There are many people in the Unites States that try their very best to make ends meet simply off of minimum wage. Some of these people are going to have to make that work for their entire lives. Whether or not you’re born into poverty, it’s extremely difficult to get out of poverty once you find yourself there. The federal, State and local governments have set several measures in place in order to help those in poverty but are they solving anything? What needs to change in order to better the future regarding poverty in America? Many “experts” only argue two things, “ raise the minimum wage” or “get rid of the minimum wage”!
The federal minimum wage was set in place in 1938 it was in the middle of the great depression and the economy in America had never been that bad before. President Roosevelt was at a loss for what to do to begin fixing the economy so he thought there was no better way than to create jobs. He did this by hiring many employees to work for the government but the problem was that all this new job creation in the government hurt the private sector even more. People began to leave the job they had in the private sector and began to work for the government because the hours were good, the pay wasn’t bad, and the benefits were great. So in order to incentivize people to work for the private sector also President Roosevelt created the Fair Labor Standards Act. This required employers to pay workers a minimum wage of $0.25 an hour, and the employers had to work in between a minimum and maximum number of hours per week. After these laws were set in place in the short-term businesses were forced to lay people off because of their overall expenses going up. Now after some time people began to go back to the private sector because of the benefits that came with it. Regardless of the minimum wage law’s after affects, the main reasons for it to come into effect wasn’t anything to do with minimum wage being a livable wage.
So many think that the minimum wage should be raised so it can become a livable wage but there are many problems that come with that. One beginning that as so as you raise the minimum wage you also raise the livable wage at the same time. It’s just a never-ending cycle, with inflation happening annually that would only be a short-term fix. Another reason is that when businesses are forced to pay more for their employees then they are going to look for other means to complete the tasks at hand. So if businesses automate their production line instead of keeping the employee they will save more money in the long run. Once this happens the employee now has no wage to live on, so this doesn’t help the problem either. So after learning about this and doing a lot of research the only things that I can see to help solve this is to help the people stuck in these minimum wage jobs get the opportunity to get out of their current position. The best ways I can see are all pointing to education, by learning or obtaining a new skill can help these works so much more than a few extra dollars added to their hourly wage.
It’s no secret that Americans are taught to spend money, from the day we’re born that it what we’re taught. With so many Americans in poverty there is no doubt that these are connected. Just over half of all Americans are not saving at least 5% of their income, and about one third of all Americans are not saving at all. This leaves many Americans vulnerable to fall into poverty overnight. If you have nothing saved and you lose your job you and your family are going to be in poverty before you know it. If everyone was taught to save more and spend less in the short term the economy might be hit a little but in the long term there would be more consistent growth with smaller down turns. So if America focused on working on the savings problem it could help solve the poverty problem as well.
Many people also argue that the government needs to spend more on putting money into programs that help people when they are in need. For example: places for people to stay or get money to help pay housing, clothing and food banks, medical costs, and food stamps. There are many people that use and may even abuse these benefits but the question is are they a Band-Aid or a long-term fix to the problem? I think if they were a long term fix we’d already be seeing an improvement with the problem but we haven’t, it’s actually only been getting worse. As I said before people probably abuse these resources and never plan on not using these services, because they aren’t designed to be long-term fix’s. Yes, they’re very helpful to the families in need with nowhere to turn so they can get by for a little while but what happens if they never get back on their feet and they just keep on taking this monthly bandage. Well if that keeps on happening the government continues to spend lots and lots of money on a service that isn’t working and the people that are in need on keep on getting Band-Aids. In order to fix this problem we need to but a method in place for the long-term. Instead of giving money to people in need give them education to provide them with a skill. Instead of just give the money to spend it freely, require that some of that money be invested or at least saved.
To me the system that has been put in place for a very long time has done nothing to prove its worthiness. To me something must be changed or nothing will change, the same results will continue unless we take action. For starters, the minimum wage isn’t the problem it’s the idea of what it is to people now a days compared to what is was when it was first introduced is the problem. People are simply thinking it’s something and it very well isn’t. Then the problem with public services, they’re currently a bandage and will continue to be unless we make a change. People need to understand how they got into poverty and then focus on the long-term on how to get out of it, also if the free gifts are endless why would you stop collecting them? Personally I think there should be a limit to the amount of public services you can use and no minimum wage but there should be a requirements for the employer to protect the employee like number of hours worked and safety precautions.
Work Sited:
- http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/02/news/economy/linda-tirado-poverty-hand-to-mouth/index.html?iid=Lead
- http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/29/smallbusiness/living-wage/index.html?iid=Lead
- http://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/nation/2012/10/08/1620263/
- http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/20/on-being-poor/?iref=allsearch
- http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2012/10/07/poverty-election-obama-romney/1618381/
- http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2012/10/12/how-raising-minimum-wage-would-help-economy/
- http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesdorn/2013/05/07/the-minimum-wage-delusion-and-the-death-of-common-sense/
- http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/did-the-minimum-wage-increase-destroy-jobs/?_r=0
- http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-fast-food-strike-minimum-wage-20130729,0,1355524.story
- http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-07-09/local/40464302_1_wal-mart-s-wage-retailer
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