randomthingsonthenet
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Sep 30, 2021 5:40 PM
randomthingsonthenet
154169
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65
xETM
Good point... here's a cookie
GlitteringMisanthrope
Years ago a friend stopped by after work and was excited to tell me he received a raise that day. New York's min. wage increased that day.
CaptainThePirate
On the other side of this, I know people who make 70k a year and are poor AF cause they doordash literally 30 bucks away every day.
GAngeldb
After getting paid once i felt good, had a chunk of change. Till i saw hats $20. I thought damn. Inam worth six hats…
tantallous
here's the secret.. they aren't missing the point. they are deliberately avoiding the point, and trying to direct people's energy elsewhere.
jennym123
It's easy to survive on nothing but lentils and rice, that problem is that shouldn't be the only viable option for most people.
itsthevoiceman
The two things that got me out of abject poverty (I'm still poor, tho): a job that paid for my meals and rent, and UI that paid $300+/week.
itsthevoiceman
These happened 6 years apart with 2 different life changing circumstances. 1 ended my homelessness. 2 was Covid which ended my shit wage job
itsthevoiceman
And no, that first job didn't last, it was seasonal, 2 different years, watch was about $10k saved. With UI payments, I've saved almost $20k
HawkmanXLII
What about bootstraps? Seem to recall something about how they can help.
GlitteringMisanthrope
Can't afford them.
garyoldmansdiary
garyoldmansdiary
AtmaDarkwolf
Pfft even buying smart, off brand, close to expired, reduced cost, blah blah shit, your still spending tons more than u did even 5 years ago
samanthadlcruz
Imagine making banana pudding without the vanilla wafers!
happyguide
Wealth inequality, shown to scale: https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/
OgreMkV
That must be pre-2020. I think the divorce cost him twice the value shown here.
grimCoordinator
Except covid vaccination is mentioned so def not pre 2020
happyguide
A quick google search for “Jeff Bezos net worth” shows that it is $193.1B today.
OgreMkV
Yeah, he'd be about $300 billion if he hadn't gotten divorced.
paulio101
Minimum wage needs to be a SLIDING SCALE written into law based on cost of living, so this problem never happens again. Let's do it.
thisusernameisavailable
I used to do this when I was on an hourly wage. Equating items to hours spent really discourages impulse buys or treating yourself
thisusernameisavailable
Which isn’t always a good thing because damnit you work hard, treat yo’self
shinagami091
I remember having to have a calculator and adding up every item I put into my shopping cart to make sure I didn’t go over budget. I >
shinagami091
empathize with people who can’t just go into a grocery store and buy whatever they feel like having because I was there. Nobody should>
shinagami091
have to decide between spaghetti again for the 3rd time this week or something more nutritious.
INeverCheckTheUserNames
This is actually how I make decisions about buying things. I convert the prizes in working hours and consider whether I would work for it.
mdymv4gxsx365
OgreMkV
Before 1995, you could get change back from a $20 for a meal for 4 people at Luby's. You can't even do that at McDonald's any more.
Weregerbil2
You can at Wendys! Just get 13 crispy chicken sandwiches, that's 1135 calories per person, which is plenty for a single meal.
OgreMkV
That's depressing. I can feel my arteries hardening just reading this.
Nuonaton
I'm sick and tired of eating cheap food just to stay afloat. "Work more/work harder" I work 2 jobs, maybe a third coming up.. I can't.
twerksforfish
i also hate when poeple say "well find a better job"
TheFreemen
Imagine making $15 when a single bed room appt is $1000+ a month and goes up like $200+ a year
Nuonaton
I'm sick and tired of eating cheap food just to stay afloat. "Work more/work harder" I work 2 jobs, maybe a third coming up.. I can't.
mike13815
The problem is certainly capitalism, but keep in mind that healthy food IS cheap food. Beans, pasta, rice, vegetables, various broths,
mike13815
chicken, pork, flours, seasonings. All cheap as fuck. Choose them at random and you have a meal. $20 gets you 60 pounds of cooked spaghetti.
mike13815
$20 gets you 28 pounds of corn, 34 pounds of carrots, or up to 70 pounds of beans.
