Is the Minimum Enough?

Background: Minimum wage is currently $7.25 which has recently been raised, but some people still believe this is not enough to keep full time workers on this wage above the poverty line. The United States Market-Based Economy relies on people to make money and then spend there money to keep the economy strong. It really takes down the morale of these workers when they cannot make enough money to buy the things they need like food, shelter, and clothing. With the help of tax cuts and the rise of minimum wage, millions of workers on this pay will be a able to increase the poverty line and live a happy life. Increasing the minimum wage will increase the paycheck size of these workers will in turn boost the economy because these workers will have more money to spend on consumer goods. Along with the help of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), people on minimum wage will be the best help to get our economy back on its feet and strong again. Increasing the minimum wage can also be a bad thing because it can lead to inflation of the dollar. If we let the law of supply and demand determine minimum wage then the poverty line wouldn't be so low and that wouldn't increase inflation. The increase of inflation would only hurt people in poverty because it would raise the price of a lot of other products.



Current Issues: I think that we should not increase the minimum wage because that would only increase the rate of inflation. Therefore, we should just expand EITC to more of the poor people and that would help out the poverty without interfering with the economy. If more of the poverty class would receive benefits from EITC, they would get more money because inflation would not increase. If we increase minimum wage, the dollar would decrease in value which would really put the poverty line lower. There is only a small percentage of workforce that is on minimum wage anyways, most minimum wage workers are teenagers. So increasing the minimum wage would not help out the poverty in an effective way. Recently Republicans blocked a minimum wage bill in the senate saying there is no need to raise minimum wage. Mitch McConnell the party majority leader said the GOP was opposing the motion to begin debate because the it believed the Democrats' plan did not do enough to ensure that the government would not again foot the bill for bailing out institutions deemed "too big to fail."

Issue #1- All things being unequal

Issue #3- Putting welfare to work

Weather affects search for south korean sailors

Background: 1,200-ton patrol ship was on patrol when it sank Friday at 9:45 pm. No one knows why the ship sank, so it is still under investigation. There were 104 sailors on board and 58 of those sailors have been rescued. The search for the 46 missing sailors continues in very cold temperatures and dangerous waters. It is being suspected based upon the location of the ship sinking that North Korea my have played some role in the sinking. But officials are down playing the incident and don't want to jump to conclusions.

Opinion: North and South Korea are still enemies and I think that something like this is just what either of them needs to fight the other. They need a reason and they will find one. Even if this sinking was a complete accident people in the back of their mind are still probably thinking that is was North Korea trying to sabotage them. They need to play it safe and make sure this situation doesn't turn into something bigger

D.C. shooting claims 4 victims

Background: Four people have died following a shooting Tuesday night in southern Washington D.C. A total of ten people were injured. Authorities said that there were multiple shooter that opened fire on a crowd Tuesday night. This lead to a police chase that resulted in an arrest of three men. They haven't given out any more information but they think that it might be gang related.

Opinion: This incident is just not right. People just go around shooting other people. This is too bad for the innocent people that were shot and killed. They were just around the D.C. area and then for no reason they are shot and killed. If this happens to be gang related, people in the D.C. area are not going to be happy and they might have to change something about gangs in the D.C. area.

Drowning and Traumatic Injuries Result in Trainers Death

Background: An autopsy report released Wednesday confirmed that SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau died of drowning and traumatic injuries to her spine, ribs, and head after a 12,000-pound killer whale pulled her underwater. On February 24, Brancheau was working with a whale named Tilikum at an Orlando SeaWorld, when the animal grabbed her by the pony tail and dragged her underwater. The medical officer's report says that Brancheau suffered a severed spinal cord, fractures to her jawbone, ribs, and cervical vertebra, in addition to drowning. Because of Tilikum's "aggressive nature," the rescuers weren't able to recover Brancheau's body until 40 minutes later. Tilikum has also been linked to two other deaths. In 1991, a trainer in Canada fell into the tank and was drowned by three whales, including Tilikum. Also, in 1999, the same whale was blamed for the death of a 27-year-old man who hid in the park and climbed into the whales tank after hours. Despite Brancheau's death and Tilikums storied background, the head of SeaWorld said that Tilikum "is a wonderful animal" and "will remain an active and contributing member of the team despite what happened." There has always been special precautions taken with Tilikum, due to his special size and weight. Now there will be even more special procedures put in place for trainers handling this whale.

Opinion: To me this is a very tragic loss for Sea World and its staff. It's yet another example why animals can never be tamed, they will always have that wild instinct to them to do what they were meant to do, and that is kill for food. It's also very sad that Sea World has not done anything to step in and protect the trainers from this whale especially because of the history the whale has. Its had numerous events leading up to this one that has injured trainers and put many people at risk. Fool me once shame on shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. SeaWorld should really focus on this and do what is necessary to keep the trainers safe. I say either release the whale into the ocean, or kill it so this never has to happen to a trainer again. This could have been easily prevented but it doesn't sound like SeaWorld cares if they lose a trainer.