Isn't it called minimum wage for a reason?

This week, Republican Governor candidate, Bruce Rauner (of Winnetka) spoke out on the topic of minimum wage in Illinois. Currently the national minimun wage is $7.25/per hour but Illinois has a $8.25/per hour, a dollar increase. Rauner stated that Illinois should shed off a dollar to its hourly wage in order to, "be competitive here in Illinois". Rauner adds that this decrease in wage salary would create jobs and improve the economy, while minimum wage increase advocates believe this would end up with too many people in poverty from such a significant decrease in their pay.

The problem I see with Rauner is that he seems to view the whole situation as a game for Illinois to meet some type of criteria to be a more successful state. He states that Illinois needs to be, "competitive" but what does that actually mean? I understand he is talking in context of salaries but competitive could mean both working harder, working more efficiency, or what ever interpretation of "competitive" you can think of. The way I saw what Rauner was saying was the fact that he doesn't seem to care about what these families really have to deal with this proposed decrease and only seems to care about what Illinois looks like to both voters and other state leaders. This is an election year (2014) for Governor and Rauner definitely wants to sway voters to his side by saying that he wants to make Illinois a better State because, to the ear, that does sound like an  appealing argument. The reasons using a word like competitive is so BAD is because it shows that he is looking at the state as a whole rather than the specific group of people to be affected; people working minimum wage jobs. What are the odds minimum wage will drastically increase the economy, job market and happiness? Its possible but its not the key to the US getting back on its feet and saving the day.

Living with less money is a huge problem for these families at risk of losing money via a minimum wage decrease. He neglects that these families of workers are losing around $2000 per year which is HUGE for people who live pay check to pay check supporting themselves or families . In the end, Is the competitive approach to minimum wage good or bad for Illinois?




*** A few years ago, a report at an Oregon Walmart showed that panhandlers outside of the store were making more money that the workers inside. This isn't really relevant but I found it fascinating in terms of minimum wage throughout the country in modern times.

American's Passion for Repeat Movies

           IMDB recently released their rankings for the highest grossing movies of the year, which basically means the movies that the most people attend. I chose to write about this topic in part because it is the end of the year, and as a movie lover, the best movies of the year are being voted on and rated. I also chose to convey my thoughts because after seeing the list, I was blown away by something not many people picked up on. Here is the link to IMDB's list from the past year and the picture located below with the year released and its rating from IMDB movie critics.

Now take a second to look at the list and see if you can draw any conclusions for yourself. Ill give you some time to think...

             Ok, starting with me, the first thing I picked up on was the insane amount of movies (I count 8/10) which are either sequels or involve identical sets of characters from past movies. The two movies that do not fit the list are "World War Z" and "Gravity", both fantastic movies that I would recommend. So that got me thinking to both what Americans like myself enjoy from movies and what movie companies have learned from certain successes in the past.
             To start off with the movie companies themselves, this data directly shows that they aren't willing to experiment with new types of movies (new plots, characters, settings etc.) and are much more comfortable making either remakes of old movies, clever spin-offs, or sequels to beloved classics. It really is stunning that 80% of movies in the top ten grossing happen to be movies in which there isn't a new storyline or character group and rather a repeat cast just so that movie producers can feel like they are making a safe bet when creating and filming movies.
              What this tells us about the average American, including me is that we don't like change in our entertainment at all. We are much more willing to watch movies that include casts we are both familiar with and enjoy watching for extended periods of time. Of the two movies that aren't sequels or remakes, both bolster a huge movie star in George Clooney and Brad Pitt, the reasons many people decide to go and see movies in the first place. American media seems to be very predictable in a sense that people don't really seem to enjoy watching new types of movies with lesser known actors and directors.

Americans saving money

Who doesn't like saving money right? If you can get a deal on something you really desire you get a large sense of satisfaction by be able to say, "I got it on sale". The thing is that, our desire for money only seems to be exponentially growing to the point of a semi-national-practice-informal "holiday"

This holiday I speak of is called Black Friday and it occurred roughly a week ago. Named in part because it lands on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and also, because in the past, traffic lights supposedly went black due to people speeding to stores and getting in accidents (source: here).

To me, a core American value seems to be the obsession with saving money. PBS was quoted in an article saying that, "America has definitely become a money obsessed culture". I couldn't agree more. If you aren't quite following, i'll provide a couple of examples. First, as I have already stated before, black friday has become an event so popular that people are now spending time on Thanksgiving, the national day of giving thanks, to go to stores and wait in line for midnight releases of deals. Another reason why Americans are obsessed with saving money can be seen in our interests in entertainment.I mean, we have a television show on TLC called, "Extreme Couponing" where the main goal is to get the most food items for the least amount of stuff. If America isn't obsessed with saving, who is? If America is obsessed with saving, is that a good or bad thing?