Introduction
The issue of minimum wage in our country has always been very acute. And now, many politicians say that soon, wages will become even lower, which means that the minimum wage rate may also fall. While some people have the opportunity to regularly fly abroad, buy real estate and enjoy all the benefits of modern life, others are forced to struggle financially for their livelihood. Moreover, the experience of recent years clearly shows that there is a certain tendency among the population to express their dissatisfaction. Consequently, it is important to discuss and analyze the tendencies and problems of decreasing the minimum wage policy.
Main body
It is difficult to describe what life is like today for someone living on unemployment benefits or minimum wage. As many of you know, due to recent events, there has also been an increase in the price of many essential foodstuffs and, importantly, gasoline. Why is gasoline necessary, you may ask? Because for many people in the United States, it is a crucial milestone when traveling to their relatives, friends, and loved ones. And why do many people live far away from their loved ones? The answer is straightforward and sad at the same time – to feed their families, many people have to move to neighboring states to work. From what I have just said, I can safely conclude that the combination of what is happening today creates a challenging situation for tens of millions of people across the country.
And now, I suggest we turn to more concrete data. Today, the minimum hourly wage is $7.25 an hour (“Population, Total Data”, 2020). Moreover, the favorite factor of those who advocate this ruthless policy of wage cuts is that “only” 1.9 percent of the population is working for that money as of 2020 (“Population, Total Data”, 2020). As you probably know, politicians and economists love to appeal to numbers, data, and statistics. Undoubtedly, this is an essential tool for assessing the situation, but what you see now happens if you get too carried away. In 2020, there were 329,500,000 people in this country, and that number might have increased by a few million more (“Population, Total Data”, 2020). Still, I would suggest using the publicly available information, which we can now access successfully. So, it turns out that all these people have just doomed 6 million 260 thousand 500 people to even more poor and hungry existence by such statements (“Population, Total Data”, 2020)! This, in my opinion, is a direct insult to the intelligence of our society, which should not be simply tolerated.
Note that I am not rounding this number – in matters of survival, every single life is meaningful, and to round up even 500 people as if they were worthless is to act immorally. For your comparison, Denmark’s population is 5 million 762 thousand 82 as of 2019 (“Population, Total Data”, 2020). Imagine impoverishing the population of an entire country at one person’s wish! We are clearly up against this when we talk about that 1.9 percent that many speakers so carelessly address. Therefore, I oppose this immoral, insulting, and anti-human policy concerning people’s earnings. Furthermore, since the remaining 98.1 percent of the population pays their taxes, what prevents our government from allocating at least a small amount of these finances to help their own citizens? This is the questions that I consider to be fundamental in the context of the manipulation with minimum wage factors.
Nor should we forget the factor of mass discontent I mentioned at the beginning of my speech. As I said, quite a few people in our country have certain complaints about their standard of living and the current social situation. Still, we should not forget that while 1.9 percent get $7.25 an hour, we do not know how many people get $7.5, $7.75, and $8, respectively. Thus, the stratum of financially impoverished people may represent a considerable force that one day may not last. Unfortunately, it would be impossible to avoid civilian casualties in the case of massive, serious unrest – which means that innocent people would suffer. We do not know what percentage of this category we do not know either, but it will not be one or even ten percent. One can conclude that quite a lot people are at risk, including you and me.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to point out that the reasoning I have outlined is highly unpopular. Ironically, politicians call such statements populist and unscientific, but are they challenging arithmetic as well? I mean that everything described in this speech is factual, based on information from reliable, verified sources; it is not speculation or theory, but the reality in which we, unfortunately, live today. Therefore, I sincerely hope that our government will take all necessary measures to help these people against the background of the above-mentioned ongoing events. Moreover, I also hope for your understanding because the more people talk about such a sensitive subject, the better the chances will be that all this can be prevented. Thank you for your attention.
Work Cited
“Population, Total Data.” (2020) World Bank, World Bank Organization, Web.