The Final Blog

When choosing a topic for the policy speech and the presentation of analysis I had a hard time choosing the topic that I wanted to address. I wanted to chose a topic that I thought was important and a topic that most people could relate to. I finally came to the decision to  chose the topic on the debate of the minimum wage because I knew it was a big and hot issue in politics.  When I first heard about the topic I did not have any real opinion but if someone asked me I probably would have said I was against the raise, because the only fact that I knew was that it would cause people to lose their jobs. As soon as I started researching more information I quickly gravitated to side with the minimum wage being raised. I am glad to now say I finally have a strong opinion on what the minimum wage should be! 

There is plenty of information online that supports both sides. The main point of the argument is whether the wage should or should no be raised to $9.00 per hour by 2015.  Many people like Paul Krugman, a columnist for New York Times, and James Dron whom is the Cato Institute's Vice President believe that the raise should be raised because it is what our economy needs in order to restore it. Then in essence there are groups like the National Employment Law Project who are actually going out there and trying to reach the public to encourage them to help raise the minimum wage. On the other hand there are people like Jared Bernstein, a senior at the Center of Budget and Policy and many top republics fight against the proposition to raise the wage because the argue that jobs will be lost in the market and it will have a negative effect on our economy. 

Like I said earlier before I even started research I did not have much of an opinion but If I had to choose I would say that wage should not change. Although I knew what it was like to work at minimum wage and your not always getting paid what you deserve, I thought it would ultimately cause jobs to be lost in America because companies would lose money and would not have enough money to hire people. But, after doing research I completely disagree with this. There is plenty of evidence that proves that raising the wage would create more jobs in our economy and it is what many people need. I think the point that persuaded me the most was that if the minimum wage would have kept up with the cost of living in the 1960’s, today it would be equal to $10.56! If that did not sell me then the fact that raising the minimum wage would put 18 million dollars into our economy sure did! 

One thing I really learned about this issue that has made my argument to becoming more compelling is that it is a moral issue and not everyone is going to have the same opinion on it. Therefore, I think it is extremely important to look at the value of the dollar over time. 

I think that it is extremely important to have an opinion on as many issues as possible and to stay true to who you are about it . I am very happy I got the opportunity to address the debate on the minimum wage because I did not know the true facts.  I learn more then the mere fact that the minimum wage is a problem, I also learned how bad it is effecting our economy and how bad America’s economy is hurting today.  Once I found out what the experts say and think I was able to formulate a opinion, that the minimum wage needs to be raised by 2015 to $9.00 in order to strengthen our middle class, boost our consumer spending and ultimately rebuild our economy. 

Theoretical Approaches

In my last blog I touched upon the ways that different public advocacy groups advocate the issue on raising or not raising the minimum wage to the public.  In my previous blog that main organization that I talked about was NELP( the national employment law project). NELP promotes polices that strengthen jobs, help unemployed workers and create job. I also talked about republicans and democrats  whom are are or against the wage.   There are many different ways to go about approaching the public and providing the best insight while in lightening them with information. 

Elizabeth Warren is a senator for Massachusetts and is also a member of the Democratic Party. Warren believes  that the minimum wage should be changed to $22 dollars an hour if would have kept up with history. Warren stated "If we starting in 1960 and we said that as productivity goes up, that is as workers are producing more, then the minimum wage is going to go up the same...then the minimum wage today would be about $22 an hour." Warren uses history to back up her evidence and uses evidence of the past to try and reach her audiance she mainly tries to focus on facts and what is known to be true. 

Persuasion is constantly surrounding us thanks to Aristotle and Plato. Campinas and persuasive messages are almost constantly surrounding us. Plato's believes that humans do not see truth directly and used dialogic approach to purse the truths. He believes that truth is something that is arrived at through dialogue.  I believe that NELP uses this theoretical approach because they  use dialogue to answer questions from the opposing views side to persuade their public and allows the public to understand both views of the argument. NELP seeks the interest of their listeners and targets its main audience of the people who work at places like Dunkin Donuts, Pizza Hut, Walmart because these people are there target audience and it is the people that the minimum wage is mainly effecting. NELP tries to resolve disagreement by educating the public by doing campings all around the country about both sides of the spectrum. NELP has the interest of the people in mind  and urges the public to show up at town hall meetings, call the congress' office and write a letter to the newspaper's editor because the more the word is out there, the more likely it will be hear. I believe that NELP uses Plato's dialogic approach to reach their audience because they want to establish truth and they make there arguments by reason. NELP's facts are clearly advocated and their values are credible.Like Plao, NELP favors truth by cross examining both sides of the argument which makes them more credible.

After look at all the theoretical approaches I realized what ways work best make arguments to people is through the truth and what is best for them because it makes you more credible.

Minimum Wage and the Public

The controversy that I will discuss in my term paper is the controversy that President Obama sparked at the recent State of the Union Address.  President Obama called for  raising the  federal minimum wage to $9.00 per hour. The controversy over the minimum wage has two sides that are both very strong opinionated about their views. There are two main public advocacy groups who both have different opinions on the issue of what the wage should be and both are making movements.

