Comment on the Minimum Wage

There are two different, though related reasons that the minimum wage hasn’t risen in the last 12 years:

First, there is a certain undercurrent of cruelty in this country that manifests itself in various ways. If you believe that any other country on this planet would separate the families of asylum seekers and lock those children in cages, you’re very badly mistaken.

Another illustration of this cruelty is the way we inflict misery on poor people.  The wealthiest nation in the history of human civilization is home to 16 million children living in hunger, and we care next to nothing.  We even have people from the United Nations investigating and chastising us.

Second, the poor, by definition, cannot afford to do the only thing that influences our law-making institution, Congress,  i.e., buying it.  We in the U.S. suffer under a political machine that systematically ignores the will of the people in general, and good luck if you’re poor.

A study from Princeton University shows an almost 100% correlation between Congressional votes and the interests of these Top 100. The same study shows that the decisions that Congress makes on the variety of issues are completely independent of the will of the people. Whether 20%, 40%, 60%, or 80% of the electorate supports a certain subject, this has no statistical bearing whatsoever on how the Senate and the House will vote on the matter.

Once we realize that this applies to even the financially comfortable, we can readily imagine how unempowered people without money are.

Our Founding Fathers did their level best to create a democratic republic that would withstand all challenges against it.  One has to think that they foresaw human greed, just not at this level.