Trevor Ladd

Immediate Threat to the United States; The People of the United States.  

Political ignorance has become an epidemic in the United States today, and now it’s costing the American people their quality of life.  The U.S.  has more nonvoters than voters, more “pop” culture news than political news—we are under informed, undereducated, and lack significant political interest.  The number of nonvoters in this country is ever increasing—it’s time to address why.  

In the United States “the People” are quite uninformed about politics; creating problems for the country as a whole.  The average American tends to blame government for any problems that are in our country, but who truly needs to be addressed and blamed is “The People.”  The United States operates under a federal government system, all voting and elections are decided by the people.  Every member of congress and the senate are considered members of “the People.”  We the people is the first thing seen and the pretty much the only legible writing on the United States Constitution.  It further sheds light on the fact that only “We the People” have the power, the power that is innately invested in us to make the our own decisions and not have our government make them for us.  Every decision that government makes in the United States is fundamentally decided by the people, not some evil  government monster as many deluded people would seem to believe.  This information is troublesome for several reasons.  Firstly, it shows that the people of the United States don’t know enough about their government to know that they run; that government is an institution set up purely to dictate that the needs of the people are being adequately maintained.  Secondly, it is a testament to how wildly and devastatingly under informed and uninterested the american people are with regards to  politics.  

There is something wrong, seriously wrong, if the people of the United States don’t understand the way in which their country is run, how it affects them, and why it’s an issue.  Too many people just dismiss politics, it just doesn’t matter to them.  It’s not their fault though, media and society are training the people of the United States to not care about such matters and to think that it’s an unreasonable talking topic.  Many people are taught since they are young that religion and the politics are two things that aren’t fit for discussion, as they are seen as topics that breed confrontation(for whatever reason).  The catch; it’s starting to affect us.  The people blame government when a bill gets passed that they don’t appreciate, or someone gets elected that they don’t like.  It’s time for the the people to own up to it and understand that it is the fault of their own if they are underrepresented and their opinions aren’t strongly conveyed.  It’s simple why, they didn’t vote; if they did it would be a whole different story.  About 60% of the voting eligible population votes during presidential election years, and about 40% votes during midterm elections. If the other 40% of the United States decided to take an interest in the actions and decisions of its country and actually vote, then the common interest would be truly and accurately expressed.  But sadly, we as a society today dismiss religion and politics in conversation because we don’t want to hurt peoples feelings, start a fight, or “Rock the boat.”   Most households in the United States treat politics as something that’s a problem starter, a fight starter, and etcetera.  So they stay away from it, they don’t talk about it, they don’t acknowledge it, and they don’t care about it until it’s too late and the damage is done.   

  In the interest of being non confrontational, the people of the United States have alienated themselves from politics and government.  It’s getting the country nowhere, because now our votes and elections are only taking what approximately 60% of our voter eligible population population into account.  The rest of our nation, the nonvoters,  aren’t getting the representation they need through votes and congress because they aren’t voting.  A majority of the population is dissatisfied with the rules, regulations, new laws, and elections that are taking place because they “Wouldn’t have voted for it.”  Well, the problems arise in that they didn’t vote against it either.   The nonvoters of the country are dissatisfied with the job government is doing when it comes to taking care of it’s people and the choices it makes.  They are not acknowledging that it is they who run government and it is they who are slacking and it is they who are digging themselves and ever bigger whole to climb out of because they are to lazy and uninformed to pay attention to current issues, take interest in politics, and vote for their stake in society and this country.  

America has only been a federal government for the last 226 years, and already the people are bored with it, it would seem.  Not being tentative enough to care about making sure their own needs are represented fairly and that they vote the right people into office to represent them.  Today, it seems that hardly anybody pays much attention to politics accept at the national level, and only peripherally at that.  This isn’t very healthy for individual needs of the people of this country in their respective states, counties, and cities. National politics doesn’t handle the matters of the state and local government that immediately effects the people of those states except under rare circumstances.  The Capitol here in Sacramento  is where many of the most important decisions regarding our state our made, these decisions affect the people of California more than any federal decisions do.  

The local level of government receives almost no media attention today, this is one of the reasons we have so little interest in Politics in the United States.  The people have had their thoughts and interests become driven and taken over by the media.  We watch television constantly, listen to music whether in a car driving or while exercising, and only go to big events regarding musicians and comedians.  The media doesn’t care about politics, the people, and keeping us informed—it’s a business.   If the media(in general) truly cared about the people, it would educate us.  There would be dozens of channels devoted to political information, we’d have local political news stations, wed have local radio stations; we’d have dozens of magazines related to politics, especially our local politics.  Local politics and local government is just disastrously under journalized, nobody cares about the politics affect them the most.  

