Dear Editor:

Many citizens, exhausted from the political battles, can no longer trust any “fact.” Minimum wage is one of the battles for which much disinformation has hit the streets that comments on articles seem to waffle looking for “new talking points” or for correct counters to statements like, “No one has ever been raised out of poverty with a minimum wage increase.”

My father taught me how to determine when a statement is probably correct and when it is probably not correct. If the statement is by someone you know well and considered to be trustworthy, there is a strong probability that what they say is right. But if you have not trusted them in the past, or for some reason their statement does not ring true, then you must go to history to determine the probability of factual-based truth. He cautioned that people could unintentionally be wrong. It is my job to find truth.

Taking the statement quoted above, we examine what is truth and what is not. What is amusing is that being raised out of poverty is the exact purpose of the 1938 Minimum Wage Labor Act crafted during the Great Depression. Its purpose was to stop slave labor and sweatshops — both leaving people in poverty without hope of a better life. Then poverty was based on what a family of three needed to live and today it is based on what a family of four needs.

During its life of cost-of-living (COL) increases (1938 to 2007) it was successful. In addition to lifting many out of poverty, economists noted the positive impact on U.S. economy. With each of the 22 COL increases, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased and the economy flourished. The facts are undisputed and rest on their laurels. There is economic logic to explain why this happened 22 times and that same logic works today. In 2014, 600 economists noted increases have an effect on the economy as low-wage workers spend additional earnings, thereby raising demand and job growth. We trust in repetitive results and this is one result that needs to be seen in Maine.

Jarryl Larson

Edgecomb