OT: "Minmum" wage crap

Oh, yes, of course. When 10 idiots agree, they must be right. lol

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Rick

Duh, I believe most of the posters here would consider that to be free loading which not really the same as "living on a minimum wage".

So there you go. Unless you include the room and board in the "minimum wage" you lived off, it isn't accurate.

So you had a second job...

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Rick

I put myself though college, but I never had a minimum wage job. I worked a real job in the summer and was able to make enough to pay my way through school, including a masters degree.

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Rick

Can you explain how you could not?

I cook. Food costs about $1k / year, utilities ~=same, property tax ~=same, car ~same.

There are lots of places where one can buy a house for $75k, even now. The local real estate website estimates payments for $73k at $350/month, and has decent small homes for the mid-fifties. Plenty enough for a young family.

60 hrs/week for 50weeks @ $7.25 is $21,750, or $1,813 a month.

Anything that "underlies" my situation I paid for myself, living modestly as I always have.

I didn't have any leisure time. I worked. Every day, usually, which meant an average of 11.4 hours a day. I had two jobs that let me divvy up my hours in a way that made it work.

Since we're all awake 16 hours a day it wasn't hard, just a bit dull. But the work at one wasn't mentally taxing, so I had lots of time to think and sketch circuits.

I fully supported myself from one job with money left over, and saved all the pay from the second.

No, that's not why. I made a living and didn't dispose of it, but that's no matter and never has been--I live about the same in dry spells as when it rains, always have. I wouldn't have saved as quickly at lower wages, but I still would've saved.

Those poor unfortunates surround me. Their trashcans are piled with wasted fast food, pizza boxes, cigarettes, soda, and such, their livingrooms lit with cable TV--pseudo-luxuries which I neither get nor miss-- at times when I'm still working, etc. Poor people make choices.

I can and do--and almost always have--lived spending less than a minimum wage earner earns working forty hours a week, yet I've earned more, and I've always worked a lot more than just forty hours (that's barely a hobby).

Cheers, James Arthur

n

ut.

It's more that our resident right-wing nitwits have only a limited number o f terms of abuse, and free-rider is one of them. The fact there's no eviden ce to support such a claim doesn't worry them. Some them - krw does come to mind - don't even understand what "evidence" is.

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Bill Sloman, Sydney

My VA pension is less than that, and I still have a mortgage.

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Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to 
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

You are very conveniently leaving out the down payment... so you need to either show how to save a down payment while paying rent or just consider paying rent for the rest of your life.

The rest of your numbers don't make sense to me. I can't imagine a "small family" eating for $80 a month, $20 a week.. or even one person. That would be just under $1 per meal for a single person! What kind of nutritious food can you get for $1 a meal? Utilities are just $80 a month, no heat? No air conditioning? Your numbers still omit clothing, medical and many other expenses. How about child care? That is actually rather large. Many low income families find it is pretty much a break even for one wage earner to work and then pay the child care.

Here are some numbers I found on the web...

Monthly costs for a family with

2 parents and 2 children in Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, Arkansas Housing $745 Food $754 Child Care $972 Transportation $607 Health Care $1,159 Other Necessities $384 Taxes $294 Monthly Total $4,915 Annual Total $58,977

Another one at

says the total income before taxes needs to be at least $35,169 which is $16.91 and hour. The table covers many combinations of adults and children so it was hard to copy here. For 1 adult alone the required wage is $7.72.

I didn't do an extensive search to find the lowest cost of living location, but I expect Little Rock, AR is close to the bottom. Yup, I found this list which puts Little Rock very near the bottom for cost of living...

I think you don't remember your expenses very accurately.

I'm sorry, how much were you making? There is some BS in this story somewhere. Either your income was a lot more than you let on, or you had some part of your living expenses paid for.

Yes, poor people are poor because they make poor choices... and the fact that they make less money.

