The Middle Class and the Minimum Wage

Why is it when we, or at least certain politicians, talk about the middle class, it focuses on raising the minimum wage?

I know that talking about why you are writing a blog is sometimes the first thing people do, with great platitudes about the things they will say along with the information and thoughts they will convey. But there are too many things about which to write and very little time in which to do it, but suffice to say that this blog is about politics. My view of politics. 

And let me assure you, my view of politics is hysterical. And accurate. And awesome.

So let’s get down to this whole thing about the “poor” in America. First off, if being poor in America is so bad, why is 25% of the Mexican population living in America? Last time I checked with my ‘friends’ in CA and DC, we need more of these people to do jobs Americans won’t do. Also known as, jobs that don’t pay well.

Fact 1 for today: Being poor in American is way better than being poor anywhere else. 

And then there is this idea that there are jobs Americans won’t do. That is a load of junk. And as an American, I find that offensive. There are lots of jobs Americans do that no one else wants to do. We have shed blood and dollars to fight Nazism, fascism, and communism. And then building the Panama Canal. We built railroads across the US in the matter of a few years, invented flight, landed on the moon, and have brought freedom to more people than any other country in the history of the world. And you are telling me there are jobs Americans won’t do? Yeah, you were clearly educated in public school, or at Harvard (they are kinda the same thing).

Well, let me give you a job Americans will do – they will go out and builds machine that will harvest your strawberries, mow your lawns, and clean your homes. All for the price of a little electricity.

Second, there are no jobs that Americans won’t do. How do I know this? Well, if I gave you a million dollars a day to clean sewers, unless you are Warren Buffet or a stuck up rich kid, you are going to take that job. You might only work it for a week, but you will still do it.

 

So what it really comes down to compensation. You can’t sit there and tell me that there are jobs Americans won’t do when there are tens of millions of people who don’t have jobs but want them. They just won’t do them for $7.25 an hour (and a lot of illegals are paid even less than that). But if employers were to pay $20 an hour, they’d have to beat people away from their farms with a stick!

Fact 2 for today: If you pay Americans enough, they will do anything.

And this brings me to the funniest thing about this whole debate. Have you noticed how the language has changed? No longer are we worried about the middle class, those making $80,000 a year. No, when we talk about the middle class, we start talking about how we need to give people $15 an hour for minimum wage, all in the same breath! Since when, EVER, has the minimum wage been considered middle class?  And when on earth did it become a winning campaign strategy? Like seriously, the minimum wage was established so that employers did not take advantage of people who were just starting out in life. But it was never designed as a lifelong career choice. Get work experience, then move to a better job.

So this begs the question, who then, is poor from these people’s minds? Well, only those people who get assistance from the government. So when someone is talking about the poor, they are talking about those who need stuff from the Federal government. With the middle class being those who make minimum wage this means that, according to these leaders pushing this agenda (mostly the President and his supporters), everyone else is rich. Yump, making $40,000 a year makes you rich.

Give me a break.

And I would just like to leave you with a thought: remember that when these same people who talk about helping the poor and that the rich should pay their fair share, they don’t mean Robin Hood. Let me tell you what they mean. These politicians are going to guilt trip ‘rich people’ into voting them into office to ‘help’ poor people, and then they will buy the votes of poor people with the tax dollars of the rich people (through increased taxes – aka making sure everyone pays their ‘fair share’).

Have you ever stopped to wonder why the statement ‘everyone should pay their fair share’ always involves increasing taxes? Just asking…. 

And I am stuck at the car repair place, so I am going to expand on this whole Robin Hood robbing the rich and giving it to the poor. I know that is what the stories say, but let’s look at this, the people who were robbed by Robin Hood, you know, the king, the sheriff, the nobles – they weren’t rich people - they were the government! Thus, when Robin Hood robbed, he wasn’t robbing the ‘rich,’ he was taking from the government!