How Do We Save the Worker? Jesse Ventura Takes on America's Wage Crisis

Two-thirds of U.S. wage-earners make less than $45,000. For a family, that's below the poverty line. Today I sound off on how to save the American worker as my Vigilant Producer Alex Logan runs down the facts on the wage crisis. Will raising the minimum wage fix all of our problems? I have another plan in mind.

a reply to: JesseVentura

Raise the minimum wage to $19.23076923076923, obviously.

a reply to: JesseVentura

It is the same in the UK. When we had the unions we had bartering power and the weapon of strike action. What did the onset of ferocious capitalism achieve?; drove down wages so low that a great percentage of the work force have to be subsidised with tax credit wage top ups. There are people on minimum wage in the UK who work full hours and STILL have to use food banks sometimes. I am sure it is very similar in the U.S.

Good luck with that JV. Greed and profit have taken the living out of "living" wage. Unchecked the market has become a monster. Reminds me of the famine Angel in Revelation;

Revelation 6:6; "And I heard a voice from among the four living beings say, "A loaf of wheat bread or three loaves of barley will cost a day's pay. And don't waste the olive oil and wine.""

Or should we quote James?:

James 5:4; "For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the lord of Heaven’s Armies. 5You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire. You have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter. 6You have condemned and killed innocent people, who do not resist you."

Aaaaaaamennnn!

a reply to: JesseVentura

Jesse Ventura: "If you work a 40 hour work week, you should not be subsidized by the government, no matter what you do."

So, an unskilled person, with limited education, should make the same (or nearly the same) as an educated pencil pusher (to use your words)?


Jesse Ventura: "Raise the minimum wage, and lower the maximum wage, and you might find utopia."

---groan---

So let's remove incentives for working hard at an education to achieve a higher level of income, and reward the uninspired with a "living wage" at the expense of private industry.

While I tend to lean liberal in many social policies, such a statement is beyond liberal and well into the intensely socialist.


We don't have a wage problem in this country.

I'll say it again: we don't have a wage problem in this country.

We have an education problem.


If people are getting married, having families, and can't find the job that earns enough to support their family, it's not society's responsibility to pay them more. It's society's responsibility to ensure they're educated for the job that can support their family.

This problem won't be solved by raising the minimum wage. The result would be a tickle-up, requiring all wages to go up, and the new normal will be no different than it is now.

The only solution is education. But politicians wanting to raise the minimum wage plays better, and gets cheers from doe-eyed young liberals looking for quick fixes.

a reply to: JesseVentura

The structural problems in this economy is far more complicated then wage disparity Governor. The US keeps entering into trade deals that grease the skids for more jobs to be exported to other nations while job creation and wages keep sliding. The US exports jobs, grain, and Hollywood movies for the most part and little else. They just raised the national debt ceiling. Does anyone still buy it other than the Federal Reserve I wonder?

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Respectfully, Sceptic O, should we then continue to have the state top up wages then? Somehow the less well educated have to live. Surely, they deserve the right to a wage that reflects the expenses of the society they live in. Education is not everything, too. I am very well educated. I did a degree at University yet I am in the minimum wage bracket. Even worse, actually, I have to have welfare help, too.

I can only argue from U.K perspective, but the descent into poverty I have witnessed is very fast and alarming. It is ok if you are up there high and dry, but no joke for those on the bread line. I don't want to argue with you. You obviously have your politics and outlook and I, mine, but I would suggest having some compassion with regard to those in what is really a poverty trap. I am not a happy chap at the level of greed I have witnessed in my own country.

For the sake of people being able to afford the necessities to live in the West either the state needs to subsidise or the corporations and employers need to pay a wage that reflects the costs of living in whichever society the employer and employee are in.

Paul Craig Roberts latest "US On Road To Third World" is well worth the read . He claims it's worse then the official statements say .

On January 6, 2004, Senator Charles Schumer and I challenged the erroneous idea that jobs offshoring was free trade in a New York Times op-ed. Our article so astounded economists that within a few days Schumer and I were summoned to a Brookings Institution conference in Washington, DC, to explain our heresy. In the nationally televised conference, I declared that the consequence of jobs offshoring would be that the US would be a Third World country in 20 years.

That was 11 years ago, and the US is on course to descend to Third World status before the remaining 9 years of my prediction have expired.

www.informationclearinghouse.info...

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Education is not the answer.

Because society needs janitors and cashiers much more than it needs more PHD degrees.

These jobs will never go away, because they are necessary.

If the people doing them can't earn enough to live, education is not going to change that.

Who is gonna take out the trash or build your house if everyone has a doctorate?

Education is far from a society wide solution.

It is a individual solution, for me or for you, individually,but not the whole of society.

Close the damn borders, and a lot of these problems will slowly solve themselves

a reply to: Revolution9

I'm in your camp.

These jobs exist because there was a need for it.

No matter how free and accessible education is, we will always need these jobs done.

So since these jobs aren't going away, I say we address the root problem of them not paying enough to live on.

