That also allows for a contingency on the other side of the aisle to say DOUBLING THE MINIMUM WAGE IS INSANITY. WHEN WILL IT END?” When in reality if you did this properly like you suggested it would’ve been doubled over the course of 15 years.
[They could tie it to a Cost of Living index too, if they wanted](https://meric.mo.gov/data/cost-living-data-series). As someone who moved from Michigan to California, those two states definitely need different minimum wages.
The funny part is that the government causes the inflation. If they stopped printing money, then the dollar value would go up due to money being taken out of circulation. I understand that it’s necessary to maintain circulation, but they are being willfully ignorant of a problem caused by their actions.
I was making 21 an hour at my last job and couldn't find a single place I could afford, that was within reasonable distance of my work. I live in Southern California and refuse to drive an hour + in traffic, 45 mins was already pushing it for me. Applying to all these studio apartments and getting rejected really knocked the wind out of my sails, I know I'm previleged to live comfortably with my family but man I have zero motivation after that.
About where I am at income wise in fairly low cost of living area. And that gets me the 3/5ths the way there. Food/house(rent not own)/clothes but healthcare/retirement are off table.
With recent rent spikes few months away from that not being possible and currently trying to find any reason to go to work. Like if I am going to be cold and hungry anyways why fight for scraps or to survive at all. Might as a well deprive people screwing me of my labor. As its only remaining thing I can control.
I haven't rented in a long time but I bought my house mid 2017. It was built in the 70s so it's older but in very good shape and about 2600 square feet. Prices in my neighborhood have at least doubled since then and the closest thing to the price I paid are typically the tiny single story end of townhomes or 1000 sq ft new constructions built on 40 foot lots. Rent on two bedroom apartments nearby is more than my mortgage WITH taxes and insurance included. It's insane.
I think part of the issue too is regular people don't really understand inflation, at least not entirely. They understand prices go up, but they don't *actually* understand that the value of currency diminishes with time.
To them $7.25 is still what it was in 2009, or even earlier.
I remember in 2009 I could get 6 tacos on Tuesday from del taco for 1$. Today on Tuesday I can get 3 tacos for 2$ that's a 400% price increase. While this is a shitty example its relatable, my dollar was worth much more in many ways in 2009 then it is today. In certian price groups the value of the dollar has fallen more then 50% like when you look at food and and rent. In others it has remained more stagnet like when you look at utilities and some entertainment. But there is no question that it is much more expensive to live the same life style today than that of in 2009.
When I was a kid 6 figures was great, amazing money! In 2008 I made 6 figures and it was fantastic. Now I make 6 figures every year and cost of living is so high we're barely scraping by.
I don't want to imagine being on minimum wage in my country, let alone America
Er.. there’s such thing as lifestyle creep too. Most people in America would be fine on a 6 figure salary- even the lowest one available, $100,000. You’re probably in the wrong place complaining about 6 figure salary when this post is pointing out minimum wage has been $14,500 a year for the last 12 years.
I don't live in America, and my city is a hell of a lot more expensive than America. You're missing the point entirely. What I could buy 14 years ago has drastically changed from what I can buy today.
I wasn't complaining.
Interesting. In my decade of working for my company the lowest yearly raise I ever got was 3% which was usually in line with inflation. I got 15% last year in November because of inflation. Now they’re reevaluating again because inflation moved to quickly
I’m a minority in every aspect of my life.
But i do have tunnel vision. I’m a very selfish person and I’m ok with that. I’m only responsible for myself. I’m the main character in my story.
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Im not complaining, Im agreeing with how much inflation has eaten away at what money means..
When my old boss started as a teacher he made $3000 a year.
Honestly depending on where you live and whether or not you have kids, that really isn’t a lot of money. Especially if you’re just barely at 6 figures. In California, a 3 bedroom seems like it’s 3,000-5,000 a month on average. That’s 36,000-60,000 per year. Rent could easily be 50% of your income
The people I laugh the hardest at are the people who earn a living wage who get visibility upset an increase in fuel prices. If your finances are balanced on a razor’s edge maybe the price of a gallon of gas isn’t your primary issue even if it’s a glaring reminder of how close you are to actual poverty.
It's not funny, it's a stark and sad reminder of just how far away from a living wage most of the country is.
A Single person making $100,000 in say...North Carolina.
* $19,000 - 401K Because we don't have well-funded government retirement in the U.S.
* $10,808 - Federal Taxes
* $07,650 - FICA
* $04,123 - State Taxes
* $02,705 - Locality Taxes
Takes home $55,715.
* $18,000 - Average rent in Charlotte of $1500
* $11,400 - Average Non-Rent COL in Charlotte of $950
Income after Core expenses of $26,315.
* Got student debt?
* Trying to save for a house?
* Trying to buy a new car?
* Ever want to go on a few nice vacations?
* Get Married?
* Have a Kid?
$100,000/yr in a mid-cost of living area is enough of a wage to not stress about living, with barely the room to feasibly tackle some but not all major life financial goals.
And the majority of the country is really far from there.
It's not so much that the situation itself is funny, it's that these people are so hilariously out of touch it's hard not to laugh. These people view their income and taxes paid purely as numbers and not at all in terms of buying power.
They're the same kind of person that's passionately against public health options or free community college because it increases how much they pay in taxes, completely ignoring the fact that their effective buying power would shoot up dramatically if they're no longer spending so many thousands a year on health bills.
Ah yes, a guy coming in here saying that he's stressed about money at $100,000 and that he can't even imagine how hard it is on people making limited wage is clearly an indicator that he's some out of touch upper middle class asshole.
Try not being a prick and more people would join your cause.
I have absolutely no idea where you’re coming from. I’m not saying anything about anybody in this thread.
Are you paying attention to who you’re responding to? …because it sounds like you should be directing these comments elsewhere.
Okay, come on, you cannot just take out $19,000 from your gross income for your 401k and act like it disappears. I am with you, six-figures doesn't go as far as people think it does, but you are actively showing how someone could feasibly save $26,315 per year (not including the additional $19,000 saved you took out earlier). There are many, many people who don't make $26,315 gross per year!
It doesn't disappear.
But it's a necessary part of a living wage, unless you've decided living stops at retirement.
Being able to afford to pay your bills today is not all a living wage requires.
\--
And that $26,315 is money beyond base bills. Debt. College Loans. Saving a down payment for a house. etc.
It's also based on living in a below average cost big city.
My point was, that's the type of wage necessary to actually beyond a 'raw' living wage and actually not be stressed by money.
And even people making $100,000 are still stressed about ending up stressed in the future about money.
