President Obama and Democratic members of Congress want to raise the minimum wage to a whopping 10.10 an hour. Such a hike could hurt the recovery after years of economic decline. The president should instead focus on rebuilding the nation's crumbling infrastructure, including a stagnant manufacturing base.
The country's roads, bridges, sewer, and mass transit systems, or lack thereof, need immediate care in most instances, causing businesses to make tough decisions on where to locate or expand, especially in urban areas. For example, scores of unemployed workers in Clayton County, Georgia, a sprawling, predominantly African American suburb just south of Atlanta, can't find work due to the lack of a public bus or rail system linking it to wealthier communities elsewhere. The same can be said of Detroit, Michigan, or Gary, Indiana, where massive budget cuts have taken a toll on government-run transportation.
Raising the minimum wage isn't a bad idea. However, it can't be viewed as an annual stopgap solution to fight poverty. Reconstructing America from the ground up by stopping the flow of jobs abroad, investing in technical education, and reclaiming abandoned buildings would do far more, in the long run, to increase workers' wages by ten dollars an hour with better benefits to boot.
Update: The citizens of Clayton County now have transit buses that run to the nearest MARTA or rail station in Atlanta!! And raising the minimum wage to 10.10 an hour or higher would be a great idea!!
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