Yes, a minimum wage would not a bad thing. Wish we had it in Germany. France introduced it in 1950, and only recently has increased it to 8.27 Euro. Wouldn't know how to compare that to your 5.15, though.

Pennsylvania has finally raised its minimum wage, following our border states of New York, New Jersey, and Maryland, and we're just waiting for it to go into effect.

Peter, a euro is $1.27, so the minimum wage in France is $10.60, which is about what we here call a "living wage," what someone living in a low-cost area needs to get by without depending on food banks, etc.

Joyful: Yes, that's what it sounds like, but a real comparison would be more difficult, including fuel costs and rent as main factors, which are much higher in Europe. In Germany politicians are considering a minimum wage of 7,50 EUR, as compared to the "living wage" of about 10,50 EUR.

What I pay more than you do for health care, Peter, would buy immense amounts of housing and gasoline.

In the old days, before I became I gummint bureaucrat, I had an editing business for which I had -- on rare but necessary occasions -- to subcontract editors. Alas, I was stuck with what was available locally (partly because they had to show up at meetings of the gummint task force I was working for). At any rate, I lost money on them. By the time I paid for their labor and then spent my own time checking their work. Minimum wage wasn't a consideration because I couldn't get anyone with a working brain to do the work for less than $35/hour and I was only billing $50 for mine.

Then there was my dairy. I found it took at minimum $9/hour to get employees who were bright enough to not destroy the results of the work they managed to accomplish.

One employee, who bred quarter horses in his free time, had never come to grips with the fact that feeding animals off the ground contributes to worm infestation and that animals need minerals and salt, particularly when they're on pasture. The day I caught him feeding a doe hay off the ground, I (nearly literally) kicked his butt off the place. (Later, he managed to kill several of his horses, including his famous stud horse.) Had he worked for me for free, he would have cost me money.

His replacement, a man who had DTs if he didn't get a couple of shots of whiskey in the morning, was wonderful. He only missed work two days over the course of four years, and he was worth the $9/hour I paid him. Why was he so good? He listened to what I said and believed it. When he did the milking, we had generally a zero bacteria count in the bulk tank for the week. And the livestock guard dogs loved him.

These people who have to pay people wages that won't keep them alive have no business being in business.

Opinions may vary.

Joyful:

Certainly the US health care system ist the most expensive one while being far from effective. I only know the figures of 2003, and (adjusted to the respective buying power) Americans then payed almost twice as much for health care as Germans (5635 to 2996 dollars US). The French payed 2903 dollars, but the were number one in cost/efficiency/well-being, leading Italy, San Marino, Singapore, Spain ... 25. Germany). I don't know where the US fit in, in any case behind Japan (10th).

Some time ago (admittedly the year before was a bad year) I received a bill from my health insurance: "Your income during the last year was 415 D-Mark per month (these were still D-Mark times, the D-Mark being about half a Euro). Therefore your monthly insurance rate for the next year sums up to 470,27 D-Mark per month)". I had the invoice framed and it adornes my office now, because nobody used believed me ('Not POSSIBLE in OUR health care system!').

Too bad if you are a freelancer, being charged as if you were earning at least 1850 EUR a month, no matter what your real income is.

US healthcare has to be the laughing stock of the world. I've received equivalent healthcare in SE Asia for mere pennies on the dollar.

In fact, many Americans take a vacation to Asia and have pre-arranged medical procedures done because the cost of transportation and lodging are easily offset by the medical savings. And these are people with medical insurance. Sad commentary, that.

Germans travel to eastern European countries for the same purpose - though at cheaper fares ...