I also posted this in consumer advocacy, but this forum gets more trafic Here's the thoughts What are your thoughts on a Living Wage? Good for the people, bad for business? How do you think it would effect the economy? As a career restaurant manager, I know that the places I ran would essentially go out of business if I had to pay everyone a living wage, which nationally is near abouts $10 an hour. Having said this, I feel that ALL adults should be afforded a living wage. Certainly, anyone if they want it bad enough can go to school and make a decent living - there are people who have come from the streets / homeless people, who have been able to this. However, it is very hard and well, school's not for everyone. Perhaps a portion of the the taxes on the very wealthy (5% of the people in this country control 95%) of the wealth - should be used to subsidize those who earn below a living wage. The tax cuts that Bush gave the wealthy were based on trickle down economic theory, which it is proven does not work. Perhaps this is a better way to stimulate the economy and make life a bit easier for the poor.
For two years I worked a job that paid $6.30/hour and I worked about 35 hours a week. I lived in a nice 2 bedroom townhouse which I shared with one other person. My car's paid for but I did have to pay insurance on it. I had enough money to pay my bills, eat, go out every so often, buy weed, etc. I never used a credit card. None of my friends could believe I was living on so little money. Now, if my car blew up I was fucked, and I had no health insurance. But all in all I was living quite comfortably. People in this country live way too extravagantly. I've seen this discussed in other threads when the topic of welfare comes up. I don't think most people fighting for a "living wage" would say that $6.30/hour would qualify as a living wage, but I was living well. I'm sure people will be wondering about the cost of living where I was, and I can tell you for a fact that it was no lower than if I lived in places like Philadelphia, Baltimore, or Denver...or Gulf Breeze, FL. So what do I think about a living wage? I think it's a bunch of crap. We have a minimum wage. That'd be a tough one to live on but it's not meant for that anyway. People need to learn how to live simply. And for the people who aren't making enough to feed their children, that's where government assistance comes in. I don't think we need to be guaranteeing everyone $8-$13/hour (figures I've seen recommended as a living wage).
I think it's a great idea giving everyone money like that. I wish is was like that, really. Frankly though, I'm a very meager person. Pretty much everything the poster before me said applies. Actually, I think I could live on less than that.
Riptide - it does depend on where you live. Down here in Sarasota, you would be extremely hard pressed to find a one bedroom apartment for under $750 after you've paid all the utilities - and thats for a dump. Do people live too extravagantly? sure they do, but considering we are a nation with no public health care, this I think would be a step in the right direction for those in low paying jobs. All in all, in my opinion if this plan were to go in place my securing these funds from the super wealthy, it would have an excellent effect on the economy, much greater than the Reagenomics of the Bush administration that relies on trickle down as lets be honest, very little does.
A minimum wage causes inflation that usually just makes things worse. I think that we should not have one.
It's easy for a kid to live on $6.30 an hour. Hell, I know guys who do it on a whole lot less...(dumpsters and panhandling etc). When you're young you're strong and healthy, no wife or kids to look after, and you're very employable. Try being a 50 year old that just got laid off with a wife and kids to support....decades doing a job that no longer has any relevancy in the economy, and all the employers looking for someone younger. Or try living that way with serious health problems... In those cases minimum wage just doesn't cut it, especially since that area of the job market is full of jobs you couldn't pay me enough to do. Add in the fact that (at least in Canada) there's a major low income housing problem, and more and more workin people are becoming homeless every day and you have a very dangerous recipe for social problems...
I work with a small buisness on a regular basis, and I've seen the inner-workings on how profit is calculated, and just how large of a % wages can be out of total earnings. It would be almost impossible for my employer to pay his employees anything above around 6.50 an hour, because there are simply just to many other additional costs to factor in (product, space rent, utilities, etc.). If the buisness ever grows to a large enough point, and product and other expenses can be scaled down sufficiently then it might be possible, but for now it just wouldn't work. This is only at the small buisness level though, the larger a buisness is the easier it would be to fullfill, because corporations tend to have a large amount of inate self-sufficiency. But a universal $10 minimum wage just wouldn't be feasible.
How much it costs depends on where you live... if you thinnk you could live in new york city or a big city only making a lil money, your wrong... living wage idea is an awesome idea... Im glad that the capital of my state (madison) has instituted a living wage ordinance. Im sure they will do just fine with it.
I've been looking for a roomate for almost a year, but I can't find anyone who wants to live with a baby. It's not a luxury. I have to pay for myself and my son, and we only get about $100 a month from his father, if we're lucky. I make $7.50 an hour. Rent is $650. Daycare is $165 a week. Car insurance is $85 a month. If my mom didn't help me, we'd starve to death. Luckily, Nashville isn't too terribly expensive.
HappyHaHaGirl, what you said proves my point. Living alone is a luxury; that's why you can't afford it. I'm not against the idea of people getting paid more. I'm against the government making it happen. If the government wants to get involved it should put money into educating people to live simply. Unfortunately that concept flies in the face of our consumption-driven economy. Businesses would flip if the government started telling people to quit spending so much money. The fact that our government doesn't is further proof that it's not here to look out of the best interests of its citizens.
Quit spending money on what, though? Rent or house payment? A car and insurance? Heat, water, electric? Food? Living simply is one thing; giving up basic necessities is another.
Please read the post - I'm not arguing for a minimum wage at all. I ran small businesses and know that they could not make it paying people $10 an hour. What I am saying is that if taxes are budgeted properly the government could subsidize income at a higher level such that every adult in america could receive a living wage. What this is about is redistribution of wealth - the recreation of the middle class that america enjoyed so well in the 50's.
Yeah it sounds like a good idea to me. I've heard of such systems being used in certain Nordic countries, and it seemed like it was fairly successful. I could see some problems with it, though, in that employers would probably purposely try to limit their wages to as small of a level as possible, but I'm sure theres ways around such a problem. One of the impressions I've been getting, is that government really is really not that effective in regulating small buisness. Of course it really is a kind of passive regulation, but still it just has kind of an artificial feel to it. I don't know, I'm all about redistribution of wealth, so seems like its only a good idea to try it out.
