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Old 02-12-2012, 10:01 AM
 
Location: Great State of Texas
86,052 posts, read 84,141,708 times
Reputation: 27718

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Quote:
Originally Posted by shawn47 View Post
My whole point is that if you look at the profit that corporate America makes, you cant tell me they can not pay a livable wage. Now this wage would be different depending on what part of the country you live in. Like here in CA. everything costs much more. By continuing to do what they are doing they are simply cutting their own throats in the end, all to support the greedy handful who never get enough and get all of it at the expense of all others. I do not know why i get so many arguements on this. I guess many are saying that in general, NO, you do not deserve a livable wage. Its only getting worse as now many only get part time work and no benefiets and certainly no retirment. Then corporations simply..move out of the country, not satisfied with the enourmosue profit they were already making, but with supreme indifference just leaving for cheap labour, not caring that in the end no one here will be able to buy thier products anyway for they will not only not have a livable wage, but NO wage of anykind.
The math was done on this in another thread.
Take Walmart, America's largest employer (which doesn't say much for America, does it ?)

If you bumped all those workers up to $10/hour then Walmart would have NO profit and be in the hole for about $5 billion dollars in one year.

2.1 million workers
$2.00 bump in min wage x 40 hours = $80/week per worker
$80/week per worker x 52 weeks = $4160/year per worker
$4160/year per worker x 2.1 million workers = $8.7 billion dollars per year.

So Walmart needs an EXTRA $8.7 billion for salaries.
Walmart reported profits of $3.6 billion in 2010 (and that is worldwide).

These big corporates do not have the extra money.
As they say.."Do the Math" !!
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Old 02-12-2012, 10:02 AM
 
12 posts, read 8,442 times
Reputation: 17
It is YOU who makes no sense. So, you are saying that you DO not deserve a livable wage? 25 years ago or so you COULD live reasonable on less than five dollars an hour because one bedroom aprtments were 90 dollars a month. You get the pic. So there was a time when there WAS a livable wage and it DID work for along time. Before the despicable NIxon there was low cost low profit insurance that was very affordable. Things have ben manipulated so that even skilled workers in desperations have to take (what is offered) As far as your Mercedes comment..that is absurd..I am talking about reasonable living conditions, not luxuries, it once was easy to live even at 3.50 per hour.......those days are gone for good.
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Old 02-12-2012, 10:08 AM
 
12 posts, read 8,442 times
Reputation: 17
You seem like you may be old enough to remember when there WAS a livable wage in place. For many years you could make 3.50 per hour..have acar rent a cheap apartment and even have a few bucks left over. Before the hated NIxon there was low cost low profit insurance for nesasary things, like health insurance and fire insurance. I lived in that time, after the service I had no problem getting work at 3.50 per hour and before one month was out I had a truck a place to live and some furniture. All with no credit card or owing anything! So, it worked in the past for some time. You could stay at one place of work for a liftime steadily getting more pay and earning retirment. That is how things USED to work. If you are at least in your mid forties you will know this was true.
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Old 02-12-2012, 10:11 AM
 
Location: North America
14,204 posts, read 12,215,871 times
Reputation: 5565
Min wages jobs are around for people to get an entry into the workforce. They are not set up for you to spend a lifetime working them, and therein lies the issue. No one is stopping you from earning a better wage either as there are tons of degrees out there to get to do so. Could walmart pays their employees more to work? Sure they could if they really wanted to do so. Their profit margin is a big higher in a good economy, and they would simply have to find ways to cut expenses such as slicing back on rapid expansion. However the better question is should walmart pay higher wages, I think not.

My friend for example went to school to be a blood tech. Now granted it's not an incredibly long program but at the end she makes about 14-15 bucks an hour. Why should someone who just stocks a shelf make as much as a schooled technician. Nothing in this country is stopping you from achieving your goals in life. If you want something then you go get it, but don't whine when you do nothing but feel you don't make enough.
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Old 02-12-2012, 10:13 AM
 
Location: North America
14,204 posts, read 12,215,871 times
Reputation: 5565
Quote:
Originally Posted by shawn47 View Post
It is YOU who makes no sense. So, you are saying that you DO not deserve a livable wage? 25 years ago or so you COULD live reasonable on less than five dollars an hour because one bedroom aprtments were 90 dollars a month. You get the pic. So there was a time when there WAS a livable wage and it DID work for along time. Before the despicable NIxon there was low cost low profit insurance that was very affordable. Things have ben manipulated so that even skilled workers in desperations have to take (what is offered) As far as your Mercedes comment..that is absurd..I am talking about reasonable living conditions, not luxuries, it once was easy to live even at 3.50 per hour.......those days are gone for good.
25 years ago people also made 11000 dollars a year.
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Old 02-12-2012, 10:15 AM
 
12 posts, read 8,442 times
Reputation: 17
What you say is very true..many are happy with very little. The problem is that unlike 30 years ago you could live reasonable well at 3.50 perhour and have a cheap car and a cheap place to live with some left over. I know I lived it! You can not do that any more even at 12.00 per hour with out going into DEBT! Your utilities were reasonable...12 per month base line for gas..about 30 for electric. Gas was 55 to 65 cents per gallon, things were in line with wages. So it worked for some time. So at that time a non livable wage would have ben like one dollar per hour. Corporate greed as always has given us this dismal situation
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Old 02-12-2012, 10:19 AM
 
Location: Great State of Texas
86,052 posts, read 84,141,708 times
Reputation: 27718
Quote:
Originally Posted by shawn47 View Post
What you say is very true..many are happy with very little. The problem is that unlike 30 years ago you could live reasonable well at 3.50 perhour and have a cheap car and a cheap place to live with some left over. I know I lived it! You can not do that any more even at 12.00 per hour with out going into DEBT! Your utilities were reasonable...12 per month base line for gas..about 30 for electric. Gas was 55 to 65 cents per gallon, things were in line with wages. So it worked for some time. So at that time a non livable wage would have ben like one dollar per hour. Corporate greed as always has given us this dismal situation
Well they do tie salary increases and min wage increases to the CPI.
The CPI says we have little to no inflation. That's of course removing food and energy. Now why would the government do that ?

You have people barely existing and you can look to DC for blame.
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Old 02-12-2012, 12:53 PM
 
98 posts, read 81,400 times
Reputation: 138
To those folks that feel "under-employed and underpaid", I have a simple suggestion:

Based on HARD WORK:

WORK HARD TO BETTER YOURSELF,

FIND A WAY, ANY WAY - there are plenty of educational opportunities out there.

Just don't be a nitwit like the OWS crowd who blew $50,000 in govt loans on useless degress in History, English, or Liberal Arts.

Can't get a grant or loan for classes?

Then I suggest a very simple solution:

Drop your SMARTPHONE contract for a cheap pay-as-you-go phone (no Al Gore Interwebs),
Drop your DirectTV/Cable TV Subscription - get a converter box, rabbit ears and enjoy FREE Digital Signal over the air on a limited # of channels (no more retarded TBS reality shows for you).
Cook meals instead of eating out or eating expensive pre-cooked junk.

Total - there's about $300 month - which will easily cover your classes, babysitter, & gas.

That will help you to HELP YOURSELF & put the cork in the WHINE BOTTLE.

yeah - Reality Bites Sometimes - Some Folks should try living it to their Potential by following the concept of PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
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Old 02-12-2012, 01:04 PM
 
Location: NJ
18,665 posts, read 19,895,202 times
Reputation: 7313
MInimum wage is a wage for those learning how to work.great for teenagers. Now if a 50 year old ends up at such a job, the problem is not the wage, but we should be asking him/her "How did you get there? Did you not go after post-secondary education/training? Did you not gain experience at a higher level job?"
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Old 02-12-2012, 02:02 PM
 
6,205 posts, read 7,423,684 times
Reputation: 3563
Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyTexan View Post
The math was done on this in another thread.
Take Walmart, America's largest employer (which doesn't say much for America, does it ?)

If you bumped all those workers up to $10/hour then Walmart would have NO profit and be in the hole for about $5 billion dollars in one year.

2.1 million workers
$2.00 bump in min wage x 40 hours = $80/week per worker
$80/week per worker x 52 weeks = $4160/year per worker
$4160/year per worker x 2.1 million workers = $8.7 billion dollars per year.

So Walmart needs an EXTRA $8.7 billion for salaries.
Walmart reported profits of $3.6 billion in 2010 (and that is worldwide).

These big corporates do not have the extra money.
As they say.."Do the Math" !!
Your calculation is flawed. Only a part of the 2.1m Walmart employees are on minimum wage. Others are making decent or high salaries. No one can tell how many.
That being said, minimum wage is meaningless in a capitalist society, when so many are willing to work for less and do not insist on their rights.
In Walmart's case, with their profits shrinking, they'll simply close stores, product lines, ect. Unlike regular folks who work for whatever they can get, businesses downsize if not matching expectations.
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