The answer is the gain a little bit of perspective. I've spent a good portion of my life below the poverty line as well, but my wife and I have never gone hungry, wanted for shelter, or required anything at all that we could not provide ourselves. That to me is satisfying. Then again, I haven't been weened on Uncle Sugar's soft fleshy teat either so perhaps I'm not expecting enough. I've got it pretty bad after all, my car's 15 years old and I don't even have cable TV. Call me poor, I'll blow all my money and a new car and TV and you can buy my food, how's that sound?
The answer is the gain a little bit of perspective. I've spent a good portion of my life below the poverty line as well, but my wife and I have never gone hungry, wanted for shelter, or required anything at all that we could not provide ourselves. That to me is satisfying. Then again, I haven't been weened on Uncle Sugar's soft fleshy teat either so perhaps I'm not expecting enough. I've got it pretty bad after all, my car's 15 years old and I don't even have cable TV. Call me poor, I'll blow all my money and a new car and TV and you can buy my food, how's that sound?
It's too bad the extremists on both the social right and left have their own reasons why enforced (and reversible) birth control for those living in poverty is "evil." (Racism, facism, an offense to God, etc.)
People have the "inalienable right" to have kids they can't support, then it's society's fault that their kids are living in poverty.
People have the "inalienable right" to have kids they can't support, then it's society's fault that their kids are living in poverty.
Yeah it is a joke. I should be getting paid more as a manager (worked there for years, do a damn good job), but to keep the payroll at a reasonable level, I was only given a slight raise. If minimum wage wasn't so high ($7.63 an hour here), I'd be making decent money...but instead I've got 16 year old highschool guys who are just looking to make some cash making almost as much as I am.
You're a jackanapes, the states have the power to increase that. Washington state's has increased about 30% in those 10 years and I sleep soundly knowing that the guy tampering with the refried beans at Taco Bell is making as much as I did when I started in IT.
$2.13 an hour would be way below their worth. Even without minimum wage laws, a dishwasher would be payed reasonably for their work.
So $7.83 is too high and $2.13 is too low so you must be happy with the $5.15 hr stuck since 1996.
Clearly "they" haven't yet succeeded and I hope they do before the greeter at Walmart is making 45k/year for handing out stickers. I might have to consider a career change. You do realize employers will compensate you competatively when you have a marketable skill, right?
$5.15 is more reasonable. It allows for a broader range of paying what employees are worth, instead of ALL employeed (crappy, good, new, experienced) getting paid a high minimum. It also decreases incentives for entrenpenurship, which would increase the demand for certain workers, create jobs, and allow more competition for workers which would increase pay naturally.
I hope you realize that there is a huge % of minimum wage workers that are high school students who spend most of their paychecks on drugs, crappy CD's, fast food, alcohol, and name-brand clothing. You think they need more money?
Svnla
Lifer
- Nov 10, 2003
- 17,986
- 1,388
- 126
I am watching the show right now (yes, at 2 a.m. in the morning) and this is what I see.
Those workers have these common characteristics: poorly educated or none, have several kids, broken home <divorce/separate/no child support>, no parential skill <no disciplines>,no valueable assets nor skills, no money/financial management skills, drinking/smoking problem.
No one can fix those deficiencies if those folks can't fix it themselves. You can raise the minimum wage as high as you want but it won't solve those problems.
I do agree about the high cost of health insurance, higher cost for housing, gas, ect.
Those workers have these common characteristics: poorly educated or none, have several kids, broken home <divorce/separate/no child support>, no parential skill <no disciplines>,no valueable assets nor skills, no money/financial management skills, drinking/smoking problem.
No one can fix those deficiencies if those folks can't fix it themselves. You can raise the minimum wage as high as you want but it won't solve those problems.
I do agree about the high cost of health insurance, higher cost for housing, gas, ect.
You guys sound like white supremicists.
Either be a perfect master's degree groomed puppet or die.
Jeff7
Lifer
- Jan 4, 2001
- 41,596
- 19
- 81
That did occur to me too. In this country, you at least have the option of stealing food from somewhere, or taking from the trash. In countries like you mentioned, that option is not even available. We have rich poverty here. It is by no means comfortable, but it is quite survivable.
