So it's been batted around for years now, bantered back and forth between so called experts and pundits. It's been the topic of many heated debates between senatorial, congressional, and even presidential candidates, mostly on the right. This idea of getting rid of the federal minimum wage has been has been coming out of the mouths of wealthy right wing politicians for years now. They talk about how it's unfair to poor people, how getting rid of the minimum wage would "absolutely" be better for the country, and how the minimum wage is "one of the most anti-poor people" rules in the country.
Right wing radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh feels that the minimum wage is the reason teenage unemployment is so high, and that getting rid of it would spur teenage hiring. The argument there is that businesses are having an already hard time in this economy, to be told that you have to pay your workers at the very least, the newly proposed $9 an hour is just too much, that the "small" business owner just can't afford that. I find that hilarious when the most vociferous opponents of the minimum wage are millionaires and billionaires.
From Paul Ryan to Marco Rubio, from Ron and Rand Paul to Charles Koch and McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner (who pulls in 8.75 million dollars a year mind you), all think that the minimum wage should be abolished, not lowered but absolutely and completely done away with. Then employers can start hiring again, which when you think about it, makes complete sense, if you're an idiot. If you can pay your employees $2.25 an hour as opposed to the current $7.25, you can hire a hell of a lot more people.
Forget the fact that $7.25 is not enough for even a homeless person to live off of, to do away with the minimum wage would result in absolute anarchy, and that's what these wealthy right wing fat cats don't seem to understand. Slavery was abolished hundreds of years ago, that era where the work was done for free, remove the minimum wage and some employers in this country will try to revisit those years much to the chagrin and anger of their employees. Try telling your employees that you're am lowering their hourly wage to $2.25 from $7.25 and see if they don't all quit in unison or rise up and slay you. Yeah, good luck with that one.
Not only should it not be abolished but it desperately needs to be raised, and well past the proposed $9 an hour. It's only common sense, not to mention common decency. Not everyone in this country is destined for a high paying job because there are some people who can't even afford community college, let alone a private institution of higher learning. Not everyone in this country can speak English, some are undocumented, and some come from circumstances that can't even be imagined. These people are the low wage earners, doing what they can to get by, doing the jobs no one else wants, and now some bureaucrat and some billionaire wants to pay them less. That's just offensive, and I would imagine those people call themselves christians.
It's funny to me how the rich, the wealthy, and the powerful want to do away with the needed minimum wage, and yet aren't saying what they would replace it with. Something to think about.
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