Minimum wage as a campaign issue? How many min. wage earners vote?

[Danieljay]

All the elections I've voted, rarely have I seen 'minimum wage' earners at the polls. Minimum wage SHOULD be dramatically increased, that being said I think Dems are again short sighted in whether or not this is actually a campaign issue.

Comments?

[tuvor]

1. Perhaps a more pertinent question.

How many minimum wage earners WOULD vote if it were a campaign issue?

[Warpy]

2. If we gave them a stake in the process

like RAISING THE DAMN WAGE, they'd have a reason to vote.

Right now they know it's a rich man's game and it's rigged in favor of the rich, so why bother?

[pooja]

3. never a better time to get American's to vote.. telll the poor

they'll get more money, drive a bus through the neighborhood on voting day and drive them to their. Remember that stupid movie with Chris Rock in it.. bus driver turned president... Let's get America involved in America and maybe things would change for everyone.

[Ezlivin]

4. There is an entire class of people who have given up hope of change

Honestly, if you wrote your representative and they wrote back thanking you for changing their mind, would you faint? I would.

To think that voting will change things seems almost comical in light of the efforts most people put into swaying their legislator's opinions.

I could change John Cronyn or Kay Bailey Hutchinson's opinion if I had a private jet and lots of money. Otherwise I will be ignored.

[5X]

5. Are you suggesting we can only vote on an issue if...

it directly affects us personally?

I am not a minimum wage earner, but this is an issue
that I would still fight for.

[Demit]

6. Oh? And how do you generally identify minimum wage earners at your

polling place? You apparently have some kind of system, or personal radar, to be able to say so definitively that they are rarely there.

[TheFarseer]

8. kind or like "gay-dar"

only "poor-dar" They're the ones that smell like sour milk and are wearing an "I'm with stupid" T-shirt. :sarcasm:

[jseankil]

10. FYI: The poor are less likely to vote

that's what the data shows. Between having to work more hours because they get paid less, not having a car, and many other reasons the poor vote in smaller numbers than the middle and upper classes.

[Demit]

11. Why, thank you, jseankil. But it's the personal eyewitness account of the

OP that intrigues me. So much more You Are There, you know?

[Danieljay]

21. yes, and i'm sticking to it. Refer to post #20.

Minimum wage earners are less likely to vote, plain and simple. Besides, If they voted the Republicans wouldn't be office, even with voter fraud and rigged voting machines.

[Ghost in the Machine]

16. but...but....but....

There was no one there in McDonalds, Krystals or Burger King uniforms voting. No one in 7-11, Circle K or Mr. Zip uniforms either! You know poor people don't have regular street clothes to change into....

[Danieljay]

20. well, years ago I used to work lower wage jobs, and 90% of those I worked

with never voted. They would often say 'it aint gonna make a difference anyway, so why vote?'. If the Dems got a vote for all the times out on the shop floor I heard that statement we'd control government.

When I worked the poll sites in the midwest, the average voter I saw came in was white, middle class and up. Republicans don't seem to care and they keep winning, so what gives?

[Danieljay]

22. lighten up Francis, despite what you want to believe...

there is a little truth within my OPINION. The poor are less likely to vote, plain and simple. We all know that.

I worked at the polls for a couple of large elections smack dab in the middle of a poverty stricken area. Who showed up to vote? Little old ladies and white middle class folks from the peripheries.

[Jade Fox]

7. Many voters are former minimum wage earners....

who haven't forgotten what it's like being on the low end of the income pole. And many Democrats are smart enough and principled enough to think it's an important issue even if it doesn't directly effect them. That's what makes us different than Republicans.

[StatGirl]

9. Yes, but it has to be properly framed

I haven't made minimum wage for many years, and I hope never to do that again. But it is in my interest to have the minimum wage raised. If more money goes to the working poor, that improves the economy a hell of a lot more than if the same amount of money goes to the top 1%. (I am obviously a Keynesian!) And it's not just the people at the bottom tier that get a lift. A raise in the minimum wage forces employers to raise the wages of people making more than that, as well.

Aside from the fact that it's the right thing to do, many people directly benefit from raising the minimum wage. And many more indirectly benefit through increased economic output and reduced social spending.

That said, I'd be willing to consider the argument that vastly increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit, including expanding it to non-parents, could be an alternative way of achieving the same result. But we'd have to be talking about the same net amount of money, and we'd probably have to be talking about raising taxes on corporations to pay for it.

[Danieljay]

23. good point..... thanks for a non reactionary well thought out reply! n/t

[BushOut06]

12. It's shameful that minimum wage should even be a campaign issue

It should be a common sense issue. You can't keep wages stagnant for over a decade while prices continue to rise.

[patricia92243]

13. Yes! Right! Amen! and whatever. n/t

[skipos]

14. How many voters used to earn minimum wage?

I would think many. I know I am one.

[jsamuel]

15. because people like you and me and everyone here and others elsewhere

also want the minimum wage increased, even if it won't directly benefit them

also, if "poor people don't vote" normally, then maybe they will if the can decide to raise the minimum wage by doing so

[Cairycat]

17. Raising minimum wage is simply the right thing to do

and that's why it should be a campaign issue. Representatives should look out for their constituent's interests, and most representatives have plenty of minimum wage earners (and many people whose wages are tied to the minimum wage) as constituents, whether such workers vote or not.

Not to mention that it could show that Democrats really do have the high moral ground while the Rethugs waste everyone's time on stupid, wedge-issue shit.

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. Actually I am working on a voter registration drive that targets

non-voters, like minimum wage earners. It is a long overdue task.

[Justice Is Comin]

19. A lot. And many of them are deliberately left standing at the polls

That's why they make sure there aren't enough voting machines in blue collar precincts.