Letters 1/18/07

Jan. 17, 2007

Living the dream
To the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, lobbyists, and corporate groups who oppose the federal minimum wage increase to $7.25 an hour.
Your resistance is uncalled for. With the minimum wage increase of $7.25 an hour an individual‘s monthly income would be $1,160 a month and $13,920 a year, before taxes are taken out.
These numbers are well under the poverty wage for the United States of America.
The challenge I put out to anyone who resists this pay increase is this: Would you be willing to give up your current wage (which is well over $7.25 an hour) to work for $7.25 an hour? Would you be able to live your American dream on that wage?
Would you be able to save money to pay for your children’s education? Would you be able to afford your current car payment? Exactly what would your lifestyle look like at $7.25 an hour?

Kari Tomashik • Honor

Help for millions
This week, the minimum wage will be part of the new Congress’s agenda. It has been close to 10 years since the last increase.
Meanwhile the cost of living has increased by 25%, and Congress has increased their annual salary by $31,600. The minimum wage increase would help millions of low-income people (mostly women) put food on the table for their families.
The Bushies would have us believe that raising the minimum wage would hurt small business owners, but in a survey by Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index, 86 percent said it had no effect on their businesses. The Bush myth that raising the minimum wage will cost jobs is also not true. World studies have found cities and states with a higher minium wage often increase job levels.
In 2006 Congress tried to link the minimum wage to tax cuts, including an estate-tax for the wealthiest. This time it looks like the House Of Representatives will eschew tax cuts, and pass a clean bill to raise the minimum wage. The Senate should follow their lead, and the President should sign it. Please, let them know how you feel about this today.

Sharon Kay Rose • Empire

Unfair wage
Minimum wage should be increased now! It’s about time... it’s been 10 years, while our government officials have voted themselves raises and have done nothing to improve the conditions of lower income citizens.
Giving tax breaks to the wealthy doesn’t do anything to help the economy or the middle income citizens ,except put more of a financial burden on their shoulders and the shoulders of their children and grandchildren.
All those opposed to increasing the minimum wage have never worked at a wage so low.... because they were born with silver spoons in their mouths!
History has proved that raising the minimum wage actually helps the economy, with more money spent on goods and services; less money spent on social services.

Lynne Coulter
Drummond Island

No way to live
In the interest of social justice, Congress should pass the proposed raise to $7.25 an hour, and President Bush should sign it into law. Some 13 million wage earners would benefit.
Right now, neither a single mom trying to support one child nor both parents working minimum wage jobs to support a family of four earn enough wages to climb above the poverty level. Ask yourself this question -- knowing how hard it is getting for you and I to make ends meet -- would you and your family be able to live on $10,712 a year (this presumes that you are able to nail down a full-time position)?
The federal poverty rate for a family of four is $21,424 annually. Economically, what good is any product if there are no buyers?

David Rink • Gaylord

A way to end the war
The national office of Veterans for Peace in St. Louis is committed to an ongoing program urging Congress to cut off funding for the war in Iraq, to bring our troops home now, and to take care of them when they return.
Our Northern Michigan Chapter #50 of Veterans for Peace is equally committed and urges local citizens to contact the White House and our congressional reps to bring this atrocious, insane waste of money and, most importantly, lives (now over 3,000 Americans and countless Iraqis), to a prompt and humanitarian end.
With extreme sadness, our local chapter has memorialized these deaths on several occasions, and will continue to do so, and speak out in fervent protest. We believe it is our patriotic duty to do what we can to bring this war to an end. Please call our President at (800) 456-1414 and give him this message today. Senator Levin, and Reps. Camp, Stupak, Pilosi and Conyers also should hear from us.
For more reasons, see the film, “Iraq For Sale,” at the Traverse Area District Library at 6:30 p.m. on January 22

John Lewis • president Chapter
#50 Veterans for Peace