I’ve read this NY Times article about three times now in the last two days. Each time I read it, I get a little angrier. It’s about a growing segment of people referred to in the article as “mobile homeless” — people/families who have lost their homes and live out of their cars.
The number of “mobile homeless,” as they are often called, tends to climb whenever the cost of housing outpaces wages, Dr. Hopper said. Last year was the first year on record, according to an annual study conducted by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, that a full-time worker at minimum wage could not afford a one-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country at average market rates.
The notion of “minimum wage” is, in my mind a fucking crime. As long as “minimum” does not equate to “living” the term is just plain criminal.
Hattip to Sarah at Corrente for this one.
Yes, there are many reasons that lead people to lose their homes: devastating hurricanes, medical bills, a death in the household leading to half the necessary income… But it is the working poor living paycheck to paycheck who are teetering closest to that razor’s edge. Rising costs of housing outpacing stagnant income compounded by income not being adjusted to ever rising rates of inflation are major roadblocks to people picking themselves up by their bootstraps. Martin Luther King Jr. in regards to his personal rise to prominence said on an August 13, 1967 appearance on Meet the Press:
It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.
The issue of putting together enough scratch to maintain a home is colorblind and his statement is germane to the struggle for a living wage. A living wage provides a lowest common denominator where people can live and progress. The notion of minimum wage today is criminal.
I’m simply not old enough to know if the notion of a minimum wage ever really worked out as a living wage, but in my lifetime in this last quarter century, it hasn’t. If it ever did, great. But to think now that the minimum wage, which ranges from about $5.15 to $7.15 per hour depending on where one lives, provides enough income to live somewhat comfortably is a fucking sham.
I’ve watched ten year old footage of shows, documentaries, union meetings, what-have-you of people saying back in the 1990s and earlier that the minimum wage should be $9 or $10 per hour, yet we’re still stuck at a federal minimum of $5.15 per hour. I was recently told that in 1968, the minimum wage was $7.44 in 2005 dollars. We’re forty years behind.
While things like universal healthcare go a long way, a progressive push towards a living wage can help build up a little money to fall back on if a medical emergency were to occur. A living wage allows entire communities to collectively rise up above the poverty line. And with that little cache of income, families can spend a percentage more at their local markets and stores cycling money through their local economy. It is a trickle up effect. It never trickles down, never. I know that the Senate candidate I’m volunteering for, Chuck Pennacchio will fight for a living wage, I urge others to find similar candidates running locally during this midterm election to support.
What are your experiences with the minimum wage? How has your community tried to fight for a more level economic playing field? The minimum wage in your state.
