It's not like the reasons are a secret. The cause of the problem is articulated perfectly by Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute:
"Policy makers should be viewing broad-based wage growth and the quality of jobs as the lens through which they view economic policy. Right now, economic policy is focused on promoting high consumption and low prices, which lead economic growth to be dependent on cyclical asset bubbles and precipitous accumulation of personal debt."Critics argue that higher wages for workers means inflation and a higher cost of living, but as you can see from the Times article:
"Groups like the CATO Institute say that the key to economic prosperity is to freeze or eliminate the federal minimum wage rather than increase it -- because they claim higher wages leads poorer people to lose their jobs as companies seek to offset payroll rises. But if stagnant and lower wages are the key to economic prosperity, then the U.S. economy has had more than a decade to prove that.
It hasn’t."So on this Labor Day, take a look at the short animation fact presentation from the EPI, and understand why all those fast-food workers are striking. And think about what YOU will do this upcoming year to improve your economic standing in a system completely rigged against you.
