Brayden Soules

Mr. Smith

English 11, period 2

28 October 2016

Raise the pay

Dear Future President,

Statistics show that in the United States, the homeless population has increased significantly. It’s risen 12% since 2013. Why is this? Well, it all boils down to one common factor. Low minimum wage. For some, minimum wage works out and they can get by. But for some, especially in big cities it just isn’t enough. A large percent of the population never finished or went to college to get a degree. By default, those people are forced to work low paying crap jobs and it can’t pay the bills for them. Even worse is that mothers, fathers, and even children suffer from this. I propose a change. We need to increase the minimum wage in an effort to decrease the homeless population by at least half.

For starters, rent in bigger cities needs to be reduced. It’s way too high at the moment and is an obvious factor to the homeless problem. If that was reduced and minimum wage was brought up, then living could be affordable for the lower classes.

Another reason is that currently, the 85 richest people in the world control the same amount of money as half the world’s population. This is not okay in any way. This statement from the British-based anti-poverty charity Oxfam. I propose that for this, we need to do something about their income. If these people have that much money, they can live with having a good fraction of it taken away and given to the lower class. This in theory could help the economy significantly.

These are only a couple of examples, but it needs to happen. In the end it’s not my call. It’s yours. Now you just need to make the call, and I trust you’ll make the right one. Not only for the economy, but also for the people who go through this every day of their lives.