First off, minimum wage isn't meant for people to even survive!
Let the government try and raise a family on $6.55 an hour.


But just as that article read, that adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage today is what it was in the 1950's. I think that the minimum wage should be the same straight across the board for all states. Why not?

But I do totally agree with you that a lot of people need to stop having so many kids when they can't even afford the ones they have. But this isn't the case overall.
But even if you didn't have any kids you still can't make it on that .
The cost of living is going up to the point that no one is going to benefit from the measly raise they got.

What about the ones who have done good and gotten an education or training to get their job only to see others who don't deserve it get a raise.

This is sad that you think this. I know people who is making $6.55 and has to get another job just to eat. And they work their butts off....I strongly think that they deserve it. If the minimum was increased to a decent wage this would help to stop poverty. It doesn't even equal out with gas and food going up so much. The point is we have to work and pay taxes . But I think that I as a tax payer have payed well over and beyond what I think Is fair. They take my taxes and do what with It? They need to bring the wage up to a decent standard for livingnot just surviving. I think anyone deserves this.

Originally posted by LiquidCrystalz
They need to bring the wage up to a decent standard for livingnot just surviving. I think anyone deserves this.

In theory, this is great. In reality, it doesn't work that way. No matter what you do, there is always going to be a poor class that squeaks to get by. I WAS in that poor class 10 years ago and I worked hard to get into the middle class. When you raise the minimum wage, the cost on everything goes up to cover it. Businesses have to make a profit or they don't stay in business. Since businesses have to pay higher wages to their employees, they raise their prices. All this really does is squeeze the middle class because many of us don't have wages that are anchored to minimum wage. This recent hike was nothing more than a paycut for me and those like me.


[edit on 24-7-2008 by BlueTriangle]

I live in an area where there are section 8 townhomes. I know some of the residents. Yes they make minimum wage (the ones that work) but they also get 400-500 a month in food stamps, state health care(free), utilities paid for by local charities, cable TV, high speed internet, and pay between 25-50 a month rent (the ones I know) in townhomes that rent to non-section 8 people for 650. Most of these people have more left at the end of the month then me, and I work a full time job. Also, more kids means more money, also less rent, so alot of these familys have lots of kids and get even more.

Pisses me off.

I'm going to start off by saying that I agree there is a problem with income and inflation, and that I do not have a solution to the problem.

I currently work two jobs one is basically salary while the other is minimum wage. I only have a high school ed. and have tried to go to school with no luck do to finances. I make less than 8000 a year and cannot even get a loan for school to better myself. So I am stuck working for MW. oh and let me state that my "salaried" job only pays me 450 a month before taxes and that is in line with what the state grants for my position.

In my area and others I've lived in there are no such thing as a 40 hr week for MW workers. Hell I'm lucky to get 25hrs. This means I need to work at least 2 jobs for a 40 hr week income. Unfortunately there are not enough jobs out there to do that.

And looking through the job market unless i want to be a nurse there really are no jobs out there even for educated people. I have multiple friends that have graduated from college and are working MW jobs because they is nothing in the fields that they wanted to work in.

I guess my point with this post is what are we supposed to do in a failing economy where there are no jobs even for the educated and how do you get educated when you can barely afford to feed yourself?

By the way I live with a roommate, I'm single have no Girlfriend or children, and I can't even afford to go to the movies or even buy a dvd.

The only thing i agree with the original poster on is people shouldnt have kids if they are not able to support them.

If a company cant afford to pay someone a reasonable amount they just shouldnt be in business.

Get a education ya ya ya a lot of people with education make nothing. A lot of jobs go over seas. Then you gotta compete with a thousand people to get a job here.

Its more who you know and not what you know.

You wanna fuss about something fuss about the filthy rich who constantly get breaks.

The fact is the cost of living goes up so much more than wages. Whats a dollar raise? You think thats gonna offset the cost of living?

This is America the slave days are over if a man REGUARDLESS Of education gives you a fair days hard work he should get a fair days pay.


End of case .

[edit on 24-7-2008 by ncuncfan2006]

I gotta go but will be back when I get home. This is why I love ATS because we can discuss problems rationally and learn alot of different views. I'd like to see everyone out of America's so called poverty. The one that isn't even close to other country poverty levels but still it has to be hard. The government doesn't help they just make things worse to cover their own mistakes. I've seen some awesome stories where people were down and out, living in a bathroom with a son and close to dieing, but the father said no more and is now wealthy. There's been thousands of stories where people made it out and some way out of being poor. I'm glad you all posted your feelings and I'm learning a few things myself. I guess I'm mad mostly at the government for letting it get this way and for the people to grab and swallow the hook, line and sinker.

[edit on 7/24/2008 by Solarskye]

The people working to make minimum wage are probably working for companies with a large turnover, and where the directors or CEOs of said companies are probably taking $250,000/year or more in pay.

Minimum wage is an excuse to pay people nothing. It's a way of trying to separate us from those in India and China who we hold up as being poorly treated, and hide behind the "but we have a minimum wage ensuring a minimum standard for everyone".

Too bad that standard isn't high enough.

About 2 or 3 months ago they said the poverty line in the UK is approx. £13,000/year or $26,000. There are a LOT of people earning less than this.

Minimum wage needs to meet this at a minimum, for anyone to have a chance of having a life.

They people wonder why crime is so high, and people would prefer to be on state benefit (it pays more than a regular job!)...

I don't think it should be legal for people to have more than two children.

Aside from that, I can't bring myself to agree with anything that people against raising the minimum wage are saying. Apart from the fact that yes, we ALL absorb the costs. I will address several points.
1) "GET AN EDUCATION"- This is horse sh!t. I know more people that graduated college with degrees than I do people who dropped out (me) or never went. I make as much or more money than all but ONE of the people who got a degree, and he had to leave the state to get that job. Being educated does NOT mean you're getting paid. It DOES mean that you can look forward to paying student loans for twenty years with that call center job. If education was state-sponsored, then yes, getting an education is a viable option for getting out of poverty. But stacking up the debt required to get a degree from a decent school (while working for, roughly, sharecropping wages to pay rent) is not a real solution in America today.

2) "RICH PEOPLE GOT RICH BECAUSE THEY ARE SMART/LUCKY"- No, rich people exploit workers and buy labor for FAR less than it is worth. Look at a standard Fortune 500 CEO. He contributes roughly NOTHING to the day to day operations of his company, the operations that bought his yacht, and makes more in a year than AT LEAST 50 people who make money for him while he "creates new paradigms", and tells people they need to make more money for the company. How can you possibly respect that? Or worse, ASPIRE to that? I don't think you can make over 150k a year without exploiting people on a daily basis. Taking people trapped in situations where they 'need this job' and telling them, "Okay. 6.50 an hour. No insurance. You have to pay rent, right?

And just like that, my lunch break's over (Obv. at work), so I may or may not get back to finish this list.

A quick project: If you took the GDP of the USA and divided it evenly among all of us, how much money would everybody have? Remember, this amount includes children.......