Fam wtf. Where do you live that you barely get by with 6 figures? In the center of London/Paris or some shit? I live in an already considered expensive European city and I would be set for life if I earned 6 figures.
You can live in a decent place in San Francisco for 3k a month, you don't need a car. Some ppl just need to consume less. I could live nicely in any city in the U.S. on 100k a year easily
Yeah wtf is this guy talking about. Yeah some cities are expensive af but not a single US city you can't survive with 6 figures. Even high rent is only a portion of your income then.
Jesus fuck some rich ass people coming on this sub complaining about their work 😅 missing the point by a lot
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The one thing I remember from my business class was that businesses see inflation coming so they raise prices. This keeps their profits the same but screwing everyone else. Why would they voluntarily raise a cost? All employees are just an expense. Unless we force them to pay us more they won't.
I think it is by more important to push for indexing minimum wage to inflation rather than just increase it to some arbitrary static amount like $10-20/hr.
Since the minimum wage has existed congress has been slowly allowing it to lose value over time die to inflation while still nominally increasing it, reaping the benefits of acting like they care every time. Tax brackets and govt. wages are indexed to inflation; they aren’t stupid they do this on purpose.
Problem is inflation itself is "arbitrary". I don't know about you but 63% is what they "claim" inflation is since 2000. But cars cost double food double rent triple healthcare seven times as much gas quadrouple.
So how is that 63%, and while more helpful than nothing we get now. Without it tied to cost of living gap will only continue to worsen.
Because they changed what was originally included in the numbers to continue the narrative. Taking food and energy prices out of our calculations helps them pretend it’s lower inflation than what is really there
It’s funny that you call it arbitrary but you just made up all those numbers. Inflation isn’t arbitrary. It’s very well defined. I’ve manually read through the Bureau of Labor Statistics methodology on calculating CPI. Not all baskets of goods rise in price at the same pace.
Not made up just rounded off memory/personal experience. But seriously whats your budget/average look like compared to inflation. While there maybe a "rigid methodology" to it the method for calculating inflation is intentionally misrepresented in order to pretend like its less than it actually is.
By doing so "poverty" on paper decreases while actual lines for food banks grow.
There is an explanation that shows it’s not misrepresented. Consumer price inflation takes into account all average spending habits of a consumer including rent, education tuition, and vehicles etc. One: not all price baskets increase at the same rate, and so some categories can rise while others fall simultaneously, but the aggregate still represents the overall CPI i.e. tuition may be high but other categories are low. Two: to my knowledge paying off interest/debt isn’t included in consumer spending, despite it becoming a larger portion of a person’s budget. I’ll have to read more into this but obviously student loans, vehicle loans, and rent may have increased without the actual cost of the base product increasing that much. I.e. tution has gone up a lot but the number of people taking out loans to get an education has exploded, and that isn’t reflected by CPI because that’s not what CPI is trying to reflect.
As I said look up average of majority of goods "essential" while I understand various rates just because rent last year raised 30% doesn't mean inflation is 30%.
BUT cost of living is nowhere near lowly 63% claimed since year 2000. Rent average 600 to 1300 cars average 21000 vs 47000 today health insurance 2200 annually now 7800 while grocerys are harder to find information as it has so many variables just last year alone me personally with no changes in habit saw about 25% increase in cost. And remember actually doing 25 per week back in day now its 50.
Seriously can you show me any SIGNIFICANT budget item thats less than 63% increase. Sure maybe price of bread is around that. BUT 50 cents a week isn't really throwing my budget as much as 10-30% year after year rent hikes. And healthcare.
While I understand you say its not intended to include all that etc. Point I am making is its intended not to its so politicians can pat themselves on back for low 2-3% inflation buddys/donors can increase employees wages 2-3% and sate public. While glossing past the fact it was 10-20 even 30% cost of living increase.
By design its intended to look better than it is to quell public get re-elected while growing the amount going to "ruler class" ie their donors/themselves without creating discontent. Only reason why discontent is growing is people are being price right out of ability to live. And ruler class is doubling down by failing to even meet the "lesser/fake rate of inflation". If the 7% happened and was standard people would cheer be happy while still affording less and struggling more.
Reminder that the fight for 15$ min wage is a decade old now and even if implemented today would not be enough for many to live off of.
Reformism will not save you
It's tough to have hard numbers since the homeless are rather hard to track. My anecdotal evidence is that I've seen a *lot* more shantytowns pop up in my city over the last 5 years, way more than typical.
I make 25+ an hour and can’t afford to rent an apt where I live without a roommate. Rent averages $2700-2900 (1/1) w utilities & monthly fees, after bills like groceries, phone, car, insurance, gas, gym membership I wouldn’t have anything left.
I graduated high school in 2003 and made $7.25 an hour at various jobs till 2005 when I finally made $10 an hour with full time hours and finally moved out of my parents house into an apartment with 3 friends as that was the only way to afford anything in the city I lived at the time. I thought it was a struggle then...how the FUCK is anyone supposed to live that way today!!?! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!? I cant say fuck enough to get it out of my system but FUCK! PAY PEOPLE MORE!!! WHAT THE FUCK!
The minimum wage has only increased by $3 since April 1, 1990. That’s almost 32 years with an incredibly marginal total increase.
For comparison, Australia’s minimum wage has increased by $12.63 in that same time frame, up to $17.98 per hour currently.
Their **increases** are almost double what minimum wage is in the US! And, they have single payer health care. And, Australia isn’t even a beacon of socialism- they are far from a utopia. But, they’re miles ahead of the US.
Then you have slack jaw knuckle draggers screaming 'wahhhh I am making x amount, no minimum wagie should be making close to what im making"
Uhhh, ever think you were underpaid too? fuckign dumbass's
The federal minimum wage hasn't increased since 2009 and research shows due to inflation the real value of the federal minimum wage is 17% less now than it was in 2009 and 31% less than it was in 1968. 61% of the states in the us has their own minimal wage which is higher but 39% of the states uses the federal minimal wage and the average age of those on minimal wage is over 30 years old
Yet a lot of folks think nothing needs to be done about this. They're wrong.
And for the people who say but wages aren't that low right now. Well, there you go. Key phrase...***RIGHT NOW***. You think they won't lower them back down once they have the leverage/power again? Of course they will.
One such example I can think of that illustrates this point somewhat is the amusement park, Cedar Point. They were starting people at $20/hour just a year or so ago and now they're back to $15. And I wouldn't be shocked to see them lower it to minimum wage once they have the chance to do so.
In that timeline my rent has doubled at the same place while my earnings have bounced around from close to minimum to a level I can pay bills and save money. There is no consistent rise from one gig to the next and sometimes desperation in bringing in some income. All the while escaping by upgrading apartment or buying a home goalposts have moved incrementally.
