>>•Bank of Hawaii, the state’s second-largest bank, said it will give out $1,000 cash bonuses to 2,074 employees, or 95 percent of its workforce. The bonuses affect all employees below the senior vice president level. The bank also will increase its minimum wage to $15 an hour from $12 an hour.
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>Here's the problem, though, Sammie.
>You're pointing with pride to something - $15/hour - that Bernie has been proposing for a long time.
>The difference, though, is that Bernie has said that a living wage for people at the bottom is a basic right, not something to be bestowed when some fat cat wants to shed a few scraps because Uncle Sam is providing them.

That's where Bernie and I differ, I don't believe a living wage is a basic right. If fact, I don't believe in minimum wages by law at all. Why should I have to ask the government if I can work for someone who has offered me a wage that I am willing to accept? When I was young one of the "economic principles" I was taught was " As long as you are making 'the man' money you can do almost anything and you will still have a job. But, if you stop making 'the man' money, no matter how much he likes you, you will eventually get fired".
Don't get me wrong, I am for helping those that need help but helping someone and being forced to carry them on my back are entirely different things.