We have all heard capitalist ideologues say that wages are determined by the labor market, some kind of human supply and demand. Not true, and the election that just took place proves that as well as any political exercise could.

It’s too bad that Portland voters decided against a much-needed increase in the minimum wage. But this is not the end of the story. The struggle for democracy and basic decency will continue.

Low wages are a political choice. We can and should choose differently. A strong labor movement, an expanding economy, and pro-worker policies created the prosperity associated with the Golden-Age of American Capitalism, circa 1945-1975.

Then supply-side economics and a one-sided regulatory framework that privileged the interests of capital over ordinary people crushed the middle-class. This was the end result of policy choices that were imposed on all of us by the architects of Reaganomics and their acolytes. The beating we’ve been taking is being delivered by a very real class of people who occupy positions of power and privilege.

No “magic hand” is involved, no over-determining mysterious force to whom we acquiesce and surrender. If we want to close the widening gulf between rich and poor, if we are serious about democracy and equality, and are determined to rid society of the scourge of poverty, we will make better political choices and better economic policy.

We need to raise the minimum wage substantially, make it easier for workers to organize, increase labor’s bargaining power and direct monetary and fiscal policy toward full employment. If we do these things, then we will close the ever-widening gulf between the rich and the rest of us. Higher wages are a choice that all of us can influence and even determine. Don’t mourn, organize.

Christopher McKinnon

Augusta