Skarekrow

Thanks for the warm welcome back! Good to see you round these parts again!

My knee is developing extra problems for some reason and it's annoying, but other than that I'm fine.

My pleasure, I enjoy your blog/thread very much.

Of course, I took it as a compliment, thanks

Thanks for all the thumbs!

OMG, I never got that before, haha! And I really hope I don't have her nose, lol!

lol, good point. I agree that we should have a focus on getting people off of things like food stamps, welfare, etc. Perhaps minimum wage should play a role, but I'm not convinced raising minimum wage will, alone, accomplish this. As for your point about places that have raised their minimum wage doing just fine, this effect would probably only show up if the raise covers the economic version of a social network (not sure if there's a term for that). Nonetheless, the effect on poorer rural communities would be drastic. Less resources to take the hit. And that's what I'm concerned about. I do agree minimum wage should be raised, but not everywhere. It would ruin some people's lifestyles to make others just easier.

As for the question of upward mobility, well that's a really tough one. I'm not very familiar with that topic, but from what I do know it is a very difficult problem. I recognize that upward mobility problems exist, but as far as I know, academia has only guesses as to the causes of this effect. I think the current direction is in broad social effects that, while light in a given instance, are persistent. People have tried mental state interventions, but only recently has it been recognized as those fail to deliver. The only thing I know that had an effect was extreme levels of intervention (children going to new families not in that situation, for example). We don't know enough in that area to fix it, and that I think is one of our greatest social hurtles. For capitalism to function like it should, we need the ability for people to competitively pursue upward mobility. Unfortunately, research shows that poverty restricts that capacity.

Hey you! *hugs*

...The number of jobs lost would be awful then for the government to start having to pay welfare, and there would be no jobs for these people to even find, and they don't have the money to move anywhere else.

Even more importantly, any increase to expenses that's put on the business to increase wage can just be passed on down the line to the consumer. That's likely what they would do because everyone's making more money then. Then we are back to square one as cost of living goes back up.


Sorry I talked so much, lol. Lots of concepts to go over in this area of discussion.

...Otherwise, minimum wage should be for high schoolers to see what it's like to have a job, and to get a little extra money, and for people who are between jobs but can work while looking for a new job.

To fit these requirements is to ground minimum wage in the cost of living and kind of work done. How that should be done (what algorithm to use for example), I don't know. I'm not familiar enough with economics.


Now this is to justify a different view of the minimum wage. In response to a blanket increase to minimum wage, recognize that small town businesses are crucial to maintaining rural communities. Bringing in money, employment, etc. Farming equipment makes employing on farms significantly smaller. Now, those businesses, even when they are big don't make a lot of profit. In my home town in the past ten years I've seen a good 5 or so businesses shut down cause they didn't have enough money. Well, one cause of a fire and no insurance. And that's just the ones I knew about (I was very young 10 years ago, lol). They paid people minimum wage, and I knew at least one of the owners, and she was NOT making a lot of money. My parents own a business in this small town, and they don't pay anyone minimum wage. But there's a lot of people that are well below $12 (and have a family of 3 or 4 with a decent house on that pay by the way). For really any business, your greatest expense is in salaries. My parents told me that on good years, (and just about every year for the past 20 years have been good years, until last year ) they give Christmas bonuses based on work, and money available. My parents, were they to raise the minimum wage, would have to do away with those bonuses, and probably cut back on employees to cover the increased expense. While we are large enough to take the hit, I know of at least 3 local business that would likely shut down.
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No one is supposed to live off of minimum wage though. Not if they want to support a family of four, have 2 cars, go to colleges, eat expensive foods and drinks (like eating out a lot) etc. I'm sure that there are some people who are honestly struggling and are hurt by the minimum wage, but I personally know several people who abuse and complain the system who waste a lot of money on luxuries.

But to take the discussion down this road, meaning "is the minimum wage (let's say $12 for arguments sake) fair", you will get yes and no answers necessarily. I think that they need to calculate minimum wage by cost of living. For example, minimum wage to even survive in New York (buying bare essentials, cheap food and housing, no family to support, and working full time plus overtime, etc.) almost certainly should be greater than $8.25 (Illinois minimum wage). However, minimum wage to even survive in a rural area like my home town? You could get by at $5 or lower if you are moderately smart. However this isn't a question of surviving, so is a question of reasonable living. That would involve what purpose minimum wage should serve. I don't think it's what people should plan to live off of, but suppose the lowest class of people to be those who go immediately into the workforce out of high school, have no professional skills, and pick up basic menial labor. Suppose even that for some reason they are incapable of upward positioning. We should in such a case ensure that person can live a life on that funding. However, no one should expect to feed a family of 4 or 5, pay for all of their colleges, have two or three cars, and own a nice two story house on minimum wage. It's unfair to those people that actually deserve to be paid more than those people (high school drop outs as compared to, say, 2 years of community college to pick up welding, etc.).

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Oh thanks my friend ^_^
It's ok. take your time. I'm thankful cuz of that already

You are amazing Thank you!.

I'm doing alright right now. Nothing Like spending the holiday with those that are truly important to put a perspective on things

Apologizes bout answering so late
David Bowie was the 1st thing that attracted me to your profile
Even before you said Hi

Thanks ^_^

Hi there. Hope you have been well

Life is just peachy!... NOT! I put my ex husband in jail again, and probably going to keep my son away from him entirely now.
I have only been limited by my colleagues on how often I can get online. it wont stop me.
The readings make a lot of sense. They have the whole time. Its looking at the actions of the others around me, that I had to do. I have decided to return to my hermit lifestyle. I guess at least that way, I know no one is lying to me, or leading me on.

Hello!!

Totally agree. I felt toxified from it actually, lol.

Hang in there ^_^ best thing you can do
The same. I'm ok ty