C&NW - Deering Bridge by d.w.davidson on Flickr.

Chicago & North Western commuter trains crossing the Deering Bridge

Chicago

April 1982

50’ Double Door Steel Boxcar #206418

MLW F7 83A by Chuck Zeiler on Flickr.

The Fifth Door (xiii)

In the 1970’s, minimum wage for unskilled labor for a 40 hour week allowed the employee to own a car, rent an apartment (without a roommate), pay their utilities, buy their groceries, go to concerts, purchase clothing, go out to dinner, take vacations, further their education and etc.

Why do people complain about “burger flippers” making $15?

Because, large corporations, while pocketing record profits, are now villainizing those same minimum wage workers, who’s labor and hard work earned them those profits.

By not paying a minimum wage that stays in step with the cost of living, the minimum wage workers continually get poorer, while the corporations get richer. They get away with it by convincing some that it’s those “lazy, uneducated minimum wage workers’ fault.

Abandoned railroad trailer along the old SP Coos Bay line near Reedsport Oregon