You deserve a break today! Well, not YOU...

OK. Everybody hates McDonald's. The food is awful and the service sucks. You don't HAVE to go there, just like if people don't like being paid minimum wage, they don't have to work for it. If you want a burger AND the satisfaction of having it delivered to your table by someone making barely any money because they made poor life choices and do not deserve to have a decent life in THE GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD© go to any restaurant in the country, sit down and order a burger. They'll probably serve you actual beef from an actual cow. It's WIN/WIN! Except for the server, whom you're not going to tip because you don't owe them a living for their poor choices in life. You do have to pay homage (and $15 bucks for the burger) to the owner because he's a small business owner who had the fiscal fortitude to sink a ton of money into his Chili's franchise so he could make a restaurant conglomerate extremely wealthy. Ya gotta respect that.

Folks, it isn't about paying the idiot at McDonald's $15 an hour to screw up your order. Had things progressed at the proper pace in the wage-paying world, you wouldn't know or care what the mother of three working the counter at Mickey's was making. I like to believe they are asking for $15 to reinforce the Obama administrations desire to raise the minimum to $10.10 per hour. This isn't Donald Trump and The Art Of The Deal but  rather, basic horse trading. You start high and settle for what you're comfortable with. The other party balks at the higher figure and ultimately settles lower and believes he did good and so did you.

The federal minimum is $7.25 and hasn't been raised in three years. The price of practically everything has risen in that same period. Doubling the minimum all of a sudden (or even bumping it by nearly $3 dollars) is a shock to anyone's bottom line. No doubt about that. You have to ease into these things, a little bit at a time. A quarter here, 37 cents there. Economist's say the minimum, to reflect the cost of living in 2014, should be $15 an hour. Some put it higher. Republican Congressmen put it lower, somewhere around less than zero, plus or minus nothing. Carry the-2.

The problem was, the GOP- the fiscally responsible party of business- has fought EVERY small hike in the minimum wage in the last 50 years. The reality of those people is that workers don't deserve a $0.28 hike either. In fact, the GOP would rather there be NO minimum at all. They actually sell this as being 'good' for the worker too. They- with straight but, wrinkled, old white faces-say that without a minimum, you would be free to negotiate for more! You could afford to buy that unicorn you always wanted! How 'bout that? Now, it's true that your employer might pay you less than the current minimum but, that's the invisible hand of the free market. You are free to move on down the road until you get the pay you desire or until your hat floats, whichever comes first. That's their argument for dismantling Unions too.

They mention free a lot. Once upon a time in this country people worked for free. It was called slavery. Slavery is great for the bottom line. After an initial investment of capital in the purchasing of a slave, it's just room and board after that. The War Of Northern Aggression (Civil War) ended that and it took the south several decades to recover. Ever do payroll? They never had. I'm told it's not fun. There's a lot of math and you wind up just paying money out instead of taking money in.NOT what you got into business for!

There are @310 million people in this country. We can't all be business owners or score 30 points a game and be paid millions for it. We can't all be accountants or regional sales managers or firemen. You get my drift. A certain percentage of people, for a variety of reasons, just aren't going to get their own Wiki page or vacation every year in Costa Rica. So they must work.  I'll let my friend, activist George Bailey expound on this:

George Bailey: "Just a minute... just a minute. Now, hold on, Mr. Potter. You're right when you say my father was no businessman. I know that. Why he ever started this cheap, penny-ante Building and Loan, I'll never know. But neither you nor anyone else can say anything against his character, because his whole life was... why, in the 25 years since he and his brother, Uncle Billy, started this thing, he never once thought of himself. Isn't that right, Uncle Billy? He didn't save enough money to send Harry away to college, let alone me. But he did help a few people get out of your slums, Mr. Potter, and what's wrong with that? Why... here, you're all businessmen here. Doesn't it make them better citizens? Doesn't it make them better customers? You... you said... what'd you say a minute ago? They had to wait and save their money before they even ought to think of a decent home. Wait? Wait for what? Until their children grow up and leave them? Until they're so old and broken down that they... Do you know how long it takes a working man to save $5,000? Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about... they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him. But to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well in my book, my father died a much richer man than you'll ever be!"

Well said, Mr. Bailey. And while that was a rant from a small business owner, it was a rant for the common man and woman, as well- the people who do the bulk of the working and paying, living and dying, in this world.  The We The People of of colonial and Declaration Of Independence lore. The people They gave up on. They people They want US to give upon. US.you