Report says wage boost helps economy

Some facts are so obvious that you shouldn't need to conduct a costly study to prove them.

But some folks are stubborn, so I guess this expense had to be made. Not like this'll change wingnuts' minds.

A new report by the Economic Policy Institute finds that recent increases in the minimum wage have already helped stimulate the American economy to the tune of almost $5,000,000,000.

I still can't believe it took such a detailed study to prove the obvious. Anyone should be able to see that if the working class makes more money, they can spend more on items they need and boost the economy.

If giving government handouts to big banks is so great, why would it be such a bad thing to make sure working people get better pay as well?

Better pay - and more economic equality - should be considered a leading economic indicator just by definition.

But don't expect much press to be given to this report. The national media culture is as hostile to economic fairness as our local media is. When I used to read one of our local dailies (now defunct), I always got the impression that they saw no harm in even college graduates wearing paper hats and asking, "Do you want fries with that?" just to make a living. This is the same right-wing paper that blamed the minimum wage increase for wrecking the economy - even though the wage boost hadn't taken effect yet.

To this media culture, the economy is about Big Business making money off employees' backs. In that greed-driven ideology, it's not about giving workers buying power.

The minimum wage should be indexed with inflation. Members of Congress illegally vote themselves huge pay increases each year. So the failure to boost the minimum wage is one of America's gravest tragedies.

(Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE54R6YD20090528)