A living wage for anyone who is willing to work is important. We don't get to choose how smart we are, or what social class we're born into, but we can certainly all choose to be productive or be lazy in our own ways. No one deserves to suffer simply for being born. This is why it is important that people who are willing to work are able to feed themselves and their families and enjoy at least a modicum of the privileges of modern society. 

However, this raises the question, “What about those people who choose not to work and collect welfare, especially those who habitually do so, do they also deserve a higher payment to enhance their standard of living?” Perhaps there are a slim few who do, but I would argue the vast majority of those on such subsidized income do not. 

Let's use a living minimum wage as an incentive to return them to the job market and appreciate the value of an earned dollar. As people in low-income communities see the improved quality of life enjoyed by their peers who work, many who do not work by choice might be persuaded to seek employment as an alternative to simply collecting. 

Perhaps we could subsidize the living minimum wage at the expense of welfare (zero sum) to make this contrast more apparent.

Michael Hotchkiss

Preston