Do you remember the Fight for $15 protests? Fight for $15 is a movement that started in 2012 by fast food workers for higher wages. The fast food workers marched in the streets and went on strikes which closed their restaurants. The demonstrators were not young people working part time. The movement spread to airport workers and hotel workers. The Fight for Fifteen workers were adults and often heads of household that were trying to make ends meet on a low service industry worker’s salary.
I recall the protesting fast food workers being made fun of and told that their labor is not worth $15. They were told to get a better skill set and get a different job. Their economic anxiety and complaints were ignored and laughed off. I recall the Fight for $15 protesters were mostly women and Black. Republicans claim that Election 2024 was focused on economic matters and anxiety. But Republicans were not interested in economic anxiety in 2012 when Black and Hispanic women protested for better wages.
https://www.heritage.org/jobs-and-labor/commentary/procon-fight-fifteen-job-killer
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/11/16/fast-food-workers-minimum-wage-your-sa/75901110/
https://time.com/4065089/summit-workers-voice/
Politics is now focused on the economic concerns of White families and both sides of the political spectrum are eager to find solutions to America’s working poor or perhaps America’s cheapskates. Grocery prices have been used as the basis of America’s economy. I’ve noticed and increase in prices but it hasn’t been insurmountable. It’s unrealistic to expect prices to return to 2019 levels.
People that complain about grocery prices on social media tend to shop at stores that have a reputation for being high dollar. They also don’t seem to know how to budget. Lower income people already know where and how to shop in order to stretch a dollar to make ends meet. I don’t believe the people that have economic problems are really the ones on line complaining nor are they the people that Republicans are trying to reach.
Why are groceries the barometer of a solid economy? Why not concert tickets? Americans didn’t have a problem finding money for the Eras or Renaissance Tours. Some of those tickets were hundreds of dollars. Both tours sold out across the US. Beyonce and Taylor made billions.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/beyonc-taylor-swift-tours-helped-234757149.html
High dollar sporting events sell out too.
https://www.truebluela.com/2024/10/18/24273167/dodgers-world-series-high-prices-sold-out
How bad can the economy be if people are running to buy coffee mugs that run $30-$100?
In this age of economic woes, real or imagined or dramatized, I want to give the Fight for Fifteen protesters the recognition and respect they deserve that they didn’t get in 2012. Ultimately the Fight for Fifteen movement was successful because $15 per hour has become a common wage for service industry employees. I want to acknowledge the mostly Black and Hispanic women that lead this modern labor movement
Shannon's Life in the Midwest 
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