Costco’s support for the minimum wage increase the president has put forward harkens back to Henry Ford.

“Instead of minimizing wages, we know it’s a lot more profitable in the long term to minimize employee turnover and maximize employee productivity, commitment and loyalty,” Costco CEO Craig Jelinek said. “We support efforts to increase the federal minimum wage.”

Henry Ford doubled the wages of his workers for exactly the same reason. He sold more cars!

Giving back to the middle class and lower classes is one sure-fire way to get this country back on its feet.

In the last 30 years the top 1 percent has gone from 9 percent of the total income of the country to 24 percent of the total. That is almost triple. The bottom 50 percent of Americans own about 0.5 percent of the stock market while the top 1 percent own 50 percent of the stock market — money earned without real work and taxed at an even lower rate than the person breaking their back to feed their family.

If you can barely afford to live, you can’t afford to invest in the stock market, period.

People have to wake up to the reality of daily living. It is time we balanced the books a little. The minimum wage increase is a small step in that direction. Supporting companies like Costco is another.

Alfred S. Blakey

Barre