I understand what you're saying, but then the answer is to raise the minimum
wage level for all. When liberals win back the White House, the Minnesota
governor's office and solid legislative majorities at the federal and state
level, I say, have at it. How about $20.00 per hour at a minimum wage? I
think that sounds pretty good.
This proposal in the works at Minneapolis City Hall is a symbolic,
politically motivated action. It is certainly well intentioned, but what is
the real potential impact?
Mark Hanson
Prospect Park
From: wmmarks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: mpls <[email protected]>
CC: Michael Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Mark Hanson
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [Mpls] Living wage policy for Minneapolis
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 15:59:17 -0500
Michael Thompson wrote:
A "living wage" is a subjective construct that, even if we define it as
objectively as we can, has no business being solved at the city contract
level. ...
...We already have a minimum wage in this state. A minimum wage amounts to
a tax on employers for workers who lack substantive skills that would
allow them to get a better paying job.
This position, that we have a minimum wage and presumably, therefore, our
butts are covered entirely discounts reality. The minimum wage is set at
$6.15 an hour. A loaf of edible bread costs, at minimum, $2.69 (not top of
the line "bakery" bread, but just one layer above inedible at Rainbow or
Cub). You cannot discuss the lives of the residents of this city in terms
of a null class. With two working adults, no family of four can live on
$12.30/hr for an 80 hour week. No family of one can live on it either. It
is a null class.
Those who support the concept of a livable wage are saying that we can only
discuss this issue if we begin with a number that is real. When we posit
the notion that a figure like $6.15/hr. is the same as livable, we create a
firestorm of new problems and exacerbate problems we already have.
We can argue all day and all night over whether it is a city council, a
county commission, a state legislature, a federal congress which should
make the statement that there is an absolute minimum level for which no
adult with enough skill to take the job (fill out the application, show up
for the interview, pass the skill test, etc.) may be asked to work. But it
is most certainly within the realm of what government does --if, indeed, it
is of, for, and by the people, --to set the parameters of what is minimally
acceptable behavior on every level of civil society. That's the reason we
tolerate government at all
It is counter productive for the polis, on any level, to tolerate a
standard of living so low that it creates monumental social dysfunction
which we must then subsidize with greater taxes in order to avoid creating
the conditions which support anarchy and revolution.
Is that socialism? I don't know. I've never quite understood what that term
means and its used so loosely its meaning has become broadened into a thin
gruel. If socialism means having the perspicacity to insure we won't have
to go through the pain and agony of revolution with bombs and guns and
blood and gore, then fine. I'll take it.
WizardMarks, Central
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