The Blog | Barbara Ehrenreich: The Piggery Award | The Huffington Post: "The Piggery Award
. . .While pondering Congress's rejection of a minimum wage increase this week, it's helpful to recall the basic taxonomic distinction between Predators and Pigs. Predators - in this case, those who employ people at unlivable wages - suck the marrow out of their employees, transform eager young women into stress-injured cripples, and virtually orphan the children whose parents are forced to work two or more jobs to support them.
Pigs, on the other hand, sit by wriggling with delight at these cannibalistic proceedings. It's their job to oink out choruses of praise for the Predators. 'Predation is Prosperity!' they proclaim, all the while hoping that some little scraps of flesh will fall their way.
So the Piggery of the Month award goes to those members of the US Congress who voted themselves a 'cost of living adjustment' raise of $3300 while refusing to raise the minimum wage from a pathetic $5.15 an hour. As economic commentator Holly Sklar notes, Congressional pay will have increased by $34,900 between 1997 and 2007--an amount that it would take three minimum wage workers one year to earn (or one minimum wage worker three years) - to $171,800 a year, plus luxurious benefits. . ."
Never in the long history economic reward and incentive has a body so richly not deserved its pay.
Revolution.
1 comment:
I checked out your proposition and I like it in general. One of your commenters mentioned the "pride factor" which is, I believe, a very important argument.
When it comes to taxes, I'm a bit of a scamp-- I believe everyone, no matter how rich or how poor, should pay X amount every year in taxes.
One point I for sure like is the idea that increasing the minimum wage helps kids buy cars etc. An economic waste? I agree. So the EITC would help solve that problem. Perhaps, what we should be looking for is a solution that addresses all these issues.
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