"You know, I generally like to start off my arguments by linking together two pieces of almost entirely unrelated information. Charles Lane works for the Washington Post. There were dozens of unsolved murders in Washington, D.C. last year. I'm not saying Charles Lane is a predatorial super-killer; far from it ... But Charles Lane really likes taking college students into alleys and savagely beating them with 2 x 4s. It is unwise for the Washington Post to continue to hire this man."
I don't know much about Lane, but I did read his story in full on the Washington Post (which you can see if you click on the Charles Lane link above). He went from talking about fixing the sugar industry to lowering minimum wage. Those were his points to trying to fix the job market. It didn't make any sense to me, and it didn't make any sense to Horn either.
As I have stated multiple times in the past few days, I recetly graduated. But before that happened, I was sending out resumes left and right to everyone and everything. I sent them to newspapers, magazines, restuarants, convenience stores, diners, etc. Everywhere! The only job interviews I got were ones for me to sell things door to door or to start my own business through someone else's business. I was willing to take minimum wage because I didn't have a choice. If someone would've given me a job and offered me minimum wage, I would have snatched that up so fast because the market is already bad. There aren't many options, even for recent grads. Lowering minimum wage would simply make things even harder for the recent grad, or the high school student, or the retiree who is looking for something less stressful. If you can't live off of $7.25, then you can't live off of $7. Or $6. Or $5.15. You just can't do it. You need at least $10 an hour to be OK. And that's even a stretch. It's just not feasible and to say that it would be is a lie. And you know what...YOU ALREADY HAVE A JOB THAT PAYS MORE THAN MINIMUM WAGE. It really makes my blood boil when people who have warm and fuzzy, stable jobs think that they should try to make decisions for the poeple who don't have one or who are paid less. I'm already paid nothing. Now you want me to get less than nothing. You want me to get -$7.25? Will that help the job market, Charles? Charles Lane has nothing to worry about. But, with the newspaper industry not doing so great...maybe he does. I bet he would really love it if he got laid off and could only work an entry-level job at McDonald's. Ten bucks says he wouldn't try to write articles about lowering minimum wage then!
