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juliana_aldous 's review for:
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
by Vicki Myron
This book is about Dewey, a cat who lived in a small-town library in Spencer, Iowa. Come for the cute cat stories, but stay for the history of the town and the midwest.
I was struck by a section in the middle of the book where the author writes about the factories and economic development plans in Spencer. She writes about a meatpacking plant, "In 1952 when local businessmen developed the property, the plant was the pride of Spencer. It was locally owned, locally run, and employed local workers at top wages. In 1974, the salary was fifteen dollars an hour, the best paying job in town."
$15/an hour. In 1974. Let that sink in as we debate minimum wage today. The plant was sold in 1978 to a national competitor with nonunion job wages of $5/hour. From $15 to $5 an hour. Let that sink in even further. The plant then closed down. It was reopened a few years later with Hispanic immigrant labor at the lower wages with no benefits.
It is also about a cute orange tabby that captured the hearts before we were inundated with internet cat memes.
I was struck by a section in the middle of the book where the author writes about the factories and economic development plans in Spencer. She writes about a meatpacking plant, "In 1952 when local businessmen developed the property, the plant was the pride of Spencer. It was locally owned, locally run, and employed local workers at top wages. In 1974, the salary was fifteen dollars an hour, the best paying job in town."
$15/an hour. In 1974. Let that sink in as we debate minimum wage today. The plant was sold in 1978 to a national competitor with nonunion job wages of $5/hour. From $15 to $5 an hour. Let that sink in even further. The plant then closed down. It was reopened a few years later with Hispanic immigrant labor at the lower wages with no benefits.
It is also about a cute orange tabby that captured the hearts before we were inundated with internet cat memes.