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Hmm...$15/hour job for non-college educated fast food workers.... translation: increase in white collar pays Starting pay for college graduates: $35/hour Big Mac price increase: $10/big mac Give me a small coke for $5 please! Man I am going to love inflation to pay back my student loans...
I have a suggestion which will cost money but not as much as we are paying now, and probably a lot less than we are paying now.
But we need to be open to experimentation and while there probably is a sweet spot (in cost / efficiency), it might take considerable tweaking and time to find it.
I've come grudgingly to the point where I think it's worth trying a pilot program to bribe young people, e.g. pay them $N for graduating high school with basic competencies - maybe even a payment of some amount for every year of competent high school progress...and then some amount per year until they reach some milestone such as perhaps a college degree or a certain annual earnings level, or if those fail, until a certain age when they're unlikely to have kids. (note that most of the productive teens will graduate, go to college, and make enough money to drop out of the program fairly quickly)
Welfare is like a disaster that keeps on taking, the costs of intergenerational welfare are staggering.
That would actually be a great way to give incentives to parents and kids. My parents did something similar. I would get paid for every A and B I got, but I didn't get a dime if I had any C's. Needless to say, I never had any C's. Implementation is another issue altogether.
With the way people respond to this thread I'm glad I'm going down the self-employment route. Between the businesses that pay **** for hard work (not all minimum wage jobs are easy, many aren't) and Uncle $am taking more and more of my taxes at least I can have more control over my life. I'd guess that half the people on this site would be happy to have the majority of people work for $0.10 / hour, show up to work with a Masters degree and a fancy wardrobe and have them do the work of 6 people with no benefits. No one quits since Corporate America will petition for it to be illegal to quit your job (like in China) but they can toss you in the trash when you burn out. And people wonder why there's no loyalty; I'm sorry but I've heard the 'work hard and put up with the boss's bull**** and we might give you a better job and pay' sing-a-long before and it almost never pans out, unless you kiss the boss's ass or are related to HR/the owners. Would I strike for a minimum wage job? No. I'm figuring the company doesn't give a **** about anyone so why should I really care about them?
Minimum wage jobs are for high school kids that need an after school job. They aren't meant to support you, your wife, your dog, the flat screen TV, your smart phone and the 25 year old still living in your basement. If you are still doing a minimum wage job, you need to reflect how you screwed around when you were still in school and were unconcerned about your future. Now you are paying for it. This does not include people who have minimum wage jobs and also work for tips, or people who have minimum wage jobs but decent benefits, or people who have minimum wage jobs but with a clear path for advancement.
I check my own stuff at any store that have a self-checkout....how much value does that position really have?????????????
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