Setting Minimum Wage In The USA to 4 Cents An Hour

Lmao,

How much do you make an hour?

Your economics are to corporate for the working man.

That kind of change will cause a massive crash. One that would destroy our infrastructure because people would be doing whatever they could to survive, including g burning your lumber from your house to stay warm in the winter.

In there time of record corporate profits, your solution is a$$ backwards.

How about asking the utility companies to repay off the profits so someone could afford to buy products. This would improve the economy. Oh that's right they need that money

I never realised how low your minimum wage is in the states....over in the UK ours is about to go up to £7.30 (I think), which is about $11.66!

Living standards probably cost a lot more here though I suppose. Have a look at Australia's minimum wage and compare!

Originally posted by Night Star
We have minumum wage for a reason. people need to make enough to live on.

I agree. And Disagree. I'm all for keeping minimum wage but one problem with your statement is people are living beyond their means all too often ( if you ask me we should get rid of all credit cards) and they are all wanting to live the high life without knowing what being a self producer is all about.

We have to buy food from the market. We have to have a car with insurance and gas. We have to have electricity from a local grid that's robing us blind and wasting resources. We have to live in places that provide these things.

Bull Caca. We don't need any of that to live and live well. People did it for thousands of years. But people don't stop there. Nope, they want it new, they want it now. They buy on credit with high interest rates. They buy the latest fanciest gadget they can get, most of the time not because the need it but they only desire it.

If you cut out all these Luxuries.. and that's exactly what all these are, you can live much cheaper. Grow your own food. hunt and fish. Don't buy the newest most expensive cars. Don't send your kids to a college thats going to shove more crap down their throats - home school and teach the kids right. College graduates these days don't get jobs anyhow so no need to. And on and on.

People don't need lots of money, they just need to make smarter choices. We are in the mess we are in today because capitalism is out of control. So out of control, it's now involved with politics making us into a country where laws are written not to protect We the People but the corporations.

reply to post by ldyserenity


there is one fact that there is no way around....
if society wants someone flipping their burgers, ringing those cash registers, taking care of the senile old grannies....
well, one way or another, society will have to pay for those workers to have at least the bare essentials of life!!! or their workers aren't gonna be doing the jobs that long!!

which is really cheaper....
employers paying enough for these people to live on, and passing that cost down to the consumers.....
or, the gov't employing an army of social workers, and funding a mass of "non-profit" groups
to deliver to the people what the employers leave lacking???

what the post you replied to would be true if it was truly a "free market" but it isn't.... what the employer doesn't pay needs to made up somewhere and that somewhere is food stamps, medicaid, hud, ect. the burden that should be that of the employer (because he wants someone to do a job) and the person who is doing that job is transferred to the taxpayer... and since more and more companies have found this so convenient and the wages have been held back from so many, that burden gets harder to carry as the years go by. less people are "taxpayers" and more people end up within the ranks of the "needy".
dropping the minimum wage without dropping the social safety net would be a big mistake!!! unless of course the taxpayers don't mind pitching in the bulk to the living expenses for the working class!

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


so, your answer is to do without electricity, spend time after working your 40+ hr job feeding the chickens, planting the garden, and chasing down the deer??
the gov't expects you to have electricity, some of the employers expect you to have cellphones and be on call 24/7 and a reliable care, my city won't let me have chickens or cows....and on and on....

ya, they are all luxuries!!
the only way society is gonna let you live the way you describe is if you are rich enough to pay cash for a big piece of land out in the middle of nowhere and you quietly move into the middle of it and keep a low profile!

yes, some people do live beyond their means, ain't no one gonna deny that...
but then, there are some who are living on that credit because without it, their family wouldn't be eating a meal every night....their pay doesn't provide enough for that luxury, and the social safety net has thrown them into the abyss.
society needs workers, working, not laying in the streets dying from starvation and cold...
it needs children, to replenish itself...
how does it expect to have them, if they do not wish to pay for them???

you seem to think we should all go back a couple hundred years, when there was plenty of open land for the taking, unexplored continents to be conquered. it's not like that now, no unless you want to venture up to the moon and start a settlement!

