Raise The Minuimum Wage So People Can Eat!

Something to ponder (Thursday, June 22, 2006):

How can they justify this while increasing their own salaries. We have to buy milk and bread too!

 

Currently, 20% of US health care dollars go to the administative costs of private insurance.

Medicare has a 5% admistrative cost.

Switching from private insurance to public will result in 1/6 of our health care dollars becoming avaliable to fund the health care for those the currently uninsured.

 

We've been told since I was 20 that Social Security wasn't viable. It's just not true. The closest estimates have it working until sometime around 2040. But there are a lot of variables. And don't blame shit on the boomers, which I am one. We paid our way.

I watched my folks become sick in their later years, and watched how medical services were dealt out. I watched America's "Greatest Generation", become expendable as far as the medical profession was concerned. Medicare recipients get three days in a hospital bed. And saw an attitude by medical professsionals that if you were over 60, why should extra measures be taken. You'd lived your life. I foresee the "boomers", being dealt with the same way. So young folks don't think your security in later life is threatened by the "boomers". It's the big moneyed interest that threaten all of us.

Want to privatize...go ahead. How many private savings and loans and retirement funds have gone defunct without paying out to their shareholders? What guarrantees will you have. More of a guarrantee with SS, than a private program that can lobby for exemptions.

You haven't lived until you've sat in a Hospital and listened to the hospital administration phone rest homes to find a bed for your terminal parent, only to have one after another turn them down, because they don't want the bad stats on their record, but the hospital doesn't want them either because they used up their three days.

 

The people in power want to do away with Social Security, because it's a national program and it probably won't continue to work if large employers are continually allowed to move off shore and shirk their remaining responsibilities to their workforce.

Buy into their scare tactics and you allow them to form the way the society operates. Force them to be accountable and you might see some responsibility for the little man that made their fortunes possible.

 

I think it's time that the "maximum" wage should have as much influence. Raise the wages of the highest paid employees and those at the lowest rung on the ladder should expect an increase in their wages as well. I think perhaps that may have been what this election was all about. Turnabout is fair play. Especially when even the lowest paid among us still has one vote, just like the big players.

 

No it doesn't. Market value sets the value for other wages.

 

It's other wages - other than minimum - that are determined by market value. I know people who have turned down job offers of $55,000 per year and were insulted by the "offer".
$55,000 is barely over $25 per hour (for a 40 hour week), and that's insulting to someone making $40 or $45 per hour.

I also find it interesting no one has mentioned how bad it is that a minimum wage has to be a law. And that no one has mentioned the connection between the U.S. minimum wage and illegal immigration.

Peace,
poor_old_dad

 

You clearly have no idea of what you are talking about. And I'm getting pretty sick of these Macro 100 lessons.

 

Pay me 500 dollars and I'll teach you the class.

But trust me on this - if you don't understand that markets can go up and down, then maybe you shouldn't be spouting off about them where your lack of (any) knowledge is so obvious.

 

That was REAL obvious-You can spin that Republican bullshit til your blue in the face Spooner but as you can see' This country-My country; choose to call for another direction in leadership-We voted not only to stop this war but to stop the Republicans from ending the programs that help so many people-Unlike Canada where everyone is doing great we have alot of people who need help getting stearted-It could be day care help so a mother can learn a skill or it may be help with college edeucation-We also pay into Social Security so we have money to live on when we get older-The people of this nation spoke and the greedy rich Republicans are pissed!-Good!-Now we increase the min. wage and if a person qualifies and needs help-we help them-were does the money come from?-war money!-if you had been an American worker for as long as I have you would have heard these same lame argumants for keeping the wages down many times-If I own a company and my profits are up why not share that with my workers?-In your mind that profit is all yours and you would not share it-this is how you sound-and I'm sorry you are like that-maybe someday you'll change-If you ever decide to become an American you will be given some freebies for sure-be sure and say no thanks!-I don;t want to screw up your economy!haha-(we would all appreciate that)

 

You go big dog.... but watch th BP. Get that PM?

Peace,
Poor_old_dad

 

LOL-Yea-the BP calls the shots in my life for sure-Ya just don't to get the old ticker athumpin too hard-wait-isn't that what Bush took?-ATHUMPIN!?-hahha-we did it brother!-I am soo proud of the people of this country for voting with their hearts and minds-Hey-Enough is enough-and ya know I am not in favor of givin away the farm but we can help our people and still keep a budget balanced; it's been done before- It just takes the right people to manage the money-Minimum wage was never designed for people to live real comfortable with their own home or new car-It is only a starting point in a persons working life-a beginning-But if the cost of the basics to survive are too high then it leaves little incentive for a person to keep on trying to get ahead-One of my first jobs was in San Francisco as a shipping clerk and I split the rent with this other guy-we survived and even had money for "other stuff"-but we also had pay raises every now and then-I drove a beater and ate Mc Whatever so it can be done-and we did get inreases in the MW and the country did not go broke-The Viet Nam war didn't break it either-so-Too much is bieng made out of a small pay raise to help out folks-would ya rather see them on umemployment or welfare?-If a person is willing and able to work; we should say hell yea and give em a hand to get going-O-yea-POD I got the IM-stay tuned-

 

AHHHH.. Honesty, Then the real issue should be wages and cut out all the BS about a minimum wage that no full time worker earns.

