Overheard somebody complain about the $15 minimum wage by saying that it'll spoil kids since most of them work "easy" jobs like delivering pizza.

But when was the last time you had a kid deliver your pizza?

Or your uber eats/skip the dishes.

Predominately, these workers are older people who are supporting their family - more often than not coming from an immigrant background.

It's ignorant to think that fields like this are dominated by well off kids.
It takes an incredible amount of privilege for people to assume that these jobs are a momentary right of passage.

Both my parents, university educated, worked minimum wage jobs when we first came to Canada. They worked hard so I could be where I am today.
These are honorable jobs and, once again, I wouldn't be here if my mom didn't work double shifts cleaning. Or if my dad didn't work as a cashier and at a meat packing plant.

It was backbreaking work and a $15 minimum wage would have made life more bearable for them.
My dad passed away after working an extra overnight shift at home depot.

I was asleep and woke up to my sister telling me something was wrong. He had an heart attack.

I have a feeling that a more bearable work schedule would have prevented him from dying.
Of course this meant that my mom had to work way harder to support the four of us.

I wouldn't see her for days. She'd wake up at 5 am and work until 11 PM or midnight just for a double shift and the extra pay.

I'm surprised that this didn't kill her too. It's tragic.
A $15 minimum wage back then wouldn't have solved our problems but it would have made life a little easier.

It would have allowed her to spend more time with her family and reduced a lot of stress.

This is why the $15 minimum wage matters. I hope others see this perspective.

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1. Mini Thread on Conflicts of Interest involving the authors of the Nature Toilet Paper:
https://t.co/VUYbsKGncx
Kristian G. Andersen
Andrew Rambaut
Ian Lipkin
Edward C. Holmes
Robert F. Garry

2. Thanks to @newboxer007 for forwarding the link to the research by an Australian in Taiwan (not on

3. K.Andersen didn't mention "competing interests"
Only Garry listed Zalgen Labs, which we will look at later.
In acknowledgements, Michael Farzan, Wellcome Trust, NIH, ERC & ARC are mentioned.
Author affiliations listed as usual.
Note the 328 Citations!
https://t.co/nmOeohM89Q


4. Kristian Andersen (1)
Andersen worked with USAMRIID & Fort Detrick scientists on research, with Robert Garry, Jens Kuhn & Sina Bavari among


5. Kristian Andersen (2)
Works at Scripps Research Institute, which WAS in serious financial trouble, haemorrhaging 20 million $ a year.
But just when the first virus cases were emerging, they received great news.
They issued a press release dated November 27, 2019:

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Great article from @AsheSchow. I lived thru the 'Satanic Panic' of the 1980's/early 1990's asking myself "Has eveyrbody lost their GODDAMN MINDS?!"


The 3 big things that made the 1980's/early 1990's surreal for me.

1) Satanic Panic - satanism in the day cares ahhhh!

2) "Repressed memory" syndrome

3) Facilitated Communication [FC]

All 3 led to massive abuse.

"Therapists" -and I use the term to describe these quacks loosely - would hypnotize people & convince they they were 'reliving' past memories of Mom & Dad killing babies in Satanic rituals in the basement while they were growing up.

Other 'therapists' would badger kids until they invented stories about watching alligators eat babies dropped into a lake from a hot air balloon. Kids would deny anything happened for hours until the therapist 'broke through' and 'found' the 'truth'.

FC was a movement that started with the claim severely handicapped individuals were able to 'type' legible sentences & communicate if a 'helper' guided their hands over a keyboard.