 Masters And Servants
If you talked about major news items with your friends or co-workers this week, it's likely you only hit on one of a few topics - the State of The Union, or the upcoming Super Bowl this weekend, or maybe the polar blast that caused a massive mess throughout the South.
Chances are also good that you talked about President Obama's executive action to raise the minimum wage for all new federal contracts. The President wasn't kidding when he said that if Congress - especially the Republicans - aren't going to take action, he'd take some actions himself, and encourage businesses and states to take similar actions. On the issue of increasing the minimum wage, the White House has already been pushing this kind of action for much of the last year - and thirteen states started 2014 doing just that: Raising their own minimum wage.
Everyone from the President, to us, to Will Saletan, has highlighted this week what poll after poll has shown. What Americans really want, more than almost anything else, isn't just a few more pennies in their paychecks. What Americans want is to know that their hard-working labor, of any kind, is going to be rewarded honestly, through a combination of wages, benefits, safety protections, and working conditions.
In other words, the argument against economic inequality in America shouldn't be simply that no American should end up chained to a corporation or institution. Rather, the argument in favor of economic justice should start with the opportunity for everyone to earn a living wage, and grow from there. Economic justice isn't solely about money.
With that fact firmly in mind, we hope you saw a story pointed out to us by sports reporter for The Nation, Dave Zirin...
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