The National Employment Law Project (NELP) is an advocacy group that is working to restore the promise of economic opportunity in the economy.  NELP owns the website raise the minimum wage, where they share their new campaigns to raise the minimum wage. They work with advocate groups of the state and nation to rebuild the minimum wage in the United States. NELP is a partner to the national minimum wage movement and help develop new ways to raise wage standards at state, federal and local levels by designing new polices.  There slogan is “rebuilding an economy that works for all of us”, and there main goal is to help America’s economy.  George Miller, an advocate for NELP, introduced the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 which would raise the federal minimum wage by 2015 to $10.10 in order to restore the value of the federal minimum wage (http://www.raisetheminimumwage.org). There are many other public advocacy groups  for this issue and another one being Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign. Let Justice Roll's slogan is “a job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it.” This organization has over 100 members in the organization and their goal is to raise the minimum wage to a living wage by educating the public the link between poverty and wages. Let Justice Roll has played a huge part in raising the minimum wage in 18 states (http://letjusticeroll.org). Along with these advocacy groups there are many more who all have the same goal in mind, to raise the federal minimum wage. 

On the other hand, the Conservative Lobby Group is against the push to raise the wage. The American Legislative exchange council (ALEC) introduced 67 laws in 25 states trying to reduce the minimum wage and stop creation of minimum wage laws in cities. ALEC's  main goals are to repeal, suspend and weaken state minimum wage laws.  ALEC has worked to repeal the state minimum wage laws  and ALEC believes that NELP portrays unfair views on ALEC. ALEC is not against employees they just think that the market should command the wages. According to NELP, ALEC has worked to repeal the state minimum wage laws and prevent the establishment of local living wage. 

I believe that for both advocacy groups struggle on impacting how the issue is debated. There are certain boundaries and morals that you have to be careful not to step on. I think the minimum wage is a moral issue and involves a difference of beliefs not preferences.  It is hard to say who is right and who is wrong. I do believe that the minimum wage should be raised but I also believe that it is hard to advocate for that because you do not want to get in the way of peoples morals.  I think it leads to a moral issue because are we really paying our lowest paid workers what they deserve? Or are we robbing them from what they are worth?

New study by national employment law project documents ALEC’s attack on wages. PRWatch.org. Retrieve from http://www.prwatch.org 

Raising the Minimum Wage

At the recent State of the Union address President Obama called for raising the minimum wage. Obama said he planned to pull people out of poverty by raising the federal minimum wage to nine dollars an hour. The current federal minimum wage is a seven dollars and twenty-five cents and there has now recently been anup rising debate whether the minimum wage should be higher or not.

Paul Krugman a New York Times Columnist  recently came out with an  article, "Raise that Wage", where he supports Obama's proposal of raising the wage and argues that it is good economics and good politics. He argues against the case and says that there is no evidence that proves that raising the minimum wage would cause higher unemployment because it would  make it more difficult for employers to hire people. Krugman believes that by the President raising the minimum wage there will be positive effects. He believes that the current minimum wage is very low compared to the amount of inflation. If the minimum wage was to keep up with the inflation, the minimum wage would be $10.52. Many people believe that raising the minimum wage would cost people their jobs, but according to Krugman this simply is not true and there is evidence that proves that there is little effect on employment if minimum wage is increased.  The article also suggests that the effect in a raise in the minimum wage will rise the incomes of low paid Americans. According to Krugman wage increases is wanted by many voters who are Republican women. Many people believe that the lowest paid workers deserve to have raise which is why the minimum wage, according to Krugman, the minimum wage needs needs to be raised to $9.00 per hour (Krugman).

Of course, there also has to be an opposing view to raising the minimum wage to nine dollars. In Frobes an article "Why Raising The Minimum Wage Kills Jobs" by Dunkelber argues that raising the minimum wage would be detrimental. On January first ten states increased their minimum wage, San Fransisco being the highest at ten dollars an hour and Washington not falling far behind at nine dollars an hour. The states increased the minimum wage to support the poor people and to stimulate the economy. The article argues that since many of the poor do not work, raising the minimum wage would only  make it harder for them to get any jobs.  If congress were to raise the minimum wage  more companies would deny workers that were low skilled. Also, raising the minimum wage won't help the intended target but most median income families.  Raising the minimum wage will also make it harder for people to become hired because people that work need to bring as much success to the company that they are getting paid for. Last time that congress raised the minimum wage in 2009 almost six hundred thousand teens lost their jobs. In the article they say that raising the minimum wage will not help because the money is coming out of somebodies pocket so there will be no gain of income to increase spending in the community.  In general this article argues that raising the minimum wage will have a negative impact on the economy and the people of America (Dunkelber). 

After looking at two very opinionated articles that both have strong valid points it is hard to determine what will benefit America and its economy.  There are many pros and cons in this debate like it helping low income families versus it lowering the amount of teen jobs.  I think it is a very important issue to have an opinion on because it effects all Americans.