Traja01
“Work more/harder” is just exploitative propaganda. You deserve a living wage for a full week’s work (ie 40 hours).
greyStalkerTheTerror
How about a living wage for 20hrs and 2 people can have a job
CheddarDreams
Do shop at Aldi though, it's so much cheaper than any other grocery store near me
Chickenlicker
not surprising, a lot of their produce is from china where their government's own reports show large swathes of their soil is contaminated.
CheddarDreams
Products from China are labeled as such, so if that's something you worry about it can be avoided
Chickenlicker
China is buying up farmland in other countries and selling produce grown off their own land to export. fuck aldi food.
ThisIsSteel
This is only marginally related, but this reminded me of my first job, where after years of giving no raises, the company gave everyone (1/2
ThisIsSteel
(2/2) a $.01 raise over min wage, and only because the state minimum increased. Yay, Arby's.
microcactus
I had the Meat Mountain there once.
UncleRat
I was so hungry once I almost ate at Arby's.
Velisity
Howard Hughes one said to a rich person, “You don’t care about money because you have it.”
TheGreatAndUndeniableDoosher
I always calculated purchases based off of how many hours I'd have to work to get it. I worked three jobs, still couldn't buy a magazine.
garyoldmansdiary
Forget "store brand" snacks. Working shit jobs, I had to eat rice if I was gonna save any money. Pressure cooker was an investment. Soy /
GlitteringMisanthrope
I can't count the number of times I had to splurge .30¢ on a single Little Debbie oatmeal cookie because I was so damn hungry and hadn't 1/
GlitteringMisanthrope
eaten for 3, or more, days.
Bhargo
There was about a 6 month period where I ate nothing but rice, ramen and spam, with vitamin C tablets because I was worried about scurvy.
Bhargo
although it did feel really fancy when my friend gave me some seaweed and I made my own spam musubi
garyoldmansdiary
sauce went too fast, so I started using olive oil. Meanwhile, people's view of my living conditions would always be "Oh man, you have so /
garyoldmansdiary
few expenses. You must be having the time of your life." Right. Coming home and turning the heat all the way up to 55°F in winter was a /
garyoldmansdiary
blast. It wasn't an interesting experience and it didn't build character. It was shit no one should deal with. Min wage should be $15+.
KRicci
I respect you for also rejecting the "character building" argument. Sometimes shit just sucks and gives nothing in return.
userfriendly19777
I believe Marie Antoinette also had an idea on how to survive poverty. She didn't herself though.
qtRaven
'If the peasants have no food, Let them eat shit.'
morelikeconsham
That was actually anti-monarchist propaganda. All available data indicates that Marie Antoinette was actually pretty compassionate.
libaf
And probably never said the thing either. Fake news is not a new thing. :P
nemo3590
Ackshually Marie Antoinette didn't say that. The quote has been found in records prior to her birth. History has been terrible to her.
KiwiGameDev
^^^
ameranthe
It is often attributed to Madame de Pompadour, the official mistress of King Louis XV. History also treats her poorly.
AxolotlInATopHat
Sigge1981
Her contemporaries in France weren't too kind to her either.
nemo3590
True lol
GlitteringMisanthrope
"Healthy food" costs a fortune compaired to crap food. They aren't as knowledgeable as they believe.
GlitteringMisanthrope
When a parent has the option of buying a very small head of lettuce for $1.99 vs paying .99¢ for a pound of pasta; that isn't a choice.
Hammsammiches
No. It absolutely does not. You just don't know how to cook or you don't know what healthy food is.
GlitteringMisanthrope
A comprehensive review of 27 studies in 10 countries found that unhealthy food is about $1.50 cheaper per day than healthy food.
GlitteringMisanthrope
When you have a budget of $3.00, or less, per day per person this disparity is significant.
GlitteringMisanthrope
https://plutusfoundation.org/2020/healthy-eating-budget/#:~:text=A%20comprehensive%20review%20of%2027,purchase%20cheap%20premade%20frozen%20
Bhargo
It absolutely is. I've cooked for myself my entire adult life and eating healthy has gotten more and more expensive each year.
