So, honest question that comes of my own ignorance. Is a minimum wage supposed to be livable? I always figured minimum wage jobs were for people like teens who didn’t need to afford housing.
Yea so that’s the argument that people who don’t agree with making a liveable wage give. In reality there is just a great group of people who are only eligible for minimum wage or close to minimum wage jobs. So a fair bit of adults that are even trying to support their children.
So I think we can all agree that especially if 2 parents are working 40 hours a week should be able to at least live a decent life in a Western country. And that’s mainly in to question here. For teens you could always have a lower minimum wage until they’re older. As they have in plenty countries.
Does this address your question properly?
I always figured minimum wage jobs were for people like teens who didn’t need to afford housing.
Nothing in min wage law adjusts your wages based on whether or not you’re someone else’s dependent.
Alright, fuck Republicans, I’m onboard with that.
Living wage, I’m onboard with that too.
Fuck landlords as well, I’m waay onboard with that.
How about we raise minimum wage, but also regulate the hell out of several sectors so that the wealthy don’t just consume whatever we raise it to with obscene inflation, otherwise what’s the point?
There is a mentality from Boomers and passed along to Gen X that full-time work does not entitle you to anything. That there are just millions of jobs in America that shouldn’t be required to pay people enough to live in the community they work, or anywhere for that matter. As long as that mentality aligns with the goals of capitalism, nothing will change.
You will hear all the excuses in the world justifying low-paying jobs. “Just get a better job if you don’t like the pay” “Those jobs are only for high school kids” “If they raise the pay they will raise the prices” The list goes on. None of them make a ton of sense if you explore the idea any further.
The idea of working hard and being, eventually, rewarded with good pay has been dead for decades. It is widely accepted that the easiest way to increase your pay is moving to a different company, which speaks a lot about longevity in this late-stage capitalism era most of us are living in today.
I agree that people sbould be able to live comfortably with their job, even a low skill one. But the idea that raising wages will mean increase prices does check out though. That, or people with higher skill jobs will be paid less and then they will be the ones to suffer the most.
Imo, we should aim to make things more efficient, thus cheaper because they actually became cheaper. E.g. solving the housing crisis => cheaper rent. Public healthcare => cheaper healthcare. Better schools => better citizens that leave less trash around => less expensive trash management. More public transport, less need to buy or do maintenance to a car etc. And so on and so forth.
Minimum wages can’t fix this problem (they can fix others), they’re just a bandaid on a severed limb.
This is how brainwashed capitalism has made us. In a society that is purely driven by money the thought that giving people their fair share means my prices might increase. Instead, we should fix every societal problem first before doing the one thing that would actually work.
We have record inflation now, is it because major cities have passed $15+ minimum wage? Not at all, not even a little. Further proof that a pandemic has a thousand times more influence than simply paying people more.
Oh and the horrible thought a “high” skilled laborer might be paid less shudder. Like a doctor might only get paid $90k instead of $150k. How could they survive!?
What other convenient tropes should we trot out to disfranchise the only real solution of just paying people what they deserve. Oh that’s right they don’t deserve it because they are lazy or low-skilled or any of the other bullshit excuses we have been force fed our entire lives.
Eh I think you missed my point entirely. And, by the way, being a doctor is simply put very hard, that’s why they’re paid more than people who flip burgers who just flip burgers, and doctors are also rarer and I believe you want to have a good doctor don’t you? Because he’s simply going to get up and leave to another place where he is paid properly if you don’t pay him a good wage. Also, you don’t make any actual good points in your long answer.
Pleaso go study economics. Thank you.
I didn’t miss your point because it was sophomoric in nature and therefore underdeveloped. Your belief in the meritocracy just shows how ridiculously brainwashed you are. It is okay, most of us are one way or another I suppose.
Society might not be meritocratic, but at the end of the day life is… You’re just bitter you don’t deserve better.
You are really reaching there Mr. I buy the rhetoric hook line and sinker. It is clear who is bitter here and it is not the accomplished father of four who owns a million dollar house. Good talking with you.
It is not what you own that makes you an accomplished person
Lot of dems voted against it too
Hello from California! Democrat majority everywhere but it’s “still too hard” to do it. Things that make you go hmmmm
Yep. Time to drop the uniparty. Vote TRUMP 2024!
The fuck you doing on Lemmy, you little removed?
Republicans can’t be on Lemmy? I know it’s mostly Dems on here, but diversity and differing views is a good sign for the platform
You sure can, but don’t start crying when you’re constantly being shitted on for supporting the orange piece of shit. Either way, they offer nothing of value to any conversation other than stupidity, hateful rhetoric, and Donnie. So they can fuck right off.
I don’t want those assholes here.
