Ivan is completely correct in his blog American Governments.  The first thing that I thought when I read this blog was, How many people are really making minimum wage? There are actually 3.0 million people who make either minimum wage or below which surprised me.  His point about the affects of a large increase in pay is correct.  Statistics have shown that a small rise would not do much harm for our economic system.  However, a large increase would in fact raise prices.  Businesses would have to compensate by raising prices.  Large touristy cities wouldn't be bothered by this since they can essentially raise prices to whatever they please and people will still pay.  If anything maybe we can appreciate that our society is one that is attempting to help the people in need.