Hammsammiches
Eating unhealthy is getting more and more expensive too. Doesn't keep you full as long and causes health problems.
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GlitteringMisanthrope
Do you need me to post, again, the link to the comprehensive review that clearly states: 1/
GlitteringMisanthrope
"A comprehensive review of 27 studies in 10 countries found that unhealthy food is about $1.50 cheaper per day than healthy food. If" 2/
GlitteringMisanthrope
No one said it isn't & doesn't do any of those things. Arguing points not in contention will not make you right. You said I was wrong & 1/
GlitteringMisanthrope
2/ That healthy food is not more expensive than unhealthy food. You are wrong. I backed up my statement.
GlitteringMisanthrope
Yes, it does. You obviously have no idea what the cost of food is.
DavidBrooker
There's this weird irony with heart disease. It's a "disease of wealth", in that only wealthy countries can afford the huge amounts of 1/2
DavidBrooker
sugar and fat that lead to it being the leading cause of death. But then, *within* those countries, it mostly hits the poor. 2/2
thedudeman519
People like to say "Then how come poor people are obese? Food isn't a problem in the US" Ignoring that this is just the other end of the
thedudeman519
malnutrition spectrum.
Teratophiliac
Federal minimum needs to be at least 20 an hour
SacrificialClam
What about a base 20, then minimum increases for if you pay a mortgage, have kids, etc.
darksniperknight
As a single childless man living in an apartment... screw that. My quality of work isnt affected by mortgage or kids.
ChainmailleAddict
That sounds like a great way to incentivize employers to not hire parents or people with houses
SacrificialClam
Subsidize it with government funding, and weed out racist, sexist, and bigoted employers
BlindGardener
I think you mean 50
AsAHistorian
I think it should be tied to local rent prices, so that anyone with a full-time job can afford an average apartment in whatever community 1/
mohavewolfpup
Strict rent control. Tying it to rent just gives the parasite class a reason to keep jacking rent up and up leaving nothing for the renter.>
mohavewolfpup
Strip the profit out of it over night and the easy money cash grabbers will die off
AsAHistorian
they work in. People should be able, if they wish, to live in the community they work in. 2/2
KuldFyt
Corporate taxes should be tied to the ratio of executive compensation to minimum employee/contractor pay.
Dionysus187
I've been pushing it should be based on the value of their company stock because they are incentivized to be as high as possible.
Dionysus187
and make sure its based on some sort of average for the tax year, not a weirdly specific window they can game
BlindGardener
Average is something that can be gamed very easily. Make it based on max during the year.
maxwilder
Federal minimum needs to be a % of quarterly profit.
Shaodyn
I remember somebody said something like "$15/hour? Why not $100k/hour?" $15/hour is just as ludicrous to the right as the hyperbolic
Shaodyn
example. It's absurd. To the right, there is absolutely no difference between the two. They're both more than people deserve.
BlindGardener
… i mean 100/hour actually sounds pretty reasonable to me…
Shaodyn
To conservatives, it's more than people deserve. There's no difference between 15/hour and 100,000/hour.
BlindGardener
I guess that they also agree both are too low for CEO pay
Shaodyn
Not as far as they're concerned.
IVILegionIVI
Shit, I run a store with a staff of 30 people, and I can say nobody here, myself included, deserves $20 an hour.
Bhargo
your store must suck ass then, $20 isnt even that much
Froggie243
So people deserve poverty instead of seeing poverty as an affliction that forces workers to give their worst? You are the problem bub.
Ikwilstroopwaffels
Your store fucking sucks.
Traja01
Shit, if that’s the case, you and your store shouldn’t be in business. That’s capitalism baby.
Hammsammiches
20 an hour means a shitload different everywhere in the country.
Traja01
It means $41,600 pre-tax if you work 40 hours every week of the year. So yea it ranges from poor to lower middle class.
