Odd collection of stories in the news recently. Shoppers riot on Black Thursday/Friday to take advantage of deep discounts on items made in China and other countries. Minimum wage workers protest for an increase in the minimum wage from $7+/hour to $15/hr. Walmart claims it cant afford to pay workers any more than $7 an hour. MacDonalds claims these are entry level jobs and no-one should be in them forever. Most of the jobs created recently have been minimum wage, entry level positions. People in these jobs have to work two full-time jobs just to make ends meet. Another CEO claims that minimum wage was never meant to be a living wage. (What?) The CEO of MacDonalds makes $8.4 million a year. (Do the math.) In the New York Times, an article states that American manufacturers cant afford to sell things they make at prices most of us can afford. Only the wealthy can afford what Americans build. Many companies claim that labor costs are too high. The true path to a better economy is for America to begin making things again. But we cant afford to pay people enough in wages for them to afford what we build. And most people cant afford to buy what we build. So some American manufacturers have closed down. HOW DID WE GET HERE? Dont blame the Chinese. We allowed it to happen. We voted for Right to Work (and get fired for no cause) laws and worked to break up the unions. We cut taxes for the wealthy and demonized the poor. We fought against any laws that forced corporations to NOT spoil the environment. We settled for cheaper products in massive quantities as our wages continued to shrink with each small recession. We gave up our pensions and fought against government handouts. We believed that Social Security was the cause of our government going broke as we went to wage wars on foreign countries without funding them. WE DID IT TO OURSELVES. Wake up!
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 16:16:44 +0000
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