of how many times a loaf of bread is taxed before you eat it, beginning with the seller of the seeds. Look at your phone bill, cable bill, electric bill, etc. See just how much tax we all pay.

Didn't we go to war with England over 10% taxation? Think they'll take us back? (just a joke...have to do that for I have found that some folks go bonkers...let's make an abbreviation..JAJ for that to save time)

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