Originally posted by Pope:

The problem I have is the attitude that only the well educated should be paid enough to have a home (someplace to live), food, and clothing.

. . .

However, there will never enough "High Paying" positions to support the demand if everyone has a college education.



This is the point that I think Sigma, Dan and Tex are missing. Sigma, Dan and Tex seem to equate a college degree (and other professional training) with high wages, and assume that low-wage earners simply failed to get the education needed to earn higher wages. But that is a false assumption. I've seen reports that show that almost two-thirds of American workers are employed BELOW their education/professional level. In other words, we have millions of college graduates working in restaurants and as office temps, and hundreds of thousands of people with advanced degrees who have never been able to obtain a job in the field for which they trained. The fact is that there are NEVER enough high paying jobs for those who want them, and there are typically hundreds of applicants for almost any job that pays over $40,000 per year (Don't believe me? Jusk ask any HR person).

It may be easy for you guys to overlook this, because doctors, realtors, and computer whizzes (especially successful ones) have no particular reason to experience these facts firsthand. But trust me, there is a huge pool of underemployed and unemployed Americans out there. Every job we ship overseas makes it just that much harder for them to get the kind of job they trained for. That's what makes outsourcing such a violation of our social obligations to unemployed/underemployed Americans.

And Pope is also right about worker's rights to enough pay to live on. Right now, people at the low end of the scale earn $7 - $10 per hour, and that is not enough for food and shelter and clothing. A "living wage" here in So. Cal. is at least $15 per hour. Right now, our economic system forces low wage workers to live in poverty. It forces them to tap into public assistance of all kinds (see my earlier post about that), and it forces them to "subsidize" the middle and upper classes with their underpaid labor. We need a minimum wage that reflects the true costs of moderately decent living. I would not mind paying more for my burritos, clothing, etc., if I knew I was helping to ensure that my neighbors are paid a fair wage.