Thanks to Charles Wilkinson at Friends of Teamsters Local 222 for this, via
Common Dreams.
...the proposed increase in the minimum wage would actually increase employment.
In Brazil, the minimum wage was raised by 60 percent in real terms by the country's most popular president, Lula da Silva - a former metal worker and union leader - as Brazil's economy moved toward record low levels of unemployment. Across South America, other governments including Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela have significantly reduced inequality while increasing economic growth.
What a shame that the hemisphere's richest country, where it would be so much easier to lift-up the working poor, has moved in the opposite direction.
It means that the U.S. political system is actually more corrupt and less democratic in very important ways than those of our developing country neighbors to the south...
Raising the minimum wage is about the minimum that we could do to reverse America's retreat from civilization at home.
