Hard to Dispute Facts With Rigid Hardcore Views and Opinions
As show in this graph (and short segment) if average Americans with their average or
below average wages and circumstances were on life support (reflected by the blue
line) then flat-line would be the next step, and that's not a pretty picture.
We are however, making improvement and especially since the near total economic
meltdown of 2008, but not nearly fast enough that's for sure.
My understanding of the role of our government, although
ours is huge and complex, is best stated this way: To provide security of the
country and its citizens every way possible; help the needy at all times;
practice fairness under in law and in business; strive to improve the state of
each new generation; protect the weak, destitute, poor, and minority rights in
every way, whether in practice and deed.
On the brink of the
Civil War, and from his 1st Inaugural Address on March 4,
1861 , President Lincoln
summarized his speech with these profound words:
“In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not
in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail
you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have
no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the
most solemn one to ...preserve, protect, and defend it.”
The issue of
raising the minimum wage is again back in the spotlight. Just a
few days ago (December 4, 2013), President Obama said in a speech at the
Center for American Progress at THEARC in Washington, DC, in part: “If you
work hard, you should make a decent living” that the increasing wealth
inequality which has plagued America for the past thirty years has been and
continues to be a threat to the nation’s economy and
democracy.
A quick review of how
that relates to poverty in America
The American poverty rate held steady at 15% in 2012, according to the latest numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. Analysts had predicted a slight decrease in the number of Americans living under poverty since 2011. Instead, 46.5 million Americans — including 16.1 million children — remain impoverished, half a decade into the post-recession economic recovery.
The middle class also did not see much improvement over the past year. Median household income, after having plummeted 8.3% between 2007 and 2011, didn’t budge in 2012.
The new report also showed that income inequality between the rich and poor had not changed from 2011 to 2012. However the Census Bureau’s measurements do not take capital gains income into account, a source of income shown by other studies to be among the main drivers of income inequality.
MY FACTS: Hunger for a child is not an option; being homeless is not by choice; Living at or below the poverty line (even with one or two low-paying jobs) is not the American dream or goal. If you think otherwise, try living that way say for a year or longer!!!
So, will it happen? This reminder is important, too - the
headlines: 65 Republicans Supported Increasing The Minimum Wage When Bush Was President
So, what about now, tomorrow, next week, or during the next
Congress? Stay tuned.
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