[lbo-talk] Nader, et al

[ravi]

On 7 Aug, 2007, at 9:50 AM, Doug Henwood wrote:
> On Aug 7, 2007, at 9:33 AM, Carrol Cox wrote:
>
>> There has never been an attempt
>> in Congress to _raise_ the minimum wage in real dollars.
>
> Every time it's raised in nominal dollars, it's raised in real
> dollars.

I don't understand your response. Carrol's emphasis is on the word  
"raise" not on "real" i.e., it's a raise in the sense that it is  
higher than it was before, but if one assumes (as it would be logical  
to do) that the minimum wage reflects what we as a society consider  
the minimum to get along, then (one can claim) the dispute between  
the Dems and the GOP is only how rapidly the minimum wage diverges  
away from the _minimum_ wage (as the rest of your post, which I have  
pruned, illustrates). What the latter is can be ascertained either  
using some cost of living metric or equivalent.

	--ravi