Remember this presidential slogan? Well, what does it really mean? Let me lay it out for you. Conservatives say, “paying a livable wage” will break and drive small businesses out of business. This is bovine fertilizer.They've been saying it since 1938 when it was enacted at $.25 an hour. Guess what small business is still going, growing, and is stronger than ever. But minimum wage is not a livable wage, it's just above slave labor. This is just a 'get by' wage for one person. A family of three or four can't possibly even eat properly on this wage. Who pays for medical care, dental benefits, child care, transportation, school tuition, etc for every minimum wage job in the USA? Yes, that's right, the tax payer. Each job is subsidized, by you and me, to the tune of about $6.00 to $9.00 per hour, per worker. That means that you and I are  paying the employee's benefits. These are expenses the employer should be paying.

The inequality of pay between the top corporate executives which was about twenty five times the lowest paid worker in the seventies has now risen to over five hundred times the lowest paid worker. Read this Article for more information on the inequality of the two classes in America.

Believe it or not some of our publicly owned corporations  really rip off their stock holders by paying  their CEO as much as $230,000,000 a year in salary and stock options.  No person alive can be so beneficial to a corporation that he can even ern that much for the company. It's just a legal way for the board and the executives to steal from the stockholders. When it comes time to negotiate a raise for the workers, the executives squeal like a stuck hog, when when workers seek as little as $1.00 an hour increase.   

Paying an employee a livable wage and benefits does not drive a business out of business, only poor management and a lack of knowledge kills a business. Let us look at an example of two employees. One from a typical 'small business' and one from a 'large corporation

We will look at an Electronic Technician that has an A+ certification. Let's say she is a recent Junior college graduate with an Associate Degree, I.E. An ASE degree.

She is employed by a small business at $12.50 an hour. She is married and has 2 children, one two years old, and the other, one year old. She is a single parent, her husband had been killed in a car accident. She is paid no benefits. Her employer charges $90.00 an hour for her services on a customer's site. She uses her car and is paid  $.35 a mile for travel to customer's sites. ( of course, this won't pay for more that half of her car expense, but she needs the job.) She still needs medical, dental, life, and disability insurance. She also needs child care for two children. But, she can barely afford to feed herself, children and make car payments. Who pays for all the other 'benefits' she needs, again it is American tax payer. She qualifies for medicare, for herself and children. She also qualifies for assisted child care, again at tax payer expense. (Do you see something wrong with this picture?) Why is this employer permitted to pocket the approximately $10.00 an hour that should be paid in benefits, NOT put in his pocket.

Now, let's look at the another employee, who is doing the same job for a major corporation. She is paid $15.50 an hour, medical, dental, life, and disability insurance. She also receives some child care assistance. She returns about $3.50 an hour for an employee's contribution to insurance and to hr 401k retirement. This means that she and her employer are paying for her benefits. Not YOU and ME, the tax payer. This corporate employer charges $95.00 per hour for her on site service.

The cost of benefits are about the same for each employee, or would be if the money did not go through government bureacracy first. They cost about 40% more this way. The important thing to gather from this example is that the position pays about the same to the employer in each situation. However, the corporation fulfills it's responsibility to the employee by providing benefits as well as a fairly reasonable wage.

The small business owner does not fulfill his ethical responsibility to the employee, by providing benefits, nor to the country. He is throwing his responsibility on to the backs of the taxpayer. This is an issue of economics the American taxpayer does not seem to grasp about all minimum wage jobs. Every one of them is subsidized at the tune of about $6.00 to $9.00 per hour for each job, for each worker. Yes this means for the millions of minimum wage jobs available in the USA, we, the taxpayer, are forking over from $12,000 to $18, 000 per job per year for benefits, which the employer should be paying.

Will the small business go out of business paying a livable wage AND BENEFITS? NO, not if the business is managed properly. Remember, in this situation, the employers charge about the same for on site service, so, what's keeping the small business from paying benefits? Poor management, greed, and profiteering at employees expense? Maybe the issue needs to be looked at from another perspective, that is how much could the various governments save if employers met their responsibilities? Why should any business be subsided by the tax payer?

