You’re absolutely correct. My genealogical story reads exactly as you wrote it. My not so distant family..only 4-5 generations ago..some of whom were alive when I was born, were made slaves by the British who also attempted genocide of my people. They were burned out, run off their lands and farms and forbidden to own land. Their childten were placed in church orphanages where they were hired out as servants, their wages given to the church. They were used as sex slaves and had an unwed pregancy rate which rivaled today’s here in america. They managrd to come over the border and became citizens of this country. They were able to make a living despite being mistreated by other whites.
I am only 3rd generation american. Great Britian fails to acknowledge their past behavior to this day and continues to offer even a simple apology.
So I don’t want to hear the oh poor me diatribe out there. Slavery is a condition of the heart as much as it is an evil act by one group to another. But I can’t help but wonder the comparison between the provisions of the slaves of yesterday and minimum wage workers trying to raise a family today.
What freedoms of choice do minimum wage workers have on their wages? What do they have to do to provide for their families? Maybe they have to work 16 hours per day to support their families...
I say slavery still exists. It just looks different and folks don’t recognize it. How much freedom does a minimum wage worker REALLY have? LLP
Kudos on your family getting out of those horrible conditions and become free here.
WRT the minimum wage, it never was intended to be able to live on it, it was a starter wage for unskilled and inexperienced people. Believe me, if they were worth more they would be paid more so that they wouldn’t leave Employer #1 and go to Employer #2. The problem with feeling badly about people trying to live on that wage and then boosting it higher is that you then price a lot of unskilled and inexperienced workers out of the job market. So if $9/hour is the minimum and you boost it to $15 overnight, what happens is that places like McDonalds will buy machines that can replace workers - machines that don’t complain, don’t feed their friends for free, don’t get sick, don’t ask for raises, don’t get retirement pay, etc., etc. See Seattle for the example of this happening. Misplaced compassion is the cause of immense misery.