A thing I learned growing up was that people can often be unsympathetic – especially the rich and privileged towards those less fortunate. The most infuriating thing I’ve heard was when someone said that “Poor people are poor because they don’t work hard enough” – because I didn’t and I still don’t believe that that’s true.

Over the week, a woman died in her car. She was napping during a break between her three minimum wage jobs, when a gas can she kept in the car fell over and filled the car with fumes. She was found motionless, with foam running out of her mouth, still wearing her Dunkin’ Donuts uniform at the time of her death.

I’ve learned quite a few things from Economics 101 – one of which is the idea that government interference with employee wages (such as increasing minimum wage) can cause issues such as increased unemployment. However, when I think about how this lady worked her body to complete exhaustion, never once complaining and was essentially “the model employee”, I wish there was something more that can be done for people like her. People who have dreams and hopes, but who can’t afford a college education to get the credentials for a better job. When I think about how she died in her uniform, it makes me rethink about the privileges I’ve been blessed with so far in my life.

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Source:

http://www.businessinsider.com/its-hard-to-live-on-minimum-wage-2014-10