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  3. What once was considered "pie in the sky" is slowly becoming law. In New York, state legislators just agreed to raise the state

What once was considered "pie in the sky" is slowly becoming law. In New York, state legislators just agreed to raise the state

admin2017-02-28  56
问题     What once was considered "pie in the sky" is slowly becoming law. In New York, state legislators just agreed to raise the state minimum wage to $ 15 an hour, with the full effect beginning in New York City by December 2018.
    How did this reform go from being scorned as "extreme" to being enacted? Consensus politicians don’t champion it. Pundits and chattering heads tend to ignore it. Many liberal economists deride it as too radical. The idea moved only because workers and allies organized and demanded the change.
    Contrary to the business lobby, an analysis by economists at the University of California at Berkeley shows that New York’s increases will not lead to job losses. The higher wages will generate billions in new consumer spending; the increased sales will offset the costs to businesses. In Seattle, the unemployment rate reached an eight-year low after the initial increases in the minimum wage last year.
    This movement continues to build. The Fight for $ 15 and Good Jobs Nation initiatives will ratchet up their walkouts and demonstrations this month. On Monday, an interfaith coalition of religious leaders issued a call for " moral action on the economy." They will press presidential candidates to pledge to " issue an executive order to make sure taxpayer dollars reward ’model employers’ that pay a living wage of at least $ 15 an hour, provide decent benefits and allow workers to organize without retaliation." As Jim Winkler, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, summarized:" This election is fundamentally about whether the next president is willing to take transformative executive action to close the gap between the wealthy and workers."
    Sanders has made $ 15 and a union a centerpiece of his campaign. He has urged Obama to take executive action and surely will sign the pledge. Hillary Clinton supports raising the minimum wage to $ 12.50, allowing cities to go higher. Her position on the pledge is unknown. The Republican candidates—Sen. Ted Cruz ( R - Tex.) , Donald Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich—oppose raising the minimum wage and would likely repeal Obama’s executive orders on low-wage contract workers if elected.
    With inequality reaching record extremes, childhood poverty the worst in the industrial world and more Americans struggling simply to stay afloat, this country is desperately in need of bold reform. Yet bold ideas are repeatedly mocked as unrealistic and blocked by entrenched interests and conservative politicians. What the activists and low-wage workers have shown with their fight for $ 15 is that the changes we need will come if people organize and force them. Many commentators deride Sanders’s call for a political revolution, but that may be the most realistic idea of them all.
According to the first two paragraphs, the reform concerning the minimum wage was inspired by
选项 A、advocates of liberal economists.
B、passions of gossiping intellectuals.
C、oppositions of radical politicians.
D、efforts of workers and allies.
答案D
解析 (1)根据题干关键词定位至第l、2段。(2)根据文章，“纽约州立法者同意提高最低工资”(第1段：to raise the state minimum wage)。第2段分析这一事件的来由，政治家、学者和经济学家都持否定态度，根本原因是“工人和同盟组织和要求”(第2段：workers and allies)。选项[D]转述了原文的内容。
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