Minimum wage absolutely has to increase. People have to be paid a living wage. You cannot have levels of inequality in a society that right now have become the worst it's ever been- even worse since the roaring 20's. The minimum wage has been $7.25 for 11 years. Who the hell can live off of $7.25 an hour? Oh yeah, no one. Inflation exists. You know. We might not feel it as much as we should and it isn't runaway inflation in part because of the insane wealth gap in this country- but it is there. No one can live off of $7.25 an hour. That's why you have millions of employees from Walmart or McDonald's living on government subsidies.
Whether we like it or not- millions of people are stuck into low paying jobs. Why? OFF-SHORING. Things like NAFTA and the permanent normalizing of trade relations with China- which lead to China joining the WTO- have absolutely destroyed and gutted millions of good paying American manufacturing jobs. Michigan alone- which was the epicenter of manufacturing in the US- lost half of all of it's manufacturing jobs from 2000-2008 alone. Why? A lot of those plants/jobs were out-sourced off to China. I know a little bit about this shit because my grandfather is in that business. He used to have stupid retarded cash flow in the 70s, 80s, and even 90s. He was selling machines and parts every single day. He had money coming out of his ass. He used to carry around $20,000 in cash on him at all times. That shit is GONE. Most of his customers have been wiped out or gone to China or Mexico. Not as easy to do business in other countries as it is in your own backyard.
Cannot stand when people say- hey just find a better job. Like it's really so simple or that easy. Reminds me of the idiots in the Democratic party that say hey- just shut up and learn to code.
