Living Wage to Save a Dream

Alex Paramo

 Today, many of the nations fast food workers walked out on their jobs in protest of low wages. Many of these employees are part of the "Fight for 15" which is a movement that started out of Chicago and NYC calling for a raise in the Federal Minimum Wage from $7.25 to $15.00 an hour. The organizers of this movement are essentially asking for a federal Living Wage and I believe it is time such a wage is enacted.

What the anti-minimum wage folks forget is that prices don't NEED to be raised if there is a raise in minimum wage. Prices are only raised because corporate executives need to keep their PROFIT MARGINS increasing so that their stock options (that they own) stay sky high. The facts are that corporate pay over the last 30 years in the US have increased over 600% while worker wages have remain stagnant, and of course the cost of living has skyrocketed. Another thing that the anti-minimum wage people fail to consider is that the corporate strategy of paying people low wages is costing the tax-payers millions of dollars. Every year, our tax money goes to subsidize the Walmarts and McDonalds of the world because over 60% of their employees apply for public assistance. These companies are so blatant about scamming the American public that they openly teach their employees on how to apply for federal benefits. In conclusion, and perhaps the ultimate slap in the face, is that these companies that WE are subsidizing are making record breaking profits yearly!! Opportunity in our country is shrinking as the millionaires in billionaires that run our country destroy the middle and working classes. How much is enough for them? How many billions? The anti minimum wage folks need to read their history. Here is the late Ted Kennedy to explain it to everyone:

The “Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like Slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. YOU can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom.” Nelson Mandela once said,This is Mandela's message to my 7 year old daughter and her generation. It is the duty of OUR generation to pass this message on to our children and/or the children in our lives, to help create a society where our kids generation can eradicate poverty by identifying and destroying the root causes of poverty - greed, avarice and the lust for power, that consume the minds of the sociopaths that currently control our society/world. Regular folks can do this by simply caring for each other as fellow humans, and working together for the interests of all rather than for the interests of a few.

Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.

Alex Paramo

"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." The meaning of this famous quote by George Santayana is crucial to understanding where and why our society is moving closer towards Oligarchy and further away from Democracy. Even a watered-down democracy like the representative fashion that exists here in the U.S. has afforded us progressive reforms in the area of labor such as: work safety laws, minimum wage laws, equal pay laws, the 40 hour work week, and anti-discrimination laws, to mention but a few. Among the most important labor laws were the Child Labor Laws. In 1904, activism for child protections in the workplace were spearheaded by the National Child Labor Committee. The proposed laws were coupled with compulsory education laws designed to keep kids out of the labor market and in school acquiring an education. In 1938, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which, among other things, placed limits on many forms of child labor. It seemed to me that these laws were revered by everyone in the U.S. because, besides setting the country apart from other countries where child labor is prominent, they protected the right of children to spend their time and energy pursuing an education that would benefit them and the country greatly in the long-term. All of this information is in the historical record and borrowed to shed light on the despicable attack on child labor laws by conservatives. 


According to the Huffington Post article linked above, Maine Gov. Paul LePage, endorses the loosening of restrictions in the Child Labor Laws because he believes it is positive for minors to work while they attend school. Furthermore, LePage believes that these very same minors who are now working more hours, even on school nights, should be getting paid less than the minimum wage. Of course this is all nonsense and what LePage is proposing is nothing more than an even cheaper labor pool for the big companies like Walmart and the like (who are registering record profits). If LePage truly believed that child labor was a good experience for minors, then he would propose paying MORE than the minimum-wage in order to entice students from middle-class and wealthy families to the work-force while in school. While I believe all students of a reasonable age should have the opportunity to gain real-world experience is positive, most minors work due to financial need and therefore the potential for their abuse by employers is high. The dropout rate among students that work is markedly higher than their counterparts that can afford not to  Studies consistently show that even among the students that can pull it off successfully, like I did, their grades (like mine) are significantly lower than their non-working counterparts. 