reply to post by dawnstar


I'm confused with your reply as since that is exactly what I was saying that there's no way in hell the wage would go up without the minimum wage there, that in fact it'd go down and I also stated I'd be out of work because in a truly free market I would ask for 25 and hour which is what IT should be going for and not a dime less, if they want people to flip burgers yes pay a minimum salary and it should be enough to live on...or else I am not doing (which is currently why I damn refuse to work there dealing with those idiots ordering and the morons at work alongside the burger flipper is just not worth it to me) They can keep it I'd rather be finding other thing to do...even if it seems farfetched like trying to write a novel and get published or trying to make a singing career...screw that mcd's for min wage I'll never do it...don't care if I was on the street min wage simply does not supply a comfortable enough a life for me to deal with A$$hole customers and sh******* managers/coworkers....in fact most managers there I know more about business than them, in fact I know this because I helped someone else get management in Pizza Hut helped him with his test (this goes on most often they get help to past their tests) In fact I've past Lowes' Home Depot's and Sam's club managment tests online and they refuse to call me...of course they know I will refuse a cashier position knowing full well I got too much intelligence for that....I agree with you, the min wage sucks and need to be brought up not brought down or removed so you must've misunderstood what I was saying?

reply to post by georgemoseleylander


I'm glad you're not a politician.

I assume you have no idea how difficult it is to live in this country with rising costs everywhere.

I assume you've never worked a day in your life either.

ATS: The Internet's Best and Brightest (I'm going to trademark that and make millions).

reply to post by mikellmikell


How do you sleep at night with thoughts like this?

You're calling for anarchy among other things.

reply to post by ldyserenity


I was just say that this part of the post your were replaying to

Pay would be better, service would be better, product would be better and of higher quality, and consumers would be happier.

could have a chance to occur, if there was truly a free market, but there isn't, the taxpayers and charities are now taking on part of the responsibility that the employers should have when it comes to keeping living employees.

the pay for those lower paid workers would be forced up, since all in all those companies truly do need someone doing that job, and that person needs enough to live on...
the product would be better if the companies did pay enough to make the people feel that society felt they were worthy of life, instead of what they are doing to them now, and well, the consumers, at least many of them, would be happier, since they would have seen their wages go up...

since well,so many employers now are shirking the responsibility to their employees, very much so in some cases, I have to say, dropping the minimum wage even lower would be a mistake, the employers have learned that if they refuse to keep those employees alive and working, the dear gov't will for the taxpayers to chip in and help them out...

ok lets dump minimum wage and pay people what the job is actually worth, in terms of what they do.

so CEO's and their ilk, you will now make 4 cents/hour, after all you really don't do anything but sit on your butts and roam around telling others what to do.

management types, you will now make 50 cents/hour. after all you occasionally do something.

those who ACTUALLY DO THINGS like stock shelves, will now make $5/hour as you work hard to get stuff out to sell.

those who manufacture things will now make $10/ hour as without you there would be nothing to sell.

those who clean up, janitorial staff, garbage men etc, you will now make 15/hour as you deal with some rather nasty stuff like puke, old garbage, and chemical cleaners.

teachers you will now make $25/ hour, including getting paid for all the time spent after school hours marking and stuff. after all you are the ones helping train people without you there would be no real learning.

police and fire department front line staff you will now make $30/ hour since you put your lives on the line every day.

hospital staff and doctors you will also make $30/ hour as you are at risk of catching something that will kill you as you try to help others.

military staff you will now make $35//hour as you train and get ready for deployment, but while actually deployed in combat you will now make $100/hour as your life is really at risk.

so now people will get paid what they really deserve in MY opinion. i think many would agree that this pay structure makes a lot more sense than things currently are since it takes into account things like effort to do a job as well as hazards that come with a job. people who DO and accept RISK should be paid more than those who really don't spend much effort to do their jobs, and have no risk in their jobs.

why should things like higher education count at all? after all you have to be LUCKY enough to be able to afford it. whether it be born rich or LUCK enough to get grants in order to afford it. it is LUCK that YOU have the education. it doesn't mean that you actually DESERVE it or are smarter than everyone else. it just means that you caught the breaks others were unable to catch, nothing more nothing less. at least in North America you only have to pay for collage/university. in many places you have to pay for ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, so if your parents are POOR good luck with that. it hurts even more when in that type of environment minimum high school education is required for low level jobs, like pumping gas, while higher education is needed for things higher than that like being a cashier.

Originally posted by Jeremiah65
A wage has to be based on something tangible. Forever and a day, wages were the necessities of life...food and shelter.

That is why the Native americans had to be seperated from the peasants.
You wouldn't want your workers to 'ever' find out that they could survive without slaving away for a master.
Because without anyone to leech off of you would need to do the work yourself and life wouldn't be fun now would it?