CEJ 5

Cnn.com
Opinion
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/24/opinion/greene-minimum-wage/
By Bob Greene
2/24/13

Citizens and politicians are wondering what life would be like if their was no minimum wage.  It all started during WWII in 1938.  All business had to pay their workers at least 25 cents an hour.  Now the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, but States can make laws that increase their minimum wage.  Minimum wage is looked at a symbol of protection that the government offers.

There are more benefits to having a minimum wage that not.  One of the main benefits to minimum wage is that it keeps people off the streets.  Pretty much everybody can live in a house and eat and ride the bus to work.  Minimum wage also keeps us from becoming a country like China where working for the business is almost like slavery.  What is slavery?  To me the basic slavery that first started was a person would work for a wealthier person and get very little out of it and had very little freedom.  If you let business like Mcdonalds pay their workers 25 cents an hour they might get food but that’s all.  Some would argue that it would create more jobs.  Yes it definitely would create more jobs, but it would make working a bigger punishment then it already is.  Nobody would be happy either.  Business that have expensive merchandise like Apple would go out of business because only the richest of the rich could get something.  This country almost requires citizens to have a bit of money.  We all have high standards of what we need and you really can’t do much without a decent amount of money.  I think our minimum wage of $7.25 an hour isn’t enough.  I think the government or employers need to offer their employees health insurance, housing, and a good life for their entire family.  Cities should also pay a lot of their tax money on developing more cheap transportation that poor people can use to get to their job.