LETTER: Minimum wage hasn’t kept pace with cost of living

In Switzerland, people set the standard of living, not capitalists.

$20 wage

The minimum wage set by the federal government has not kept pace with the cost of living.

Had it done so, the minimum wage [$7.25 an hour, set in 2009] would be more than $20, according to a 2012 study by the Institute for Policy Studies.

Switzerland, on the other hand, is a small, relatively homogeneous country.

It has no minimum wage because it has a direct democracy rather than a representative one.

The people set the standard of living.

Capitalism, on the other hand, conflicts with democracy, where inalienable rights and the equality of all men clash with industrial benefactors whose bottom line takes precedence over employee wages and benefits.

If it were not so, we would have no need for unions or community organizers such as Saul Alinsky and, yes, Barack Obama — and Margaret Sanger, who educated women about birth control, thus reducing the number of unemployed welfare recipients while saving countless lives of women in the process.

Roger B. Huntman,

Sequim