cdude1034 said:
Groundking said:
No, a minimum wage just causes unemployment for the worse of in society, how is somebody with no skills or experience (particularly in America, the black youths) who's labor is worth (for example) $4.00 an hour or less, supposed to get work when the enforced minimum hourly rate is $7.50, and we have a prat who wants to raise this even higher? Does he not want youth to work at all?
Also for people bitching about the income inequality, well try living in your means, saving 5-10% of your post tax yearly income, and invest this money in assets that either grow your income or grow your wealth (or both). It's no coincidence that since the 80's, when family savings dropped from an average of ~5% (it depends which state and which country, but this is a fairly accurate average for the western developed countries) to and average of effectively 0%, income inequality has boomed.
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Spoken like somebody who's never known what it's like to be poor. "Just save 5-10%". Assume someone makes $8/hr. Working full time that's roughly $17k per year. Take away 10% for taxes and you're left with $15,300/year.
Now let's say rent in Anytown, USA is $600/month. Good luck getting any place that isn't infested with cockroaches for $600/mo. That's $7,200/yr. You now have $8,100 left.
Now factor in food, utilities, bus pass/car maintainance, laundromat visits, incidentals, doctor bills, AND a health insurance penalty because minimum wage workers far and wide do not receive benefits like healthcare in the US, and I submit to you that you would not have "5-10%" left to save. Not only that, but you can bet with a reasonable degree of accuracy that if you're making minimum wage, you've attained a minimum level of education. You probably grew up poor in a poor neighborhood with lots of crime and went to a poor school with not-so-great teachers and are around other poor people who have no idea what investing even is much less how to do it. Poor people in this country (US) are not afforded the same opportunities through education as their middle and upper class peers.
I've made roughly one post a year on this site for the last 5 or so years. It usually takes something so incredibly ignorant like this to make me actually want to post, but you did it. Good job.
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Oh beleive me I know what it's like to have been poor, living in shithole flats with needles all over the play, junkies passed out in the corridors, coppers round regularily, and I wasn't directing my post at only the poor, as income inequality has increased for all the bottom 60%, and is flat for the next 20%, with the top 20 getting everything. So i'm not talking about just the poor, but whilst we're talking about the poor, ok so there's somebody who's working full time minimum wage, let's assume they get 8 hours sleep, 8 hours work, 2 hours getting ready+travel+eating, that still leaves them with 6 hours in the week to educate themselves, work a shift in a bar, find some online work, look for a better job etc. Then at the weekend they have 16 hours, they could use this time to get another job, even if it's only a 10 hour minimum wage bar work job at the weekend, that's instantly another $72.50 a week. That's $3,700, and better yet, if it's informal/bar work, likely you're going to be getting cash in hand, so don't declare your income FFS, then you can pocket the whole packet, and even if you do declare it, it's still just shy of $3,400 (it's actually a touch less than that due to the way tax brackets work in the US, personally I think it's shit that the US doesn't have a 0% tax band like the UK does, where you're first £10,600 of income is tax free). And with this second job you're, at the very leastm getting more experience and stuff to put on your CV, or you're gaining new skills, all of which help in getting better employment. The thought that education ends when you leave school needs to die, you should never stop trying to learn new things. Hell it's easier than ever with the Internet.
And again, do you want even more unemployed people?
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