Nation of Scrooges

From NYT: Study Finds Gap in Wages and Housing Costs: "In only four of the nation's 3,066 counties can someone who works full-time and earns the federal minimum wage afford to pay rent and utilities on a one-bedroom apartment, an advocacy group on low-income housing has reported."

Just think about this. I mean, really think about it. Think about what it means that in most of the country working full-time at minimum wage will not allow you to pay for just one of the bare necessities of living: housing. Wondering what that must be like? How do people get by? A few years ago, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to find out.

Now, President Bush can talk all he wants about the wonders of private, faith-based charity. I'm all for charity. But people who work full-time should not have to need it. And don't tell me what's wrong with welfare, I'm not talking about welfare either.

I'm talking about wages. If people who work the minimum wage cannot survive on that, who should we blame for it? Who is paying that minimum wage?

We are. Our businesses are. The ones in which we, or our pension funds, hold shares. And why do we pay that minimum wage? Because we're allowed to, and since we're allowed, that means others will do it, and if others do it, we have to too, to be competitive. That's how the market works. The market will never work any different. The market is good for a lot of things, but it's not good for our souls, because it means that right now lots and lots of people are "not getting by in America."

And that is a fucking travesty.

There are many things that government can't fix. There is a place for private charity, and there is a place for the market. But when neither charity nor the market can fix a problem, and it's a problem that the government can fix, we must demand of our government that it fix the problem. The government can raise the minimum wage. No other force can do so. If we do not demand this of our government, and we have not, then we must, on this Christmas morning, admit that we are a nation of Scrooges.