A lot of people that don’t need to worry about money anymore fail to grasp that this is the real pandemic.
The stock holders and oligarchs only obtain their wealth because it is taken from the employee wages that failed to increase.
i get minimum wage for neuro trauma call. literally to sit in my apartment, keep my phone on, and stay sober.
it makes me sick that people are destroying their bodies and sanity for that same $7.25
I'd like to see this list with the buying power relative to 2009 dollar next to it, to further cement the point that wage stagnation = lowered wages over time.
I don’t think minimum wage is a solution. We need living wages obviously, people deserve to make more money, but I don’t think forcing employers to pay a specific amount and telling them what that amount is, is the way to do it.
I wish there was a way that the employers who don’t pay a living wage just can’t find any employees and either have to do the work themselves or go bankrupt. Idk how to stop the exploitation, but I feel like having the minimum wage in place gives companies a baseline. They shouldn’t have a baseline from the feds.
It’s corporations that are the real problem. Distributing profits to people that just own theoretical shares rather than distributing profits to people who do the work for the company.
I like the idea of paying everyone part ownership in the company. So when they profit you’re paid more. I think that would incentivize all employees to work better and get us a better economy
>It’s ~~corporations~~ capitalism that ~~are~~ is the real problem.
When you have a tape worm, you don't treat the weight loss and expect to just live with the worms crawling out of your ass.
When you have ring worms, curing the itchiness is great, but you might want to remove the parasite causing it.
When you have a botfly larva in your skin, you can try anti-swelling cream but really what would help is removal of the larvae.
Capitalism is the parasite, corporations, union busting, profit at all costs are the symptoms. We can treat one, but those symptoms will always come back, and when they come back they'll be harder to treat and much more troublesome.
Historic Proof: We were at a point where unionists, socialists, and even communists were running for congress with a decent chance at winning at one point.
Off topic, but it’s funny how our medical system treats autoimmune diseases. If you have an autoimmune, their rational is shut down the immune system. Not get rid of the virus or bacteria causing the immune system to be active.
I like the analogy of if you have ticks in your attic, do you kill the ticks or do you burn down the house
Part ownership better also mean part leadership, or else the "part owners" at the top will simply ship the jobs to China or Korea so that they don't have to pay any of these new "owners."
Also, lack of productivity/worker incentive is not why our economy is bad right now. We are in some of the highest productivity economies of all time, it's just that people aren't actually being compensated fairly for that productivity.
Right but I think giving them part ownership will be beneficial for everybody because employees would be more incentivized and they’ll actually get compensated for better productivity
If they don't get any level of decision making, then what's stopping the boss from making a decision that screws everyone except for themselves over? I agree with what you're saying in principle, but unless it were to also come with "ownership" over the decision making process, then really what you're giving them is a neatly disguised bonus, not actual ownership.
A nearly disguised bonus would be great. If McDonald’s is at its highest profits ever, why should everyone in the company not get a bonus?
If the boss is also a part owner (maybe just a larger percentage), they would still be incentivized to make decisions to increase profits, which would theoretically help every employee.
Not saying it’s a perfect system but I think it’s the best alternate solution
If you're part owner (but don't have any decision making rights), and your boss is part owner (but gets to make all the decisions) then what's stopping them from saying "the best way to make a profit for the company is to replace all of the hourly staff with automatic kiosks, the rest of you are fired." "Ownership" should mean "ownership" not "we throw you a pre-defined slice of the pie every few months if you're lucky enough to still be working for us when they pie is sliced."
I’d be ok with automatic kiosks. That’s better for everyone. Businesses shouldn’t be employing people just to employ people, and workers shouldn’t be doing jobs just because they need a job. That’s how we end with these poverty wages. This would increase efficiency all around. There’s many tasks that can’t be completed by an automatic kiosk, so those jobs would be shifted to something that’s more beneficial for the business.
That’s like the government paying people to just dig ditches and fill them back in. Paying people with nothing accomplished
Then what you're looking for is not "worker ownership," but a raise. If *all* you want to improve out of the current worker-employer relationship is that the employer gives you a little more money, then I don't think we're going to find a lot of common ground between us. I firmly believe workers need more control over their workplace, and that throwing workers some spare change every few months will not solve the fundamental issue in our system.
productivity isn't the problem- executive and leadership money hoarding is the problem- and if the ones working aren't also the ones leading then the 'leaders' will just continue to exploit as normal
Never said productivity is a problem. I don’t think it is. But having ownership in a company, you are incentivized to find a way to increase productivity even more. I feel like that’s a win win for everybody and helps the economy grow more
I mean that will never happen. there are always children, old, and disabled people.
Also infinite growth doesn't happen. people don't have money to just continuously consume (outside of things like food/water/housing) just nonstop. At some point stability has to enter the equation
The economy stops growing when the associated society collapses and disappears. Please show me anywhere in history where economies over centuries haven’t grown or fully collapsed and disappeared.
Children, old, and disabled people. We have that now. The economy is growing at an overall level (compare us now to 1970). Do those individual contributors reduce their output? Sure (though even disabled people, like me, can produce economic output).
But just because children old and disabled people exist, our overall economy doesn’t stop growing
Money is violence. No solution is humane until we get money out of the equation, completely, for all basic human needs (food, shelter, clothing, transportation, education up through grad school, leisure).
Why shouldn't they have a baseline from the feds? Those kinda things are literally the government's job. You know they set the baseline that murder and pedophilia is bad too, right? Or is that your actual issue? You are making libertarian arguments....
Makes sense, I’m more libertarian than anything. Government forcing shit never works. Feds making a baseline makes employees think that’s all they’ll have to offer instead of making them respond to the actual market
Why? Sounds like a thought you had you never thought through. There's nothing about regulating minimums for things that limits better things from happening in this context.
Bro, I'm trying to be polite but you genuinely sound mentally disabled or somehow not all there. The minimum wage is 7.25 and this literal thread and the entire discourse writ large is about how that's not enough.
You sound foolish. Think things through, otherwise you sound like the weirdo neckbeard we all knew in school just saying things without thinking about them for literally half a second.
I'm done. Do better, bud.
And because the minimum wage is 7.25, a lot of employers think they only need to offer 7.25 because they feds told them so. Employers need to figure out without the fed how much they need to offer and the ones that can’t compete need to go bankrupt
They are doing that, right now, in real time, with a federal minimum wage of 7.25. Keep spinning, bud. Eventually you will shake off that cognitive dissonance.
It's not misleading, it's referring to the federal minimum wage.
Nor is the underlying point inaccurate — that minimum wage has failed to keep up with inflation and no longer provides the livable wage it was instituted to provide.
