Have you ever had the feeling that you’ve been working for a long time but you’re still making the same amount of money? Well, you probably have.

You see, it’s like this. You’re in college, struggling relentlessly to get an education. You can’t work full time, and you probably change jobs occasionally. This means you work for minimum wage and don’t get many raises.

When do we get raises? If you’re lucky you can work somewhere long enough to justify asking for a raise. And if not, you depend on your elected representatives in Washington to help you out. After all, they expect you to be able to help pay for your education so you can get a real job and help pay for great things like nuclear bombs and $600 toilet seats.

But the Republicans don’t think we need more money. Their recent filibuster (big word meaning screw around until your opponents get so frustrated they give up) caused the proposed legislation to raise the minimum wage to die. See, if they would let such a bill pass this would just lead the way to a better life for the poor. We can’t have that, now can we?

Yep, we keep working for $3.35 an hour, and the rich folk keep exploiting this cheap labor to get richer. Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be?

OK. Enough about the problems of college students working for slave wages. What about the people who have families to support but can only find minimum wage jobs?

But Ronald Reagan’s administration has helped to create 16 million new jobs!

Oh boy! Lots o‘ jobs. But a recent report says that over half of these new jobs pay less than the poverty breakoff point for a family of four, $11,611 a year. Yep, good ol’ Ronnie is creating jobs for the poor. “Dad, do you think you could bring home some Big Macs from work tonight.”

Let’s pretend that there has been about a 30 percent decline in purchasing power in the last 10 years. (Which is pretty close.) That would mean that a whopping $3.35 an hour translates to about two and a half bucks an hour in today’s dollars.

It sure looks like the Republicans have made America a better place to live. But for who? There are millions of people out there trying to support a family on less than four bucks an hour.

But we can’t blame the Republicans entirely. They did offer a compromise. It wasn’t real clear what the terms would be, but it was something like a small increase in the minimum wage with a “training wage” at 80 percent of the minimum. The “training wage” could only be used for 90 days and then the full minimum would have to be paid.

Not too bad. Let’s see. I’ll hire this peasant for three months then fire him and hire someone else for 90 days and then…..

And isn’t this a surprise. If you work for three months at four bucks an hour you won’t have made enough to collect diddly squat in unemployment benifits. Boy, those rascals sure do think of everything.

Oh, but there is a flaw in my argument. Yes, I suppose it is true that if we raise the minimum wage and force employers to pay higher wages jobs will be lost and businesses will be forced to close their doors. If this happens the economy will look bad which, in turn, will make the Republicans look bad.

See, the last few years have been real rosy for the Republicans. We came out of a recession, and they want to take all the credit for it. Of course it didn’t have anything to do with natural business cycles or anything as simple as that. Nope, a Democratic president couldn’t have ridden out the storm and turned this country around.

But if the Republicans were to allow an increase in the minimum wage it wouldn’t be so easy for them to look good. Then it would take real initiative and a genuine devotion to make this country better—for everyone—and get true economic growth and prosperity.

How does this sound? “Law grinds the poor, and rich men rule the law.”—Oliver Goldsmith