“To say minimum wage should be lowered would be to say that citizens are expected to live the same way.”

I don’t understand your logic here. I’m not suggesting that we create a limit to how much people can be paid. I’m suggesting that creating any type of artificial minimum wage removes certain jobs because it is no longer worth it to pay someone to do those jobs.

Minimum wage may not be enough for basic necessities in major cities, but it is more than enough in many parts of the US. (I speak from experience. I grew up in a family of six well below the poverty line–I didn’t realize it until years later because we always had everything we needed.

And no–if everyone gave $125 to a needy individual in Mexico it wouldn’t suddenly improve their living conditions. In some parts of the world, people have been bought out of slavery by well meaning groups, but within a few years they have sold themselves right back into slavery again.

If you really want to help poor people, keeping a wide range of available jobs is the best way. Someone earning $3 an hour might live well below your standard of living, but they still are empowered and are have many more options than when they were earning $0 per hour. If they become highly skilled at gardening (or whatever it is they do) they can probably make more in the future. But if an employer is forced to pay $8 or $9 per hour, they are probably going to go for the most skilled person they can find–there is less incentive to bring someone on who is going to take awhile to get up to speed.

To say minimum wage should be lowered would be to say that citizens are expected to live the same way. The truth is that many citizens are homeless and working. Over 60% of the homeless citizens have full time jobs, but just don’t make enough for the basic necessities.

Another side to this (though I realize many just want to shut their eyes and say they don’t care) is the living standards “back home” for the undocumented workers that force them to live this way so that they can send money to their families. Most of these workers have families that are starving to death with no health care, horrid living conditions, and worse poverty then the average American can imagine. There is a reason they come here, its so they can just plain live… that’s right, NOT DIE.

Americans throw away tons of eatable food and waste on a daily basis. We buy a car for each member of the house, everyone has their own bedroom, they have many TVs, computers, phones, etc in the same house. We live in irresponsible abundance and complain that we have nothing. Then we beat down those that really don’t have anything. If every household gave up one TV and gave the money to the needy, how many could be fed and have a doctor help them when they need it?

Its so easy to judge a situation when you don’t look at all the facts.