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James Green ("Sealing Their Own Fate," Sept. 9) insists that raising fast-food workers' pay to $15 an hour would create more poverty and it's ridiculous to ask a business to pay that much. His statements are just as preposterous. Major fast food chains are profiting by millions of dollars and can afford to increase wages; furthermore, most Americans would pay higher prices to see workers make a decent living.
Green and like thinkers often rail against food stamps and Medicaid and fail to realize that underpaid employees qualify for both. A living wage would alleviate tax burdens on the middle class by reducing food stamp and Medicaid costs while simultaneously stimulating the economy, since more money equates to greater spending. Moreover, states and cities that raised the minimum wage fostered employment, and past increases never caused a downturn in employment that Republican howlers continue to scream about.
Green also opines that a minimum wage is unconstitutional without stating the amendment. What's contrary to constitutional ideology is allowing working Americans to languish in jobs with little hope of ever accomplishing the illusive "American dream" while fast food giants reap ever increasing profits. This is both unconscionable and immoral.
Allen Livingston
Huntington