$15/hr minimum wage- what's it mean to you?

[MasterBlaster]

Healthy food is expensive.

 

[Mick!]

Vegetables are expensive?

 

[MasterBlaster]

Yea, pretty much.

 

[Mick!]

I give up.

 

[Mick!]

No I don't! Some pick your own places in Louisiana.
http://www.pickyourown.org/LA.htm

 

[MasterBlaster]

It's good to persevere!

 

[FireFighterZero]

Right on Mick. Take matters into your own hands and quit whining about everything. Good post.

You can eat well for the same as a McD's diet. The govt spends millions of taxpayer dollars to put together data about smart shopping.

Thats what gets me, the programs are there for people to use. Heaven forbid that someone has to apply themselves to take advantage of them.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

I think a lot, not all, working poor people are in crisis management mode a lot of the time... Childcare, keeping the wheels turning in a shitty vehicle to get to work, long public transportation commutes, making this month's rent, no emergency credit...

 

[Mick!]

We're all spinning plates Sean.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

Yep.

 

[kevin bingham]

It's expensive to be poor

 

[Peter]

Here's the deal, you go to school in the UK and you get told again and again that a good education and good exams will help you in life, get you a better job etc. you can heed that advice or like me ignore it and just assume that my own inherent brilliance will become apparent to the world and I would be feted whever I went.
By the time I got to 30 and was still at home with my parents, working as a labourer, sleeping in the same bed I had since I was 12 (although it smelt a bit more of piss) I realised my plan had failed so I took matters into my own hands, saved some money and took a college course in this job. Managed to scratch my way to relative comfort. It is possible to improve yourself later on, but it's harder. Your first (and best) chance is your education, there's no point these people wasting their education then ten years later saying "woe is me, I've got no future" you were told!
If I'm not mistaken tertiary education is still free in the UK (or very heavily subsidised) if you choose to use that opportunity to learn Pottery or Sports Science (like my nephew) you're going to struggle to sell ashtrays or manage a football team.
Many immigrant groups understand this which is why they ensure their children behave at school and do well in exams.
Personally I don't care about inequality (at least the sort we have in the UK) if some guy is 10 or a 1000 times richer than me so what? I have a roof over my head, food in my belly and live my life in relative dignity. The rest is just stuff.

University/colleges? That's a bit off topic, but you have to pay for uni these days.

I care about inequality, not because I'm a hobo hugging lefty, but because it's going to be the downfall of our society.

 

[sotc]

I think a lot, not all, working poor people are in crisis management mode a lot of the time... Childcare, keeping the wheels turning in a shitty vehicle to get to work, long public transportation commutes, making this month's rent, no emergency credit...

I agree Sean, I grew up on welfare and watched my Ma sell food stamps for .50 on the dollar. She and her boyfriend's would go bar hopping and we regularly struggled to pay rent. I know not all poor people are like that but I grew up with it and would say more are where they based on the choices they make over and over

 

[Mick!]

University/colleges? That's a bit off topic, but you have to pay for uni these days.

I care about inequality, not because I'm a hobo hugging lefty, but because it's going to be the downfall of our society.

Yeah I know Pete, Revolution is coming. It always is.

 

[Peter]

Can't see a revolution happening anytime soon.

Most people kind of know what the conservative agenda is but have just chosen to go along with it willingly.

Eventually the 1% will own everything, and the worker bees will be sedated with celebrity X factor on ice and all the cheap cider they can swig.

