231–240 of 252 posts
The working class has received a continuously worse deal over time since about 1971 apparently: https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/
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My local school district employs 14-year olds to vacuum the floor after school each day. You really think that has no value for anyone involved? I know one of the kids and they are sad that they will lose that job if Biden’s minimum wage is passed.
They are being manipulated or are hired because they are cheaper than the staff custodians, who probably have fewer hours because of the school's practice of child labor. Even after a minimum wage increase, the school will still have to vacuum the floor. I'm guessing it'll just have the other staff do this now, who aren't children.
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Wait, parents shouldn’t subsidize their kids?! As soon as my kid can get a part-time job as a teenager I should totally cut them off? That does sound tempting...
The ones being subsidized are the kids' employers, not the kids.
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The US is primarily a materialist individualistic society where good is defined by commercial mimesis and folklore of the particular outweigh that of the common. Expressing concern for “income inequality” signals a virtuous desire for all to attain a nirvana of stuff attained through the magic of money.
That is hardly the case. Expressing concern for income inequality means expressing concern for people to have autonomy, proper food and shelter, proper healthcare, savings, and retirement capability. It is not virtue signaling, as you put it.
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This comment wouldn't read much different if you had included the phrase "white genocide" somewhere. I recommend you consider from where these prejudices are sourced.
I don’t know what white genocide is, much less how it relates to anything I wrote. What you think you read probably isn’t what I thought I wrote. I was dryly lamenting the options available to progressives who are uncomfortable with the theory and praxis of the kiddies these days. My prejudices, if you insist on playing that card, come from listening carefully to exactly the people who demand I shut up and listen. I…
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I don’t know what white genocide is, much less how it relates to anything I wrote. What you think you read probably isn’t what I thought I wrote. I was dryly lamenting the options available to progressives who are uncomfortable with the theory and praxis of the kiddies these days. My prejudices, if you insist on playing that card, come from listening carefully to exactly the people who demand I shut up and listen. I…
You've limited your experience to the loudest and most crass factions of the side you disparage as a whole. This is a form of straw man argument.
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I think that definition is susceptible to defining the "necessities for living" in ways that underestimate poverty. How do you define what's the standard of living? As of 2021 I'd imagine that several necessities for interacting with society such as internet access and potentially even mobile access would not be universally viewed as required to be above the poverty line. Similarly while home ownership is probably no…
Wait, is mobile data access a basic right now? I am living very comfortably but never got a mobile data plan. I find them too expensive for what they are. YMMV.
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If someone falls below the point where they can afford the requirements for typical jobs, then they may enter into a spiral where there is no path out of poverty.
There was a great moment of irony in my early career where lacking a job post-college ('08 reccession) I was unable to pay my student loans. 6 months after graduating I received an offer from Sallie Mae to work as an engineer, however due to corporate policy a sallie mae will not employ anyone who is arrears on their student debt.
At this point, owing approximately $2000 and only had $250 to my name which was required for rent, food, and the 18 year old ford escort that I needed to drive to work.
I was able to arrange the money, but ultimately I was within a day of being put out of work for lack of ability to pay a debt. Had this occurred I likely would not have been able to work in software, and in all likelihood the bank may never have gotten their money back on the student loans.
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Offhand, just from my own crummy bio memory of prices of things... I'd estimate about a 50% increase in food prices in about the last decade. I'd also estimate that the asking price of a house was completely out of whack even post the recession in 2008; it _never_ corrected in any of the west coast areas I live in. Still even that price has continued to go up due to inelastic supply and ever growing demand.
The government CPI statistics show 18.7% price increase between 2010 and 2020. It's certainly possible that your expenses went up 50% in your presumably super-affluent area of the U.S. It wouldn't surprise me if booming tech companies in certain regions have caused this- but it is not the effect of monetary policy or government minimum wage policy- and my expenses have not gone up much in the last 10 years in my weal…
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"talks for a massive federal minimum wage increase means further sending people into poverty by destroying the value of what small savings anyone on the bottom might have." This statement is only true, and then only formally, if you limit yourself to considering first order effects. The distributive effects of minimum wage policies will alter final consumer demand, which will have an impact on capital structure and d…
Actual Econ 101 would be understanding how setting a price floor on peoples' ability to sell their labor (aka a "minimum wage") is destructive and immoral.
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Both those variables (cost of living and income) are far from fixed. Cost of living can be reduced by removing unnecessary expenses or selecting cheaper options while income can be increased by working more or improving oneself. But you need to want to have those savings. Most of the people I know living day to day spend beyond their means (like buying the BMW instead of the reliable Honda) or waste their time watchi…
> waste their time watching tv, drinking with friends or getting high. How much time per week would you find acceptable to spend on these activities? I refuse to believe that number is "0 hours", that would be an inhuman (without an 'e') expectation. Time to decompress is super important, and frankly, it is the very essence of living. It is not at all a waste of time - it's their time anyways, who are you to judge? T…