Minimum wage - the free economist in me says that they should do away with minimum wage. That way you could pay a homeless person $1/hr to do some menial labor that would otherwise just either go undone, or be tacked on to some minimum wage-earner's job description. $1/hr is probably more than the homeless guy is currently making, so he benefits, and so does the business owner. Look too at sweatshops in China - yeah, the conditions are deplorable, but people still line up to voluntarily try to get jobs at such places. Why? Because working there might help them earn enough money to provide for their families, or to help them relocate elsewhere. It's like voting for politicians - you've got some options, and they might all suck, but no matter what, one of them is going to get into office, so you vote for the one who sucks least. Same with the jobs - work, or don't work. If you want to make money, you need to work. The work may suck, but you need it, so you go with what sucks least.
Interesting, I thought that was called the consumer economy?
Take that away and what do you have left???
The Boston Dangler
Lifer
- Mar 10, 2005
- 14,647
- 2
- 0
The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. When will people realize it's not about your brown or white skin, it's about the green. Once apon a time, a family would get by on one parent's wages, now both parents (if there are both parents) work as many hours as possible. The only logical outcome is the enslavement of 95% of the country. Lower and middle class people are carefully and constantly under attack, being stripped of our rights and our paychecks.
Don't believe me? Compare and contrast Spt. 11 (lots and lots of money at stake, opportunity to take away rights in the name of freedom???) and Hurricane Katrina (the poorest of the poor left to die, big money swoops in to gobble up the severly depressed real estate).
What really baffles me are the hypocritical neocons and the Republican-voting poor. Not that Dems have our best interests at heart. But how can someone deliberately choose policies that will screw them? Tax breaks for the rich, enviromental law out the window, no healthcare system whatsoever. Idiots. The Founding Fathers aren't just spinning in their graves, they should be on rotisseries.
Don't believe me? Compare and contrast Spt. 11 (lots and lots of money at stake, opportunity to take away rights in the name of freedom???) and Hurricane Katrina (the poorest of the poor left to die, big money swoops in to gobble up the severly depressed real estate).
What really baffles me are the hypocritical neocons and the Republican-voting poor. Not that Dems have our best interests at heart. But how can someone deliberately choose policies that will screw them? Tax breaks for the rich, enviromental law out the window, no healthcare system whatsoever. Idiots. The Founding Fathers aren't just spinning in their graves, they should be on rotisseries.
The Boston Dangler
Lifer
- Mar 10, 2005
- 14,647
- 2
- 0
Svnla
Lifer
- Nov 10, 2003
- 17,986
- 1,388
- 126
You can't be any further from the truth. I came to the US over 20 years ago with nothing but clothes on my back and barely spoke English. Now I have a decent job with decent salary and spend about 1/2 of my money every month.
I have two college degrees <BS and MBA> on my own dime <no mom or dad money>. Funny, I didn't see any goverment entities tell me to do that, I did that on my own desire and commitment.
What's wrong with that? There are plenty of teens who would like to do some extra work. Too bad a higher minimum wage + dated child labor laws rule that option out.
The Boston Dangler
Lifer
- Mar 10, 2005
- 14,647
- 2
- 0
I'm not talking about kids, I'm talking about adults that are a source of cheap labor. I don't know where you're from, but in Boston, an adult making less than 10/hr will starve to death.
Do you think most of the business owners in Boston are sitting fat themselves? Can they afford the amount or afford the risk of paying their employees more?
The Boston Dangler
Lifer
- Mar 10, 2005
- 14,647
- 2
- 0
There are quite a few owners of Dunkin Donuts (founded in Quincy MA btw), landscaping outfits, many service industries etc that are wiping their asses with silk while their questionably legal employees are really struggling.
And, it scales upwards. This is my post from the "Where were you on Sept 11" thread:
"I was in a quarterly breakfast meeting with about 500 of my 12-15000 New England co-workers. The regional manager had just told us that the major cuts in our health insurance (which we found out ourselves) had not been announced because of a "lost email" (omfg multimillion dollar insurance program slips under the radar? what a weak lie). I asked him since we're selling more product, at higher prices, to more customers, why can't we get a raise? He didn't like that. Sadly, it took 3000 civilian deaths to save my job that day."
The 500 worker bees in the room earned roughly mid-teens per hour. Many, like myself, have highly skilled and dangerous jobs. This is for a company that makes money like it's going out of style.
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