I think you idea that minimum wage is plenty enough to live on is some BS you are telling yourself while ignoring much of what you must be spending. If you really are living on just $16,000 a year, I feel sorry for you.

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Rick

Are you living off of $1,120 a month?

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Rick

On Thursday, October 23, 2014 2:10:34 AM UTC-4, rickman wrote: k

home with free meals. And I only worked during the summer, but saved enou gh to have spending money for the whole year.

I was sort of pointing out that many people that work for minimum wage are teenagers. The job I had at 16 would not exist with a higher minimum wage.

ear. I made a lot more than minimum wage, but saved the rest. The job was in Alaska working at the Chiniak satellite tracking station. It was fifty miles by road from Kodiak. So room and board went with the job.

Even considering the room and board, I lived for less than minimum wage. Room and board at a place 50 miles from a village of 2500 people is not exp ensive.

ere was no tax on the booze.

e bar. Most of it being bar keeper. Did not get any pay for bar tending, but got to drink for free.

Not one that paid minimum wage.

Dan

What makes you think that a minimum wage job is not a real job?

Dan

What job was that?

It doesn't have to be "expensive". The point is you had some special circumstances that allowed you to live off a low income. Those circumstances are not generally available.

I don't know how much liquor you drank... lol I think the point stands.

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Rick

The long nose of the leftist.

are teenagers. The job I had at 16 would not exist with a higher minimum w age.

It was a job that the gas company created in part to generate goodwill and in part to get a bunch of maintenance done. I cut grass, painted industria l gas meters, scraped old paint off window frames and repainted the frames.

year. I made a lot more than minimum wage, but saved the rest. The job w as in Alaska working at the Chiniak satellite tracking station. It was fif ty miles by road from Kodiak. So room and board went with the job.

m .

expensive.

I think those circumstances are a lot more common than you think.

there was no tax on the booze.

the bar. Most of it being bar keeper. Did not get any pay for bar tending , but got to drink for free.

I drank about one can of beer per hour. Less if I worked three or more hou rs. So about $.25 an hour.

Dan

So if they had to pay $10 a hour or even $12 an hour they would not have created the job?

Free room and board? I'm pretty sure I have explored a wide enough range of jobs to know if that was a common employment situation. I think in terms of the overall economy it is not common at all.

Lol. Ok, you found a way to survive and prosper on minimum wage. How many others can do that? I think your example is not significant because it is just one person out of the many low wage earners currently employed at all the fast food joints and Walmarts.

It is a bit like people I have heard who think unemployment benefits should be cut off because they feel if the unemployed look harder for a job they will find it. But there are only so many jobs available... period. If there are 10 unemployed for each available job, only one out of ten will find it.

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Rick

I do not think they would have. Especially since at that time department h eads were making somewhat less than $10 an hour. My first engineering job after college was $3 an hour.

ge.

ot expensive.

It is common in China. But also in most jobs that require being in a remot e place. Alaska, Iraq, Scotland. Manufactures reps on Carriers and in fore ign countries. Forest rangers manning lookout towers. Foxconn workers asse mbling I phones.

I never said I was a low wage earner. Even the job with the gas company wo rking at minimum wage was a high paying job compared to what a lot of my fr iend were making.

Unemployment benefits are intended to help those laid off until they find a nother job. They generally only last about six months. If you can not fin d work in six months you are likely to never get a job. That is not pleasa nt, but it is pretty much the way it is.

Dan

The company dorms are not free in China. Not that expensive, but they're only getting 1/8 of a room with shared bathroom.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward" 
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com 
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

You really do like taking the conversation into the weeds.

Yes, let's take a US minimum wage conversation to China.

The world according to Dan.

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Rick

On Thu, 23 Oct 2014 09:01:23 -0700 (PDT), " snipped-for-privacy@krl.org" Gave us:

My landlord. Times three... still not enough.

to

then

about.

I

you

And maybe you are the idiot.

?-)