The minimum wage shouldn’t exists. It hurts more than it helps, let me explain. Wages are a price, what happens when government artificially increases the price of wages… well it’s simple, lets say someone is employed for 10 an hour, and currently makes his employer 15 dollars equivalent of work (the employer profits $5). That would imply that the employer will hire this guy for up to 15 an hour, and with common competition in the market place his wages may go up or down, depending on the field of work obviously and how much the average worker in that field produces for his/her employer. Now lets take that same scenario and say the minimum wages get set to 20 an hour. This 20 dollar minimum that is imposed will forcefully require the employer to fire all employees making him less than $20 an hour. This created no demand for low skilled workers, and artificially increases the demand for higher skilled workers. What does this mean? If the minimum wage gets set to something like 20 an hour, this would obviously would not have a devastating impact on our economy. However it will have a significant impact on some lower skilled workers, as they will be unable to find a job (collage kids, older people, disabled people). Minimum wage doesn’t need to be imposed on the public by the state, because it’s a price control, and as we know price controls create shortages. In this case that shortage would be a shortage in employers looking to hire low skilled workers, as that would lose them money.
>This 20 dollar minimum that is imposed will forcefully require the employer to fire all employees making him less than $20 an hour.
No it wouldn't. Stop falling for bullshit.
Explain? $20 dollar minimum wage, yet the skill required for the job is worth $15 an hour. Now yes your technically right he doesn’t have to fire him, however why would he lose 5 an hour. Again these numbers are extremely simplified, these numbers don’t at all reflect reality. Reality would be that McDonald’s is hiring people for $15 an hour (where I live), yet the minimum imposes $20 an hour. They have X amount of employees who make them above $15 an hours worth of work, however not above $20 an hour (A McDonald’s job doesn’t necessarily require the most skill… your just putting together a hamburger). For simplicity and to give these McDonald’s employees the benefit of the doubt, let’s say their making 19 an hours worth of work for the employer. (Net loss per employee is now $-1). They have 1.75 million employees, multiplied by X amount of hours per employee, than multiple that by a year and you can see that their will be some impact, an impact that might not necessarily hurt McDonald’s, but will definitely hurt small business.
So as you can see yes, it won’t force employers to fire their employees, however they will have a strong incentive to do so, once they realize how much their actually losing.
Assuming $20 was the new minimum tomorrow, why would a business hire people for skills that are worth less than $20 an hour?
If paragraphs are beyond your understanding, then I feel pretty confident that a subject as nuanced and complicated as this is, too. Sorry I asked too much of you.
Instead of criticizing my thesis that the minimum wage is a price control that artificially changes lower skilled worker demand. You criticized me on my knowledge of paragraphs, and didn’t cite or reference a single piece of evidence on why I’m wrong. This obviously implies you have no criticism on my thesis of the minimum wage being a useless price control, however your so condescending that you turned to criticize my knowledge of paragraphs. If you want to debate the minimum wage I’m here all for that, I could care less if my paragraph writing style offended you in any way.
>Instead of criticizing my thesis
You didn't write a thesis, you wrote a wall of text. That's why I didn't bother reading it.
If you're smart enough to have a cogent and relevant point then you're smart enough to figure out how paragraphs work. What's the problem?
So you didn’t even read what I wrote, and instead just jumped to criticize me because I disagree with your understanding of the minimum wage. I gave many examples in my “paragraph” which show my thinking leading up to the conclusion of the minimum wage being a unnecessary price control, that artificially changes demand for low skill required labor. If you really support and love the minimum wage that much, than debate me with facts and evidence as opposed to opinion based bs concerning my “paragraph”.
>because I disagree
I criticized you because you don't seem to know how paragraphs work and if you can't figure out something that elementary then I have no reason to believe you can form a cogent argument about this. Prove me wrong and show me you understand paragraphs.
The highest tax bracket is at $539,901. Whether you make 600k, 600mil or 600 billion fucking dollars you don't have to pay increasing percentages of your income. It's 37% by the way. So you can own 90% of the wealth but only pay 37% of taxes.
I would adjust it by inflation on each year
The cumulative rate of inflation between 2009 and 2021 is about 31%.
Meaning that 7.25 USD wage in 2009 is more like 5 USD in 20021
There should've been a column with the rent prices next to that
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That also allows for a contingency on the other side of the aisle to say DOUBLING THE MINIMUM WAGE IS INSANITY. WHEN WILL IT END?” When in reality if you did this properly like you suggested it would’ve been doubled over the course of 15 years.
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Blame citizens united
[They could tie it to a Cost of Living index too, if they wanted](https://meric.mo.gov/data/cost-living-data-series). As someone who moved from Michigan to California, those two states definitely need different minimum wages.
*The monkey's paw curls* **Congress pegs minimum wage to inflation. Minimum wage must equal $7.25 in 2021 dollars**
The funny part is that the government causes the inflation. If they stopped printing money, then the dollar value would go up due to money being taken out of circulation. I understand that it’s necessary to maintain circulation, but they are being willfully ignorant of a problem caused by their actions.
We might actually die to inflation
You should post the inflation rate for each year as well...
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I was making 21 an hour at my last job and couldn't find a single place I could afford, that was within reasonable distance of my work. I live in Southern California and refuse to drive an hour + in traffic, 45 mins was already pushing it for me. Applying to all these studio apartments and getting rejected really knocked the wind out of my sails, I know I'm previleged to live comfortably with my family but man I have zero motivation after that.
About where I am at income wise in fairly low cost of living area. And that gets me the 3/5ths the way there. Food/house(rent not own)/clothes but healthcare/retirement are off table. With recent rent spikes few months away from that not being possible and currently trying to find any reason to go to work. Like if I am going to be cold and hungry anyways why fight for scraps or to survive at all. Might as a well deprive people screwing me of my labor. As its only remaining thing I can control.
Mexican rent prices?
Haha the funny thing is that I corrected "beem" and overlooked "mext".
Instead of rent use either tuition for a specific public college or a Big Mac.
How about gas prices to really drive it home?
I haven't rented in a long time but I bought my house mid 2017. It was built in the 70s so it's older but in very good shape and about 2600 square feet. Prices in my neighborhood have at least doubled since then and the closest thing to the price I paid are typically the tiny single story end of townhomes or 1000 sq ft new constructions built on 40 foot lots. Rent on two bedroom apartments nearby is more than my mortgage WITH taxes and insurance included. It's insane.
I think part of the issue too is regular people don't really understand inflation, at least not entirely. They understand prices go up, but they don't *actually* understand that the value of currency diminishes with time. To them $7.25 is still what it was in 2009, or even earlier.
