I don't want to bitch. Not on a Friday when I'm digging in to the deepest corners of my psyche to scrape up some positive energy.

But. I'm getting really sick of reading and hearing people talking about the minimum wage increase (or shall I say the "proposed" increase?).

The most frequent talking-stupid-out-yer-ass-comment is along the lines of: if people don't bother to get education/skills then they don't deserve a raise.

Please. Really. Please. This is the stupidest thing I have ever heard in my life. Not because I'm a bleeding heart liberal who thinks that every person on the planet deserves something for nothing.

But because I understand that if everyone in America received a college education or a technical education that would boost them in to the middle class pay scale, our economy would collapse.

How many of you college grads out there would go pick up garbage, roof houses, clean hotel rooms, valet park cars, wash dishes in restaurants or any one of thousands of like jobs?

None.

We need a pool of minimum wage workers. Why do you think that year after year after year passes with no improvement in our public schools? We NEED the drop outs, the ones who barely managed to graduate.

It ain't pretty, but it is the truth. There is a vast working class that is just as important in keeping America running as all those people who sit in air conditioned offices and type on computers all day.

Instead of blaming them for where they are, we can at least acknowledge the vital part they play in our economy and give them a modest increase that barely lifts them above poverty level.