You have the right to not live in poverty

Hhmm.. The Dec of Independ. says we have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.<br /><br />Obama just announced that the minimum wage should be raised because people who work full time should not live in poverty. That actually sounded like he was making it a right. Its interesting that there is a qualification on that: working full time but what if you company doesn't let you work full time and you average 32-35 hours? And there are a lot of reasons for poverty and raising the minimum wage will not fix. <br /><br />I can remember a family that won the lottery up in Maine and a year latter after the husband and wife had already quit their decent paying jobs they were broke and having a tough time finding work. Should someone who wins the lottery live in poverty? Probably not but they can end up there through their &quot;pursuit of happiness&quot; as they make choices that lead to poverty. <br /><br />The same is likely just as true for poeple who have not won the lottery but work for a minimum wage. <br /><br />Will we legistlate away poverty? I suspect that the above minimum wage position I hold along with the 3 raises I've had in 4 years will not mean much when the minimum is suddenly raised to within a quarter or two of what I make. And since my company employs a host of workers that make less then me the massive wack to the payroll is not going to put them in the mood to raise my wage to keep pace so I'll suddenly become a minimum wage worker with little prospect for advancement. <br /><br />Clearly my company will need to raise its rates on catering and I expect that to dry up some of our business. and what about all the contracts we have with the state? Will the sudden increase jephardize those contracts. <br /><br />From a social standpoint I'm sure that raising the minimum wage sounds like a good idea but i rather suspect that its going to have a lot of negatives that impact everyone's life. And since tipping has not returned to what it was before O'bama was President this move is sure to dry up tips even further. I suppose this is what we get for electing a known socialist to the oval office.