 

[NickfromWI]

Yup. Americans are too indifferent to revolt against anything.


love
nick

 

[cory]

I agree Sean, I grew up on welfare and watched my Ma sell food stamps for .50 on the dollar. She and her boyfriend's would go bar hopping and we regularly struggled to pay rent. I know not all poor people are like that but I grew up with it and would say more are where they based on the choices they make over and over

Here's the deal, you go to school in the UK and you get told again and again that a good education and good exams will help you in life, get you a better job etc. you can heed that advice or like me ignore it and just assume that my own inherent brilliance will become apparent to the world and I would be feted whever I went.
By the time I got to 30 and was still at home with my parents, working as a labourer, sleeping in the same bed I had since I was 12 (although it smelt a bit more of piss) I realised my plan had failed so I took matters into my own hands, saved some money and took a college course in this job. Managed to scratch my way to relative comfort. It is possible to improve yourself later on, but it's harder. Your first (and best) chance is your education, there's no point these people wasting their education then ten years later saying "woe is me, I've got no future" you were told!
If I'm not mistaken tertiary education is still free in the UK (or very heavily subsidised) if you choose to use that opportunity to learn Pottery or Sports Science (like my nephew) you're going to struggle to sell ashtrays or manage a football team.
Many immigrant groups understand this which is why they ensure their children behave at school and do well in exams.
Personally I don't care about inequality (at least the sort we have in the UK) if some guy is 10 or a 1000 times richer than me so what? I have a roof over my head, food in my belly and live my life in relative dignity. The rest is just stuff.

We're all spinning plates Sean.

Superb posts.

Amazing thread. It seems to me we are concluding the same as the politicians- economic/political questions have so many different viewpoints that the best course of action is hard to know.

 

[MasterBlaster]

It's expensive to be poor

Heck yea! Everything costs so much, even the cheap shit.

 

[Merle Nelson]

That was good of you to share your personal family experience Willie.

I just bid a job for a former logger today. He lost one leg to a D8 about 50 years ago -- was back to work in 6 months. After we agreed on one tree I will take down before a new roof goes on his shed he said, "how much to clear around those wires over there? My wife dosen't like me to get up on the ladder anymore."

Pay people whatever you want for minimum wage, that will not fix what are being described as ills in this thread. Inspire people to have the heart of a one legged logger, or an indentured servant who would trade 7 years of their life for a chance at a better life in The New World, or dig for two weeks to get a stump out to expand the garden near their three sided dirt floored shed.

If you want to crush a person or a people tell them that they cannot do for themselves. Tell them they must have this and that to be a whole person, and that they deserve it regardless of what they put into life.

That's my opinion. Oh for a whole country full of one legged loggers.

 

[FireFighterZero]

Hell of a post Merle.

I thought about it today on my way back from the hills on a fishing trip.

How hard folks had to work to just survive in this country during the homestead days. If not you did not work hard, you did not survive the winter. Some did not.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Well stated Jim.
I guarantee you, the people at BK, or Subway or any restaurant or store in my little town nor any other (for the most part), will not be working any harder or be any more grateful to be making 15.00 per hour than they were at 8. Their lives, for the most part will go unchanged. They will still be buying lotto tickets and alcohol and candy bars while filling their bellies with junk food and fast food. Texting on their smart phones to the land lords and employers apologising for tardiness after finding it is hard to pay for rent or fuel after their indulgence.

 

[MasterBlaster]

They will still be buying lotto tickets and alcohol and candy bars while filling their bellies with junk food and fast food

Sounds fun to me!!!

You left out PIZZA!

 

[FireFighterZero]

Jaysus that pisses me off. You watch these assholes drop their kids off at school, never even looking at their kids, too busy on the smart phone to actually parent.

We are working towards starting a program to send food home with these kids so they have something to eat on weekends. They come back to school hungry on Monday. They are pocketing food to feed themselves and siblings.

They get breakfast and lunch during the week. We are working to send food for the weekend. Cant give cash, the parents dont buy food. Just smart phones.

 

[MasterBlaster]

too busy on the smart phone to actually parent

The kids are on the same smart phone.

 

[Merle Nelson]

Jim, Mormons would be the quickest source of info for how to buy lots of food cheaply. (They believe in keeping a year of food or so ahead, and that has to be rotated.)

Then teach those kids in a fun environment to prepare food for days instead of just thinking of a meal at a time. Beans, rice etc. cooked up and in the fridge. You could change some whole families entire future.