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Old 01-06-2013, 05:21 PM
 
Location: Beautiful Niagara Falls ON.
10,016 posts, read 12,520,734 times
Reputation: 9030

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Gold would in no way solve any issue at all. When the $$$$ was backed by gold there were more recessions and they were more severe than they are now. The whole gold thing makes me laugh. You go through all the blood sewat ans tears extracting gold form the ground. Refining it, turning it into bars and then returning it to vaults buried in the ground!!!!! It's worse than the freakin squirrels in my backyard burying their nuts in the ground and then forgetting where they are. The nuts do them no good what so ever. If we can base our currency on gold then Canada could just claim 100 kazillion in gold reserves but it's still in the ground. In reality it's worth just as much there as in some vault under Bay street. Thr economic expansion and development we have seen in a post gold standard world would be totally impossible if our currencies were based on gold.

It's the Chinese who are holding up the value of the USD. Since they hold trillions in USD any drop in value costs them big time. Every time the USD drops a little the Chinese buy up USD forcing the value up. Do you know when the Canadian economy really took off? It was when the financial Wizards in Ottawa caused the Canadian dollar to decline to almost .60 USD. Our exports took off. The cost of producing everything declined, imports soared stimulating domestic production and this low, low Looney attracted billions and billions in foreign capital. The high value of the USD does nothing for the US economy and in fact hurts it in many ways.
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Old 01-06-2013, 06:56 PM
 
Location: Wonderland
67,666 posts, read 60,218,081 times
Reputation: 100999
Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyTexan View Post
And that same military has no problem paying $998,000.00 to ship 2 $.19 washers from SC to TX
I'm not saying there's not a huge problem of waste in all our federal budgets - INCLUDING but definitely not limited to our defense budget. But can you please provide a link to this allegation? Thanks.
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Old 01-06-2013, 07:01 PM
 
Location: Wonderland
67,666 posts, read 60,218,081 times
Reputation: 100999
Quote:
Originally Posted by Darkatt View Post
What is REAL travesty, is people making comments like the above.

As prior Military, I can tell you, then when i got out in 1990 as an E-5, (wasn't allowed for 3 years to try for E-6 due to recovering from a permanent disabling injury), I can tell you Military make more than you think.

Add in the health care, provided either free or at low cost to family, free housing, and everything else a military member receives, it's a LOT of money.

When I was discharged in 1990, MM2(SS), we calculated I needed a job paying over 40K a year with health insurance provided to equal my Military pay and benefits.

If a Military family qualifies for WIC or any other program, it's because they are doing something wrong. I supported a family as an E-4 and then an E-5, with relative ease, when I was active duty.

The Average Salary of an E5 Army Sergeant | eHow.com

Note, they only go through basic pay and entitlements.
My entire family is military going back GENERATIONS. I am very familiar with the military pay scale and benefits for both enlisted and officer ranks.

The lower enlisted ranks are not paid well at all. And a family either qualifies under federal guidelines or DOESN'T qualify under federal guidelines for WIC and food stamps - military or otherwise. It has nothing to do with whether they are "doing something wrong" or not.

I was a stay at home mother while my former husband rose in rank from E-1 till we got divorced when he was a 1LT. At the lower ranks, it was a really tough go financially. Once he got above E-5 we could breathe easier, but it was still a tight budget till he earned his commission. I was very grateful for the WIC program.
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Old 01-07-2013, 10:14 AM
 
9,659 posts, read 10,192,548 times
Reputation: 3225
Quote:
Originally Posted by tamajane View Post
Conservatives don't belittle entry level work. That is how many of us got started. Started. You don't attempt to live on those unskilled min wage jobs forever.
Explain to me...

Even if the work is "entry-level", how do you suggest minimum wage is used to live to "start out" and how would such a person gain skills and such?
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Old 01-07-2013, 10:16 AM
 
Location: Great State of Texas
86,052 posts, read 84,125,061 times
Reputation: 27718
Quote:
Originally Posted by KathrynAragon View Post
I'm not saying there's not a huge problem of waste in all our federal budgets - INCLUDING but definitely not limited to our defense budget. But can you please provide a link to this allegation? Thanks.
Pentagon Paid $998,798 to Ship Two 19-Cent Washers (Update3) - Bloomberg
A small South Carolina parts supplier collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to an Army base in Texas, U.S. officials said.
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Old 01-07-2013, 10:23 AM
 
19,372 posts, read 12,020,462 times
Reputation: 26098
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheHurricaneKid View Post
Explain to me...

