I would like to make a presentation to the "How Class Works Conference" on the following. I am looking for suggestions:
Class
dimensions of poverty. To explore why and how poverty is something that
happens to the working class, not some marginal "other" at the bottom
of society.
This is my proposal which I would work from:
If workers are paid a poverty wage they are going to be poor.
Some
of my ideas would include an expansion of my thoughts in the below
Letter to the Editor and the comments which are responses to questions
and comments on what I wrote in the Letter...
Link to my letter:
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-letter-to-editor-on-minimum-wage-is.html
Minnesota
politicians, business people and even labor "leaders" are concerned
that raising the Minimum Wage to a real living wage would be too hard on
"small businesses."
There is a solution to this concern if "small business" is really their concern.
Exclude all the relatives of the owners of small businesses from Minimum Wage enforcement and protection.
Let
the owners of "small businesses" pay their spouses, great
grand-parents, grand-parents, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, aunts,
uncles and cousins whatever wages they want to do their work for them.
Exempt politicians and all their relatives from Minimum Wage
protections, too, and let the people vote on how much politicians should
be paid. In my opinion, politicians shouldn't be paid any more than the
lowest paid workers--- this would provide these politicians to improve
the standard of living for everyone. According to these politicians
people need incentives; what better place to start incentive based pay
than with the pay of politicians?
But,
for all other workers, the Minimum Wage should be nothing less than a
real living wage based on ALL "cost of living" factors which would
provide working people with a decent standard of living.
We
have a billionaire governor, Mark Dayton, whose inherited wealth has
been derived from paying Minnesotans poverty wages for over a century.
There
is a way to reduce the Minimum Wage. Institute universal social
programs providing people with free health care, free child care, free
higher education, low-cost public transportation, controlling the prices
of food, housing, electricity, gas and home heating fuels.
Please
read my "Letter to the Editor" in the Northern Light Region. Share this
e-mail and my "Letter to the Editor" with your friends and fellow
workers:
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-letter-to-editor-on-minimum-wage-is.html
By
the way; there isn't a union "leader" in this country who would work
for the pathetically miserly Minimum Wage the Democrats in Minnesota are
proposing.
If we can't get a real living wage out of a Democratic super-majority, what can we ever expect to get from these Democrats?
Even Richard Nixon supported a guaranteed annual income; although he never spoke of a real living income.
But,
with the anniversary on the United Nations' Universal Declaration of
Human Rights coming up on December 10 it would behoove us all to engage
in a discussion about what kind of standard of living and quality of
life working people are entitled to living here in the richest country
in the world.
Is
it right and just that a billionaire Governor like Mark Dayton whose
inherited wealth is derived from poverty wages should be talking about
forcing a miserly poverty Minimum Wage and hundreds of thousands of
Minnesotans assuring the families of these workers will continue to live
in poverty?
Many
of the union "leaders," like Elliot Seide of AFSCME, who are
multi-millionaires themselves have turned their unions into
organizations that are little more than unions on paper as they refuse
to struggle to improve the standard of living of their own members and
force concession contracts down the throats of those paying dues so
"leaders" like Elliot Seide can make Minnesota-nice with billionaire
politicians like Mark Dayton.
What
gives these union "leaders" who won't even stand up and fight for the
workers whose dues go to pay their big, fat salaries the right to claim
they have a right to shove poverty wages down the throats of other
Minnesotans?
Would Elliot Seide or any public workers he represents agree to work for $9.50 an hour? No. So why should anyone else?
Keith
Ellison would never work for $9.50 an hour. His fellow member of
Congress, multi-millionaire Rick Nolan, would never work for $9.50 an
hour.
The
Minimum Wage should be based on all cost-of-living factors; the
cost-of-living factors tracked and monitored by the United States
Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Don't
let a bunch of over-paid labor "leaders" and a billionaire governor
tell you that you should work for poverty wages while they live
high-on-the-hog at our expense.
And
I have a message for all those members of the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees who collected signatures on
petitions at the Minnesota State Fair urging that their fellow workers
should be paid a lousy $9.50 an hour poverty wage--- it is workers being
paid these kinds of poverty wages who are paying your wages. Something
you might just want to think about. What's good for the goose is good
for the gander. What makes you think you are entitled to a living wage
but other workers are not entitled to the same living wages? Perhaps at
next Minnesota State Fair you should consider circulating a petition
backing a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" so
all workers have a shot at living decent lives.
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-letter-to-editor-on-minimum-wage-is.html
But,
the award for "The Epitome of Hypocrisy" in all of this discussion over
the Minimum Wage should go to the Leader of the Minnesota State Senate,
DFL'er Tom Bakk who stakes claim to being a leader in the building
trades unions--- Bakk says he wants even less than the pathetically
miserly Minimum Wage being proposed by the Minnesota Democratic
Farmer-Labor Party and its union "partners" and non-profit
foundation-funded front groups of $9.50 an hour because Senator Bakk
feels sorry for the Minnesota hospitality industry--- the casino
managements and those who made the Forbes Fortune 500 "List."
People
have become billionaires as a direct result of paying workers poverty
wages. Had the wealthy been paying workers real living wages no doubt
they would remain mere multi-millionaires.
I
am sick and tired of hearing about the poor "small businesses" who will
suffer if the Minimum Wage is increased to a real living wage--- exempt
the small businesses and the relatives they hire from enforcement and
protection of the Minimum Wage.
Let State Senator Tom Bakk clean the hotel rooms for a poverty wage.
Billionaires
telling workers they should be satisfied with $9.50 an hour. Union
"leaders" who have turned trade unionism into a racket getting big fat
salaries. Politicians who have never worked a day in their lives. All
telling us what the Minimum Wage should be. When do we hear from the
workers and their families who are forced to live in poverty with the
decisions made by all of these people living high-on-the-hog more often
than not on the backs of poverty wage paid workers.
A
poverty Minimum Wage as proposed by Minnesota Democrats with their
super-majority and their front groups like Growth & Justice, Take
Action Minnesota and the AFL-CIO affiliated unions discriminates most
against people of color, women, youth and the elderly. And undocumented
workers suffer as they are at the very bottom when it comes to being
paid poverty wages and new immigrants don't fair much better.
Minnesota
Education endorsed the most reactionary, right-wing Republican State
Representative, Tony Cornish, for re-election. Cornish has been a major
opponent of a living Minimum Wage.
The
AFL-CIO has endorsed Democratic State Senator Tom Bakk time and time
again and Bakk has joined the Republicans in opposing an increase in the
Minimum Wage.
We
all know the unions would be without any paid staff if people like Jim
Gleb and Tamara Jones who rent the scab facilities of the Indian Gaming
Industry had to work for a miserly poverty wage of $9.50 cents an hour
and the foundation-funded outfits would be without any staffs.
Remember,
the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party with its super majority
didn't raise the Minimum Wage a plug nickle in the last legislative
session--- thus providing billionaires with extended super-profits.
All discussions about the Minimum Wage should center around: "Cost of Living" and "Standard of Living."
Perhaps
these union "leaders" who are trying to shove a poverty Minimum Wage
down the throats of working people would like to submit papers for your
consideration on the topic:
Class
dimensions of poverty. To explore why and how poverty is something that
happens to the working class, not some marginal "other" at the bottom
of society.
Michael,
isn't it time to bring your gatherings out into the nitty-gritty of the
class struggle where the discussions will have some real impact outside
the sheltered life of academia?
What we need is a united working class struggle for a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity."
http://fullemploymentnow.blogspot.com/
Also see:
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/grand-forks-herald-publishes-my-letter.html