Dennis Drew: Well Below LBJ’s Minimum Wage

Dennis Drew at On Today’s Page has a story… I won’t tell you what its about – I suggest you click on the link and read it. I will, however, excerpt a paragraph and the footnote that goes with it, which are not the main points of his post but I think make interesting points by themselves:

If we could have predicted to 1968-Americans that 25% of 2007-Americans would get by below a realistically set poverty line (based on a varied market basket instead of a single-factor formula*) — further, that 25% of Americans’ wages would sink below LBJ’s ($9.50/hr adjusted) minimum wage — what could they have guessed: that a mini ice age, a limited nuclear exchange followed by a mini ice age (nuclear winter), or multiple depressions or even tsunamis would bring American (not European) employees low?

…

[ * 12.5% of American incomes are officially reported below today’s, decades irrelevant, federal poverty standard: three times the price of the cheapest emergency diet — dried beans only please, no canned! — try the 2002 book Raise the Floor for realistic poverty parameters. ]

I haven’t checked the figures, but assuming they’re right… it kind of sucks, doesn’t it?