Good news often falls on deaf ears. In this case, my own. In 2002 I joined a campaign of trade unionists and community activists in Santa Fe, New Mexico, seeking an increase in the minimum wage, which, for the state of New Mexico, then stood at $4.15 an hour, well below the US federal minimum wage. When asked about the discrepancy, a Santa Fe businessman explained that it “sent a good signal to investors.” Less than an hour into my first meeting with members of the so-called living-wage campaign, I found out that I, too, had become an equality pessimist.

The group was seeking an increase to $8.50 an hour. I balked, worried about the hotel room cleaners and restaurant food-choppers in this tourist town who might find themselves out of work. And I doubted whether the well-heeled, politically elite of the city would go for it. Couldn’t we propose an increase to $5.50 and then, if we won, go on from there? A former organizer from the Communications Workers of America vociferously objected: “I’m not going to go out there and demand a wage that would place the worker below the poverty line even if she worked full time all year. I’m not going to sign on to that kind of injustice.”