Don't you think that there were other factors in play, not just wage earnings, which caused food scarcity and such?
~Jeordam
Of course, but people who tend to advocate for the abolition of minimum wage aren't generally terribly happy with other labor reforms.
Hunger spiked in the US because of urbanization, not because of famine. It wasn't scarcity that led to hunger--it rarely is.
Most labor reforms violate the same principles that minimum wage does. And you're dreaming if you believe the minimum wage helps alleviate such issues. It changed as much about the labor picture as emancipation changed the welfare of black cotton pickers. The terms changed around, but they were still impovrished and doing the same labor, with not much more in the way of legal recourse than they had as slaves. Being in hock to the company store, or a payday loan joint, or on welfare & food stamps is pretty much the same thing. Except the company store didn't specifically forbid you from improving your state. With welfare, you have to take a risky plunge into self-sufficiency, and it incentivises your remaining on the dole. Where you have a motivation to vote for the politicians who control it. Being under massive credit card debt or any of the other tiny little strings the corporate-governemnt complex ties to you doesn't amount to much of a difference.
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Inde muagdhe Aes Sedai misain ye!
Deus Vult!
*MySmiley*