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On Tue, 30 Dec 2003, erin stojan wrote: > Point being... seems that $17,000/year, according to almost every > standard we have to measure it, is grossly insufficient for meeting > basic living expenses, and heaven forbid you should try to support a > family on it--meaning that, of course, the worker either gets another > job or is on various government assistance programs (or, probably, a > combination of both). Another public subsidy of a multinational, > billion-dollar corporation in our "free market" economy---and presumably > one of the reasons St. Paul, at least, passed the living wage directive. A Living Wage directive was passed in both Mpls and St Paul. In Mpls, and I believe also in St Paul, the councils made an "exception" for Target. Problem being that a hole this big, and precedent like this, in effect invalidates the directive. We imagine we're doing the right thing, but they have hollowed it out and all that remains is the shell. The idea behind Living Wage was, if the city gives money to biz x, then x has to pay living wages - otherwise we are subsidizing, financially and morally, practices we deplore. Proof that, not only must we work hard to get passed good laws and directives, but we must stay on it forever after, for there are always looters looking to loot, and friends in office prepared to help them. It would be nice if we could restructure local government so it was a bit less fragile and vulnerable to being sacked. Then maybe we could with a clear conscience get a little sleep now and then. --David Shove Roseville _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/ _____________________________________________ For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract
