ADVERTISEMENT

Minimum Wage

  • Danny Noonan : I planned to go to law school after I graduated, but it looks like my folks won't have enough money to put me through college.
  • Judge Smails : Well, the world needs ditch diggers, too.
    Lacey Underall : [to Danny] Nice try.
    Well Geddy, I’m assuming you’re father is not Judge Smails😉
 
  • Danny Noonan : I planned to go to law school after I graduated, but it looks like my folks won't have enough money to put me through college.
  • Judge Smails : Well, the world needs ditch diggers, too.
    Lacey Underall : [to Danny] Nice try.
    Well Geddy, I’m assuming you’re father is not Judge Smails😉
Um no, he was no judge. However, he did tell me that he didn't have the money for college and if I wanted to go, I would have to work for it one way or another. Kind of the same conversation.
 
Um no, he was no judge. However, he did tell me that he didn't have the money for college and if I wanted to go, I would have to work for it one way or another. Kind of the same conversation.
You must have grown up in a different era. Today they would be told to just go to college, earn some meaningless degree and don’t worry about paying for it cause the government will tax those real economic contributors and you will be great!
 
  • Danny Noonan : I planned to go to law school after I graduated, but it looks like my folks won't have enough money to put me through college.
  • Judge Smails : Well, the world needs ditch diggers, too.
    Lacey Underall : [to Danny] Nice try.
    Well Geddy, I’m assuming you’re father is not Judge Smails😉
(muffled laughter) Poor little Danny.... another victim of exploitation .
1) Danny could work and go to law school (like a friend of mine did)
2) Danny could get student loans
3) Danny could be a ditch digger and work his way up the company to a better job
4) Danny could lament how unfair the world is and how he got screwed and get on welfare.
 
You must have grown up in a different era. Today they would be told to just go to college, earn some meaningless degree and don’t worry about paying for it cause the government will tax those real economic contributors and you will be great!
Yes, it was a different time. Part of that entire conversation was that if you want to go to college you can pay for it yourself, get a loan (which is hard with no money) or join the military and go on the GI Bill. If you don't go to college then learn a trade or get a manual labor job like ditch digging. Either route you take will involve hard work. Hard work is a dirty word anymore.
 
(muffled laughter) Poor little Danny.... another victim of exploitation .
1) Danny could work and go to law school (like a friend of mine did)
2) Danny could get student loans
3) Danny could be a ditch digger and work his way up the company to a better job
4) Danny could lament how unfair the world is and how he got screwed and get on welfare.
Today the choice would be #4. In addition, they could complain that people shouldn't be expected to work or be productive and should be paid a living wage to do nothing.
 
My parents were lucky to finish high school - in fact my Dad left just short of graduating to fight in WWII. Got his GED when he came home. Had a good skilled job and Mom owned a hair salon. 100% middle class.
My parents were determined that their kids would get a better education and they paid for all four of us. They always joked that a building on the FSU campus should have their name on it because of all the tuition they paid, including grad school for my sister.
 
Yes, it was a different time. Part of that entire conversation was that if you want to go to college you can pay for it yourself, get a loan (which is hard with no money) or join the military and go on the GI Bill. If you don't go to college then learn a trade or get a manual labor job like ditch digging. Either route you take will involve hard work. Hard work is a dirty word anymore.
Or get an ROTC scholarship enroute to a commission in the military.
 
Maybe instead of having people actually work for a living we can pay them for doing nothing like a living wage. Sounds funny to say it but people really are discussing this as well.
As you likely know, that is the endgame in this process. Emphasis on the arbitrary "living wage" amount, along with the expected "health care is a human right," and "everyone has a right to safe, affordable housing," and whatever they can think of adding.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GeddyLee09
As you likely know, that is the endgame in this process. Emphasis on the arbitrary "living wage" amount, along with the expected "health care is a human right," and "everyone has a right to safe, affordable housing," and whatever they can think of adding.
Eventually they run out of OPM.
 
Exactly. All that does is decrease business in this case for fast food places which will cost more jobs. It's all a farce. Tell the workers you're doing something for them by raising their wages, but the money goes right back to the company with the higher prices. All it equals is less jobs in the end which is what is desired. Higher unemployment and more reliance on government handouts. Control is the operative word here.
Minimum wage makes sense in the post 1970s when we had a mismatch between workers and labor. (more workers than work) Make no mistake there is a causative relationship between minimum wage levels and the pay of jobs in the bottom 60% of pay. However, in a economy with little unemployment, the advantage goes to the worker. So, minimum wage plays a much smaller affect.

