They have more of a right to bitch and moan about their wages than the rich bastard who bitches about the same people as moochers who have to apply for food stamps because they are not being paid enough to live on! Have you ever listened to a rich guy bitch about his taxes? And that doesn't piss you off worse?wcfvw69 wrote: There is a large portion of this country's population that are very complacent and lazy and are content with their social/economic status. Living paycheck to paycheck is perfectly fine for them. I'm not knocking these folks, what so ever. There is a strong need for their labor in business. I just don't think these same people should bitch and moan about their wages when EVERYONE in this country can better themselves with the right motivation.
Do you UNDERSTAND that you cannot live on minimum wage? Wouldn't you bitch? There were some 400 applications for each position advertised during the 2008 recession. Would you give them a pep talk to better themselves? To who?
You tell me stories about people you know, I have mine. One of my employees' husband was let go at Kodak after thirty years of loyal service. They told him that they were "downsizing". They escorted him off the premises as though he might go postal on them. Thirty years! AND they hired a replacement at a third of his pay.
I don't have the time to retread my own "as I mentioned before" but I mentioned before that the minimum wage in 1969 was $22.00/hr in today's dollars, and you fall right into the rabbit hole of capitalist bullshit lying excuses that they "can't afford to pay" their workers but they sure can afford the multi-million dollar parachutes for releasing lousy chief executive officers? And how do you deem (how?? how??) that the market value for their position is $16.00/hr? Seriously? They would have to work an hour's worth of take home pay to buy a gallon of milk, a twelve pack of Mountain Dew, a box of Great Grains cereal and maybe a quart of yogurt? And what is the market "value" for a mortgage bundler? Last year's minimum wage had to work all damn day for a tank of gas?wcfvw69 wrote: As I mentioned before, businesses can not afford to pay a position $25 dollars an hour based only on tenure w/a company. There is market value for jobs. Trust me, I had to have plenty of conversations with semi drivers that had maxed out on the company pay skill. They were upset that their was no further upward mobility compensation wise. These same drivers where making $22+ dollars an hour and w/overtime where making $70k a year. The market value for their positions per hour in this city was around $16 dollars an hour.
That used to be the case. Read up. Times have changed. Seriously, fundamentally, the playing field has changed dramatically. You know that over 40% of American workers are forced into part time hours to save their employers from paying full-time benefits, you do know this, yes? And to make sure that "part time" is documented, they make sure not to offer enough hours? You do know that the America you love has corporations who happily screw their workers with every possible trick in the book, including doctoring the time cards so they can get free cleaning off the clock (WalMart) and forcing their employees to use mayonnaise as a burn ointment (McDonalds, who also chiseled people out of legitimate overtime).wcfvw69 wrote: That's what makes this country great. There are opportunities for everyone to be successful. They just have to put some effort into it to get there.
Opportunities for everybody to be successful? We have lost millions!!!!!!!! of middle class jobs to automation and downsizing and outsourcing, we have opportunities for everybody to be successful?
No, we don't. We can run a super tanker with twelve people, we can run assembly lines with ten, we have self check-outs killing retail, we have fully automated warehouses and loading docks, come on! Do the math. Show some mercy for the people who have stampeded to job openings that pay $7.85 (we expect you can find a full time position some time in the next eighteen months, maybe), show some understanding of the people who wracked up thousands of dollars in debt to a private college that sucked federal funds for their administrative class and left students with debt and worthless degrees, this country is eating its young, its middle class, its poor, and its soul.