It's The Least We Can Do!

My Wife got a call today from a computer which was taking a poll about the opinions of Americans like her.

It was interested in how she felt about the Democrat proposal on raising the Minimum Wage which failed to pass the senate last week because it was blocked by the Evil, uncaring GOP.

The conversation went like this:

Computer: "This is an automated poll. The Democrats recently proposed a bill in Congress to raise the Minimum wage, which has not changed for the past nine years, from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour.
The Republicans in Congress blocked this bill."

"If you support the democrat's plan to raise the Minimum Wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour, press 1 on your phone now."

"If you oppose the Democrat's plan to raise the Minimum Wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour, please press 2 on your phone now."

"If you are undecided or not sure, please press 3."

(She pressed 2.)

"For more information about the Democrat's Plan to raise the Minimum Wage, go to www.workingamerica.org."

*Click.*

My Wife and I both oppose the Democrat's Plan to raise the Minimum Wage.

But not for the reasons that you might think.

She is a Public School Teacher. At her job, she deals on a daily basis with children from every walk of life.

And fairly early on, she can identify with a certain amount of confidence which of her students will be wildly successful, and which will probably spend their lives working for Minimum Wage, or pretty close to it.

The Minimum wage kids break her heart. She tries to help them, push them, encourage them, and prepare them in any way that she can, to be successful.

But some of them simply will not be, no matter how hard she tries.

It has nothing to do with their family's Socio-Economic situation. It has nothing to do with their Race.

It really has nothing to do with their Intelligence.

It has everything to do with their willingness to work, and to pay attention, and on how soon they grasp the importance of getting a good education, and investing in themselves.

She opposes the Democrat's Plan to raise the Minimum Wage because she knows that raising the Minimum Wage will not help these people.

The reason that people work for Minimum Wage in the first place is because they do not have any skills. They have not invested in themselves.

They have decided for whatever reason to settle for the Minimum. This is a choice that they have made.

Since it is the least they can do, they do it.

And so, their reward is not very great.

(Obviously I am not talking about high school students working their first jobs, while going to school. These are the only people who should ever take a Minimum Wage job in the first place.

If you are trying to raise a family on a single Minimum Wage job, then you seriously need to re-evaluate your situation, for the sake of your children.)

I, however, oppose the Democrat's plan for a totally different reason.

I do not think that this plan goes far enough.

$7.25 per hour is an insult. Nobody can be expected to live on that, much less raise a family.

I believe that we should raise the Minimum Wage to Ten Million Dollars an hour, with a corresponding raise in pay for everyone who makes more than Minimum Wage now.

My plan would completely eliminate Poverty by Nine O'clock on the first day.

It would eliminate Joblessness by Eleven.

By Two O'clock on the first day, anyone in America who was willing to work at all would be hired immediately, and then become a Millionaire almost as soon as they showed up to work.

By day two, nobody in America would ever have to work again.

And then, as an entire Nation of Millionaires, we could focus on the important issues...

Like fixing Global Warming, fixing the problem of Global Poverty, and Eliminating War and Injustice, wherever it exists.

If we are going to raise the Minimum Wage, we should make it count.

It is the only option.