If Mitch McConnell had it his way, we all would be working for less than $2/hr. But we really know that the repugs want all of the 99% to work for free, that is their ultimate goal. Why else do you think they keep meddling into a womans reproductive system and denying abortion even though it was supposed to be the legal currently. They want every pregnancy forced to birth and more poor people mean more desperate people who will work for enough to feed 1 person just barely for the day, just like in other 3rd world countries do.

Minimum wage needs to be indexed to inflation so that the people earning the least can still live in this society. Pay is being down graded since 1970, with less an less being paid for services rendered that are below the operational limits of survival. That is a moral an economic wrong.

Millions of Americans to Be Driven Into Poverty, Study Says…

Good, it will serve them right.

The poor don’t vote for someone who will represent them if they vote at all. Just an aside, I note that Stephen Colbert got more votes than Huntsman - this country is so crazy that a good man like Ralph Nader would have garnered even less votes .... people would choose a celebrity comic over an educated progressive with a sterling track record of championing consumer rights, taking on big corporations etc. Ralph champions their causes but they abandon him ... maybe they deserve their plight then…

note, please, that i do not identify or conflate pious people or their piousness with clero-noble
class’ ‘teachings’ or with the clero-nobility.
it is these ‘teachings’ that cause all evil that happens to us on intrapersonal, interpersonal,
interethnic, intra-ethnic, intrafamilial, interfamilial, intersectarian, and intrasectarian or
intereligious levels.
i suggest that piety existed for eons before mafioso-like org, aka, “religion”, came around.
but once this mafia arose, hell on earth arrived. and is with us today; more of a hell in some
regions of the world.
and getting more hellish by day; especially for darkies from which we ourselves emanated. thanks

if the planet is getting poorer [looks like it is, tho] then some people would obtain fewer goodies,
less work, schooling, healthcare, social welfare, etc.
had we continued to live pastorally as we had for eons and shunned all electrical and fossil energy,
drowned all priests and nobles, we would have still had that good life today.

earthlings, being, thus, of one mind, could have—once everybody ate, had roof over one’s head,
worked, etc—limited population growth to a sustainable level and for the benefit of all planetarians.

unfortunately, our ancestors did not send priests/nobles to a devil’s island or another planet or
drowned them. but we can. give them and all Dems/Repubs an ultimatum: either you stop doing so
much evil against us and biota or off the planet you go. otherwise, the greatest asylum and hell on
earth to stay for eons longer or until the end of our planet.
how about it, OWS? thanks

OK here’s the thing.

  Everything they have done to us, they did right in front of us.  WE can do it right back.

But there’s a better way.  It requires a little sophistication but most 9th graders can pull it off.

  REalize that our economy was not created in 1776.  It developed over time.  Even in the mid 1800s most people did not have a “job” but “worked” on a farm.  On a farm if you have no money you don’t die.  You don’t starve, you aren’t homeless.  Industrialization has been a double edged sword in this regard.  Most people have “jobs” but if they lose that job and go broke they might become homeless and starve.  At minimum they see no solution and become desperate and do sesperate things.

OUR Constitutional Government has created a way to gather taxes and draft armies.  It has not created a way to protect all citizens.  That is a big missing part of our “Constitution.” 

All we need is a personal citizen gurantee.  If you vote, you and your children get to never worry about starving or having a home.  And all the guys in prisons now get to build all that housing in exchange for their right to vote.  After that we must teach a philosophy of sustainable industry like Canada is doing.  And then enjoy our children and enjoy teaching and becomming educated. 

I apologize for being long winded but have left a few things out in the interest of brevity.  My understanding as expressed here has been derived from the writings of; Robert Heilbroner,  Ha Joo Chang, William Milberg, and others

So many of these were the same people who insisted that poverty is merely a “lifestyle choice,” and that the poor must be treated very harshly.  They will soon have the opportunity to benefit from the very policies they, themselves, supported. They, too, will be able to experience the bitterness of hearing the comments (from those who are still in that glorified middle class) about how they must learn to get up in the morning, pull themselves up by the bootstraps, look for a hand-up and not a handout, work hard and play by all the rules, and all those other idiotic cliches the middle class invented to “shame” the poor out of choosing poverty.

If you don’t have anything to lose, why not protest or write to your congress? Almost anything is better than doing nothing - it looks like the poor expect someone else to do the talking for them. I suspect they are embarrassed as they blame themselves for being a failure in such a “free” country where ‘anyone can be whatever they want to be’. LOL

People at the bottom don’t speak out because they are afraid they might lose what little they have. 

That’s where the minimum wage comes in. 

It’s not enough to live on, but if it’s all you have, you sure don’t want to lose it.

“Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose.”

Millions of Americans to Be Driven Into Poverty

In other news, Republicans claim that helping them would hurt ‘the economy’.

I empathise, however where are these millions and why aren’t we hearing from them? Do they expect someone else (like Ralph Nader) to speak for them and then ignore him when he runs for government? If you don’t speak, you can’t be heard. I suspect though that after having celebrated rich people and how great America is, instead of questioning the system, they blame themselves.

I agree wholeheartedly that millions of people,
especially Americans, will be driven into poverty.
However, I don’t agree with the future tense “will be.” PRESENTLY, they ARE being driven into poverty.
When Pres. Obama talks about less unemployment he
doesn’t mention the criteria used to determine
“less unemployment.” However, to be fair to Pres.
Obama, NO POLITICIAN discusses the criteria used
to justify their assertions. It’s part of their
political spin. As a society we need to teach
potential voters how their thoughts and votes are
being manipulated by the various means of political
spinning.  Teaching the sinning(a Freudian slip since I meant to type “spinning”)manipulative tactics used by politicians is a monumental challenge since the various television media are
owned by puppeteers controlling the strings for
the manipulative deceptive politicians.  It would
be nice if the majority of people watched Democracy
Now and other programs on the Free Speech and Link
channels but they don’t.  Most potential voters
don’t even have access to Free Speech and Link
channgels.  Therefore, the challenge looms before
us.  Perhaps, someone has ideas how we educate
potential voters how their thoughts and votes are
being manipulated.

To the elite that run things nothing really maters unless it happens to them. The poor
must be guilty, either of not knowing the right people, not going to the right schools, not
coming from the right family…..or just being unattractive…

Therefore no one wants to look at them or their plight…and since no one is willing to
glance in their direction, no help will be forthcoming…

Hard cheese….

People employed at minimum wage live in poverty. Is
this revolting fact what establishing a minimum wage
was meant to result in?