well the world will always NEED janitors, garbagemen, cashiers at the supermarket, dishwashers, factory line workers... Let's face it, these are your blue-collar workers of america, and while once they were paid a liveable wage, today they are mostly not.
most of them never claimed to expect to live in a McMansion while being a dishwasher as far as I know. But I remember even back in 1982, you could be a full-time dishwasher and be able to at least afford a 1BR studio apartment and begin working your way up in life.
This is far from true today. First off, not everyone is capable of being more than that.. just because someone doesn't have the capacity to get a desk job and make buttloads of $$ doesn't mean they don't have the right to earn at least a meager living. Knowing that, combined with knowing that we NEED people to do those jobs really makes the idea of "living wage" a necessity.
It's no secret that the upper management in companies now make well over 100 times the lowest paid employee in the company, whereas in 1955, it was sometimes only 10 times as much. The disparity is widening (aka class warefare) and it's not working out too well for the dishwasher.
But here's the real kicker- it affects everyone in the middle class as well. For instance a skilled job like A/C repairman, computer programmer / network admin, graphic artist, nurse, teacher... all middle class jobs, are also being drug downwards by the same disparity.
I'm a network admin by day, and yet I don't make nearly as much $$ as I did doing the same job 15 years ago. In fact, I make about half of what I made in 1999. Every passing year, the wage for my position goes down for new job openings. At some point, every company will purge the higher paid guys like me to bring in cheaper guys (like me.. who were let go by a different company). It's happening across the board in most middle class jobs. That's the new corporate mentality- and it strongly equates to class warfare and greed. If anyone thinks this is just a passing phase, you've been duped.
So getting back to the politic side of it- we are in the top 5 wealthiest nations in the world, yet almost 47 million citizens are living below the poverty line. What does that mean? A nation of wealthy people with lots of servants. Can anyone honestly argue that these people living in poverty have much if any chance to overcome it? Historically the answer is no. The few exceptions never change the general rule. The only thing that helped people get out of poverty were social politics and labor unions. Two things entirely missing from our political spectrum today. It's no secret why more and more people every day are falling victim to poverty.
Here's an article that spells out current day poverty:
https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/07/23-2
Here's an interview with some insight on why the poor keep getting poorer:
http://www.alternet.org/books/timothy-n ... sappearing
And have any of you watched that movie about WalMart? In the first 10 minutes, they explain in very simple terms why low wages and no benefits not only hurts the workers, but the economy as a whole. Profit to people who don't even NEED any more money takes ruthless precedence over social responsibilities. We are all part of a society and responsible for it's health, but for every person like me who tries to do what is best for society, there's dozens of others who are only doing what's best for themselves... damn the economy, the environment, and F the world.