Stop Demonizing "Burger-Flippers" and Start Thinking About Solutions

I've said this before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, but the issue is on the forefront of the internet today, and so it needs repeating: People have to let go of this belief that the market leans toward fair wages. The market wants to pay workers as little as it possibly can. Is any person "worth" only poverty wages? Is anyone "worth" hundreds of millions a year? Stop pretending that business is a magnanimous God. Government steps in to make business behave in our best interests. That's one of government's primary roles in the modern world.

Just because you started a small business does not mean you have any more of a right to life than anyone else. And this is coming down to a matter of survival. The minimum wage hasn't increased as quickly as it should, and American workers are making less money than they used to. The $15 minimum wage won't mean that fast food workers will be living like royalty. It just means they'll have a little more money, and so maybe a little more opportunity to improve their situations.

When anonymous assholes on the internet comment derisively about how "burger-flippers" don't deserve the dignity of a living wage, their statements are so dismissive and hateful that you can almost feel the bigotry oozing off the computer screen. You're going to tell me that you get to decide who lives and who dies? That makes you a monster, as far as I'm concerned. I realize that the reality of the new minimum wage isn't going to be easy for everyone. People are afraid of new things. Business owners already spend long hours awake late at night, worried about how they're going to make ends meet. So let's start having that conversation. Let's stop blaming these imaginary "burger-flippers" for manipulating the system like criminal masterminds, and let's start talking about how to help your business survive. We're all human beings. We can make this work.