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I think there is nothing more frustrating and heart breaking than someone that tries to hold an honest job but is still living in poverty because they only make minimum wage or close to it.  McDonolds only pays $7.25 an hour, which is currently the minimum wage in the US.  I make as much as a whole crew and I struggle to get by.  I can’t imagine how someone makes it on an income that low.  God help them if they have children.  The fact is, I can’t stop fast food companies from paying low wages, but I can eat somewhere else.  I think that is something we need to be cognizant of.  Do the establishments we frequent pay a “living wage”?  A wage that someone can reasonably live on without assistance.  It’s bad enough these companies are selling unhealthy food, but if they can’t take care of their employees, maybe our country is better off without them.  I ask you, please don’t eat at restaurants like McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, Domino’s and Papa John’s.  You can make a difference just by choosing where you spend your money.  You can also go to lowpayisnotok.org and sign their petition.

So if the minimum wage is not enough, how much is enough?  In Chicago, there is a group called FightFor15, which, as you may guess, is fighting for a wage of $15.  If you worked 40 hours a week at $15 and took off two weeks a year, that would come out to exactly $30,000.  How do you incentivize businesses to spend that much on their employees?  McDonalds, for instance, might tell you they couldn’t afford to pay that much, but they have a huge marketing budget.  I think they could afford to pay it if they lowered their marketing spend.  What if people started going to businesses that paid a living wage?  What if you could give them a sticker they could put on their door or a plaque on the wall so people would know this business values its employees and pays a living wage.  If people stopped going to low wage paying businesses and started going to fair wage paying businesses, the increase in business might make it worth it for the fair wage paying business.  And if a few businesses go out of business, they are likely fast food businesses that serve unhealthy food anyway.

Can you think of ways we can encourage businesses to pay a living wage?

Last night I saw Cloud Atlas.  It was hard to do because I have heard the book is so good.  But I have enjoyed Game of Thrones after watching the show on HBO, so I thought why not?  The movie was OK but it occurred to me that it could have been better if it was longer.  Which is an odd thing to say.  The movie is already pushing 3 hours, which is suicide in the movie world.  But think on this: how stupid would it have been for someone to try to make a 2 or three hour movie of Game of Thrones?  What a loss!  It would have been horrible.  The story is too rich to squeeze into such a short span of time.  And then it hit me.  Have we out lived the 2 hour movie?

Why do movies have to be 100 to 200 minutes long?  Look at HBO and how successful they have been with the serial.  Maybe they are on to something.  I think people want to be invested into an epic, long stretching story.  Think about it.  Star Wars.  X Men.  Batman.  You have episode after episode.  Think of all the hours you have invested into these universes.  The deeper and richer, the better.  I am not saying do away with the one hitter.  I’m just saying maybe a blockbuster maybe should mean something with multiple volumes made all at once.  Think Kill Bill.  Maybe Tarintino was on to something.

Let me leave you with a great story.  A huge company, I forget which one, was trying to think of any way to increase revenue.  They promised an executive position to any employee that could come up with a way to increase revenue.  It was a janitor that hand the golden ticket.  He suggested that they increase the hole in the toothpaste tube.  Simple.  People would just squeeze out more toothpaste.  It worked, too.  And he went from cleaning toilets to being an executive.  Hollywood needs to make the hole bigger.  Why sell one movie ticket when you can sell three or four?  Riddle me that!