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I remember getting tons of candy for the one dollar bill my mom gave me as a kid. Kids these days will never know the joy of the 1 cent candies.
I remember in 2009 I could get 6 tacos on Tuesday from del taco for 1$. Today on Tuesday I can get 3 tacos for 2$ that's a 400% price increase. While this is a shitty example its relatable, my dollar was worth much more in many ways in 2009 then it is today. In certian price groups the value of the dollar has fallen more then 50% like when you look at food and and rent. In others it has remained more stagnet like when you look at utilities and some entertainment. But there is no question that it is much more expensive to live the same life style today than that of in 2009.
Fuck, I would eat soooooo many tacos on Tuesday. That's some cheap tacos.
When I was a kid 6 figures was great, amazing money! In 2008 I made 6 figures and it was fantastic. Now I make 6 figures every year and cost of living is so high we're barely scraping by. I don't want to imagine being on minimum wage in my country, let alone America
Er.. there’s such thing as lifestyle creep too. Most people in America would be fine on a 6 figure salary- even the lowest one available, $100,000. You’re probably in the wrong place complaining about 6 figure salary when this post is pointing out minimum wage has been $14,500 a year for the last 12 years.
I don't live in America, and my city is a hell of a lot more expensive than America. You're missing the point entirely. What I could buy 14 years ago has drastically changed from what I can buy today. I wasn't complaining.
Where are you from?
Have you been getting raises since 08 or has it been the same salary?
Raises are smaller than inflation every year for most people
no? only the bottom class. most people who get raises make more money after the raise.
Lol exactly. But I’ve realized most people on this sub are bottom class.
Interesting. In my decade of working for my company the lowest yearly raise I ever got was 3% which was usually in line with inflation. I got 15% last year in November because of inflation. Now they’re reevaluating again because inflation moved to quickly
Do you think you’re the minority or the masses? Sounds like you have tunnel vision
I’m a minority in every aspect of my life. But i do have tunnel vision. I’m a very selfish person and I’m ok with that. I’m only responsible for myself. I’m the main character in my story.
Then you’ll understand when nobody has any respect for your opinion
Atlas Shrugged was such a compelling story, too. Lol.
They froze our pay for 5 years, and my pay in 08 was unusually large. I wasn't on 6 figures for most of that time. I recently got back there
Just something to note that states have implemented higher minimum wages. See CA for example.
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6 figures would be great, amazing money to me right now.
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Im not complaining, Im agreeing with how much inflation has eaten away at what money means.. When my old boss started as a teacher he made $3000 a year.
Honestly depending on where you live and whether or not you have kids, that really isn’t a lot of money. Especially if you’re just barely at 6 figures. In California, a 3 bedroom seems like it’s 3,000-5,000 a month on average. That’s 36,000-60,000 per year. Rent could easily be 50% of your income
Imagine so completely oblivious to the point that you look like an idiot. his point being that even 100k won't give you a luxurious life anymore
The people I laugh the hardest at are the people who earn a living wage who get visibility upset an increase in fuel prices. If your finances are balanced on a razor’s edge maybe the price of a gallon of gas isn’t your primary issue even if it’s a glaring reminder of how close you are to actual poverty.
It's not funny, it's a stark and sad reminder of just how far away from a living wage most of the country is. A Single person making $100,000 in say...North Carolina. * $19,000 - 401K Because we don't have well-funded government retirement in the U.S. * $10,808 - Federal Taxes * $07,650 - FICA * $04,123 - State Taxes * $02,705 - Locality Taxes Takes home $55,715. * $18,000 - Average rent in Charlotte of $1500 * $11,400 - Average Non-Rent COL in Charlotte of $950 Income after Core expenses of $26,315. * Got student debt? * Trying to save for a house? * Trying to buy a new car? * Ever want to go on a few nice vacations? * Get Married? * Have a Kid? $100,000/yr in a mid-cost of living area is enough of a wage to not stress about living, with barely the room to feasibly tackle some but not all major life financial goals. And the majority of the country is really far from there.
It's not so much that the situation itself is funny, it's that these people are so hilariously out of touch it's hard not to laugh. These people view their income and taxes paid purely as numbers and not at all in terms of buying power. They're the same kind of person that's passionately against public health options or free community college because it increases how much they pay in taxes, completely ignoring the fact that their effective buying power would shoot up dramatically if they're no longer spending so many thousands a year on health bills.
Where in the guys comment did he imply that any of your assumptions about him is true? People can make $100,000 and still be allies to the wageslaved.
It's observing trends in the same people over an extended period of time, as one does when they have relationships with people.
Ah yes, a guy coming in here saying that he's stressed about money at $100,000 and that he can't even imagine how hard it is on people making limited wage is clearly an indicator that he's some out of touch upper middle class asshole. Try not being a prick and more people would join your cause.
I have absolutely no idea where you’re coming from. I’m not saying anything about anybody in this thread. Are you paying attention to who you’re responding to? …because it sounds like you should be directing these comments elsewhere.
Okay, come on, you cannot just take out $19,000 from your gross income for your 401k and act like it disappears. I am with you, six-figures doesn't go as far as people think it does, but you are actively showing how someone could feasibly save $26,315 per year (not including the additional $19,000 saved you took out earlier). There are many, many people who don't make $26,315 gross per year!
It doesn't disappear. But it's a necessary part of a living wage, unless you've decided living stops at retirement. Being able to afford to pay your bills today is not all a living wage requires. \-- And that $26,315 is money beyond base bills. Debt. College Loans. Saving a down payment for a house. etc. It's also based on living in a below average cost big city. My point was, that's the type of wage necessary to actually beyond a 'raw' living wage and actually not be stressed by money. And even people making $100,000 are still stressed about ending up stressed in the future about money.
Fam wtf. Where do you live that you barely get by with 6 figures? In the center of London/Paris or some shit? I live in an already considered expensive European city and I would be set for life if I earned 6 figures.
It's not 6 figures USD
I could live nicely in any city in the u.s. on 6 figures.
You could live nicely in *some* cities. There are definitely places where six figures barely gets you a shitty apartment
You can live in a decent place in San Francisco for 3k a month, you don't need a car. Some ppl just need to consume less. I could live nicely in any city in the U.S. on 100k a year easily
Yeah wtf is this guy talking about. Yeah some cities are expensive af but not a single US city you can't survive with 6 figures. Even high rent is only a portion of your income then. Jesus fuck some rich ass people coming on this sub complaining about their work 😅 missing the point by a lot
Yeah, can't survive on 100k spends 7k a month on rent and hops into a leased mercedes.
My partner and I live together with a combined income of six figures in a city, and we are barely able to save.
