How do minimum wage workers who live paycheck to paycheck sleep at night? (apply, alternative)
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There is a problem with this philosophy, but it also depends on where you live on if it's a problem or not.
Here in Indiana, when you sign up for unemployment, you have 4 weeks to sign up for the state job board also. It's called work connection or something like that I believe. If you fail to sign up, you lose unemployment. If you do sign up and they send you for an interview and you don't show up or just turn down the job, you lose your unemployment. It doesn't matter if you used to make $30 an hour and they send you to an interview for a $10 an hour job. That's the way it is here in Indiana. Obviously the law can be different where you live.
So the state forces you to make low wages. So if you get laid off from a low paying job, your new unemployment will be even less than it was before. Sounds like government mandated wage slavery. Time spent making wages that can't sustain you is time wasted.
In any case, I'm part of a labor union in Texas. I'm exempt from government mandated employment and do not have to register for interviews or take a lower paying job just because it's available. I draw unemployment until I'm ready for the next job if I so choose.
I Don't know how they do it , or exaclty what they expect, but if they were go-getters, they would NOT be in the position described above!
MY two cents worth.
You likely weren't born in a north philly ghetto to a neglectful drug addicted single mother.
Most middle and upper class folks don't usually regress to the conditions you find in section 8 neighborhoods so chances are you never will know how they do it.
Seriously, within a few weeks, you can go from living in a rat infested dilapidated apartment with 3 roommates to living under a bridge if you are fired and don't get unemployment. If you have no savings and live paycheck to paycheck, that is what will happen. I'd be a nervous wreck with that in the back of my mind.
How do I sleep at night? Well, sometimes I can't, like tonight for example. In this case, chamomile tea helps!
You likely weren't born in a north philly ghetto to a neglectful drug addicted single mother.
Most middle and upper class folks don't usually regress to the conditions you find in section 8 neighborhoods so chances are you never will know how they do it.
True, and I certainly didn't regress, BUT:
ANYONE can get out of ANY situation IF they want to, there are all kinds of programs to do so, more so for them in the ghetto than the suburbanite kid who gets into drugs and is a "good kid" who would "give you the shirt off his back" who gets into trouble.
There are plenty of kids who have walked 10+ miles, cleaned up, changed in a gas station and gone to work in an upscale McDonalds or something for months on end to "better themselves" and "not let anyone know where they came form.
Here where I live the city kids/folks/ghetto people come HERE to live to get OUT for a better life. How? By SAVING PENNIES FOR THE RELOCATION.
ANYONE can get out of ANY situation IF they want to, there are all kinds of programs to do so, more so for them in the ghetto than the suburbanite kid who gets into drugs and is a "good kid" who would "give you the shirt off his back" who gets into trouble.
There are plenty of kids who have walked 10+ miles, cleaned up, changed in a gas station and gone to work in an upscale McDonalds or something for months on end to "better themselves" and "not let anyone know where they came form.
Here where I live the city kids/folks/ghetto people come HERE to live to get OUT for a better life. How? By SAVING PENNIES FOR THE RELOCATION.
If everybody had the great foresight, self discipline, and resourcefulness you're talking about, poor people would not exist at all.
Talk to a case manager of those programs, or case manage yourself and you'll develop a better understanding of the complexity that exists in those populations. The trials of some of the success stories eclipse any of my own struggles, and yet I know I am, and have been, better off than them without having put forth the same amount of effort.
Location: Subconscious Syncope, USA (Northeastern US)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by galaxyhi
True, and I certainly didn't regress, BUT:
ANYONE can get out of ANY situation IF they want to, there are all kinds of programs to do so, more so for them in the ghetto than the suburbanite kid who gets into drugs and is a "good kid" who would "give you the shirt off his back" who gets into trouble.
There are plenty of kids who have walked 10+ miles, cleaned up, changed in a gas station and gone to work in an upscale McDonalds or something for months on end to "better themselves" and "not let anyone know where they came form.
Here where I live the city kids/folks/ghetto people come HERE to live to get OUT for a better life. How? By SAVING PENNIES FOR THE RELOCATION.
ANYONE can get out of ANY situation IF they want to, there are all kinds of programs to do so, more so for them in the ghetto than the suburbanite kid who gets into drugs and is a "good kid" who would "give you the shirt off his back" who gets into trouble.
This is not a rant on you, but that is simply not true. All you can do is try to get out of ANY situation. I have to become a drug addict, have babies, or go to prison to get an opportunity to learn something? Just wow - but that still wont guarantee me a job.
There is such a thing as the working poor. They cant afford school, but earn too much to qualify for programs. They have opportunities at their jobs, but their superiors have friends and family they want to see benefit from those opportunities. Good luck getting into them if your supervisor will not let you.
There is such a thing as life. Crap happens. I was in school to get a degree to validate the fact I am not an idiot, but, my elderly mother-in-law broke her hip and I was needed at home. There is only her son and myself to help her and take care of her. Her son is also disabled. I dont think it would say much for me to deny them, or even leave them, just so I can try to reach my full potential. Likewise, people have children that need their attention. Is it unreasonable to think that once you have children, life just isnt all about you anymore?
Having children can help a woman get into programs, but not all women are capable of having children. Maybe not having childrens signals that you dont need education and opportunity to someone.
I have travels more than 2000 miles in a truck to find work. Small contributions from family and food stamps made that possible. I have lived in campgrounds and out of a truck while cleaning up in gas stations - in many cases while working. Where are my brownie points for that?
I consider all work to be noble, but I dont think anyone working at McDonalds anywhere worries about the fact they dont come from an affluent area. People sort of expect people working for McDonalds to either be school kids, or not well off.
Sure, there are some lazy people out there. There are sick people, underprivileged people and so on, who simply fall through the cracks as well.
Couple that with the fact you are better off coming to America from somewhere else than you are being born here (automaticly recieve benefits of all sorts, including federally funded education) and you can see how totally unfair our systems are for the poorer American with a job.
Even Americans going to American schools take a back seat to cheaper imported labor in the same field. Who benefits from all that? Its not America or the American. Only politicians, big business, and their CEOs benefit from all that.
It is what it is. *shrugs* I ask for training all the time at my job, the rhetoric they hand out says they want me to learn. I always get the same response - you dont need it to do your job. I watch those they feel need it go for training instead.
How do I sleep? Easy. I sleep like the dead with no aids to help me. Sleep is an escape from the realities of life.
Last edited by ConeyGirl52; 03-05-2015 at 05:18 AM..
I have a lady friend, she is 67, has lived paycheck to paycheck all her life. She worked mostly in menial jobs, paying under the table. She is not dumb, just always has been unable to grasp the idea of either improving herself or putting money away, if she as a 1.00 she spends a 1.00. Her SS is $496.00 per month and she gets public assistance, food stamps and all combined it comes to $900 per month. She lives in a real dump, has no car, and, never a dime, it doesn't matter to her, that is her mentality level. She had opportunities, she just never pursued them, honestly, I think she is just lazy of mind and action, and, has been all her life.
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