One thing that stuck out the most to me during Friday’s lecture
was when Professor Breyman mentioned minimum wage. It astonished me that when
minimum wage was first instated, that the purpose was for two adults who were
working full time at minimum wage and 40hrs/week, could support a family of
four. Today’s federal minimum wage being $7.25/hr which would be $15,080/yr for
one person, or $30,160 for a family of four with two adults working full time.
By today’s standards, the poverty line is $23,550. Surprisingly, this means
that today’s minimum wage holds true the purpose of the minimum wage. Honestly, I
did not expect this to be true when calculating it out. It's hard to believe that $23,550 is suppose to efficiently support a family of four. Due to these statistics, this got me
interested in the other economic classes in the U.S.
The following was found:
Upper Classes:
$250,000+ 1%
$150,000+ 5%
Middle Classes:
$100,000+ Upper
Middle (33%)
$50,054 Median (50% mark)
$32,500 - $60,000 Lower Middle
$23,050 - $32,500 Bottom Middle - Working Class
Poverty Line:
$18,000 - $23,050 Lowest 15%
It is obvious from this data that the middle class is by far the
largest, being 79% of the American economic society. In addition, it has the
most hierarchies within the class. With
this being the largest area of the American working class, it also relates back
to Woodhouse’s Chapter Eight: Technological-Economical Innovations II when
discussing democracy in the workplace. If workers were to function was “representatives”
of people otherwise excluded from a business firm’s technological-economic
decision making, how would they be fairly represented? I see today in the
federal government that representative do not accurately represent what the
people want or stand for. As stated in "Henry Giroux on resisting the Neoliberal Revolution" “economics
drives politics” and those with wealth have power. So based on these economic
statistics, and this week’s articles, I wonder how can the poverty and median line be moved up and
these individuals be better represented, both in the work force, and the
government?
References:
http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/21/henry-giroux-on-resisting-the-neoliberal-revolution/
I agree with you that the minimum wage seems low especially if you plan to send kids to college while making that salary. I also agree with you that the middle class that makes up 79% of Americans is under represented because of their lack of wealth and power. While billionaires can essentially buy politicians to pursue laws that benefit them, the rest of America has to deal with how these new laws affect them with little say in the decision making process. It hardly seems fair in a system of government that is supposed to pursue what helps the majority of citizens.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with both of you. The US political system sadly hasn't evolved as fast as the distribution of wealth has. One small thing to consider: rather than moving the poverty and median lines up to allow for better representation, why not just seek change in the representation system? This goes back to lecture when the idea of "scooping water out of the tub as opposed to turning off the faucet" came up.
ReplyDeleteWhile it's true that the minimum wage does keep a family of four above the poverty line, what kind of quality of life are they going to have? Rather than looking at the minimum wage with respect to the poverty line, perhaps a better idea would to look at the poverty line and what kind of lifestyle that offers. Instead, we should maybe look into raising the poverty line to something that offers an acceptable quality of life, rather than the bare minimum to survive.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with that. It does keep a family of four above the poverty line, but that makes me wonder the conditions that these people are living in? Are they on food stamps? Increasing the poverty line overall increases quality of life and expectations.
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