Local McDonalds here pay up to $19 hour for new hires in a state with a minimum wage of $7.25. What is interesting is that a few miles away in Vermont the minimum wage ls $13.67, so workers can make a choice. My son back in HS was able to leverage that when he got his car, working over the line and getting a $3 hour raise.

You can't find a worker willing to work for $7.25 hour here, so the minimum wage is meaningless.

I will add that this dance is mostly propaganda as those terrible things the business community predict will happen generally doesn't. And businesses will leverage technology whenever they can to shed pesky human beings sometimes to their detriment.
 
My first job at 16 was minimum wage which as I recall was around $2.10 an hour in 1978. Adjusted for inflation that would be worth about $10 today.

"$1 in 1978 has the same purchasing power as $4.61 in 2024. Over the 46 years this is a change of $3.61. The average inflation rate of the dollar between 1978 and 2024 was 1.05% per year."
 
Eventually they run out of OPM.
Sadly, we have learned that when they run out of OPM, they simply print more. And we have also learned that "printing more" is the primary cause of the crazy inflation we are all paying for now. "Printing more," in effect, is an illegal tax because it is not approved by Congress.
 
  • Like
Reactions: goldmom and F4Gary
My first job at 16 was minimum wage which as I recall was around $2.10 an hour in 1978. Adjusted for inflation that would be worth about $10 today.

"$1 in 1978 has the same purchasing power as $4.61 in 2024. Over the 46 years this is a change of $3.61. The average inflation rate of the dollar between 1978 and 2024 was 1.05% per year."
But the TOTAL inflation rate, due to compounding, is 376%

(Minimum wage in 1978 was $2.65.)
 
I’m 66

I honestly don’t remember ever having a minimum wage job!

Not due to memory loss, I just never worked for minimum wage
 
When I was 15 I got hired loading trucks at sears warehouse for $8.00 per hour

There was like 10 or more buddies that worked the night shift
 
I delivered newspapers at 14. I don't remember how much I got but it wasn't much. At 15 I was hired as a helper at a bricklaying company. It was hard work but paid 12.00 an hour in 1983. In the summers I would put in 72-hour weeks and the guy paid cash so...
 
Lots of fast food workers in Cali are being notified their services are no longer needed.
A $16 Happy Meal has fewer buyers.
Unintended consequence = kids might be fed better food?
Maybe that's what they want out there. To control what people eat as well. But McDonalds isnt going to close stores they will just shed employees to a minimum to cut costs. Less jobs will equal more homelessness in a place where its already a problem. Cant imagine the type of people that run that state. Or maybe I can.

jim carrey harry GIF by Dumb and Dumber To
 
I am curious what posters on here think about this. It seems clear this is a right leaning group but how does everyone feel about the massive and growing wealth disparity in this country? I consider myself to be pretty conservative from the fiscal perspective and obviously am pro capitalism. But when you see guys like Musk and Bezos being worth > $100B it does make me wonder why any one person should have that much money when there are a lot of hard working “average” people struggling.
Ummm... because they earned it?
 
Well just to plays devils advocate I’m certainly not advocating that these people should have to live a middle class life or that wealth should be capped at $1M or anything ridiculous like that. But at what point is it a bit silly that anyone should have THAT much money. Not millions or tens of millions or hundreds of millions, but tens to hundreds of BILLIONS. Accumulating that much wealth is of course a result of skill (intelligence, creativity, etc), and hard work, but luck plays a role too. If Bill Gates comes along 15 years later after someone else had already developed software maybe he ends up as a Project manager at Intel or Apple making $600k a year instead of being worth billions. That’s my point. I’m not even really arguing I’m just devils advocating a bit and asking questions.
Who gets to decide that you've made enough money? Obama tried that as I recall.
 
^^^^^This.
But let's fight over a statue, a flag, or transgender issues, while the price of most goods are at least doubling and the dream of homeownership is becoming an actual dream, instead of a reality. Taxation in this country has become flat out legalized theft... along with the cost of insurance..
And inflation is the greatest and most damaging tax of all...
just finished "reading" The Creature from Jekyll Island and I'm still shaking with rage. If we'd just quit printing money and stop with the endless bailouts...

BTW this is an economic stance, not a political one... 😇
 
just finished "reading" The Creature from Jekyll Island and I'm still shaking with rage. If we'd just quit printing money and stop with the endless bailouts...

