Sunday, July 27, 2014

ON minimum wage

FACT - our habits and social structure REQUIRES that menial tasks be done. Flipping burgers, cleaning toilets, and ringing up your purchase is not a result of someone being lazy, or a naturally undeserving person, it's a result of the life and habits the humans of the past have built for us to be born into. Life makes trash, someone HAS to deal with it.  It's an imperative, not a choice.  There is no reason people who end up doing these things FOR OTHER PEOPLE should have to give more than the standard 8 hours {a third of their day} (they should make enough on a 40 hour week), worry about how horrible their life is going to be when their bodies can't do it anymore, (they should make enough for later), or be deprived of enjoying meaningful life when they aren't doing the job (they should make more than it takes just to keep living).   I'm not anxious to tell other people what to do, or make more laws. I simply care about being part of a fair system, that treats people with respect. I care about the integrity of that system's structure and sustainability. If we're going to do this, let's do it right, so that people can be happy and healthy with meaning and freedom in their lives. Why would we defend a system that creates massive poverty while a very few are flying in their own jets? We know from history that it doesn't end well.

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