The media is everywhere.  It’s attractive, it elicits an emotional response, it creates excitement, and it just finds a way to appeal to your interests and grab your attention.  Media is filled almost entirely with entertaining, controversial, and emotional stirring topics.  Politics, passing laws, electing mayors, conducting fundraisers, and etc. doesn’t garner enough attention from viewers for networks to air more political educating shows.  Because it doesn’t attract viewers as much as reality television like “The Kardashians,” or “Housewives of Orange County,” or “Big Brother” and other reality shows alike, it isn’t as valuable to television networks.   Thereby making it not as profitable to television networks,  so they air political and educational shows less and less, now it has hit a bare minimum.  It’s all about business, attracting viewers, and playing to there interests.  We need to have more and more news networks, more and more local coverage of local government, more and discussions about passing or not passing certain bills, laws,and etcetera.  We need a reform in our country, we need to educate our people on politics whether they like it or not.   If we can make that happen, the country will be much more pleased with it’s governments decisions because it will begin to reflect the will of the people, the majority, more and more until our country is what it’s people want it to be. 

We need to end the growth of this large and ever-present group of people, known as the nonvoters.  These nonvoters, a majority in our country, are fundamentally causing the decline of our values, rights, and importance.  We need a media reform, an advertising reform, a news reform.  We need to end the reality shows and replace them with more “CNN,” “MSNBC,” and etcetera until finding political news and information is easier than finding reality news controversies and the daily “411” on your favorite celebrities.  To get the people to pay attention to issues is a necessity, for them to care about issues that effect the country as a whole.  If the people don’t focus on politics why would they focus on the fact that they don’t focus on politics?  We need to talk about it, the longer we don’t the more of an issue it becomes.  We can’t avoid our problems, we can’t ignore our needs as a country.  If we pretend everything is okay until the bitter end then our society will certainly come to see a bitter end.  It will not take long, either.  With the advancement of media, technology, and, most importantly, advertisement, people are becoming more and more immersed until all we do, and all we are is what we experience in the media.  We need to ensure that what we become isn’t the wrong thing, that its educational and not harmful.  We need advancements in technology and media and our immersement in it to lend to our own ubiquitous knowledge of what’s going on in the world; it should educate us not dumb us down.  

It is time to reverse the trend and attack the growth of the nonvoters.  no longer should medias advancement hold our education for ransom, it should freely add to it.  If the television networks put as much into making politics interesting as they did into Charlie Sheen’s breakdown, than we would have a wonderfully developed social political standard.  Not the one that is continuing to degrade into the dull and government hating society we have become.  Our lack of knowledge and disinterest is purely self destructive.  It’s time to stop the trend, and the way to start is by paying due diligence and attention to your local government.  This affects you, your friends, your family, and your state as a whole.  Remember, politics matter, government isn’t to blame because the people run government, and most importantly, ignorance is not bliss.  Ignorance is our nations downfall, it will be the death of the constitutional rights of our people.  Don’t contribute to the nonvoters.  

Elizabeth Wood

23 February 2015

Minimum Wage: Raise the Pay

Countless Americans work hard every day to pay for the things they need, have, and want. Much of this work force is starting or stuck in an entry level job, and many find it difficult to continue out of this job bracket. Regardless of age—and more importantly, life situation—these workers all have an identical problem: minimum wage. While this may sound unimportant, or perhaps even deserved by the workers, there are actually many problems present with the current federal minimum wage. Typically, one would think that the current state of the minimum wage is reasonable, with the assumption that most minimum wage workers are high school or college students, new to the work force, looking to earn a few bucks aside from what their parents allot them. However, this wage is harming more than just well to-do teenagers. Employers could make an immense difference in the lives of thousands with a slight increase in pay for their employees. 

Currently, the federal minimum hourly wage is a mere $7.25 (Perez), and a pitiful $2.13 for workers who receive tips ("What Is the Minimum Wage for Workers Who Receive Tips?"). While there are many states working to boost the minimum wage, the highest standing minimum hourly wage is $10.50 in the District of Columbia ("What’s the Minimum Wage in Your State?").  According to an article by Dustin Hawkins, the opposition for raising the minimum wage tends to arise from those concerned for the well being of businesses, the availability in the work force, and the effects of a higher minimum wage on other costs (Hawkins). In his article, Hawkins addresses that an increased minimum wage would cause employers to be more selective with their hiring decisions, since “employers would rather pay one excellent employee $16/hr with benefits rather than pay two inexperienced entry-level workers $9 with benefits,” which would be bad news for anyone searching for an entry level job (Hawkins). Another concern was that the increase of cost to pay for employees would negatively affect the businesses paying to afford them. However, according to an article by Dave Gilson, since 1990 the cost of living has increased 67%, whereas the value of minimum wage has only increased 21%. This means that working full time at minimum wage, a worker could earn about $15,000 year, but in order for a single worker to have enough income for economic security, they would have to earn $30,000 annually (Gilson). Without an increase in pay, workers could never live comfortably—it would be impossible when only earning half of what they need to survive without being impoverished. 