So now we stand together as a country at the precipice of disaster. Much like the miscalculation on the effects of climate change (the rate of change/damage is occurring faster than originally calculated) so the rate of decline for the U.S. is occurring at an exponential rate rather than in linear fashion. Fortunately, the Federal Government Child Labor Laws have kept us from jumping off the cliff to our eminent demise thus far but the sentiment to loosen the work restrictions for minors is gaining momentum on the right through the efforts of lunatic conservative extremist groups, no doubt financed by the Walmart's and Koch Brothers and their ideological kin. Below is a photograph taken by Lewis W. Hine of a child worker from his photo-essay Child Labor in America 1908-1912. I encourage you to take a look at these photos and let me know if this is the U.S. that we want to go back to. 

Liberty Closed for Repairs?

Alex Paramo

Tomorrow evening, I will be headed home to NYC to visit friends and family. I return home triumphantly with my life-partner my 6 year old daughter and as a published Author! My daughter is excited to visit her relatives and her dad's old stomping grounds for the first time but lets face it, for her, visiting the Statue Liberty trumps everything. Unfortunately a small band of individuals "representing" us in government have been able to shut down our government. Besides the sheer irresponsibility of taking the country down the path of economic instability, and in-turn taking the global economy down with it, their stance is motivated by their desire to "stop Obama Care" the Affordable Care Act. Whether you agree or disagree with the Act, it is now law and has been for awhile. Nothing that the small band of individuals in congress are doing can stop the Act.

Personally I will not shy away from my responsibility to my fellow American because the idea of helping your family, neighbors, and countrymen is part of the American experience, as well as the Human experience. The three "major" religions as well as most other traditions/religions demand that we help our fellow man (person). That is, for me, the idea behind the Statue of Liberty. Much of our country is populated by people whose ancestors saw the Statue of Liberty on their way to Ellis Island. Even if your family came by plane from south of the border, like my family did, they all knew about the Statue of Liberty and what she represents. The Statue of Liberty is now closed and therefore we say to everyone that Liberty is closed. The idea that helping your fellow man (person) is now closed in the U.S. It is a water-shed moment in our history. Are we going to be a country populated by folks that care for each other and no just themselves or are we going to cave in to a small band of representatives that are pushing forward the agenda of their corporate/billionaire benefactors. I hope that when we get to the gates of the Ferry that takes us to the Statue of Liberty, I can tell my 6 year old daughter that the Statue of Liberty is open and that our country chose the path of helping our fellow countrymen, and continuing the tradition originally represented by the beautiful statue.

Creativity and the Masses

Community Publishing supports
community/local based artists
of all mediums

Alex Paramo

In a recent New York Times - Room for debate series discussion, contributor, Cecilia Conrad (McArthur Fellows Foundation) stated, "Reports of the death of American creativity are an exaggeration." While I have not combed through all of the various "reports," it is a well known fact that funding for arts programs in public schools have been or are being cut significantly. This short-sighted approach toward meeting the ever increasing budgetary crunch has and will have many negative societal repercussions. In terms of innovation, which I believe is fueled by the profit motive, there are some public funds and private foundations that provide funding for new ideas in business/industry. There are also, some public funds and private foundations that provide funding for an extraordinary student(s) around the country, but what about everyone else? What does our model say about how much our society values creativity in general. Educators are familiar of how Howard Gardner clearly illustrates the existence of multiple ways of learning and the importance that "musical intelligence" (for example) plays in a child's development.

Several pertinent questions come to the fore when considering the question of creativity and innovation. What values does our society place upon creativity? That is the root question. Are the creative arts just the domain of the wealthy and upper economic classes? If it is generally accepted that the arts are quite beneficial in the learning process to our children, why are they being squeezed out?  Perhaps we should consider the question, what kind of people are being "produced" in our public schools. Is the production of automatons the goal? Are we producing simple beings that do not think creatively and also lacking critical thinking skills, just to dump them into the ever expanding low paid workforce?

The vast majority of our children attend public schools. Fortunately for us we are the majority. We can change the curriculum, insist on funding for the arts by voting for pro-public education candidates. Instead of sitting at home watching old recycled shows and movies, we can also support local arts/artist by going out and visiting a local gallery, checking out a local band, attending community theater, buying the books of local authors. We must not forget that we, everyday folks set the agenda. In fact, we are the agenda, and we must demand a complete curriculum that includes Art Education so that our children grow up to be well-rounded healthy citizens.