Dunkelber, W. (2012). Why raising the minimum wage kills jobs. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/williamdunkelberg/2012/12/31/why-raising-the-minimum-wage-kills-jobs/

Krugman, P. (2013). Raise that wage. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/opinion/krugman-raise-that-wage.html?_r=0

"Nothing Taste as Good as Skinny Feels"

Most women at some point in their lifetime have struggled with their weight, and have struggled with trying to being healthy. We are surrounded on a daily basis by the media which constantly portrays women whom are tall, skinny and beautiful as the norm. Young girls look up to and aspire to be just like supermodels, actresses , singers and the a-listers.   Girls are constantly compared to people in the media and are made out to have perfect butt and long curly thick hair like Kim Kardashian, to have great arms like Michelle Obama, to have the sexiness of a Victoria Secret Model and long legs like Cameron Diaz.  The media is constantly shaping the way a perfect women should look. It is influencing the reality of what a beautiful body image really should be.  Girls find inspiration in many people in the media and want to be just like them. On youtube there are tutorials on how to have a butt like Jennifer Lopez, hair like Kim Kardashian, dress like Taylor Swift and how to do make-up like Katy Perry.  Girls are constantly trying to be just like the women that they see in the media and press.  

Kate Moss is not only one the worlds most well known models, but has been an inspiration to girls of all ages for her fashion and her beauty.  In November of 2009 Moss had an interview that was conducted by WWD. Moss started the interview off talking about her inspirations, her mentors in her life and what beauty meant to her.  Her interview started off great and inspiring  to many young girls who looked up to her, but then when asked if she had a motto, Moss  responded by saying, "There are loads. There’s Nothing that tastes as good as skinny feels. That’s one of them. You try and remember, but it never work (Costello, 2009)." Wait , did she really just say nothing tastes as good as skinny feels! For someone who is an inspiration to many young girls Kate has started a  huge ethically questionable argument by saying this.  This causes an ethical breach because it could be taken that  Kate Moss is encouraging girls to be skinny and to be anorexic.  Many pro- anorexia groups use the slogan “nothing taste as good as skinny feels.”  I would have to argue Kate Moss when she says “nothing taste as good as skinny feels” because by saying  this  she is sending a bad message to kids who look up to her for her health and beauty. If Kate’s motto and her morals are  that being skinny is the way to  feel good, what does that lead  her thousands of followers to think, that food isn’t worth it to be skinny  and we should just starve ourselves?  Loosing a few pounds is great but thats not what should make us happy and not what a role model should be promoting to a young generation. 

 This is why famous people and people in the media need to portray the correct body image and show body images of all types.  Having a well known celebrity and an inspiration to girls of all ages  say something like this can be devastating to her followers.   As a person that many people look up to and strive to be like this being their motto could cause children to have a goal of an unhealthy body image and  it could cause eating disorders. This could make girls want to appeal to conformity and be just like their role model Kate who thinks to be skinny is to be happy.   If their role model thinks one thing they will conform to be like her. It could cause people to think that to be happy it's not be worth eating food because being skinny “feels better.”  Although we all have are own image of a perfect body we look up to our role models in the media and they shape the way that we picture what we should look like. 

In the United Kingdom clothing was made out of Kate Moss’s motto and sold online. Even worse they were sold in sizes that were to fit young children. Although Kate Moss had nothing to do with it,  and the shirts were officially banned I believe another ethical violation was made here. Look how far people are going to get the word out there to young children that being skinny is important. Wearing and advertising shirts that say this,  especially on young children,  is a huge effort to alter peoples beliefs on body image. It is a completely appalling way to go about it and exceeds the boundaries of a violation on persuasion ethics.  

Kate Moss’s  comment was directed to thousands of girls around the world and the impact can be huge on vulnerable young girls inspiring to be just like Kate and other models. Kate along with other people in the media need to understand how dangerous their comments can be to the rest of the general public.    Kate Moss may have not intentionally meant what she said  and the media may have put a twist on it. People in the spot light are constantly under pressure to do and say the right thing.  Kate’s agency said that  it was taken out of context and misreprestened, but  Kate along with other people in the media need to understand how dangerous their comments can be and how literal people can take them .  People in the lime light need to promote being healthy rather than just being skinny. Instead of Kate saying “nothing taste as good as being skinny feels, maybe she could have said “nothing taste as good as  being fit feels.” This would encouraging girls to be healthy and fit instead of starving and skinny. 

Costello, B. (2009, November 13). Kate moss: The waif that roared. WWD. Redtrived from                                    http://www.wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/beauty-features/kate-moss-the-waif-that-roared-2367932?full=true

Kate moss's "legacy": 'nothing taste as good as skinny feels' slogan are advertised online . Mail       Online.   (2011, April 14). Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1376841/Kate-Moss-legacy-Nothing-tastes-good-skinny-feels-t-shirts.html