Comments on: What is a Living Wage and Does it Exist in the US?

By: Dawn Spiering

Dawn Spiering — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:38:59 +0000

Hmmm rich politicians hammering and stammering about our constitutional rights? Sounds just about right. And yet we vote in these representatives to govern over us. Many of those who represent us in goverment come from fairly rich backgrounds, lawyers, doctors, business owners. How did they get to the uppercrust? On the backs of hard working Americans. When a person choses a person to represent them in government shouldn’t they chose a person with the same values and background as themselves? We continue to behave like sheep and all we are going to have to lead us is wolfs. Isnt a undereducated and poor population easier to control than one that can actually defend itself and understand the implications of the rights of the constitution? When was the last time a hard working man or woman discussed John Lockes’ Right To Pursue Happiness?

By: yep i'm gonna crash

yep i'm gonna crash — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 05:24:26 +0000

Your opinion just indicates your age.

Fact is, people work more hours, work harder, and are more highly leveraged than any group of people in history. This includes minimum wage earners.

It is possible to conclude that you have a dim view of people doing these minimum wage jobs, because you expect the world while paying peanuts.

I’ll bet you even shop at walmart, and think you got a good deal because didn’t spend a lot.

Get a clue

By: fremmasmind

fremmasmind — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:29:32 +0000

I don’t know how many of you have seen Aaron Russos’ documentary, “Freedom to Fascism”. Google it and watch. In this documentary he spent the whole time asking politicians, economists, etc., where in the constitution is there a law that states American citizens have to pay federal income taxes? Well you know how Politicians ramble on and say nothing, same with all the other intelligent individuals he asked the same question and got no real answers. He finally found out that if a person has a business and makes a profit on selling merchandise or services, he is to be taxed on that profit.
If an individual has a job making a living wage, i.e.,a job that pays salary or an hourly rate he does not have to pay federal taxes on that wage. Check out the documentary. This, I believe was Aarons’ last work before he died. R.I.P.

By: DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad

DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad — Fri, 22 May 2009 23:27:50 +0000

@Joanna

You have hit on an under current here. I have often said that college is the new high school and grad school is the new college.

I will not stop any child of mine from pursuing a trade. They will not rack up debt, usually have steady work, be their own boss, and will more than likely be able to retire early– I know contractors who in a position to retire in their late forties . . .

By: Joanna

Joanna — Fri, 22 May 2009 22:45:40 +0000

Big business saw an opportunity to brainwash middle-class Americans into believing that their little Johnnies and Janes had to go to college (circa 1970) even though they couldn’t locate Europe on the map, that allowed the creation of many mediocre higher learning institutions to appear with more relaxed or less stringent admission requirements. In other harsher words, they made it possible for any idiot to go to college and actually get a degree in something. These so called colleges/universities made lots of money for courses that were not much more advanced than high school.
Instead of sticking to the more logical approach that demanded students have superior academic grades to enter a higher learning facility, they convinced parents and kids to forego the more technical fields of mechanics, HVAC, electrical or other such area (where a very good living could be made) and instead enter a college as a less than mediocre candidate to graduate with nothing of substance besides the high fiber content on the diploma. or they would better be served in a technical, artistic, or trades field.
Fast forward to the present: all the less than average students have obtained some type of college diploma yet they are minimally prepared to enter the business world and employers, recognizing these shortcomings don’t pay them more than the minimum wage.
These happenings beg the question: was this just a plan to minimally educate the masses (calling in a higher educational degree) when in essence it was nothing of the sort that placed many employees out in the world unable to work for a living wage thus benefiting the corporations that became transnationals with a super-need for cheap labor?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:45:25 +0000

stevestao: yeah, I was kidding when I wrote the entire article and I haven’t been shopping in the last 10 years. I don’t work hard either and don’t know anyone who does. I haven’t seen any monkeys while shopping, but again, I haven’t been shopping in the last 10 years.

By: stevestao

stevestao — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:34:46 +0000

You have to be kidding: “I can’t believe that people don’t work as hard today as they did just a few decades ago”.

Have you been shopping in the last 10 years? The majority of “minimum wage” workers don’t work, and act like you are bothering them by being there. Customer service is basically non-existent. In retail industries, one is more likely to find a monkey pushing buttons behind a register than a knowledgeable person that could answer questions. Isn’t customer interaction part of the job? So, no, people don’t work as hard as they did just even a decade ago. Ask your parents about that.

By: Sean from Chicago

Sean from Chicago — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:45:19 +0000

Someone above said that the poor used to be richer. Yes that was true. It was true for a lot of reasons but the thing I saw was in the late 70’s and early 80’s was the rich got even. See it’s kinda simple. If you’ve got money and your considered “rich” and you’ve got kids you don’t want them around people that aren’t also “rich” so you get even.

My family was able to hang out in the Golf Clubs if we wanted to… we could hang around these kids of the “richies” and their parents were pissed. What the heck was the son of a City worker doing with my daughter was what was going on in their heads. What the heck is he doing at that University? Why can his parents afford to vist Europe? Why are they around us?

Oh they were pissed. Guess what? they got even. they raised their incomes so high that we couldn’t fathom. heck they made doctor’s become middle class. Just go to your posh golf clubs today and see who’s who.

They knew it all went to hell when blue collar kids were ending up with their kids so they fixed the whole system. A College degree isn’t special anymore. A masters isn’t. An MBA isn’t really that special. A law degreee maybe? No there’s no secret passes to the get with the richies anymore. They fixed that loophole.

America needs to go back to understanding they are not going to be rich. They need to stop chaseing the rich because it’s like going to Vegas.. the House has the advantage. America needs to live within it’s means. Follow it’s imigrant past and work hard, save hard, and know your place.