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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 1995)
EDITORIAL Minimum wage must be raised Contrary to the constant talk about budget cutting in Washington, President Clinton has proposed increasing the federal minimum wage to S5.15 an hour, an increase of 00 cents from the current rate of .$4.25 The time has come to increase the minimum wage. Congressional Republicans have generally been opposed the proposal, arguing that a raise would destroy jobs for minority teenagers, older Americans and low er-skilled workers. However, the fact remains that a person cannot sur vivo on the minimum wage as it is now, much loss sup port a family A person working a 40-hour week at $4 25 an hour will not make enough money in a month to pay for essentials such as food, shelter, clothing or child r are. An increase in the minimum wage puts more mon ey in the pockets of the people who desperately need it - the working poor. This fact is reflected in the job market. Relatively few jobs, even those for unskilled labor, am paid at the min Imum wage. For the time spent on the job, a person will make very little money from a job that pays minimum wage. With all of the emphasis on getting people off of wel fare. the minimum wage becomes more Important One can't seriously expect a family to get off welfare if the alternative is working 40 hours a week at a job that pays less It isn't realisth Minimum wage is an Incentive to help people leave the welfare program and get a job that pays a decent wage, no matter what their skills The min imum wage should reward people lor hard work The effect of a change in the federal minimum wage in ()regon would be limited, as Oregon's minimum wage is $4 75 50 i ents above the current federal minimum However, the increase would la* felt here in Eugene, as a number of students work one, or often several, minimum or near-minimum wage jobs to financially survive the college experience. There are concerns that the minimum wage program as a whole hurts the people who are least employable, generally unskilled labor and young workers. However, those people need to be able to earn a living wage for their labor too. and the minimum wage program makes that possible, The minimum wage is a win-win program It htdps to reward work and to ensure that employees ol all skill levels earn a wage they can survive on. It's been five years since the minimum wage was increased, but pricers are higher than they were in 1090 What was a livable minimum wage in 1000 is not livable in 1995 Congress should Increase the minimum wage to $5.15. it's just not possible to live on the current minimum wage, and Americans shouldn't be forced to work long hours for low wages. Oregon Daily *»0 ©0* )»•* IUG«Mt O*IG0*«’«3 Tn» Owgan (*■&*? f « pvbfc*N*J dttrfy Mo-wtay ffvtxigf' f f*d*y dunnQ in* #cnooi «n*' **Kt ?u«*4a> «*d Thu*lN3ay t>y in# & *90# O* » Co . 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WE LOWER THE _>4 I " ( II l«l 1[ Iy*,f '< t-»r i TWAT <D£A also SACR'fiCiS JOBS s f/ft£0 ilk ■ OPINION * Cuts threaten public broadcasting (i Mil rOKMW At night, if you're real qui ts) and point your cars toward Washington, you i,an hoar tins sound of tin* times being sharpened. Them politi cians is going )o trim the fat of government, and they’re starting with that dim <a of waste that we call public broadcasting With all the programs the gov eminent funds using our money. it has decided to gang up on the Corporation for Public Broad casting (CPU) — a program mil lions of us actually use The newlv elected GOP houses lean ing crew cite* CPU as an exam ple of vet another useless pro gram. more wasteful spending Hut what they neglect to men tion is that CPU received a mere S24H 4 million in 1994 That costs $1.09 per taxpayer per year! Taxpayers should be insulted that their Congress is seeking to cut one of the few programs that directly benefits everyone It's just plain rude These guys came into office on the promise that they were going to put govern ment on a dint Now the fat cats are turning to us and telling us we have to give up our minus cule salad first And C'-l’B — like that salad — is good for you We all use it. and we all learn from it It also helps us to keep informed National Public Radio and the MacNeil-la»hrer News Hour give people news each day they (ain't get anywhere else And to add more insult, the government would have to cut 100 more programs of CPU's size before even a dent was made in the national budget. Let them (tit all of tht* ridiculously obso lete programs — like the spy satellites wo still build to spy on the Russians even though there is no more "evil empire" — before th»w even start talking about cutting the programs that real people benefit from everv day. But of course the hatchet job proposed for ( I'll has nothing at all to do w ith saving money. It's a great political move, right wing politicians can pay lip ser vice to cutting big government while getting rid of a program they have long hated. To the public -- who may not realize that cutting public broadcasting is something akin to trying to slay a giant by slit mg off his hangnail — is seems like the government is doing its job. And Newt and his buddies in the GOP tan destroy one more ene my member of the evil counter culture cultural elite. (In case you hadn't realized. Big Bird end C ookte Monster .ire reel nasty counter-culture snobs So is that painting-teacher guy with the big Afro.) Politicians won't 1h< destroying the elite, but they will be blocking access to learn ing and to information. And that's what realty si ares them CPB and the Republican Party have a long history of dissen siun Republic ans don't like the programming and in the Inst decade have seemingly pun ished CPB for its programming hy consistently cutting funding During the Reagan administra tion, public broadi asting was so duregulnted and de-funded that it found itself in n crisis for funds Now CPB is funded most ly by grants and donations The SJ4H million it gets from the government is pocket change But to lose that money will ont e again threaten CPB's exis tence, CPB. the entity, will man age Oregon Public Broadcasting will survive, but cuts could force many smaller stations — particularly radio stations — off the air. Radio stations that are in small markets or rural areas, like KLCC, do not have a large popu latiun base to fund them bv donations, The cut in govern ment funds could decimate them. Funding cuts are also pushing ( I’H to operate more like a com mercial station, by forcing it to solicit money from the business sis tor. The more heavily it relies on outside funding, the more the programming will reflect the dictates imposed by those who are doing the funding. By priva tizing CPB, we are putting those with the most money in charge The whole idea behind public broadcasting is to have program ming that is free from the pres sures and constraints of adver tisers and private industry. How ironii it is that the government r is the one bullying CPB, not pri vate industry we need to send a message to our government, l-et them know we're not as stupid as they think we are, that we realize these "necessary" funding cuts are just a smoke screen. What's real ly going on is a cultural war againstneiny is knowledge. Because behind all that rhetoric about the cultural elite lies a fear of the informed citizen. Public broadcasting helps to keep us informed in a way mainstream media does not, and that scares politicians And so it should. So let's keep them on their toes and keep ourselves informed. If you want to bully the government for a change, write to your national represen tative and let them know that you use and support publii broadi-iisting and don't approve of funding cuts Write to Sens Pack wood and Hatfield at the United States Senate, Washington D.C. 20515 or to U.S Reps, at The United States House of Representatives. Washington D.C. 20510 Gayle Forman is a columnist for the Emerald.
