>>>•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.
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>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.

It's not the person that's being victimized by a low wage that the government is carrying - it's the company who's refusing to pay a livable wage that the government is carrying. If Wal-Mart pays people such a low pay that the employee requires government assistance to survive then it's the fault of Wal-Mart. Either they are too greedy to pay the employees a livable wage (which is the case), or their business model is no good and they should not be in business. And "willing to accept" ??? If that is the only job you can get then you're going to accept it - it's not always a matter of what you're "willing" to accept -- it's more along the lines of take what you can get. There are reasons we created the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 -you might want to go back and read up on that as apparently this is something you have forgotten or never learned about. Many companies pay the minimum wage (or close to it) because that's the least amount the law will let them pay. You think if they didn't have to pay that much by law they would? HA! Dream on man -- they wouldn't pay people squat if they could get away with it.