Before you rightwingers here try to crucify me on this one, let me clear one thing up: I am a registered Republican.

Millions of people in this country have taken the advice to go out and get a job. Not because it tends to come from the right, but because most people truly want to work, and to contribute something to society.

That's a start, but how effective is that start if they can't hope to get a job that pays enough for them to support themselves (let alone a family)? All questions of rights aside, isn't it immoral to expect a made to clean hotel rooms all day, or a guy to deliver pizzas all night, and then make it impossible for them to afford a clean place to live in a low-crime area? I think it is.

The main reason this trend continues - and, in fact, has increased - is greed. The wealthiest companies hope to pay their workers as little as they can get away with, and when they're called on it, their spokespersons whine about competitveness. And of course, the government is bought and paid for by these companies not to address the problem.

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I have no solutions; I can offer only high-carb goodness.

What do you propose we do to help them?

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Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive. - Theodore Roosevelt

A solution would probably have to involve a number of different measures, such as an increase in subsidized housing and tying the minimum wage to the cost of living in each county, for example. There would also have to be tie-ins to whatever health care reform we eventually adopt. I personally don't have a specific plan (see my signature).

Whatever the solution, its goal should be simple: no able-bodied adult who is employed by someone else should lack for ANY basic necessity, and neither should their dependents. By necessities, I mean nutritious food, respectable but not fancy clothes, and a clean apartment in a low-crime area. Anything beyond that is a luxury, which of course is not the government's business to provide (I consider a TV to be a luxury).

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I have no solutions; I can offer only high-carb goodness.

Both the 1930's and Canada have proven these tactics to economically sketchy and ultimately futile.

It doesn't necessarily follow that no possible combination could ever work. At any rate, you're avoiding the morality question, which is the thesis of this thread.

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I have no solutions; I can offer only high-carb goodness.