In news that is definitely blessedly good in these awful political times California began forcing a $20 minimum wage for large-chain fast food workers, praise all the stars in the universe the little people actually got a political win!
I am not a teevee person, but it’s not my world, boss, every evening the thing is on to take in local, national and PBS news, god forbid anything should be planned on Mondays except Rachell Maddow. Every…single…time the California minimum wage law was reported it was always that classic franchise owner whining that gosh, we can’t deliver pizza if we pay a living wage, oh no, we’ll have to raise prices!
Not once did any teevee report ever mention, name or talk to a fast food worker, what it’s actually like to make it in that job for degrading, exploitative wages, what brutally keeping wages low for a huge class of our people does to all of us.
This is why corporate journalism is never to be fully trusted, they only give a damn about corporate profits and how stories can be framed, spun and told to uphold the almighty god damn dollar. In fairness to our journalism cousins print did a decent job of talking to fast workers, but woefully missed the larger economic environment of why the $20 minimum is necessary.
In absolutely dismaying polling data it’s consistently shown Republicans are trusted more with the economy, my god, how many times do they have to blow it only to leave a Democrat to clean up the mess for this perception to change? One of the reasons it doesn’t because a huge part of the country wants wages kept down forever as low as possible, and if the Republicans blow it with the economy and deficit every time at least they keep the little people brutally under heel. Right?
Unfortunately so, it’s gotten so bad the only credible political tactic is for a national $20 minimum wage to finally get the lower pay tier of American workers a chance to live.
Look, America is riven with racism and misogyny, yes, they’re two huge reasons we’re afflicted with Trump, but if you totally alienate, degrade and humiliate a huge section of the population with sub-human wages eventually they won’t give a damn about any political philosophy except tearing down the cruel system that smashed them so ruthlessly.
That’s always an element to the German fascism story, the horrible depression preceding it. It’s why Trump got 55,000 votes in San Francisco county 2020 with 30,000 registered Republicans, those 25,000 Trump voters came out of the woodwork out of racism and misogyny, okay, but a huge part had to be an economic massage too, screw this ridiculous system that is so cruel to so many of our people.
I have to go, my time slot with American capitalism is soon upon me. $20 an hour would never allow me to own a house or even rent a decent apartment in this environment, plus life costs of food, clothes, transportation, taxes…just forget it. Our little people on $20 an hour share housing, drive a used car if they can, buy expensive public health insurance, rarely see a dentist and never dare to dream about a tropical vacation.
In the land of milk and honey they just want a chance for the basics, it’s more than enough for us, believe me. Thank god for Gavin Newsom and the California Democratic Party for getting it and acting for us,