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Actually the last hot water heater that went bad on me I spent about $400 for a instant hot water tank, I got about $150 back from the tax credit, and I installed it myself for free. Total out of pocket $250, 1/4th of what you suggested one would pay.
Call me in 5 years when the tank rusts out! A PRO could have told you that!
No, it wouldn't save the government (tax payers) more money, it would put more people out of work. More employer's would simply get by with few workers, and lay off a few of the one's they have employed now that are not really needed. It is easy to forget there are people who are not worth $10 an hour and employers won't continue to pay someone who is not worth it. People in the United States somehow thing they are worth a high wage, yet so many are not willing to work for their money. Too many people want a job and a pay check, without the work connected with it.
We'll remember all of that when your Honda Accord needs a timing BELT at 75 clicks. You'll get charged 600 bucks while the poor b*stard doing it is eating a cold Big Mac with dirty finger nails for lunch.
Do you guys have any idea how much it costs to live in San Francisco? I lived there for 4 years making nearly triple of the minimum wage - living in a reasonably-priced house in an iffy neighborhood with 2 roommates, and fairly low monthly expenses. And I was barely scraping by every month! The recent increase is a move in the right direction, but $10/hr is still basically poverty around here.
In the case of high cost areas like the Bay Area, a better solution would be to actually build more housing! Increase supply and it puts a lid on rents. Limited housing supply is what drives the high cost of living on the coasts. Granted, there is limited land available in the Bay Area, but much of the land that is still available must go through ridiculously stringent environmental laws put in place and defended by elitist NIMBYs.
If you increase the minimum wage, but don't increase the housing supply, you have more money chasing the same number of housing units = higher rents. This applies to other goods & services as well.
I understand that small businesses can't afford to pay that much, but any huge corporation as successful as Walmart can afford to pay all of their employees at least $10/hour.
WalMart's profit margin is typically quite low, in the 3% to 4% range, which is typical for just about all retail outlets. Their profit numbers may be big, but they have to sell an awful lot of stuff to make those profits. I have no love of WalMart, but your statement is really ignorant.
True, thanks to logistics, the world is an employers available workforce. You no longer hold them hostage, and for that reason, unskilled labor is now paid like unskilled labor. The gap b/w lower skilled manufacturing and McD's was too large, for too long, and made the workforce soft in the process..
This is true.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobtn
Now both employer and employee are free to choose their best deal..anywhere.
But this is not. Sure, employers are free to pick up and move their operations elsewhere, but since when can most employees (especially at the low/mid end) pick up and move to other countries???? Practically never.
Last edited by mysticaltyger; 01-24-2012 at 01:17 AM..
Give us a break. You guys don't want to lift people up. You want to beat them down. Your theory is that if you make people suffer, you'll force them to make more money - somehow. It's not realistic.
No, it's more like conservatives understand that most of the time, we are our own worst enemies. Liberals tend to think it's "out there" with "the other guy".
I still maintain our biggest problem is the 40% out of wedlock birth rate. Kids born into one parent families are at a disadvantage in education, emotionally, financially, and a whole lot of other ways. It's the elephant in the room liberals don't want to talk about (although a few do--see link below):
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