Eugene Robinson: Raise the minimum wage
The highest minimum wage in a major country is Australia’s—in U.S. dollars, a whopping $14.88 an hour at the current exchange rate. Conservatives would howl if anyone in Washington proposed such a thing. According to Republican dogma, such a high minimum wage would be the ultimate job-killer, a disastrous move that could only choke off the recovery and perhaps send the economy back into recession.
Apparently, nobody told all this to the Australians. Unemployment there is 5.7 percent, versus 7.3 percent in the United States. The Australian economy escaped the Great Recession of 2007-08, and in fact hasn’t seen any kind of recession in 20 years. (Oh, and Australia has universal health care, too, but perhaps that’s another column.)
After the fast food strikes last week, I was just debating this very topic with a couple friends and it got heated. Obama is looking to raise it to $10. What do you think? Should the United States raise the minimum wage or not?
(via shortformblog)
212 Notes/ Hide
- blackestglass reblogged this from broadlybrazen
- sunrise-cerebellum liked this
- blackestglass liked this
- insertwittyremarkhere liked this
- winterlive liked this
- rob-anybody liked this
- broadlybrazen reblogged this from pol102
- pjeanniejean reblogged this from pol102
- andrea-aka-jackie liked this
- missielynne liked this
- cinnabana reblogged this from pol102
- waterman12053 reblogged this from shortformblog
- love-all-the-things reblogged this from shortformblog
- surrogatelark liked this
- yeahicameback reblogged this from shortformblog and added:
Yes! Yes, I think we should. I used to be anti minimum wage hikes because I was convinced it would skyrocket cost of...
- pazzojinn liked this
- seralphia liked this
- ishopwell liked this
- ravenira liked this
- greatgreedyguts liked this
- practicedprocrastinator reblogged this from pol102
- unabrazofuerte liked this
- sliverdemon reblogged this from pol102
- poetry-in-motionn-blog liked this
- loligo-lightly reblogged this from pol102
- roomstorest-blog liked this
- mhopeg liked this
- bibliotecaire liked this
- sliverdemon liked this
- worthatleast100words liked this
- brunglepongs reblogged this from shortformblog and added:
Fucking right it should.
- thurisazsalail reblogged this from pol102 and added:
I’d like to take a moment to point out that CHILDREN would not NEED to be employed if *gasp* the ADULTS were making a...
- forcedranting reblogged this from pol102 and added:
I’m using teenagers as an example because they are heavily represented among minimum wage workers, and those are the...
- oshinytomato reblogged this from pol102
- cinnabana liked this
- pairodicelost liked this
- pol102 reblogged this from forcedranting and added:
They key part is “if the job allows it.” So wages alone aren't the only factor. But even by the remainder of your logic,...
- synthesis10 reblogged this from shortformblog
- carolynseeeeulater liked this
- divinederivative liked this
- azspot posted this
- Show more notes