Why do we have people working 40 hours a week and can't afford to feed their kids?

[Uncle Joe]

Link to tweet

[Ohiogal]

1. My conservative sibling tells me

"Not all jobs are meant to be living wage jobs."

[Uncle Joe]

2. I believe that

no 40 hour job should be a dying wage.


https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287271903

[Freddie]

4. My response to that

SOMEONE has to mop the floors, flip the burgers, run the cash register. Are you telling me they don’t deserve to eat? Many RWNJs would say they don’t. Exposes their asshole opinions to the world.

[Newest Reality]

5. They have a fallacious logic...

Have you heard the common mantra: "Well, they have made some bad choices."

It is a way to sound "reasonable", choices and all, while getting off the hook and absolving themselves of any connections or concerns, that is, until they encounter loss or a big tragedy. Then the story line changes suddenly.

That's just anecdotal evidence from my experiences. When you hear someone, for instance, say that about their struggling parents and siblings while they are both wealthy and living la dolce vida, well, that's just frozen. Who can use an excuse like that to not help their own family? We all make good and bad choices, and this is what is right now in context and subject also to circumstances.

[groundloop]

10. "Bad Choices" such as a spouse getting cancer or having a heart attack

I know someone whose husband had a heart attack and passed away. Now she's working two low wage jobs for a total of around 70 hours a week just to survive.

It's a hell of a great country we live in (if you're wealthy).

[Bettie]

6. Well, he's right in that

part time jobs, for example, are not meant to earn a living wage.

But if you are working full-time you should earn enough to live on.

[thesquanderer]

8. re: "if you are working full-time you should earn enough to live on."

I agree, but I will give a little to the other side here.

If you are working 40 hours a week, you should definitely be able to earn enough to live on. But that does not necessarily mean it should be enough for you, your spouse/partner, and your kids to live on. So I'm not sure I agree with Bernie here. What if you have 6 or more kids? (I know people who do.) Where do you draw the line as to how many kids (and maybe spouse) a 40 hour job should automatically support?

A single person working 40 hours should be able to live on his or her pay. If there are kids, maybe you have to take an additional part time job, and/or maybe the spouse/partner has to work too, to earn a sufficient wage to support everyone.

This reminds me of the posts about how there are few if any places in the country where someone earning minimum wage can afford a 2 bedroom apartment. Well, you know, that's why they make one bedroom apartments. And studios. And why people rent rooms or share their 2 BR apartments. A *minimum* wage does not correlate with providing everyone with their *optimum* living situation.

[Bettie]

9. Minimum wage should allow a single person

to have a place to live and be able to afford the basics of life.

But, minimum wage should not be forever either. Unfortunately, businesses don't really give raises anymore, so the only way to raise your income is to move to a new job, new employer.

[Newest Reality]

11. The notion

of upward mobility as a means to get past basic sustenance and enjoy more disposable income for various means is now a corner in the rather surreal slums that the American Dream has morphed into. The horse tries to keep going, but now the carrot is gone.

Increasing productivity combined with flat-lined wage growth overall for over three decades is a very bad sign about how this is going now and we are reaching a climax in many ways and the problems that ensue from that are going to continue to boil over if they are left unaddressed.

[Bettie]

14. Ah, but wages have increased, but only

for those at the top of the scale.

The rest, the lower echelons, those who aren't CEO's and VP's and other high level executives, well, we all know about that.

That's why we need someone who is willing to flip the table, rather than continue in the current, rigged game.

[Newest Reality]

17. Yes!

A true champion of the people! Warren is an apropos choice in that respect.

The Two Americas still exists, though the term seems to have been deprecated or erased. Well, anything that suggests class is rather taboo, especially when the people on the bottom point it out.

Now, how will the vast, rigged system respond to that, though? The MIC is not about to go down lightly and the ReFascist Party is a mere crusty scab on it, to me. Their utility is their own impending doom in regards to relevance and demographics, but they do seem to stand staunchly for the MIC, like red guards at the gate. It is their desperation that seems to make them even more useful tools to that effect, now.

The kind of change we want and need may be a series of intense battles rife with all kinds of tactics. To me, it will be a knock down, drag 'em out affair. That is, if we want to turn this decent into a 3rd-World country around and not merely favor those that have as valid citizens.

[Bettie]

19. Whatever his failings, and they were many and serious,

John Edwards was absolutely right about there being Two Americas.

And we need to move past that, to make the economy work for everyone, not just the richest people. It will need someone willing to suggest bold ideas, instead of looking backward.

[MichMan]

18. Right, that may mean minimum wage will need to vary by region

For example, minimum wages in places like Manhattan, Seattle or San Francisco may very well need to be at $40-50 per hour.

[Sherman A1]

3. Greed

And corporate welfare.

[Uncle Joe]

7. If only the average American could afford to pay

for a network television commercial, this wouldn't be an issue.

[Newest Reality]

12. and...

corporate socialism, too. We have socialism, but only for the chosen.

Who pays for the infrastructure and other factors that allow a corporation to do business while paying little or no taxes in many cases?

[JudyM]

20. Corporate welfare needs to end except in extenuating circumstances. Same goes for tax avoidance.

[FiveGoodMen]

13. Centrists

[Bettie]

15. Shhh....we're supposed to say

"Centrists are the only people who matter!"

[MarcA]

16. Which is why everything should not depend on a job. n/t