The budgetary cost of low wages translates into more than $7 billion in public assistance. This taxpayer funded public assistance goes to low wage workers who make so little that they need help to meet basic needs.
Let's make this real simple. If the state - and not market forces - is providing or filling in the missing portion of a living wage the state is subsidizing the profits of market players. What they don't pay in wages they get to pocket, while you and I get to pick up the bill in higher taxes (then again, this dynamic isn't new).
At the end of the day you can not speak as if market forces alone are sufficient for meeting the needs of America's middle class when the state has to fill in the missing "wages" necessary for a worker to meet basic household needs. The glue that holds society together is not built around market capitalism, it is built around market subsidies, and state support.
To deal with the issue of using the public trough to subsidize private market players we need to raise the minimum wage to at least $12 per hour. For those of you ready to scream about runaway inflation or how raising wages will cut into profits let's take a look at what's happening in Australia, courtesy of my FB friend Robin Blinn ...
Here's another take on the issue from the Raise Minimum Wage FB site ...
We can either work to help raise the minimum wage in America or we can continue to subsidize market players with taxpayer dollars. The latter will have us living in a society - yeah, I'm over generalizing for effect here (it is my blog) - like this ...
And, yes, the average social security recipient gets a about $1,200 per month (the average is $1,269).
- Mark
Let's make this real simple. If the state - and not market forces - is providing or filling in the missing portion of a living wage the state is subsidizing the profits of market players. What they don't pay in wages they get to pocket, while you and I get to pick up the bill in higher taxes (then again, this dynamic isn't new).
At the end of the day you can not speak as if market forces alone are sufficient for meeting the needs of America's middle class when the state has to fill in the missing "wages" necessary for a worker to meet basic household needs. The glue that holds society together is not built around market capitalism, it is built around market subsidies, and state support.
To deal with the issue of using the public trough to subsidize private market players we need to raise the minimum wage to at least $12 per hour. For those of you ready to scream about runaway inflation or how raising wages will cut into profits let's take a look at what's happening in Australia, courtesy of my FB friend Robin Blinn ...
Here's another take on the issue from the Raise Minimum Wage FB site ...
We can either work to help raise the minimum wage in America or we can continue to subsidize market players with taxpayer dollars. The latter will have us living in a society - yeah, I'm over generalizing for effect here (it is my blog) - like this ...
And, yes, the average social security recipient gets a about $1,200 per month (the average is $1,269).
- Mark
1 comment:
your problem is called the the federal reserve ;( in the USA
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