BTW this is an economic stance, not a political one... 😇
Great book, also the "President's Bankers" is another great one. These are the issues that the nation should be outraged over... but, nah... let's fight over statues, transgender pro-nouns, Huckleberry Finn, Mr. Potato head, flags, and social justice while the Fed is enslaving all of us...... what fools.
 
California is a strange planet... but in general Minimum wage laws do more harm than good. Just about every government intervention has a negative consequence on the economy, and the question is, does the positive outweigh the benefit?
I understand regulations for reasons of safety and consumer protection, but beyond that, best to be as laissez faire as possible...

Laissez faire doesn’t work. It’s why the military and educators are underpaid.

Any billionaire could wipe out consumer debt in the US. Do the math.

Laissez faire and deregulation have damaged this country. Just read about the profit margins over the last 20 years.

Of course, if you discuss this with a broker, pharma exec, banker, etc., they’ll ignore it, but look at the profits made in the last 20 years., and look at who benefited and who did not.

Just for context, and I truly hope no one has to experience it, it’s a whole different world when you go from one of the elite to just being “like everyone else”.
 
I thought it sucked going from ( I thought) being happily married, you know a family man

I could not imagine being an elite and losing it all!

But, to me family is way more important than money and power, and you know looking down on everyone else

Hearing “well done my good and faithful servant “, from the Master! No money or earthly stature can beat that to me!
 
I’m curious how Milei will do in Argentina. Met an Argentinian professor recently. Fled the economic chaos there about a year ago. Pre Milei. As one would expect, they’re very much in support of Milei. The left is economically illiterate.
 
Btw.

Total household debt us 2023 = $17.503 trillion.

No billionaire can wipe that out.

us debt = 34 trillion.


We have a spending problem. The gov is fiscally irresponsible. Too much regulation. Plenty of revenue.

This is gross.
 
Laissez faire doesn’t work. It’s why the military and educators are underpaid.

Any billionaire could wipe out consumer debt in the US. Do the math.

Laissez faire and deregulation have damaged this country. Just read about the profit margins over the last 20 years.

Of course, if you discuss this with a broker, pharma exec, banker, etc., they’ll ignore it, but look at the profits made in the last 20 years., and look at who benefited and who did not.

Just for context, and I truly hope no one has to experience it, it’s a whole different world when you go from one of the elite to just being “like everyone else”.
crony capitalism has damaged this nation, along with a taxation, and a slew of Keynesian policies.. its financial hemlock for the citizens, and perpetual payday for the 1%
Btw.

Total household debt us 2023 = $17.503 trillion.

No billionaire can wipe that out.

us debt = 34 trillion.


We have a spending problem. The gov is fiscally irresponsible. Too much regulation. Plenty of revenue.
^^^^THis, add in a central bank with no real oversight and is not really accountable to the government or the citizens... then throw in the nonsense of a fractional reserve banking model....
 
Teachers are underpaid because the profession has been historically associated as being a “woman’s job”. That’s the number one reason.
The military gets a lot of funding but is also plagued IMO by waste and corruption. And by other issues that we don’t seem to want to be honest about.
 
Teachers are underpaid because the profession has been historically associated as being a “woman’s job”. That’s the number one reason.
The military gets a lot of funding but is also plagued IMO by waste and corruption. And by other issues that we don’t seem to want to be honest about.
Do tell.
 
Teachers are underpaid because the profession has been historically associated as being a “woman’s job”. That’s the number one reason.
The military gets a lot of funding but is also plagued IMO by waste and corruption. And by other issues that we don’t seem to want to be honest about.
There are a lot of teachers. Supply and demand plays a role. Primary funding source is gov. Private schools actually pay less, typically. Even then, there are often good benefits and the combination of pay and flexibility isn’t bad. In fact, teachers are amongst the most common jobs in those with 1 percentile networths.

Military can be pretty lucrative, even as an enlisted type. Training, tax benefits, pension, access to post military civilian jobs. Even for the blue collar type military position. Do your 20 years. You’re done at 38. Do another 20 years of a VA job. You’re done at 58. You’ve got 2 pensions worth the equivalent of 7 figures, plus tsp if you’ve used it and lifetime healthcare. Hard to replicate that in the civilian sector with minimal skills. Same for marginal college types. People who got through college. Have no idea what they want to do for a career. Weren’t great students. Not really competitive for college level jobs outside of hr or office work. Let the military steer. All of the sudden, you’re an officer. It can be a complete life turn around.
 
Last edited:
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT