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I came from an immigrant family. We lived in extreme poverty before we came to the states. To give you an idea, when I was little, there were times when our parents told us to sleep all day because there was nothing to eat that day. I rarely ever tell people about this chapter in my life because most Americans have no idea what real poverty is. Anyway, after we came here to the US (legally mind you... my family waited in line for 10 years), we were poor for a while. My parents both worked 2 jobs to put us kids through college. Between the 5 of us, we have an electrical engineer, a structural engineer, a mathematician, a software engineer, and a civil engineer (moi).
That's the ridiculously short version of our background.
I used to work for habitat for humanity for a couple years. Yeah, I got paid peanuts for that.
My boyfriend also came from a humble background even though he's white. Got thrown out of the house when he was 15. Through him, I've been exposed to a lot of... poor people. Don't worry, he's doing fine now. In fact, he's in a University right now. I'll get him into my company once he's done.
My point is I've had a lot of exposure to poor people. And having known what I've known and seen what I've seen, I very much doubt raising the minimum wage will do anything at all.
Look, I've always been a liberal. I'm as liberal as anyone can get. (Screw the genderized bathroom. Just make all bathrooms gender neutral and be done with it.) My experiences tell me while poor people don't want to be poor, most do not want to take that extra step to get out of poverty. They simply do not see working as a way out of poverty. I just don't see how raising the minimum wage to $15/hour will do anything.
And no, I don't mind paying more for my food at the restaurants.
Before you pile on me, I'll come right out and say I don't have the answer. I don't know what will get people out of poverty. My family got ourselves out of poverty, but we worked very hard long hours to get where we are. We did not speak a word of English when we first came here, and we went to college right away. Most people thought sociology was a blow-off class. It was actually our biggest stumbling block because we struggled to understand the language. I'm sorry, from what I've seen all these years, I simply don't see that many people willing to go through what we went through.
I don't know what will lift people out of poverty. What I do know is throwing money at the problem won't solve anything.
I don't think you're as liberal as you think you are. There are several tests online that can give you a better take on it. But whatever that's not the point. I agree with your post basically. Most Americans have no idea of what deep deep poverty really is, yeah we have some, but not like lots of parts of the world. Watched a documentary a few yrs ago and you should take a look at places in India, parts of Africa, you'll see some hardcore poverty there.
Your espousing of hard work and picking yourself and doing what you have to do to get ahead. That is the backbone of what this country was founded on. Sadly it's morphing into more of a what can you do for me attitude. Guys like Bernie Sanders is indicative of what I'm talking about here. The give me free stuff crowd.
I'm not some kind of far right guy here, I've consistently scored in the middle of the road leaning slightly left.
Last edited by Chowhound; 02-25-2016 at 04:18 PM..
in High school and college, i was forced to take classes that had nothing to do with my life or my career.
Why not have students take classes that would better their knowledge of financial situations instead of random electives.
My high school had a block and semester system. so 4 classes a day, 8 a year splitting at Christmas, with 4 being core classes(English/Lit, math, science, history. leaving 4 electives, some of which are mandatory
Leadership
P.E./Band/ROTC/Sports work outs
Driver's Ed/Health
One typing class
Music Appreciation/Art
these were classes that were required, but had nothing to do with my degree plan.( although, Business Technology counted as a typing class for some reason, so I took it instead of the normal typing class).
Im sure requiring a financial planning class instead of P.E. or Music Appreciation isnt going to hurt anyone. and would likely help a lot of kids.
I don't think you're as liberal as you think you are. There are several tests online that can give you a better take on it. But whatever that's not the point. I agree with your post basically. Most Americans have no idea of what deep deep poverty really is, yeah we have some, but not like lots of parts of the world. Watched a documentary a few yrs ago and you should take a look at places in India, parts of Africa, you'll see some hardcore poverty there.
You're espousing of hard work and picking yourself and doing what you have to do to get ahead. That is the backbone of what this country was founded on. Sadly it's morphing into more of a what can you do for me attitude. Guys like Bernie Sanders is indicative of what I'm talking about here. The give me free stuff crowd.
I'm not some kind of far right guy here, I've consistently scored in the middle of the road leaning slightly left.
And dont think you are as in the middle as you claim, LOL.
I dont support Bernie Sanders, but even I know that what he is for isnt "free", he has stated with out wavering that it is a tax increase.
His main argument for it is reducing individual debt as Student loans have over taken housing as the #1 cause of debt for a person. tuition free college frees up more money than any other thing you could possibly think of.
the phrasing people use, tends to identify their political leaning more than anything else. "free stuff" "teleprompter", using "pro" or "anti"(and vice versa), "Chicago Style","SJW"
I'm middle of the road and have never voted a straight ticket.
I have no issue with the Federal Minimum Wage, as is, and would leave anything beyond to the states and/or municipalities within states. At some future date all states will have Minimum Wages higher than the federal. At that point, the Federal Rate could be abolished.
The local purchasing power of the local wage matters more than the Federal Minimum Wage.
Right now:
29 states, plus the District of Columbia, have set their minimum wage above the federal level of $7.25 per hour as of Jan. 1, 2015
15 states, plus the District of Columbia, index their minimum wages to rise automatically with the cost of living.
10 states currently index minimum wage increases each year: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon and Washington.
5 more states, plus the District of Columbia, will index minimum wage increases annually beginning in future years: Alaska (2017), D.C. (2017), Michigan (2019), Minnesota (2018), South Dakota (2016) and Vermont (2019).
8 states have set the tipped minimum wage equal to the value of the full minimum wage, ensuring that tipped workers are paid the full minimum wage directly by their employer
And dont think you are as in the middle as you claim, LOL.
I dont support Bernie Sanders, but even I know that what he is for isnt "free", he has stated with out wavering that it is a tax increase.
His main argument for it is reducing individual debt as Student loans have over taken housing as the #1 cause of debt for a person. tuition free college frees up more money than any other thing you could possibly think of.
the phrasing people use, tends to identify their political leaning more than anything else. "free stuff" "teleprompter", using "pro" or "anti"(and vice versa), "Chicago Style","SJW"
Bernie Sanders is a self admitted wealth redistribution type of guy. Most people who are definitely left of center are the ones that appear to be supporting him and don't have a problem with his POV's. When guys start all of the talk with free medical or free college, they are lefties, most middle of the road and right people get that the bill has to be picked up somewhere and that's from other people's pockets, not just the right but the middle as well.
Minimum wage laws, state or federal, criminalize the sale of low-skill labor for its market value. The result is unemployment.
Every worker in the country is already getting market value for their labor. (If any employer would pay more, they would quit and go take that job.)
It is up to each of us to improve our value to the rest of society if we wish to make more money. Punishing those who are willing to employ low-skill labor is not a solution--why blame the employers? It is not sustainable to pay labor more than its market value, and that has been proven many times.
I came from an immigrant family. We lived in extreme poverty before we came to the states. To give you an idea, when I was little, there were times when our parents told us to sleep all day because there was nothing to eat that day. I rarely ever tell people about this chapter in my life because most Americans have no idea what real poverty is. Anyway, after we came here to the US (legally mind you... my family waited in line for 10 years), we were poor for a while. My parents both worked 2 jobs to put us kids through college. Between the 5 of us, we have an electrical engineer, a structural engineer, a mathematician, a software engineer, and a civil engineer (moi).
That's the ridiculously short version of our background.
I used to work for habitat for humanity for a couple years. Yeah, I got paid peanuts for that.
My boyfriend also came from a humble background even though he's white. Got thrown out of the house when he was 15. Through him, I've been exposed to a lot of... poor people. Don't worry, he's doing fine now. In fact, he's in a University right now. I'll get him into my company once he's done.
My point is I've had a lot of exposure to poor people. And having known what I've known and seen what I've seen, I very much doubt raising the minimum wage will do anything at all.