We also have one other issue to look at, that is the issue of illegal immigrants coming into our country and working for practically nothing. Most of these jobs do not even pay minimum wage. Of course the illegals get no benefits, either. It really amounts to slave labor. Let me state the real problem in the USA. It is not illegal immigrants, it is illegal employers. The law is not enforced, first at the border, next with the employer. If an employer, that employs illegal immigrants, were fined $10,000 for each employee, on first offense, and $25,000 per employee, for 2^nd offense, and jailed on third offense. The so called JOBS, would dry up. If the president did his job of enforcing the constitution and the immigration laws, this problem would disappear. Then we could give work permits to legal immigrants.

The various states also have a responsibility to enforce the laws of their state in dealing with illegal immigrants, but they are not enforcing the law either. But we the citizen are ultimately responsible for ensuring that the laws are enforced. We must understand that by allowing our elected officials to get away with not enforcing the laws. Every illegal immigrant that is allowed to work in our country, cost the taxpayer several dollars an hour to subsidize each job. They end up getting benefits from federal and state governments in the form of free medical, free dental, college grants, free child care, These are things our own “working poor” citizens can't get, but the politicians throw them at the “illegals” to curry votes with legal immigrant voters and citizens of that ethnic group. Everyone, except the, 'illegal employer' in this kind of situation, loses.

If American workers, and LEGAL immigrants, are paid good livable wages, they can afford to buy American made goods and keep the economy strong. But if American workers are out of work, or only paid minimum wages, they then buy inexpensive junk from China and other third world nations. There is nothing wrong in trying to find a bargain, but to buy nothing but cheap imports, is basically destroying the job market in the USA. Further, when a jobs goes off shore, the middle class I.E. "working class" is being destroyed.

We, the taxpayer can choose to pay the employee's expense through tax subsidies or through buying the products turned out by American workers. Or we can let the jobs be taken up through 'slave labor' by the illegal immigrant, or minimum wage jobs, and pay for it through tax subsidies. This allows the employing company to pocket exorbitant profits, pay no benefits, and contribute nothing to the American community. The one thing that the "rich and powerful" don't seem to understand, that while they are destroying the middle class, they are also destroying their "buyers base". They will soon get the message, when they can no longer sell their products.

For a breakdown on minimum wage paid to workers check the Dept. Of Labor information at this sitehttp://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2005.htm

Politicians want cheap labor, because it brings support, and money from big businesses. Businesses also, want cheap labor for it allows them to pocket excess profit. A minimum wage worker is paid $10712.00 a year at the current $5.25 an hour. The taxpayer pays from $6.00 to $9.00 an hour for each minimum wage hour worked . But the story they does not tell you is that each one of these jobs cost the American tax payer $12 to $16 thousand dollars a year. I want to lay out a scenario for you as to what happens when just 1, (one} $70,000 job goes offshore, say for $10,00.

There are: 1 less $250, 000 house sold,             

2 less $30,000 automobiles sold,

1 less $15,000 boat,

1 less $15,000 motorcycle,

$3000 to $5000 less gas sold,

1 to 3 less college tuitions paid,

$4,000 to $7,000 less groceries sold,

$6,000 to $8,000 less taxes paid.

There are other things that this job salary will buy in the USA. That $10,000 job that went to India, won't spend a dime in the USA. There are 2 to 4 million jobs a year going to other countries. These 'job drains' are destroying America's economy, American's dream, and the American's citizen's future.

It is not about conservatives vs. liberals; Republican vs. Democrats, Independent vs Libertarian. It's class war, poor vs. rich. It's about greed, economics, and the economy of our nation. It's about the survival of the “middle class”. One thing the “rich and powerful” do not get, is that as they destroy their customer base in the “middle class”, they are destroying the people that can afford to buy the products that keep them, “rich and powerful”.

In reality, it is the economy, ------. I won't finish the statement, only you know if it applies to you. Do you want the status quo to exist in the USA, or do you want the country to get off, with a new start? If you want a new start, where employers are held responsible for paying your neighbor a livable salary with benefits, then write your Representatives, Senators, and your legislators, and demand a change, where everyone pays their own way. Tax payers should not subsidize any job, or support any company, through taxes, that employs illegal immigrants. Further, you should not support or buy from any company that ships jobs offshore.

Above all, STOP illegal imigration!