While this lack of sufficient pay is causing workers to suffer, the money that the workers aren’t seeing is actually going to the top 1%, who in 2007, earned 160% more than the average American household (Gilson).  While every business owner is not in the “1%” category, the people signing the paychecks could likely spare more money than they may have thought. Despite Hawkins’ concerns, increasing minimum wage would not hurt businesses, and according to the United States Department of Labor, “Academic research has shown that higher wages sharply reduce employee turnover which can reduce employment and training costs” ("Minimum Wage Mythbusters"). While it may only be a start to changing the lives of all Americans, raising the minimum wage to at least $10.90/hr could make a huge change in the lives of these workers. The reason the proposed raise to the Federal Minimum wage is so low is that many articles state that raising the minimum wage would cause employers to reduce the amount of employees they need to pay in order to compensate for the increase of cost (Gillikin). In fact, it’s surpisingly difficult to find too many popular articles that attest to raising the minimum wage as being generously conducive to the American population. There are articles stating that it would harm teens and minorities because of the reduced job availability, that low skill or entry level workers would be out-competed for a job (Gillikin), and that about 49% of minimum wage workers are 24 years old and under (Wilson), until it comes to the point where it is difficult to justify raising it. It would only help a few people and cut out the rest of them, which would just cause more problems than it would fix. But here’s the thing: after the minimum wage is raised, if employers don’t fire off half of their employees for the sake of maintaining profits, there could actually be some serious benefits. 

Here’s the truth: 88% of people who might benefit from an increased minimum wage are 20 and older, and 55% percent of that 88% are women ("Minimum Wage Mythbusters"). Maybe some of these article writers were never in want of money growing up, but looking at statistics for college students, in October 2013, “the labor force participation rate…for full-time students [was] 43.4 percent [and]… for part-time students 82.1 percent” ("College Enrollment and Work Activity of 2013 High School Graduates"). That means that 82.1% of part time students were also working, more than likely to be able to pay for their classes, their food, their housing, their fuel, their insurance, their appliances, or any combination of. Even full time students are working to pay for these things. College is expensive. Even with federal aid, even with student loans, it takes years, sometimes even decades, for these students to pay off their college debt. That’s not an easy task. Everyone jokes about the “starving student,” but truly, many of these students will actually be going hungry tonight, or maybe this week, because they work a minimum wage job when they can and have to spend all of their earnings on school or any other expense that comes with being a human being. If the minimum wage were higher, maybe less people would drop out of college in fear of debt. Maybe more people would attend college because they weren’t afraid of not being able to provide for themselves immediately out of high school. If more people were more educated, they wouldn’t have to worry about working minimum wage jobs, opening up the job market for others that need entry-level work.

Additionally, if employers took the leap to raise their own minimum wage, regardless of federal minimum wage, the economy could potentially see a visible positive difference. With minimum wage as low as it is, the amount one may receive from welfare is about 4$ a week less than one may receive from actually working at minimum wage (Gillikin). Maybe others think differently, but if one could be paid roughly the same to either work or sit around and read a book, they’d probably much rather read a book. There is almost no incentive for a minimum wage worker to bother doing probably grueling labor over living a relaxed life. If one were to look at numbers of people below poverty line, according to the United States Census Bureau, 14.5% of Americans rest in that category—that’s 45.3 million people. It is baffling that none of these articles mention that raising the minimum wage would give these people incentive to work—rather than take from the government—which would in turn lower the amount of government spending. Also, if these families were paid decently, they could begin to pay taxes, which would potentially lower the massive deficit that currently sits on our White House. Moreover, when people make more money, they spend more money. If people earned more, they could pay for more things, further stimulating the economy and compensating for the raise in pay that Americans could potentially see. 

Raising the minimum wage is a circle that has yet to be fully considered, but in the end, there are few that would not benefit. If businesses raised what they paid their workers, if the governments recognized that $7.25/hr is not enough to keep a family alive, healthy, and functioning, and if article writers addressed how the increased pay would provide more good than bad to our country, then maybe the people in power would recognize that it really is time to make a change. However, awareness is the largest factor: while raising the minimum wage has become a growing concern, there are still those who feel it won’t help those who really need it. Perhaps those who express concern are the ones that would be paying for the raise in pay. In that case, maybe the Americans who work hours on end for measly cash to barely scrape by should get a taste of the salary of those who don’t pay enough. They think employees can live like that, so maybe they should try it. However, since that’s not particularly likely, the best that can be done is continue to raise awareness, share your own story through sites such as raisetheminimumwage.com, and press business owners to make the change and pay what American’s really need. 

"College Enrollment and Work Activity of 2013 High School Graduates." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. United States Department of Labor, 22 Apr. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.

Gillikin, Jason. "Problems With Minimum Wage." Small Business. Chron, n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.

Gilson, Dave. "Overworked America: 12 Charts That Will Make Your Blood Boil." Mother Jones. N.p., July 2011. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.

Hawkins, Dustin. "Why Conservatives Oppose Raising the Minimum Wage." US Conservatives. Conservative Politics: Economy and Taxes, n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.

"Minimum Wage Mythbusters." United States Department of Labor. Secretary of Labor, n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.

Perez, Thomas E. "Wages." U.S. Department of Labor. Secretary of Labor, n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.

"United States Census Bureau." About Poverty. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.

"What’s the Minimum Wage in Your State?" Raise the Minimum Wage. National Employment Law Project, n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.

"What Is the Minimum Wage for Workers Who Receive Tips?" United States Department of Labor. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.

Wilson, Mark. "The Negative Effects of Minimum Wage Laws." Downsizing the Federal Government. N.p., Sept. 2012. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.