Even if the work is "entry-level", how do you suggest minimum wage is used to live to "start out" and how would such a person gain skills and such?
You start out as a teenager in high school, working after school and weekends, who doesn't need a full time living wage. Once you get out on your own, which few young adults even try anymore, you have already moved past minimum wage based on your experience and good work record. If you just show up and do the minimum, you won't ever get anywhere.

Why isn't this common knowledge/ common sense?
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Old 01-07-2013, 10:24 AM
 
Location: Great State of Texas
86,052 posts, read 84,125,061 times
Reputation: 27718
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheHurricaneKid View Post
Explain to me...

Even if the work is "entry-level", how do you suggest minimum wage is used to live to "start out" and how would such a person gain skills and such?
Were the rules changed recently that you don't know anything about entry level work ?
Min wage is entry level for the youth to get their foot in the door to the working part of society.
Min wage is fine for them and provides exactly the type of training needed to further their life skills as they move on to college and then a career.

Min wage jobs is WORK, not a CAREER.

And I laugh that we now debate and argue this. Such is the state of America that burger flipper jobs a min wage are considered careers. These burger flippers consider themselves middle class.
They want benefits and higher wages and contemplate unions.

My how America has lowered the bar and expectations of it's people.
What type of future do you envision when these burger flippers retire ?
Min wage careers won't fund SS that's for sure. And if they can't afford the basics in life they sure ain't putting the max in their IRAs, are they ?
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Old 01-07-2013, 10:42 AM
 
Location: Va. Beach
6,392 posts, read 5,145,982 times
Reputation: 2283
Quote:
Originally Posted by KathrynAragon View Post
My entire family is military going back GENERATIONS. I am very familiar with the military pay scale and benefits for both enlisted and officer ranks.

The lower enlisted ranks are not paid well at all. And a family either qualifies under federal guidelines or DOESN'T qualify under federal guidelines for WIC and food stamps - military or otherwise. It has nothing to do with whether they are "doing something wrong" or not.

I was a stay at home mother while my former husband rose in rank from E-1 till we got divorced when he was a 1LT. At the lower ranks, it was a really tough go financially. Once he got above E-5 we could breathe easier, but it was still a tight budget till he earned his commission. I was very grateful for the WIC program.
So, what does a lower enlisted get paid? Add in the benefits, housing, comrats, etc. Tell me what you come up with.

Military Compensation: Army Benefits and Pay | GoArmy.com

That's an E-5 with 4 years of service,

An E-3 is probably only 14- 16K less.

BTW, I started out in 1980 as an E-1, and when I made E-3 I was making a bit over 600 a month, basic pay only. After completion of submarine school, and assignment to a submarine, I was making a comfortable income. When I got married, in 85, that income, along with base housing, was comfortable for my wife and I, and even more so, when we had out first child, 2 years later, as an E-4, working towards E-5.

Last edited by Darkatt; 01-07-2013 at 10:54 AM..
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Old 01-07-2013, 09:07 PM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,179,658 times
Reputation: 35920
Quote:
Originally Posted by tamajane View Post
You start out as a teenager in high school, working after school and weekends, who doesn't need a full time living wage. Once you get out on your own, which few young adults even try anymore, you have already moved past minimum wage based on your experience and good work record. If you just show up and do the minimum, you won't ever get anywhere.

Why isn't this common knowledge/ common sense?
What a crock of crap!

It's not common knowledge/common sense because it's wrong.
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Old 01-07-2013, 11:00 PM
 
10,553 posts, read 9,602,624 times
Reputation: 4784
You know, it's not just people flipping burgers who are making minimum wage or close to it.

The median hourly wage of childcare workers was $9.28 in 2010 (meaning half make less than that). Some of them have associates degrees in early childhood education. Maybe that is their chosen profession, not just something they want to do as a stepping-stone to something else. Shouldn't they be able to support themselves doing the very valuable work of caring for other people's children?

Childcare Workers : Occupational Outlook Handbook : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
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