Fraught with the daily doom and gloom about the current state of financial affairs in Australia with the recent budget, the average person is becoming a lot more aware of their bottom line. Our friends across the sea in the United States have long battled this problem, and a piece by artist Blake Fall-Conroy, Minimum Wage Machine, is an all too timely reminder. Simply turn the crank on the side releases and for every 4.97 seconds you shall yield a penny, total that up for the hour and you receive the current minimum wage in New York, $7.25 per hour (US).  In the artists own words – “I want my projects to be socially conscious. I want my projects to be simple, approachable, and defined by the vocabulary of everyday objects. I want my projects to be easy to understand, even if it’s in a different way than I intended.”