NerdyBird's blog post - A bit hopeless, really

Thursday, December 13, 2012, 8:24:53 AM

Blake Fall-Conroy, “Minimum Wage Machine,” 2008-2010

This machine allows anyone to work for minimum wage for as long as they like. Turning the crank on the side releases one penny every 4.97 seconds, for a total of $7.25 per hour. This corresponds to minimum wage for a person in New York.

This piece is brilliant on multiple levels, particularly as social commentary. Without a doubt, most people who started operating the machine for fun would quickly grow disheartened and stop when realizing just how little they’re earning by turning this mindless crank. A person would then conceivably realize that this is what nearly two million people in the United States do every day…at much harder jobs than turning a crank. This turns the piece into a simple, yet effective argument for raising the minimum wage.

And, this:

Comments

Others Have Said:

TexasCactus on 13-Dec-12 15:01:04

Heck of an interesting way to put minimum wage in context! I like it... as for "And this"
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! TY I needed a smile =)

tight_wet_lips on 13-Dec-12 20:13:29

lol...........that was great!!

ZeekZombie on 13-Dec-12 22:01:14

yet there are parts of the world someone turns that crank sixteen minutes for that same penny, the other well the horde grows :)

Wrigley on 13-Dec-12 22:19:05

Then again, raising minimum wage means the cost of living will go up, which means that quite a few things will cost more, so we end up in the same place

bighoss2 on 17-Dec-12 11:51:40

great piece. Certainly there are harder jobs for $7.5, but I'd imagine many of them are easier than the jobs I took at $3.25. The crank turner should unionize so he can get $20 like line workers in auto plants, who watch the robot preform it's tasks.

cheekypaul on 18-Dec-12 10:07:35

That's great!

Rolandkeys1 on 23-Jan-13 6:43:56

lol