In this election year it is important that even through we all have the right to vote, once you have turned 18 and a legal US citizen. It does not always mean you should vote.  Voting is not simply casting a vote for 1 party or another or one person or another; it is a statement of fact, a statement of choice and conviction.  To simply vote because you were told, or inspired a week before an election is an injustice to the system. One should not vote in an election without first weighing not only the reason to vote but the candidates that you will be voting for and against.  It is important to vote 90% from you head and 10% from your heart.  If you vote 90% from you heart, you will cast a vote for what feels good, what makes you feel better.   But is a vote for what makes you feel better the best vote for the country.  Heart based votes lead to hardship not only for the people you are casting the vote for but the people you are casting the vote against.  For example: Every time you vote to raise the minimum wage you hurt everyone that is not at minimum wage and your not helping those that are.  Every company pays wages out of the sale of their goods and services.  If you force a company to pay more for their workers then they must raise their prices to match the increase in wages. This increase does not stop with those at minimum wage.  People whose wages are above minimum wage but not to the level of the increase have to also be increased to match the new minimum which, which increases costs for the company.  Often times the costs associated with raising the minimum wage  only calculates those at the current wage, not at the new wage.  On top of that most unions have their pay scales tied to minimum wage. So an increase in the minimum wage also raises their pay.  Which once again causes an increase in price of good sold.   So who does this hurt, well everyone that is not tied to the minimum wage, and the people that age.  When minimum wage goes up it often goes up well beyond inflation rates, however people that earn above minimum wage often times do not receive an increase in their pay to match inflation, typically getting 1% maybe 2%, if they get a pay raise that year.  So you hurt those that earn above minimum wage, (especially those that make right above the new minimum wage amount), not only do they have to make what they earn stretch farther because of inflation, but they have to pay more for the goods that they buy because of the wage increases.  What is even worse is that you do not actually help those that you just voted the minimum wage increase for.  Sure their paychecks may have gone up some but so has all their costs to live, because the cost of goods sold has gone up.  So how do you help people that work at minimum wage?  You can't, not directly.  The best way to help is to lower taxes.  If companies did not have to match every dollar they pay to social security, then they could use that money to pay their employees better.   It is also important to remember that companies do not pay taxes.  People do.  If you raise corporate taxes, companies will pass that tax raise on to their customers.  Companies can not create money to pay for increases in taxes; they have to get the money from their customers.  I realize that this post is all over the place but I had some thoughts and did not spend all the time it takes to put them in clear concise structure.