Obama's proposal to raise minimum wage won't work - the focus should be on education instead

"Human psychology contains many dualities, one of them being that even while people understand the need for change, knowing how important it is for institutions and individuals to be occasionally renewed, they are also irritated and upset by changes that affect them personally." - from the book 'The 48 Laws of Power' by Robert Greene.

I agree that change is very difficult. Change creates a vacuum that people perceive as chaos - I have experienced this recently at my job...

The problem I have with government providing social welfare is that it doesn't know where to stop. What is a 'minimum level of care'? Opinions vary significantly on this. Obama proposes raising the minimum wage to $9.50 / hr (by the way this is more money than I made during the summers while going to college). Surely if everyone in the country makes at least $9.50/hr they will have an improved standard of living. But why not take it a step farther? Why not raise the minimum wage to $100/hr? Wouldn't that make standards of living even better? Think through the effects of such a policy and you can see the danger in the government trying to create standard of living for people.

I have read several sociology books recently, including "The Working Poor" (which I thought was good). The author did a good job convincing me that many poor people may lack the foundation to understand that their situation could be different. Their reality is so strong and they lack role models to help them understand how to improve their lives. By and large, the education system is not working for a large percentage of people. Many people have suggested that funding is still not sufficient, but I disagree. The US currently spends more money per student on education than any other nation, yet ranks near the bottom in all testing categories.

The best idea I have seen on the table is to completely dismantle the federal educational program. Currently, public schools receive funding with a variety of strings attached - most notably in the content they are required to teach. Instead, I would like to allow for a completely private school system, but provide a $3000-$4000 education voucher. Allow parents to send their children to any school of their choosing. The whole debate over whether certain topics are appropriate for public schools is nonsense - let local communities decide which topics should be included and which should be withheld. We need to create an environment where teachers and institutions have incentive and are rewarded for the performance of their students. Only then do I believe we would see improvement in education quality.





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