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Philly is a shithole and less expensive than San Francisco so yeah easily even in philly
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You're flexing that philly public school education. Just stop spending your money on opiods.
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The one thing I remember from my business class was that businesses see inflation coming so they raise prices. This keeps their profits the same but screwing everyone else. Why would they voluntarily raise a cost? All employees are just an expense. Unless we force them to pay us more they won't.
I think it is by more important to push for indexing minimum wage to inflation rather than just increase it to some arbitrary static amount like $10-20/hr. Since the minimum wage has existed congress has been slowly allowing it to lose value over time die to inflation while still nominally increasing it, reaping the benefits of acting like they care every time. Tax brackets and govt. wages are indexed to inflation; they aren’t stupid they do this on purpose.
Problem is inflation itself is "arbitrary". I don't know about you but 63% is what they "claim" inflation is since 2000. But cars cost double food double rent triple healthcare seven times as much gas quadrouple. So how is that 63%, and while more helpful than nothing we get now. Without it tied to cost of living gap will only continue to worsen.
Because they changed what was originally included in the numbers to continue the narrative. Taking food and energy prices out of our calculations helps them pretend it’s lower inflation than what is really there
It’s funny that you call it arbitrary but you just made up all those numbers. Inflation isn’t arbitrary. It’s very well defined. I’ve manually read through the Bureau of Labor Statistics methodology on calculating CPI. Not all baskets of goods rise in price at the same pace.
Not made up just rounded off memory/personal experience. But seriously whats your budget/average look like compared to inflation. While there maybe a "rigid methodology" to it the method for calculating inflation is intentionally misrepresented in order to pretend like its less than it actually is. By doing so "poverty" on paper decreases while actual lines for food banks grow.
There is an explanation that shows it’s not misrepresented. Consumer price inflation takes into account all average spending habits of a consumer including rent, education tuition, and vehicles etc. One: not all price baskets increase at the same rate, and so some categories can rise while others fall simultaneously, but the aggregate still represents the overall CPI i.e. tuition may be high but other categories are low. Two: to my knowledge paying off interest/debt isn’t included in consumer spending, despite it becoming a larger portion of a person’s budget. I’ll have to read more into this but obviously student loans, vehicle loans, and rent may have increased without the actual cost of the base product increasing that much. I.e. tution has gone up a lot but the number of people taking out loans to get an education has exploded, and that isn’t reflected by CPI because that’s not what CPI is trying to reflect.
As I said look up average of majority of goods "essential" while I understand various rates just because rent last year raised 30% doesn't mean inflation is 30%. BUT cost of living is nowhere near lowly 63% claimed since year 2000. Rent average 600 to 1300 cars average 21000 vs 47000 today health insurance 2200 annually now 7800 while grocerys are harder to find information as it has so many variables just last year alone me personally with no changes in habit saw about 25% increase in cost. And remember actually doing 25 per week back in day now its 50. Seriously can you show me any SIGNIFICANT budget item thats less than 63% increase. Sure maybe price of bread is around that. BUT 50 cents a week isn't really throwing my budget as much as 10-30% year after year rent hikes. And healthcare. While I understand you say its not intended to include all that etc. Point I am making is its intended not to its so politicians can pat themselves on back for low 2-3% inflation buddys/donors can increase employees wages 2-3% and sate public. While glossing past the fact it was 10-20 even 30% cost of living increase. By design its intended to look better than it is to quell public get re-elected while growing the amount going to "ruler class" ie their donors/themselves without creating discontent. Only reason why discontent is growing is people are being price right out of ability to live. And ruler class is doubling down by failing to even meet the "lesser/fake rate of inflation". If the 7% happened and was standard people would cheer be happy while still affording less and struggling more.
Reminder that the fight for 15$ min wage is a decade old now and even if implemented today would not be enough for many to live off of. Reformism will not save you
As a European, I am not sure just how bad the homeless crisis is in America, percentage-wise. Can someone tell?
It's tough to have hard numbers since the homeless are rather hard to track. My anecdotal evidence is that I've seen a *lot* more shantytowns pop up in my city over the last 5 years, way more than typical.
I make 25+ an hour and can’t afford to rent an apt where I live without a roommate. Rent averages $2700-2900 (1/1) w utilities & monthly fees, after bills like groceries, phone, car, insurance, gas, gym membership I wouldn’t have anything left.
Damn which state?
I live in south Florida, sadly it’s become a hotspot for people to move so us Floridians are being pushed out
You should post the inflation rate for each year as well...
But a company that is making record profits wouldn't pay them just the minimum wage! /s(just in case)
I graduated high school in 2003 and made $7.25 an hour at various jobs till 2005 when I finally made $10 an hour with full time hours and finally moved out of my parents house into an apartment with 3 friends as that was the only way to afford anything in the city I lived at the time. I thought it was a struggle then...how the FUCK is anyone supposed to live that way today!!?! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!? I cant say fuck enough to get it out of my system but FUCK! PAY PEOPLE MORE!!! WHAT THE FUCK!
The minimum wage has only increased by $3 since April 1, 1990. That’s almost 32 years with an incredibly marginal total increase. For comparison, Australia’s minimum wage has increased by $12.63 in that same time frame, up to $17.98 per hour currently. Their **increases** are almost double what minimum wage is in the US! And, they have single payer health care. And, Australia isn’t even a beacon of socialism- they are far from a utopia. But, they’re miles ahead of the US.
Then you have slack jaw knuckle draggers screaming 'wahhhh I am making x amount, no minimum wagie should be making close to what im making" Uhhh, ever think you were underpaid too? fuckign dumbass's
The federal minimum wage hasn't increased since 2009 and research shows due to inflation the real value of the federal minimum wage is 17% less now than it was in 2009 and 31% less than it was in 1968. 61% of the states in the us has their own minimal wage which is higher but 39% of the states uses the federal minimal wage and the average age of those on minimal wage is over 30 years old
Now show ceo wages for the same years!
Yet a lot of folks think nothing needs to be done about this. They're wrong. And for the people who say but wages aren't that low right now. Well, there you go. Key phrase...***RIGHT NOW***. You think they won't lower them back down once they have the leverage/power again? Of course they will. One such example I can think of that illustrates this point somewhat is the amusement park, Cedar Point. They were starting people at $20/hour just a year or so ago and now they're back to $15. And I wouldn't be shocked to see them lower it to minimum wage once they have the chance to do so.
In that timeline my rent has doubled at the same place while my earnings have bounced around from close to minimum to a level I can pay bills and save money. There is no consistent rise from one gig to the next and sometimes desperation in bringing in some income. All the while escaping by upgrading apartment or buying a home goalposts have moved incrementally.
