Democracy and your pay

Last week, voters in Chicago were asked in an advisory referendum if they would support an increase in the city's minimum wage for large employers to $15 an hour.  The city's residents passed the referendum with 87% of the vote.

I'm of two minds on the referendum (much like I am on all minimum wage votes):  on the one hand, it's great that we can force the hand of those who would see us all live on poverty wages; on the other hand, it's kind of sad that the system is so rigged that hard work doesn't merit increases in pay anymore (it's also infuriating that minimum wage, even at $15 an hour--$31,200 a year--isn't making anyone rich and continues the Sissyphean toil that is living economically month to month).  If America is to survive, something must be done to reverse the trend and actually expand the middle class, not continue to let it shrink.

And what exactly, you're thinking, would that be?  Something that's getting more traction with me lately is the idea of a universal basic income.  Much like the best parts of Obamacare, it would free people to go back to school, take time off to raise children or take care of sick loved ones, go into business for themselves, or just make a decent living with the addition of the basic income funds.

And best of all?  One's livelihood, one's family's well-being, wouldn't be contingent on the whims of Corporate America and the 1% who can buy their fantasy of a country that works for them and them alone, while the rest of us suck on it.

It sure beats the hell out of the dystopian economy we've been facing since the onset of Bush the Lesser's Great Recession.

Peace,
emaycee