They were out there again today, demanding fifteen bucks an hour to work in fast food. The restaurant industry is violently against it, of course, claiming it will raise the price of our burgers and "destroy jobs."
Let's just take a closer look. First of all, fast food workers, these days, probably are not high school students earning a little gas money. Lots of them are adults. Plenty are single mothers, fitting in whatever work they can while their kids are in school. They qualify for food stamps (SNAP) and Medicaid.
That means taxpayers are subsidizing McDonald's, Domino's, Burger King, and other multibillion dollar corporations that contribute to obesity, diabetes, and other conditions that elevate health care costs. If the dollar menu goes to a buck twenty-five, and that results in fewer sales to poor people, we all come out ahead.
Other retail workers are in the same situation. Wal-Mart actually helps its "associates" apply for food stamps and Medicaid; and who's paying for it? We are – the taxpayers.
I'm angry. Are you?
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What's this?
- the view from vicworld
- This blog is a companion to http://vicworld.org, my introspective, philosophical and graphics intensive site for ontological adjustment. Here, on the other hand, I will try to deal with what most people think of as "reality."
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