I frequently see the following graphic posted on friends Facebook pages and, every time, I think it is too simplistic. I believe it is a tool of the far right to try to justify bad legislation and is actually harmful to the poor in our country.
When you read this list, on the surface, it seems
indisputable. However, these are NOT absolute
truths. There are some things you MUST
consider.
1.
You
cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of
prosperity.
However, you can require that corporations
and the wealthy pay a living wage to those who work for them. A living wage is hardly what most of us would
consider prosperity. Nor will the rich become poor if they are forced to pay decent wages. However, some would
have us think this is the case.
It is a common misconception that
minimum wage jobs are all fast food entry level jobs mainly for high school
kids and college students. This is
simply not true. Nor are students even
available all day or all night to work these jobs. They are in school. Laws also regulate when, and how many hours,
teenagers can work each week. Consider this,
many jobs that are at, or near, minimum wage require training. Some even requiring
college. The following jobs pay at or
near minimum wage in most states: bank
tellers, EMS workers, nursing assistants, department store and grocery store
clerks and stockers, many construction jobs, teaching assistants and
paraprofessionals, janitors and building cleaners. Even regional airline pilots, adjunct
professors, home health aides, and hairdressers typically only make only
slightly more than minimum wage. These
are all jobs that we need. They are not
entry level jobs. These people deserve a
living wage, not a starvation wage. The
top 1% will still be the top 1% even if they are required to pay living wages. This is NOT legislating the poor into prosperity and the wealthy out of it.
The minimum wage was originally
established in 1938 as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act which, by the way,
also established that people had to be paid overtime for work that they did
over 40 hours per week. The rich didn't want to pay that either. The minimum wage
was set as the minimum amount that was necessary to live on for someone working
40 hours per week but it has not been adjusted to stay current with inflation. Thus, it is clearly no longer a living
wage. Had the minimum wage been tied to
inflation, and had cost of living adjustments been made yearly, we might not
have many of the problems we have today.
2. What one person receives without working
for, another must work for without receiving.
and
3. The government cannot give to anybody
anything that the government does not first take from someone else.
Partially true. Certain things must be shared for the good of
society. Although others receive the benefits of your tax dollars, so do you. Schools are public, and are
paid for by state taxpayers and local homeowners, yet not everyone has children
who will attend them and not everyone is a homeowner. We pay for and share Police, Fire Departments,
roads, etc., with our tax dollars, too. We
also pay for prisons, which no one wants, yet I bet it would be hard to find
one person who doesn’t think they are necessary. No one wants to be on the receiving end of
that tax benefit!
I submit that a single-payer health
care system should be added to the list of these “socialist” programs that we
all need. Otherwise, we must assume that
the poor person, or the middle class person, does not deserve health care and
deserves to die if they become very ill and cannot afford to pay. By this standard, only the rich deserve to
live, because medical services often cost a lot of money. Whom would you deny health care to? One benefit of providing universal health
care is that it would actually cost each of us, individually, LESS than we are
paying now because everyone who pays taxes would be paying into the system. Even the poorest among us who are working are
paying into Medicare and Social Security and a single payer health care system
would work the same way. The rich could still
have swankier hospitals and doctors if they wanted to pay more for them.
Statements like #2 and #3 above are
primarily used to attack food stamps and assistance programs for the poor and
disabled. And, no, I don’t disagree that
there are those who abuse those programs.
However, a huge number of people who are receiving assistance are also
working full or part time. Look at
Walmart workers for example. They are
working, yet not making enough to live on and often receive food stamps. Would you take the food out of their mouths
when they are at least trying to earn an honest living? Wouldn’t it be better if Walmart paid them a
living wage so that they could afford to pay for their own food and they didn’t
need a hand. Studies have shown that, to
raise workers’ wages to a living wage, Walmart would only have to raise their
prices by about 1 cent.
4.
You
cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.
Actually, in a sense, you can. It’s simple economics. Money that is not circulating is not creating
jobs and opportunities for others. We
already learned the hard way that “trickle-down economics” does not work. Money is hoarded at the top. By taking a fair portion (dividing) from the
extremely wealthy and corporations, and using that money to repair and support
the infrastructure of our country, jobs and income are created. Those receiving the income spend it, and more
jobs are created (multiplying wealth). This
supports a healthier middle class.
The entire tax burden for
supporting the infrastructure of this country should not be, and cannot continue to be, placed
on the back of a shrinking middle class.
The middle class is far too small at this point to continue to bear the
burden. When successful corporations
receive handouts larger than anything we pay for social programs from the poor,
and when a millionaire pays just 15% or less in taxes while someone in the middle
class with far less money pays 25% or 28%, there is something fundamentally wrong
with the system. Corporations and the
wealthy must, once again, begin to pay their fair share.
5. When half of the people get the idea that
they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them
and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because
somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the
beginning of the end of any nation.
It is a sad commentary about our
nation if we believe that half of the people are not working to earn a
living. The statistics just do not bear
this out. Most people want jobs, and most people are working. The unemployment rate would be far higher otherwise. Of
course, there are those who don’t want to work, and they are the ones who, unfortunately, get the press. It is not a crime, or shameful, to be poor. What the statistics do bear out is that the
middle class, who pay the bulk of the taxes, is shrinking. Thus, the burden on them is becoming greater
and greater and this cannot continue indefinitely. We are at, or near, the breaking point.
Many of the financial problems our
country is experiencing now can be traced back to reducing the income tax on
corporations to the point where highly profitable corporations now receive tax money
back from the taxpayers instead of paying taxes. And the wealthy now pay less, percentage-wise,
than the middle class. The bills that
made this happen were bought and paid for by the wealthy and corporations and
were written into law by our corrupt corporate-owned Congress.
Additionally, American companies have moved jobs overseas, further
eroding the middle class. And, the
minimum wage is no longer a living wage so more people need assistance.
Our government used to protect our industry
by use of tariffs to keep our companies competitive with foreign goods. For a foreign company to gain a foothold, it
had to either provide superior goods, or lesser goods, but for a lesser price. Now, everything is cheap and throw-away. The Free Trade Agreements have benefited
foreigners, corporate executives, and everyone BUT the average American.
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