 

Don't put political views in mouth.

 

This may answer some of these questions and comments.

From: http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/issueguides_minwage_minwagefaq

An estimated 14.9 million workers (11% of the workforce) would benefit from an increase in the federal minimum wage to $7.25 by 2008. Of these workers, 6.6 million would be directly affected and 8.3 million would indirectly receive raises due to the spillover effect of a minimum wage increase. Of the total affected workers, 80% are adults and 59% are women. Over half (54%) work full time and another third (30%) work between 20 and 34 hours per week. More than one-quarter (26%) of the workers who would benefit from an increase to $7.25 are parents of children under age 18, including 1,395,000 single parents. The average minimum wage worker brings home over half (58%) of his or her family's weekly earnings.

Also see:

http://www.cbpp.org/8-2-06tax3.htm
http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2004.htm

($5.15 per hour) x (40 hours per week) x (52 weeks per year) = $10,712 per year BEFORE TAX & FICA.

Peace,
poor_old_dad

 

Go back and read my posts, moron. You said minimum wage sets the bar for other wages, while I said wages for non-minimum wage jobs are set by the supply and demand for labour. Minimum wage is an artificial price floor, and thus not set by a market. I never said it was.

You guys can insult me all you want, but that won't change anything. My goal isn't to exploit people, I'm not brain-washed by the right-wing media, I don't secretly hate the poor.

The fact is that minimum wage isn't a necessarily a horrible thing. But if you're arguing that raising minimum wage doesn't a)cause inflation, and especially in products which weigh unequally on the poor b)cause increases in the unemployment rate, especially among the young and uneducated, you're weighing in against pretty well-defined economic fact.

At any rate, it is a far cry from the most effective way to redivide societies resources in a more fair way. Policies such as more progressive tax rates coupled with more social security are much more efficient.

In the end, the only way to increase the consumption levels of the nation, including the poorest, are to increase labour productivity. This is best done through capital investment, both physical captial (which is why corporations need those profits - without them there is no reason to invest, and that means no more capital) and human capital (which is why I support complete government-subsidization of education).

Which of course makes illogical minimum-wage a piss-poor way of spending money to help the poor the way you want to.

EDIT:

Oh, and FedUpAmerican. Attempting to "bully" somebody on the internet is a waste of time.

Go take your tenth-grade diploma and fuck yourself with it.

 

True. Having a minimum wage set by law rather than driven by market factors not only causes inflation, but also sends jobs out of this country, while encouraging illegal immigration into the U.S.

Peace,
poor_old_dad

 

I'll say it again-Raising the MW has NEVER had a negative impact on this economy-If so when?-Did it cause a recession or depression?-when was this?-When you make 5 bucks an hour and it is bumped up to 7- O' fucking boy!-Mama lets have a party-Lets go buy a new car and then lets put a down payment on a new house-shit!-more like-oboy we can pay the rent on this dump or we may be able to keep the lights on one more day or feed the kids something besides mac and cheese-This asshole from Canada is going out of his way to piss people off and I think he needs his ass kicked big time-He is no doubt a little fucking nerd that has never had to work for a living or has had everything handed to him-He does not (yet) know about struggling to survive-He will-It's funny how karma works-His bullshit is just that and not even worth the time to read-Personnaly I worked and survived on minimum wage when I was young -then worked my way out of it ' as will many others-But those small pay raises can make a big difference when your young and trying to get your life together-So-Hey-Canuckafuck-fuck off!-POD-I am done with this idiot-he's all yours-good nite and good luck-

 

The reason jobs are leaving this country is simple-I had a girfriend in Michigan-She works on the GM assembly line-She makes 60 thousand a year-Her job can be done (and probably is by now) in Mexico for 5000 a year-So-If you are a big car maker-Actually GM is the biggest company in America; and your sales are way down because your product falls apart too easy and the Toyota company makes cars that last/ what do you do to fix the cash problem?-Do you make a better product to compete or do you blame the problem on the unions and high wages and move to Mexico?-They choose the latter-If both sides had tried harder they could have kept the company here-Saturn (which is also GM)workers make alot less then their regular GM company workers do and they are doin fine-the national economy did not send GM to Mexico-greed did and bad company management-Harley Davidson found out the hard way the same thing-People buy stuff that lasts-Harley is cool but a Honda will go trouble free-so-you will look cool when your broke down in the Mojave in July-and pissed when a stupid Yamaha goes flyin by-We need to build stuff better to keep up and stay competetive-

 

Eloquent as ever - making the huge assumption that my economic status would have any effect on the validity of economic theory. Really.

What I haven't cited is considered common knowledge in the field of economics. I'm suggesting an alternative way that would actually help the poor. Feel free to take it personally.

And I have worked minimum wage - I worked at Canadian Tire for 2 years during highschool, graduated at 16 and moved to Vancouver and started framing houses for a year, started a poli sci/econ double major at UBC while working two summers doing pot lines at an aluminum smelter and the last two falling trees for survey lines. As if it matters. And stop talking tough - nobody is impressed by geriatrics.