i just wish to point out that 1 reason we spend what we do on the social safety net

[SpankMe]

24. The federal minimum wage...

...should be around $14/hr today if it was keeping up with inflation since the late 1970's. The fed min wage is about half that, as everyone knows.

That means that - all things being equal - $14/hr today exacts the same burden on business as $2.90 did in 1979.

I'll grant that all things aren't necessarily equal - cost structure on business today isn't distributed the same as in '79, and maybe labor costs more today as a percentage of total costs (on an inflation-adjusted basis) than it did in '79. But, the minimum wage should still be a whole lot higher than $7.25/hr. States are doing their own minimum wage thing. But, the federal minimum wage drives a lot of calculations and policy decisions elsewhere in the economy.