Unrepresentative Policy of the Week: We Can't Afford This Minimum Wage
Jobs jobs jobs, it’s all politicians on both the left and right ever seem to talk about. Both political parties use the prospect of jobs gained or jobs lost to defend or attack the policy of the day. The specter of unfilled jobs is used explicitly to attack policies like unemployment benefits and defend low wages. We are told there is a dignity to work that cannot be found elsewhere, and without which, the American people face moral and spiritual decay.
Where exactly is the “dignity” in wage slavery?
Recent studies put affordable housing for minimum wage workers out of reach for over 93% of US counties! In fact, “this year, workers would need to earn $24.90 per hour for a two-bedroom home and $20.40 per hour for a one-bedroom rental. That’s an increase from $23.96 and $19.56, respectively, from last year.” On average, a minimum wage worker needs to work 97 hours every week to afford an average apartment.
Yet despite all this, Republicans constantly fight tooth and nail to keep Americans working even longer and harder hours, while Democrats use vague promises of “good paying jobs” without ever raising the minimum wage, controlling housing prices, or making any other desperately needed systemic change to give workers a leg up.
Of course, the American people couldn’t be clearer on this issue:
Yes: 88%
No: 12%
…To $15/hour?
Support: 62%
Oppose: 38%
A criminally low minimum wage and unaffordable housing are just two facets of the same underlying problem we discuss each week: a government that doesn’t serve the interests of the people, but instead monied special interests. These donors, as a class, own the housing they rent out unaffordably, and they own the businesses which pay starvation wages. As long as they have the ears of our legislators, the government will continue to act on behalf of the powerful, instead of the powerless.
Breaking this stranglehold takes organizing and accruing power. Capital doesn’t care about morality or ethics, it cares about money and power, therefore, economic power is needed to counteract the donor class. Alone, none of us can turn the tide, but together, we can grow a movement each week that can challenge the monied elites, providing a countervailing force to their dominance of our political system. So join us each Tuesday, as we fight for better wages, more affordable housing, and more!
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