Thanksgiving protests and minimum wage

It should not be lost on the American People that those making around minimum wage were required to work on Thanksgiving Day at stores that opened early to expand their Black Friday shopping.  Protests on Thanksgiving focused on raising minimum wage; however, raising minimum wage does not solve the underlying problems, i.e. the economy is not responding to the financial needs of the majority of the American People.  The rules of our economy, i.e. set by government policies, favor the wealthy at the expense of the poor, thus too many people are relying on food stamps, government sponsored medical insurance, energy assistance, and other socialist subsidies as their jobs do not pay enough to cover their living expenses while they will likely never see a job that does. 

Meanwhile, protests in Thailand have also flared up.  Being poor in a place like Thailand is inconceivably worse that being poor in the United States, but America is headed toward that extreme.  Children of the poor in Thailand face a lifetime of hopeless struggle to simply feed themselves and threats like childhood prostitution.  If it were not for socialist programs in the US, we would be well on our way to an economy of desperation.  Clearly, the system is not working well enough in America, but Thailand has an even worse situation.  We should be thankful for that, but the status quo must be overcome.