I am begging you to understand that “people on unemployment are currently making more than people working for minimum wage” does not mean that unemployment benefits are too high, but that minimum wage is FAR too low.

The federal government did a calculation and came to a conclusion about how much an average family needs in order to survive. This resulted in a substantial boost to weekly unemployment benefits.

They know how much it takes to keep a family afloat. They’ve always known.

The fact that people on the boosted unemployment are making more than a lot of people working minimum wage is not an oversight. It’s not an accident. It’s not evidence that unemployment is egregiously high (it isn’t).

And people who have an interest in keeping wages as low as possible (high-level executives and investors who get bonuses when profits – meaning money they didn’t have to spend on your paycheck — are as high as possible) want minimum wage workers angry at people on unemployment.

Because if the struggling are fighting the struggling, none of us will look up long enough to realize who’s actually moved the pieces to create this very messed-up system.

Make no mistake: the company you work for could easily pay you more if they were forced to. The federal government knows how much you need to support your family, and has the power to force them to. Unemployed people are not getting a sweet ride, and are absolutely NOT the enemy.

We don’t have to struggle. The US has more than enough wealth to provide for every single person. We must advocate for a living wage. We must advocate for better unemployment.

And we absolutely must stop turning on each other, when the real fault lies with the people who have the power to actually fix the system, and are choosing not to because they want bigger bank accounts.

This blew up, so a quick reminder before I log off Twitter for the day:

Your righteous anger about this doesn’t mean much if you aren’t calling your elected officials when they are about to vote on wages, and voting for the right people.

Also, unionize. Unionize. Unionize.