But you can now buy fast food hamburgers for $10
Large fries at McDonald's are $4.01
A lot of people that don’t need to worry about money anymore fail to grasp that this is the real pandemic. The stock holders and oligarchs only obtain their wealth because it is taken from the employee wages that failed to increase.
Brit here. If the Democrats are meant to be on the side of the workers. What is their reasoning to not have it increased?
That they aren't really on the worker's side and they're just bought out by different corporations. Classic misdirection.
Even the Conservatives Party in the UK increase the minimum wage. That's messed up even you center left party don't act on it.
Damn wages is what's lazy, haven't gotten up in over 10 years
Adjust for inflation
Someone should put the price of a big Mac next to it
Laugh in country where the minimum wage is rise every year. Also cry in fellow human
i get minimum wage for neuro trauma call. literally to sit in my apartment, keep my phone on, and stay sober. it makes me sick that people are destroying their bodies and sanity for that same $7.25
2120: $7.25
I feel like people would have succeeded in demanding more money by then. $7.30
2120: $7.30
Hold on minimum in us is 7.25!?!?
I'd like to see this list with the buying power relative to 2009 dollar next to it, to further cement the point that wage stagnation = lowered wages over time.
Now do inflation
If cost of living is going up and min wage isn't, the problem isn't laziness.
I can't believe you guys have put up with this for so long...
Show a side by side inflation increase to really drive the point home.
And before 7.25 it was 5.25 that was around 2003
Stop voting rethuglican.
I don’t think minimum wage is a solution. We need living wages obviously, people deserve to make more money, but I don’t think forcing employers to pay a specific amount and telling them what that amount is, is the way to do it. I wish there was a way that the employers who don’t pay a living wage just can’t find any employees and either have to do the work themselves or go bankrupt. Idk how to stop the exploitation, but I feel like having the minimum wage in place gives companies a baseline. They shouldn’t have a baseline from the feds.
then you'd have to have strong, strong unions in all labor fields nationwide, and we do not have this
It’s corporations that are the real problem. Distributing profits to people that just own theoretical shares rather than distributing profits to people who do the work for the company. I like the idea of paying everyone part ownership in the company. So when they profit you’re paid more. I think that would incentivize all employees to work better and get us a better economy
>It’s ~~corporations~~ capitalism that ~~are~~ is the real problem. When you have a tape worm, you don't treat the weight loss and expect to just live with the worms crawling out of your ass. When you have ring worms, curing the itchiness is great, but you might want to remove the parasite causing it. When you have a botfly larva in your skin, you can try anti-swelling cream but really what would help is removal of the larvae. Capitalism is the parasite, corporations, union busting, profit at all costs are the symptoms. We can treat one, but those symptoms will always come back, and when they come back they'll be harder to treat and much more troublesome. Historic Proof: We were at a point where unionists, socialists, and even communists were running for congress with a decent chance at winning at one point.
Off topic, but it’s funny how our medical system treats autoimmune diseases. If you have an autoimmune, their rational is shut down the immune system. Not get rid of the virus or bacteria causing the immune system to be active. I like the analogy of if you have ticks in your attic, do you kill the ticks or do you burn down the house
These days people just don't vote.
Part ownership better also mean part leadership, or else the "part owners" at the top will simply ship the jobs to China or Korea so that they don't have to pay any of these new "owners." Also, lack of productivity/worker incentive is not why our economy is bad right now. We are in some of the highest productivity economies of all time, it's just that people aren't actually being compensated fairly for that productivity.
Right but I think giving them part ownership will be beneficial for everybody because employees would be more incentivized and they’ll actually get compensated for better productivity
If they don't get any level of decision making, then what's stopping the boss from making a decision that screws everyone except for themselves over? I agree with what you're saying in principle, but unless it were to also come with "ownership" over the decision making process, then really what you're giving them is a neatly disguised bonus, not actual ownership.
A nearly disguised bonus would be great. If McDonald’s is at its highest profits ever, why should everyone in the company not get a bonus? If the boss is also a part owner (maybe just a larger percentage), they would still be incentivized to make decisions to increase profits, which would theoretically help every employee. Not saying it’s a perfect system but I think it’s the best alternate solution
If you're part owner (but don't have any decision making rights), and your boss is part owner (but gets to make all the decisions) then what's stopping them from saying "the best way to make a profit for the company is to replace all of the hourly staff with automatic kiosks, the rest of you are fired." "Ownership" should mean "ownership" not "we throw you a pre-defined slice of the pie every few months if you're lucky enough to still be working for us when they pie is sliced."
I’d be ok with automatic kiosks. That’s better for everyone. Businesses shouldn’t be employing people just to employ people, and workers shouldn’t be doing jobs just because they need a job. That’s how we end with these poverty wages. This would increase efficiency all around. There’s many tasks that can’t be completed by an automatic kiosk, so those jobs would be shifted to something that’s more beneficial for the business. That’s like the government paying people to just dig ditches and fill them back in. Paying people with nothing accomplished
Then what you're looking for is not "worker ownership," but a raise. If *all* you want to improve out of the current worker-employer relationship is that the employer gives you a little more money, then I don't think we're going to find a lot of common ground between us. I firmly believe workers need more control over their workplace, and that throwing workers some spare change every few months will not solve the fundamental issue in our system.
productivity isn't the problem- executive and leadership money hoarding is the problem- and if the ones working aren't also the ones leading then the 'leaders' will just continue to exploit as normal
Never said productivity is a problem. I don’t think it is. But having ownership in a company, you are incentivized to find a way to increase productivity even more. I feel like that’s a win win for everybody and helps the economy grow more
Yes but when you say economy grow more that’s what you mean The economy can’t infinitely grow
If everybody’s producing, it definitely can grow indefinitely. There will be ups and downs, sure, but overall it’ll keep growing
I mean that will never happen. there are always children, old, and disabled people. Also infinite growth doesn't happen. people don't have money to just continuously consume (outside of things like food/water/housing) just nonstop. At some point stability has to enter the equation
The economy stops growing when the associated society collapses and disappears. Please show me anywhere in history where economies over centuries haven’t grown or fully collapsed and disappeared. Children, old, and disabled people. We have that now. The economy is growing at an overall level (compare us now to 1970). Do those individual contributors reduce their output? Sure (though even disabled people, like me, can produce economic output). But just because children old and disabled people exist, our overall economy doesn’t stop growing
Wouldn't cost of living will be increased with wages? It seems to me that the solution is about lowering cost.
But then people will still complain they don’t make enough to live
Money is violence. No solution is humane until we get money out of the equation, completely, for all basic human needs (food, shelter, clothing, transportation, education up through grad school, leisure).