How to do so is the hard part.

originally posted by: starviego
Close the damn borders, and a lot of these problems will slowly solve themselves

I agree with that, because it is a overabundance of cheap illegals that has forced the wage floor so low.

I could make more on the side in highschool doing subcontracting than the same thing pays now.

It is why I got out of construction, the illegal immigrants saturated the construction market and killed the pay.

Why pay me $50,000 a year, when you can pay 3 illegal immigrants with that same money?

a reply to: JesseVentura

Considering the U.S. is the most wealthiest country in the world, you would think we would be leading all other wealthy nations in minimum wage. That should say a lot about how greedy the 1% is in this country. Is there any wonder why we have so many people on welfare?

If you have a small business and lets say you employ five people. If you're not making enough to clear $75.00 an hour to cover employees at just $15.00 an hour, than you shouldn't be in business! If we had universal healthcare like most industrial and wealthy nations, the small business owner wouldn't have to be concerned in covering healthcare costs!

It's funny how the multi-billionaire owners of a retail company (Walmart), are raising their minimum wage to $9.00 an hour because of a push to raise minimum wage. They than make a commercial acting like they're doing this out of the kindness of their heart, lol. I'm sure they could easily afford a minimum wage at $15.00 an hour.

originally posted by: WeRpeons
a reply to: JesseVentura

Considering the U.S. is the most wealthiest country in the world, you would think we would be leading all other wealthy nations in minimum wage. That should say a lot about how greedy the 1% is in this country. Is there any wonder why we have so many people on welfare?

If you have a small business and lets say you employ five people. If you're not making enough to clear $75.00 an hour to cover employees at just $15.00 an hour, than you shouldn't be in business! If we had universal healthcare like most industrial and wealthy nations, the small business owner wouldn't have to be concerned in covering healthcare costs!

It's funny how the multi-billionaire owners of a retail company (Walmart), are raising their minimum wage to $9.00 an hour because of a push to raise minimum wage. They than make a commercial acting like they're doing this out of the kindness of their heart, lol. I'm sure they could easily afford a minimum wage at $15.00 an hour.

Of course they could, but they won't, which is why MW came about, as a method to force companies to pay a livable wage.

But it hurts the mom and pop owners, not so much the Walmart's.

There has to be a solution that won't close mom and pop businesses, raising the MW to $15 across the board will do just that.

I don't know what the answer is, but I do know somthing needs to be done, because a couple more decades of flat wages in a climate of always rising prices is gonna be the death of American life as we know it.

originally posted by: the2ofusr1
Paul Craig Roberts latest "US On Road To Third World" is well worth the read . He claims it's worse then the official statements say .

On January 6, 2004, Senator Charles Schumer and I challenged the erroneous idea that jobs offshoring was free trade in a New York Times op-ed. Our article so astounded economists that within a few days Schumer and I were summoned to a Brookings Institution conference in Washington, DC, to explain our heresy. In the nationally televised conference, I declared that the consequence of jobs offshoring would be that the US would be a Third World country in 20 years.

That was 11 years ago, and the US is on course to descend to Third World status before the remaining 9 years of my prediction have expired.

www.informationclearinghouse.info...

Free trade only works when other countries are run using the same system and rules. Countries like China and India routinely play dirty by devaluing their currencies and counterfeiting goods. Hold these countries accountable and implement a reciprocal agreement that if they violate we will 'match their policies'.

a reply to: JesseVentura

Tariff


Move jobs out of the country to use slave labor and pollute with no fear of environmental protections then you do not deserve to sell the product here without a fairly adjusted Tariff.

a reply to: Metallicus

Rules and laws are cheated or ignored and broken all around the world by all parties . People will take advantage of others and if they don't there will be someone else in the line that will .If and when a country has their own act together then maybe other countries with the integrity will join ....

Wages should be commensurate with how much the job benefits society. Elder care and child care workers earn very low wages yet where would society be without those angels of compassion. CEOs, politicians, doctors (who don't heal), lawyers, professional athletes, et el, earn premium wages while providing little benefit to anyone but themselves.

originally posted by: hurdygurdy
Wages should be commensurate with how much the job benefits society. Elder care and child care workers earn very low wages yet where would society be without those angels of compassion. CEOs, politicians, doctors (who don't heal), lawyers, professional athletes, et el, earn premium wages while providing little benefit to anyone but themselves.

I like that idea, but without some motivational factor like profit, why would Tom or Nancy open a business in the first place.

It isn't like there are many businesses that employ people just because they want to pay them well.

Sure, Sure,
Raise the minimum wage of the jobs that people can't find now, that's bound to help

originally posted by: Drinking
Because society needs janitors and cashiers much more than it needs more PHD degrees.

No one is suggesting a PhD.

Right now, news about corporate recruiters having a hard time finding qualified (educated) candidates for entry-level corporate jobs in tech startups, media, advertising, etc. is not difficult to find. It's a growing problem across corporate America -- a lack of candidates.

If the people doing them can't earn enough to live, education is not going to change that.

I'm going to be unfashionably harsh here: if you're unable to attain employment beyond minimum wage jobs, then you should not be starting a family.