Living Wages and Humanity in America

[rbrnmw]

Last edited Sun Feb 16, 2014, 10:36 PM - Edit history (2)

Jobs need to be created. Minimum wage at least $10.10 an hour Snap and SS need restored to a humane level.GOTV! Nobody should be homeless or hungry in The United States of America it is inhumane we need to tell it like it is as often as possible. This is a humanitarian problem in a supposed Civilized Country. We need to fight them now on these issues.

[JJChambers]

1. Hmmm

I think income inequality needs to be (drastically) reduced and that the wage gap between CEOs and bottom end workers needs to be greatly reduced. But income inequality isn't inherently bad. Someone who works extra hard and sacrifices should earn more than someone who doesn't work as hard and doesn't sacrifice. The gap between the highest earners and the lowest needs to nbe smaller, though.

And what of the people who simply choose not to work?

[rbrnmw]

2. Please nobody chooses not to work

Nobody wants to see their children go hungry. Please don't make out like people in America are takers it's a rwnj talking point. Some work slower because they may have a disability but they try as hard as they can to work anyway they shouldn't be paid less.

[greytdemocrat]

4. No offense...

But your thinking on this is dreamworld.

[YarnAddict]

6. Your assumption is wrong

There are plenty of people who choose not to work.

[Adrahil]

7. Are you really arguing that everybody should be paid the same?

I mean... I would have totally not been the stick-in-the-mud engineering student always not going to parties 'cause I had to study and I would happily let someone else deal with the stress of managing a project as we approach a deadline.

I like what I do, but if I got paid the same doing this job or working a the local living history museum, I'd drop this and work at the museum in a heartbeat.

[rbrnmw]

8. no that isn't what I mean

I will change op title

[Adrahil]

12. Cool, I totally support a living wage... :) NT

[rbrnmw]

3. Hmmm 87 posts??

[JJChambers]

5. Yes?

Did you start with 1000 or something? Jeez

[rbrnmw]

9. no but when someone claims

that there are people who want to be on the dole with a low post count I wonder what they are really trying to say. I heard that so much in 2012 from right-wing nutjobs it upsets me. i'm sorry if I read your post wrong

[JJChambers]

11. No problem

I'm just saying America has hundreds of millions of people. There will be a percentage if people who work exceptionally hard and sacrifice very much for their careers -- there will be a relatively large percentage who are middle of the road and have a balanced approach to work and life, in that they do their jobs to the best of their abilities but they don't dedicate themselves to their career. To them, their job is just that - a job. Further, there will be a percentage who don't work particularly hard and just try to skate by. I think this will be a small percentage, but we are a big country. And finally there will be a (very) small percentage who choose not to work at all.

I don't mean to be offensive with this post. I just don't think that everyone should be paid the same. I DO think that the income gap is criminal and that the bottom earners' income should be closer to the top earners'.

We should start with legislating a living wage. Then we should implement pay ceilings by taxing the ultra-rich to extreme levels. Say, once someone makes 2 million bucks in a year, their tax rate goes to 95%.

But that leaves a lot of room for the bottom, the people making a living wage, to move up -- and it allows the people who strive for their careers to earn enough to acquire wealth.

[rbrnmw]

13. that makes sense

but we will never be able to get a 95% tax rate in this country jmo.

[AZCat]

21. The highest I'm aware of was 94% in the 1940's. n/t

[theHandpuppet]

15. Do you really think people are paid according to how hard they work?

There are baseball players who get paid more for one appearance at the plate than some teachers make in a year. There are witless, talentless celebrities who rake in millions for doing nothing much at all while some single Mom is working her ass off at three jobs and raising kids. There are televangelists who live like present-day royalty while my garbage men, who work harder and under the worst conditions, barely make enough to keep a roof over their families' heads.

What a person is paid does not necessarily reflect how hard they work or what their work is worth. I find that kind of thinking appalling and I'm hoping I just misinterpreted your post.

[JJChambers]

16. In general, yes

I think at when looking at our economy as a whole, there is some correlation between how hard a person works and how much they earn. There are absolutely statistical outliers such as baseball players and reality TV stars.

[theHandpuppet]

17. Wow...

I barely know where to begin.

So... the 1% are the truly deserving and the poor are poor because of some failing on their part, i.e., they're either lazy or lack ambition, or are flawed in character.

I'm going to leave it at that because if I continue responding to you I would probably say a lot of things I would not regret but would probably get me banned.

[JJChambers]

19. Noo

There will always be a top 1% and a bottom 1%. I don't think that the top 1% should control anywhere near the wealth they do now. It's obscene. I don't think the bottom 1% should be as poor as they are now. I think that the extremes should be drastically minimized.

As I've said in this thread already, I support a living wage and a tax rate of 95% on the ultra rich.

But I do believe in the principal that those who work the hardest should earn the most.

[theHandpuppet]

22. That's not what you said, nor what you implied

You said that there was a correlation between how hard a person works and how much they earn, i.e., the rich are rich because they are simply more deserving. Bullshit. You also implied that people who are poor simply choose not to work or do work of little value. More bullshit. You can candy-coat those turds of wisdom but they still stink.

Go practice on someone else. I'm not playing this game.

[JJChambers]

23. Wrong

I said there was some correlation between hard work and income. There is some correlation. And there should be more than there is. A person who works hard SHOULD make more than a person who doesn't -- this includes rich people who are also lazy good for nothing's who inherit their wealth. We need to tax that right out of them.

I didn't say that income is directly proportional to, and only influenced by, the level someone applies themselves at their career. I never said rich people earn all their money or work harder than everyone else nor did I imply that poor people are lazy.

Go put your soap box in another thread.

[Armstead]

25. Nooooo, Would you rather clean toikets or schmooze and nake deals over cocktails?

you really ought to get off this focus on the undeserving poor.

Yes it is not cut and dried. But there is not an automatic correlation between how hard people work qnd what they get paid.

I LOOK OUT MY WINDOW EARLY MORNING IN MIDDLE OF WINTER AND SEE THESE GUYS RUNNING NEXT TO A GARBAGE TRUCK in the cold and snow, picking up and tossing heavy garbage bags into the truck....

Dont tell me that sine asshole in a plushy office making financial deals (that often screw their fellow citizens) deserves to be making 100 times the salary if them, according to how "hard" they work.

[Armstead]

24. It needs to ge muuuuuuuuch smaller

It is absolutely inexcusable rgat the siblings who inherited Wal Mart have net worth over $100BILLION whike so many of the peopke who work forvthem can barely scrape by.

[woo me with science]

10. And our President is fighting to fast-track the TPP and put SS cuts in the budget.

Yeah, this administration takes inequality seriously.

Thank you for including the word "humanity" in your subject line. What the corporatists who have purchased our government are doing to Americans is the very definition of inhumane.

[taught_me_patience]

14. What level is acceptable to you?

There will always be some level of inequality.

[theHandpuppet]

18. What level of inequality would you find acceptable?

I think that's a legitimate question.