Fight For 15

[GH2001]

It's not how much you make, it's the purchasing power of that amount. 

And it really is that simple. 

My first job I got paid $3.35 an hour.  Seems like slave wages! How did I survive? 

Stamp cost .18 cents.
Gas cost $1.20 a gallon
New cars cost $6-10k
A nice house might set you back $50k
Movie tickets were $3
Could get a pair of Levis for $15 (Wranglers/Lees for much less)
Pair of Nikes were $20 (and couldn't afford them)

If I could scrape together $20 I could take my girlfriend to dinner and a movie and have some pocket change left over. 

I thought then that if I could ever get to where I made 20-30k a year I'd be set for life.  Rich, I tell ya. 

It's all relative -- something these idiots just can't understand.

I don't expect a fry cook or grocery bagger to understand the basic laws of macro economics. I know I didn't when I made 4.25 an hour in 1994. I just played along and was happy I had some cash. Of course after high school or college I wasn't too much worried about it because I knew I wouldn't be making that anymore. I knew the days of making 180 bucks a week and bagging groceries was only temporary and everyone had to pay their dues in this type of job.

[Townhallsavoy]

Kaos - I get your point, but one of the arguments by those in favor of raising the minimum wage is that inflation has risen faster than the minimum wage.  So while yes, you could survive back then making $3.35/hour, people nowadays are struggling because $7/hour and even $10/hour are failing to keep up with $4/gallon gas, $4/gallon milk, $15k+ for a reliable car, $10.50 movie tickets etc. 

The problem I have with all of this is that inflation has been caused by the government and the government has not acknowledged their responsibility for it and instead is trying to do things that make it seem like it's the citizens' fault, which only the government can fix. 

[Kaos]

Kaos - I get your point, but one of the arguments by those in favor of raising the minimum wage is that inflation has risen faster than the minimum wage.  So while yes, you could survive back then making $3.35/hour, people nowadays are struggling because $7/hour and even $10/hour are failing to keep up with $4/gallon gas, $4/gallon milk, $15k+ for a reliable car, $10.50 movie tickets etc. 

The problem I have with all of this is that inflation has been caused by the government and the government has not acknowledged their responsibility for it and instead is trying to do things that make it seem like it's the citizens' fault, which only the government can fix.

Disagree.  That $3.35 I made (minimum wage was 3.15) is roughly equivalent to $6.50 now.   

I didn't STAY at that rate either.  I didn't consider it the acceptable standard for raising a family. 

If they want to adjust it a little, sure. 

But you go blasting it up to $15 and the whole thing collapses.

[RWS]

But you go blasting it up to $15 and the whole thing collapses.

Exactly what I was thinking.

If you bump minimum wage to $15/hr, this country will fall apart with a quickness.  Gas would probably be $7/gallon.  A gallon of milk $8.  The price of literally everything you buy will go up exponentially.  That's what these fuckers don't get.  The reason that they don't get it is because they live in their own little world where only they are what matters.  As long as they're getting theirs, then they don't care.  But they fail to realize that if they are getting theirs, then so is everybody else.  It would be a cataclysmic implosion of our economy.  It wouldn't fix anything.  You're just making a lot more problems.   

[AUownsU]

Exactly what I was thinking.

If you bump minimum wage to $15/hr, this country will fall apart with a quickness.  Gas would probably be $7/gallon.  A gallon of milk $8.  The price of literally everything you buy will go up exponentially.  That's what these fuckers don't get.  The reason that they don't get it is because they live in their own little world where only they are what matters.  As long as they're getting theirs, then they don't care.  But they fail to realize that if they are getting theirs, then so is everybody else.  It would be a cataclysmic implosion of our economy.  It wouldn't fix anything.  You're just making a lot more problems.   

Not saying I agree with these dipshits but I'm gonna need someone to explain to me how minimum wage rising will affect oil companies so severly that gas prices will double? Pretty sure noone working on a rig, driving a truck, or working in a refinery is making minimum wage.

[Kaos]

Not saying I agree with these dipshoots but I'm gonna need someone to explain to me how minimum wage rising will affect oil companies so severly that gas prices will double? Pretty sure noone working on a rig, driving a truck, or working in a refinery is making minimum wage.

Cost of goods and services they rely on will go up. 

It's a simple concept.

[GH2001]

Not saying I agree with these dipshits but I'm gonna need someone to explain to me how minimum wage rising will affect oil companies so severly that gas prices will double? Pretty sure noone working on a rig, driving a truck, or working in a refinery is making minimum wage.

