Charlie the retail salesman (as opposed to Joe the plumber), a working-class American like so many out there, makes $7.25 an hour – minimum wage – and works 40 hours per week. He’s a single dad (mom ran off with Mike the milkman years ago), 25, and father to a five-year-old son, Charlie Jr. Believe it or not, the elder Charlie has a college education (not paid for, of course) and would love nothing more than to teach elementary school.

Unfortunately for him, inequities in state aid and the loss of federal dollars have resulted in major cutbacks by the local school district; the powers that be are firing teachers, not hiring.

So Charlie goes to work each and every day, even when he’s ill, he pays his taxes, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink, doesn’t golf and simply wants to raise his son in the kind of America he grew up in.

Charlie’s situation is a perfect example of why we need to raise the minimum wage, as proposed recently by Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr., an Illinois Democrat.

Why? It’s simple, really.