"Cost-of-living" has been purged from our working-class vocabulary right along with the purging of Communists from the labor movement; coincidental?
To make way for concession bargaining and to prevent any meaningful discussion of wages.
We see this in the discussion taking place around the Minimum Wage and contract negotiations.
There is only one thing that wages can legitimately be compared to: "cost-of-living."
What can you purchase with your wages?
Your "standard-of-living" is determined by what you can purchase with your wages combined with access to universal social programs.
Something to think about:
When Communists were purged from the labor unions the millionaire labor leaders stopped talking about the relationship between wages and cost-of-living and concession bargaining began.
In addition, very simple yet truthful ideas are being left out of the national conversation spreading to the public square concerning poverty, income inequality and the Minimum Wage:
Workers paid poverty wages are going to be poor.
Workers without jobs are going to be poor.
We had better come up with real, specific solutions to both of these problems:
Paying workers real living wages in relation to cost-of-living.
Providing workers with real living wage jobs.
Question:
What is preventing every job from being a decent, living wage job?
Isn't this a legitimate question?