Re: “Five years of 2% average yearly GDP growth simply doesn’t produce enough jobs to absorb the natural increase in the labor force.”
The increase in the American labor force is NOT natural.
Legally, we issue 1 million new Green Cards each year, and most of them go to low skill workers.
Legally, we issue or renew about 1 million work visas each year, and most of them go to foreign workers who directly compete against American born workers.
Finally, today, both Republicans and Democrats make almost no attempt to enforce the laws against nearly 10 million illegal workers, most of whom have limited skills.
America has flooded - deliberately flooded - its own labor market with cheap foreign labor.
That deranged policy has crushed the wages for millions of American born workers.
There are only two solutions:
(1) Stop importing foreign labor.
(2) Or, dramatically increase the minimum wage.
And it makes me wonder why Paul Ryan has been all for all of this nonsense. The only thing I can think of is the SSI ( and or Medicaid and Medicare ) "Trust Funds" ( yes don't laugh ) are so FUBAR'd that they need these cheap workers to pay into it to keep it afloat, and they know it and they are afraid to tell us. And if they told us how Fubar'd it is... Well you know that drill....