Last time I checked those guys don't sell the gas at spectrum. But the cashier that works there, the stocker and possibly others in the supply chain I would imagine make minimum or close to it.

[GH2001]

Disagree.  That $3.35 I made (minimum wage was 3.15) is roughly equivalent to $6.50 now.   

I didn't STAY at that rate either.  I didn't consider it the acceptable standard for raising a family. 

If they want to adjust it a little, sure. 

But you go blasting it up to $15 and the whole thing collapses.

Bolded. Dead on.

[Kaos]

Amazingly, this completely sane and rational explanation comes from Cracked.com

Now surely this can't be argued: The world governments and economies are full of exploitative, corrupt practices that somebody could stop if they just had the balls.

For instance, you may have heard that there was recently a nationwide strike by fast food workers demanding a doubling of the minimum wage. That's a perfect example -- if the minimum wage is leaving people impoverished, why not just raise it? Because politicians won't stand up to the evil corporations, that's why! It's the same reason they won't just ban the big-money special interests and lobbyists that are corrupting democracy. In a perfect world, if oil prices are too high, the government would stand up to the greedy oil executives and force them down! The fact that they could do it and choose not to is a perfect reason to get enraged, damn it!

And I agree -- nothing curls my fist tighter than finding out that somebody is screwing the rest of us by gaming the system. Like the recent news that hospitals conspire to mark up dirt-cheap aspirin by 1,000 percent, or that banks secretly jack up the prices of commodities like aluminum. Can't somebody just put a stop to this kind of price fixing? If there is plenty of something, it's immoral to jack up the price. It's like the evil tycoon in Total Recall forcing people to pay for oxygen. Shove that asshole out onto the surface of Mars and make his eyes explode!

But, well, here's the thing ...

Unskilled workers are also plentiful. If your only skills are in customer service jobs that anyone can do with one day's training, then you, as a worker, are as plentiful as oxygen. Because this resource (unskilled, mildly motivated workers) is plentiful, the people who pay for it (employers) expect it to be cheap (low wages).

Of course, if your resource is more rare (say, if you are a top-notch software developer), then they expect it to be more expensive and will pay accordingly. So the only way for people with unremarkable "plentiful as oxygen" skills to get paid significant money is, you guessed it, by engaging in the same price fixing you just hated the greedy bastards for -- either by having the government intervene and artificially set the price higher (i.e., a minimum wage) or by the sellers of the resource grouping together to set the price higher against the buyer's will (labor unions). And that practice suddenly becomes OK when it's done to our benefit.

And no, please don't bombard me with links advocating a higher minimum wage or tell me I've lost touch with the working man due to my hundreds of dollars of fart monster money. I totally want a higher minimum wage. A certain amount of price fixing is a good thing, whether you're talking about the price of labor or aluminum, and capitalism only works when everybody is strongly advocating for their own benefit.

My point is that you can apply this to anything. Want to ban the big-money special interests and lobbyists from government? Fine, just know that environmental and gay rights groups are among those lobbyists who'll be banned. If we prevent the evil oil millionaires from buying political ads to advance their agenda (i.e., getting "big money" out of elections), we also have to prevent the weed legalization groups from buying theirs. Wait, you didn't mean the practice should just be banned for people who disagree with you, right?

So once again, what looks like inexcusable corruption in the system turns out to be the side effect of other people having access to the same awesome stuff you do, only they're using it to advance an agenda you don't like. Trayvon Martin's killer walked because the standard for convicting someone is intentionally set high -- something you will be thankful for if you're ever accused of a crime.

[AUChizad]

Amazingly, this completely sane and rational explanation comes from Cracked.com

Nice. From David Wong. Author of John Dies at the End.

Link to the whole thing, which is one of the best blog posts I've read in a while.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-reasons-news-looks-worse-than-it-really-is_p2/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CrackedRSS+%28Cracked%3A+All+Posts%29

[RWS]

Last time I checked those guys don't sell the gas at spectrum. But the cashier that works there, the stocker and possibly others in the supply chain I would imagine make minimum or close to it.

It doesn't even matter if they're making $10/hr.  The new minimum would be $15.  So everybody would have to make at least that.  And you're right, everybody in that supply chain isn't making $15/hr presently.  Not only would the cost of nearly everything go up, alot of people are going to lose their jobs as well. 

Some may think that it is hyperbole to say that the country would collapse upon itself if $15 were the new minimum wage, but I really think that it would.