The country itself is worse off.
No way......again.....$2 gas.......5% unemployment......lower and lower deficit for seven straight years....and it will be eight when Obama is leaving office....wall st booming higher than anyone could have ever dreamed
The problem is that corporations are not paying people a fair wage..if you adjust for inflation the minimum wage is way below what it should be....so the gov't has to subsidize this underpayment of the American workl force through food stamps...Conservatives have sold us on the idea that raising the minimum wage kills jobs....this has not happened at any time during other minimum wage increases...
Also the killing off of the unions has had the effect of stagnating American wages where employes can no longer bargain for what they are worth