Honestly: the minimum wage does need to go up

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

This post got me thinking.

I am firmly in favor of:

A) A higher minimum wage in the whole US, and my home state of NY
B) Honesty in politics

While the OP I linked to is not exactly dishonest, it's not exactly honest either.
And this is not to put flak upon the poster there, but it's an example of political rhetoric that is used to leverage one side of a conversation, ignoring nuance.

the graphic in the linked to OP:

1) Doesn't seem to take into account state laws that raise min wage over fed laws
2) Doesn't take into account the vast difference in housing throughout a state

My objection is more with 2 than 1. 1 is easy to take care of, but 2 is not easy.

New York City is WAYYYY more expensive than Rochester or Buffalo, NY; or a large number of other places within the state I could name. Yet, this graphic gives us a number, presumably an average. But that average is way skewed. But how else should they do it? Give us on graphic for NYC and another for the rest of NY State? That wouldn't work either, because then you'd need to break it down for other cities and so on. So what do we do?

We must talk about things in the big picture without getting bogged down in details, otherwise we will have to talk for eons before we can understand what needs to be done. So while I agree that the min wage needs to go up, across the US, I have a problem with the info-graphics created to support that argument. They lack nuance, and as such, are deceiving. Even if they don't mean to be, and are honestly doing the best they can to compile and sort the data, the inevitability of misleading data is going to doom us all.

That said.
Happy saint patty's day.
Was I drunk when I wrote this? You decide.

Comments

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Then reverse it. My point is that it has lead to an unfair world where people have to choose between food and a doctor, for example.

NOT TO MENTION: are you joking? you think that without the labor movement we wouldn't have workers struggling to feed their kids?

I believe we'd have fewer. No system is 100% perfect.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

....what about places that dont have labor movements? i mean, again, we can look at the planet and the history of laborers. your view seems to clash with, ya know, lief.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Are they modern, first-world types?

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

huh, whaddya know, first world countries have labor movements.
wonder why that might be....

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Because they have foolish workers.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

yes, and the rest of the world is composed of sensible workers who know how to KEEP IN THEIR PLACE

amirite?!

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Yes and no. It's not a straightforward comparison.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

You would think he could bring up at least one example of this utopian society that's at the very crux of his ideology. Woops.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

....what about places that dont have labor movements? i mean, again, we can look at the planet and the history of laborers. your view seems to clash with, ya know, life.