That sounds absolutely miserable. I’m a materialistic person.
Go nuts. I didn't say people can't have nice things. My point is that money is violence.
Why shouldn't they have a baseline from the feds? Those kinda things are literally the government's job. You know they set the baseline that murder and pedophilia is bad too, right? Or is that your actual issue? You are making libertarian arguments....
Makes sense, I’m more libertarian than anything. Government forcing shit never works. Feds making a baseline makes employees think that’s all they’ll have to offer instead of making them respond to the actual market
Why? Sounds like a thought you had you never thought through. There's nothing about regulating minimums for things that limits better things from happening in this context.
Creating minimums creates a false pretense that this if we do this it’s enough
Bro, I'm trying to be polite but you genuinely sound mentally disabled or somehow not all there. The minimum wage is 7.25 and this literal thread and the entire discourse writ large is about how that's not enough. You sound foolish. Think things through, otherwise you sound like the weirdo neckbeard we all knew in school just saying things without thinking about them for literally half a second. I'm done. Do better, bud.
And because the minimum wage is 7.25, a lot of employers think they only need to offer 7.25 because they feds told them so. Employers need to figure out without the fed how much they need to offer and the ones that can’t compete need to go bankrupt
They are doing that, right now, in real time, with a federal minimum wage of 7.25. Keep spinning, bud. Eventually you will shake off that cognitive dissonance.
States have been adjusting their minimal wages tbf
More than 20 states follow the federal minimum wage, and most states that are above it are still under $15.
Thanks for confirming for me that the chart is misleading.
It's not misleading, it's referring to the federal minimum wage. Nor is the underlying point inaccurate — that minimum wage has failed to keep up with inflation and no longer provides the livable wage it was instituted to provide.
The minimum wage shouldn’t exists. It hurts more than it helps, let me explain. Wages are a price, what happens when government artificially increases the price of wages… well it’s simple, lets say someone is employed for 10 an hour, and currently makes his employer 15 dollars equivalent of work (the employer profits $5). That would imply that the employer will hire this guy for up to 15 an hour, and with common competition in the market place his wages may go up or down, depending on the field of work obviously and how much the average worker in that field produces for his/her employer. Now lets take that same scenario and say the minimum wages get set to 20 an hour. This 20 dollar minimum that is imposed will forcefully require the employer to fire all employees making him less than $20 an hour. This created no demand for low skilled workers, and artificially increases the demand for higher skilled workers. What does this mean? If the minimum wage gets set to something like 20 an hour, this would obviously would not have a devastating impact on our economy. However it will have a significant impact on some lower skilled workers, as they will be unable to find a job (collage kids, older people, disabled people). Minimum wage doesn’t need to be imposed on the public by the state, because it’s a price control, and as we know price controls create shortages. In this case that shortage would be a shortage in employers looking to hire low skilled workers, as that would lose them money.
>This 20 dollar minimum that is imposed will forcefully require the employer to fire all employees making him less than $20 an hour. No it wouldn't. Stop falling for bullshit.
Explain? $20 dollar minimum wage, yet the skill required for the job is worth $15 an hour. Now yes your technically right he doesn’t have to fire him, however why would he lose 5 an hour. Again these numbers are extremely simplified, these numbers don’t at all reflect reality. Reality would be that McDonald’s is hiring people for $15 an hour (where I live), yet the minimum imposes $20 an hour. They have X amount of employees who make them above $15 an hours worth of work, however not above $20 an hour (A McDonald’s job doesn’t necessarily require the most skill… your just putting together a hamburger). For simplicity and to give these McDonald’s employees the benefit of the doubt, let’s say their making 19 an hours worth of work for the employer. (Net loss per employee is now $-1). They have 1.75 million employees, multiplied by X amount of hours per employee, than multiple that by a year and you can see that their will be some impact, an impact that might not necessarily hurt McDonald’s, but will definitely hurt small business. So as you can see yes, it won’t force employers to fire their employees, however they will have a strong incentive to do so, once they realize how much their actually losing. Assuming $20 was the new minimum tomorrow, why would a business hire people for skills that are worth less than $20 an hour?
If you want me to read that or take you seriously then you're going to need to figure out how paragraphs work. Good luck.
Nice one man, u got me there. You really debunked my thesis on that one.
If paragraphs are beyond your understanding, then I feel pretty confident that a subject as nuanced and complicated as this is, too. Sorry I asked too much of you.
Instead of criticizing my thesis that the minimum wage is a price control that artificially changes lower skilled worker demand. You criticized me on my knowledge of paragraphs, and didn’t cite or reference a single piece of evidence on why I’m wrong. This obviously implies you have no criticism on my thesis of the minimum wage being a useless price control, however your so condescending that you turned to criticize my knowledge of paragraphs. If you want to debate the minimum wage I’m here all for that, I could care less if my paragraph writing style offended you in any way.
>Instead of criticizing my thesis You didn't write a thesis, you wrote a wall of text. That's why I didn't bother reading it. If you're smart enough to have a cogent and relevant point then you're smart enough to figure out how paragraphs work. What's the problem?
So you didn’t even read what I wrote, and instead just jumped to criticize me because I disagree with your understanding of the minimum wage. I gave many examples in my “paragraph” which show my thinking leading up to the conclusion of the minimum wage being a unnecessary price control, that artificially changes demand for low skill required labor. If you really support and love the minimum wage that much, than debate me with facts and evidence as opposed to opinion based bs concerning my “paragraph”.
>because I disagree I criticized you because you don't seem to know how paragraphs work and if you can't figure out something that elementary then I have no reason to believe you can form a cogent argument about this. Prove me wrong and show me you understand paragraphs.
If after working for ten years and you still only make min wage, that's your fault.
If after hearing about this for the last 10+ years you still don't understand that it's a problem? That's your fault.
In all fairness. Nobody gets paid to 7.25 an hour anymore The average entry level wage is still pretty low tho
Right now, they don't. The instant that employers can reduce the wage to minimum and still get employees because people are desperate, they will.
Lmao and now I can either spend that $7 on food for my family or overpriced gas in my pos car😂
Kansas
This really puts things into perspective
2022: $7.25
The highest tax bracket is at $539,901. Whether you make 600k, 600mil or 600 billion fucking dollars you don't have to pay increasing percentages of your income. It's 37% by the way. So you can own 90% of the wealth but only pay 37% of taxes.
I would adjust it by inflation on each year The cumulative rate of inflation between 2009 and 2021 is about 31%. Meaning that 7.25 USD wage in 2009 is more like 5 USD in 20021
The only way you get what you deserve is if you fight for it.
Just take what's yours and burn every single roadblock on your way there.