I'm tired of headlines that say the economy is improving, but without jobs.

Just saw a headline today that says the debt deal will be great for the economy, but bad for jobs. Whether or not you agree with that, I'm sick and tired of seeing headlines like this. These two things are mutually exclusive! The purpose of the economy, of the existence of currency and a government to back it, is to provide food, housing, health care, and goods.

It's ridiculous to say the economy is improving when nowhere near enough people have jobs or access to health care. It's like being in Somalia and saying well, people are starving en masse, but the economy's looking pretty good! NO IT'S NOT!

that's 2 in the last few months. the pizza place which used to be crowded is barely hanging on.

for the top 1%

That is an oxymoron. There is no recovery without jobs! I can accept hearing about some improvement in the economy - either by sector, or in general - but it is not a recovery unless the people (the human people have jobs!

Here are jobs out there, but they do not not pay near what they are worth.

Even improving job numbers don't mean an improvement in the real economy... people need a living wage.

I actually think the minimum should be a living wage. Apparently I'm crazy to think this.

I don't know the answer, but I always thought that was its purpose. And as we know, there have not been cost of living increases added to it through the years.

I've looked it up on Wikipedia a little bit, and apparently it wasn't based on sort of a middle class cost of living, and obviously everything was different in terms of living standards and things like that so it's hard to compare, but if it never was at a "middle class" (whatever that means) cost of living level, the cost of living has gone up much faster than the minimum wage. So either way, it's worth less now than it was. But it was a huge leap forward at the time compared to what people were earning, which was sweatshop pay. Of course, a lot of Republicans today want to go back to that. Oh, the good old days!

The best thing we could do for the economy right now is to provide universal health care and make the minimum a living wage. But again, that's just my opinion, which apparently is crazy.