The Controversy of Minimum Wage

The Congressional Budget Office has recently released a statement saying that raising the minimum wage from $7.25/hour to $10.10/hour could cost around 500,000 jobs.

What do people on each side have to say about this?

Supporters of the wage increase point to the figure that says this increase would put 900,000 families above the poverty rate. Also, many agree that those who make over $10.10/hour could see increases in their pay as pay scales are adjusted by bosses. The author of the legislation, Sen. Tom Harkin D-Iowa, points to different research contrary to the CBO’s, stating higher minimum wage would increase the number of jobs.

Those against the wage increase look to the CBO statement and Economics 101 about what happens when minimum wage is increased. Jobs will decrease. When the price of work goes up, the demand of work goes down. Companies are in the business to turn a profit, and as the minimum wage increases, the less money they are able to walk away with. This motivates them to cut low end jobs. Those against also say that our goal is to get more Americans out of unemployment, and raising minimum wage would hurt that goal.

The way I see it, it all depends on what you value more. If you are looking to pay people more for doing less prominent jobs, raise minimum wage. If you are looking for more jobs, keep the minimum wage lower. I think that it is better to bring more people out of unemployment than to raise people’s pay for doing the same job, but I recognize both sides have solid arguments.

Read more here and here.

Thoughts? Comment below to weigh in.

Who Actually Pays for the Crimes?

As we examine civil liberty issues from the past and present in our American Studies class, it is interesting to see similar events unfold before our eyes. The civil liberty in question today comes out of Elko County, Nevada. The county’s Commission and Sheriff agreed to start charging inmates for their stay. $6 daily for meals, $10 for a visit from a doctor, and an initial $5 charge for admission into jail.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is taking issue with this. The ACLU is a non-profit organization whose mission statement is “to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." Basically they defend people in court who they believe are having their civil liberties taken from them. In this case, they believe it is the right of a prisoner to get free food and health care from the county. The ACLU believe that if a jail charges its inmates, it takes rights from them.

On the other hand, there are people like Elko County Commissioner Grant Gerber, who believes the fees should be even higher. He says, “Why should the people of Elko County pay for somebody else's meals in jail?" Elko County Sheriff Jim Pitts reports the numbers for inmates is $85/inmate per day. This covers food, services, housing, and utilities. The capacity of the facility is 120, which means a total of $10,000 is spent each day on the prisoners. The prisoners don’t have to pay if they work for the jail, or if they are in prison under 24 hours. Also, those found innocent in the future get fully reimbursed.

Some might say this law would only feed the “Prison-Industrial Complex”. Arguments could be made that the prisoners would be exploited as either sources of income, or sources of free labor.

My line of thinking is completely opposite from that. I don’t think that civil liberties are being abused. I think this is criminals monetarily paying for their crimes.

First, we know that the prison system can be abused. Anyone who doesn’t want to work/can’t find work can easily commit a crime and get thrown into jail to get their needs met. Charging inmates would make this practice disappear, because crime would no longer be a free ticket to food and shelter.

Second, this would take a load off the backs of innocent taxpayers. Why would an innocent person have to pay for the crimes of others? That doesn’t make sense. Unfortunately, because prisons are government run, taxpayer dollars go towards that. Implementing this system would share the load between the taxpayer and the offender.

There are other reasons for my stance on this issue, but those are the two main ones. If you would like to weigh in, feel free to comment below.

Read more here.

My Thoughts on the Super Bowl

If you did not get a chance to watch the Super Bowl, I’ll fill you in on what happened. The Seattle Seahawks demolished the Denver Broncos 43-8. A matchup between the league’s best offense (Denver) and best defense (Seattle) turned into a clinic by the latter of the two. Many were shocked, being that this year’s MVP, Peyton Manning, was in the losing squad.

I was rooting for the Seahawks the whole game, but heading into Super Bowl Sunday I was convinced Manning would lead the Broncos to a championship victory. The Broncos came into the game as of one of the most potent offenses to ever play the game. Peyton Manning and his boys together broke 14 different offensive records during the regular season. With credentials like that, you would expect them to put up some large numbers in the Super Bowl, but that was not the case on sunday.

On the other side of the ball, the Seahawks came to play. They held Denver to only 27 rushing yards, and forced 2 fumbles on the way. They also made two interceptions, one for a touchdown. To start the second half, Percy Harvin took a kickoff 87 yards to the end zone to extend the lead by 22 points.

Overall, I don’t think this game is going to help the popularity of the NFL. The past 6 super bowls had all been nail biters, which kept the TV audience captivated. Fans don’t like blowouts. Fans don’t like to watch one-sided football. Fans don’t like to see one of sports’ biggest icons (Peyton Manning) get humiliated. Another let down to the fans was the the ads. In recent years, many people only watched the game for the commercials, which were mostly comical. This year, a lot of fans were let down with the scarcity of humorous commercials.

I was disappointed with the Super Bowl this year because of the quality of entertainment. It wasn’t very competitive, and the commercial breaks were boring. I’m still going to watch next year, but not because of anything that happened this year.

Anything you want to say about the game? Comment below