Traja01
If your store manager doesn’t “deserve” 41k a year that is a failing business anywhere my dude.
zeppelin93
How exactly is that capitalism? If the business is making money thats capitalism, forcing a company to close due pay isnt.
Traja01
Cause if you can’t make enough money to keep employees your business is a failure and shouldn’t exist because of insufficient demand
Traja01
Lot of companies like Walmart pay their employees poverty wages because the govt covers the rest with welfare. This is a “market distortion”
zeppelin93
That has nothing to do with capitalism though. All that matters is that the company makes money. Employees can get fucked.
Badprenup
You're weirdly proud of your failing business model
Mediocreclient
so just to clarify: you believe that everyone at that business, including yourself, deserve destitution wages and inflation penalties?
ScaleModelersizakaya
What kind of business are you in? And do you really speak for your staff on that? And $20/hr is only $41,000 a year. Which is very low.
Hammsammiches
It's not low everywhere. It's low in most cities.
ScaleModelersizakaya
$41000 is still pretty low. And cities have a far higher gross population. So the concept that it's not low for a business owner as the 1/2
ScaleModelersizakaya
Commenter stated, then something is wrong. And if it's not low for rural areas, then what difference does it make setting it higher?
ScaleModelersizakaya
Also you agree it's low in cities. So if $20/hr is low for a city, how is $10/hr even tolerated? Especially with minimum being under $8?
Hammsammiches
Most states have adjusted their minimum wage and I would bet a lot of cities have as well.
Thicksauceyweiner
Naa it should be a percentage of what a company makes. You did 50 percent of the work, you get 50 percent of the profits after costs.
CraftyGiant
$26 this year to keep up with the economy since FDR
pancakeEwokEscapade
This is about what I calculated 1 human needs to survive on the basics. Not a great QOL but you can survive!
Voidhawk42
Set it to fifty, to pay for the next 50 years in advance.
celestedrake
Or set it to be based on what is livable…and at least for max of the counties’ livable wages by state, if not for entire country. Make so(1
celestedrake
they can’t move borders to impoverish people. (2)
CraftyGiant
COLA adjustments don't even factor in rent currently.
comacomacomacomachameleon
$20/hr is what skilled labor makes in a lot of the country but won't buy a cardboard box in Menlo Park. Needs to be a state and local issue.
mrshinethediamond
Both.
tonedeafsidekick
We need a federal minimum with state and local minimums beyond that where appropriate.
thedudeman519
YEa like born and raised in NYC even my job at 24/hr is not enough
dtallen243
Was just about to say something similar. Where I live in Ohio, am able to own home and support both myself and gf on $16.X/hour
ScaleModelersizakaya
Where in Ohio? And how long have you owned your home? Because in Columbus, that seems unlikely. Unless it was a land grant house.
dtallen243
Bellefontaine. Almost 3 months
ScaleModelersizakaya
Which typically requires $40000 in repairs to make habitable.
NancyReaganSchoolOfGawk
Just because you can live nicely on that, why wouldn’t you value yourself more? You make $11 more than minimum now, so then your 1/2
NancyReaganSchoolOfGawk
Value would be about $32 if minimum wage went up to $20. 2/2
sambaah05
Haha. That's not how it works. I work for a retailer with stores in multiple states. When min wage increases, they don't increase everyone
Dionysus187
because skilled labor is also getting paid shit. The only reason it varies is BECAUSE the min wage wasn't raised properly
Dionysus187
Its literally saying we shouldn't raise what the poorest get too much because we already exploited them for so long.
Dionysus187
like some sort of weird "sunk abuse" fallacy. "Well we already exploited them for decades, we can't just instantly remedy that"
ScaleModelersizakaya
What you are not understanding is skilled labor is underpaid too. $20/hr more than likely is far lower than it should.
comacomacomacomachameleon
The same labor in India costs less than in Ohio. Labor cost is local - supply/demand,cost of living are different. The US is no different.
comacomacomacomachameleon
I guess a better example would be Poland and Germany.
ScaleModelersizakaya
Germany has fairly robust social programs and so does Poland. And their base wages are much higher than the US. Labor is relative. Sure 1/2