Look, I've always been a liberal. I'm as liberal as anyone can get. (Screw the genderized bathroom. Just make all bathrooms gender neutral and be done with it.) My experiences tell me while poor people don't want to be poor, most do not want to take that extra step to get out of poverty. They simply do not see working as a way out of poverty. I just don't see how raising the minimum wage to $15/hour will do anything.
And no, I don't mind paying more for my food at the restaurants.
Before you pile on me, I'll come right out and say I don't have the answer. I don't know what will get people out of poverty. My family got ourselves out of poverty, but we worked very hard long hours to get where we are. We did not speak a word of English when we first came here, and we went to college right away. Most people thought sociology was a blow-off class. It was actually our biggest stumbling block because we struggled to understand the language. I'm sorry, from what I've seen all these years, I simply don't see that many people willing to go through what we went through.
I don't know what will lift people out of poverty. What I do know is throwing money at the problem won't solve anything.
Knowing the right people can do wonders for getting people out of poverty.
I came from an immigrant family. We lived in extreme poverty before we came to the states. To give you an idea, when I was little, there were times when our parents told us to sleep all day because there was nothing to eat that day. I rarely ever tell people about this chapter in my life because most Americans have no idea what real poverty is. Anyway, after we came here to the US (legally mind you... my family waited in line for 10 years), we were poor for a while. My parents both worked 2 jobs to put us kids through college. Between the 5 of us, we have an electrical engineer, a structural engineer, a mathematician, a software engineer, and a civil engineer (moi).
That's the ridiculously short version of our background.
I used to work for habitat for humanity for a couple years. Yeah, I got paid peanuts for that.
My boyfriend also came from a humble background even though he's white. Got thrown out of the house when he was 15. Through him, I've been exposed to a lot of... poor people. Don't worry, he's doing fine now. In fact, he's in a University right now. I'll get him into my company once he's done.
My point is I've had a lot of exposure to poor people. And having known what I've known and seen what I've seen, I very much doubt raising the minimum wage will do anything at all.
Look, I've always been a liberal. I'm as liberal as anyone can get. (Screw the genderized bathroom. Just make all bathrooms gender neutral and be done with it.) My experiences tell me while poor people don't want to be poor, most do not want to take that extra step to get out of poverty. They simply do not see working as a way out of poverty. I just don't see how raising the minimum wage to $15/hour will do anything.
And no, I don't mind paying more for my food at the restaurants.
Before you pile on me, I'll come right out and say I don't have the answer. I don't know what will get people out of poverty. My family got ourselves out of poverty, but we worked very hard long hours to get where we are. We did not speak a word of English when we first came here, and we went to college right away. Most people thought sociology was a blow-off class. It was actually our biggest stumbling block because we struggled to understand the language. I'm sorry, from what I've seen all these years, I simply don't see that many people willing to go through what we went through.
I don't know what will lift people out of poverty. What I do know is throwing money at the problem won't solve anything.
The theory is that demand drives the economy. You give people more money at the bottom, they will spend all of it on products that will then have to be produced.
Conservatives tend to hold the opposite theory, that supply drives the economy. You give money at the top and it gives them money to hire people and create products.
Raising the minimum wage would just create inflation. Although, it would make college debt levels go down by virtue of inflation since the debt is stagnant. But that's not necessarily the best way to go about things.
I believe in Democratic economics in theory, the idea that money is better spread around instead of concentrated, but I don't think Bernie's plans are that great, and I don't think Hillary will actually do anything she says she will.
Minimum wage laws, state or federal, criminalize the sale of low-skill labor for its market value. The result is unemployment.
Every worker in the country is already getting market value for their labor. (If any employer would pay more, they would quit and go take that job.)
It is up to each of us to improve our value to the rest of society if we wish to make more money. Punishing those who are willing to employ low-skill labor is not a solution--why blame the employers? It is not sustainable to pay labor more than its market value, and that has been proven many times.
Zoning and housing laws criminalize the sale or rental of low-cost housing. The result is homelessness and not being able to properly meet non-housing needs because many people spend too much on rent.
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