It seems like there are as many opinions about the "crucial issues" of life as there are people "living" life. For instance, this morning there was this raging debate on Good Morning America about "raising the minimum wage."
On one side of the aisle, the supposed experts say that "raising the minimum wage" will eliminate jobs in the economy. If that were true, then we would have no United States Senate--their salaries have been increased eight times in the last ten years. Or was it nine?
And those ladies and gentlemen still have jobs. Actually, it is WE taxpayers who are funding their positions--whether we like their performance or not. We have ZERO influence as to whether those salaries are raised or not. But we are still the ones who are paying them.
On the other side--since I want to be fair--there are those people who are rightly arguing that full time workers in this nation--the richest nation on earth--should be paid a fair and just wage, so they can support their families without having to go on the "government dole."
This time, I agree with this side. If employers in this nation--all of them--paid their employees a just and equitable wage, I honestly believe we would see far greater productivity, nationwide. I also believe we would see costs for healthcare stabilize, if not decrease. I believe we would see child abuse, alcoholism, and some of the other prevalent ills either subside or decrease.
Now, not every social ill is tied to "money." But many of them are.
I have the best-paying job now that I've ever had. I make in the high 30s...and nothing to be ashamed of. I love my job. But I also remember when I could barely pay the bills, had no healthcare and was working 40+ hours a week for less than the current minimum wage.
I'm a military veteran, honorably discharged after ten stellar years of service. I'm college educated, and have alot of good experience--but I was pretty much stuck in a dead end job, while working on the graduate degree.
Not everyone is as fortunate as I am. But I do remember these words from James Chapter 5:
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.
Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.
I keep hearing the "well, people will lose their jobs, and no jobs will be created if we raise the minimum wage."
Not for a moment do I believe that nonsense. Yes, the markets do need the freedom to make adjustments, but more importantly working people need to be treated fairly and justly. Those same working people should be able to depend on just and equitable treatment from those employing them.
Unless of course we want another ENRON.
But then again Ken Lay is now departed this life.
Look what he left behind.
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