Agreed that Walmart pay their employees terribly. This is why unions exist. Walmart would say that there are people queued out the door to take the jobs even given the rates they pay, and they’d be right. That doesn’t remotely excuse Walmart doing it, but the problem isn’t Walmart; the problem is that it’s allowed to pay someone less than eating money to do a job. This needs fixing at a national, or global, level. So when someone complains about a minimum wage in your hearing, explain to them why a minimum wage is a good idea, and that it should be higher. And when firms such as Uber say that unions aren’t useful and employees should trust their employer to do what’s right for them, push back on it.
Absolutely agree with you: unions are WONDERFUL things, and so is the minimum wage. But unions are increasingly dying, and the minimum wage is so low that it really IS a poverty wage. Both need fixing. The minimum wage is an “easy” fix - just raise it. Although…raising it is not “easy” in this climate, unfortunately.
Some people have a real issue with the idea of a minimum wage, and with spending money on welfare checks to people who aren’t working (or are working for the minimum wage). I have yet, though, to find anyone who can sell me a convincing solution that would keep EVERYONE in a decent standard of living without having a minimum wage and without having welfare.
Why is that important? What we need is something which keeps everyone in a decent standard of living and does so via a minimum wae and welfare. Someone demanding otherwise is deluded. Fight them.
I find welfare to be an irritating subject. It seems to come down to two types. Those who need assistance and find it hard to get it. Why? Because of the second type, those who know how to work the system and thus abuse it. I have seen people, on welfare, living in nicer homes than I live in and/or driving luxury autos. When I see that, I think of the ones who are struggling, really needing assistance and cannot get it. And that the taxes I pay are supporting these abusers and not the ones truly needing it.
It is also sickening to know that the people working at Walmart have it good compared to the poor people who make the products they sale. I remember a news show, I think NBC, that went to Asia, to a sweat shop and followed a woman who worked 70-80 hours a week sewing stripes on sweat pants. They brought her up to the USA and showed her the pants she worked on. The reporter then asked a woman buying such pants if she would be willing to pay a dollar more so the poor worker could live a little better, for she made just enough money to buy rice for her and her daughter. No, she was unwilling to do that.
The poor woman was quite angry, and justifiably so. All I could think was: “Good going NBC”, for they took a woman who was downtrodden and miserable, and added bitterness to her life. For she saw that the ‘poor’ people buying the products she worked on were rich compared to her.
It makes me think of the words of ancient King Solomon who said “All of this I have seen, and I applied my heart to every work that has been done under the sun, during the time that man has dominated man to his harm.” Human government is, at best, impotent with such problems. Usually, they make things worse.