http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/05/ ... index.html

I understand how many people (including me) reluctantly support the Democratic Party, but if there was ever a reason to not vote for the Republican Party, here's a nice, juicy situation for the average person to look at.

This is something straight out of The Onion. The God-fearing social conservatives will only help the poor if the wealthiest people in the country can get a massive tax cut during an era of enormous deficits.

yeah, its pretty awesome how the only way the minimum wage can go up (to $7.25, mind you) is if the estate tax on estates over 20 million dollars is cut.

minimum wage should not go up. ever.

It should go up but this is not the way to go about it.

You can argue all you want, but there are people at the place I work at who make well over minimum wage (between $6.50-7.50), work 40 hours every week of the year, and still only make 12 thousand dollars per year. That's not possible to live off of anymore.

Minimum wage & welfare should both be frozen until I don't see any more Direct TV dishes when I drive by the projects like I did today.

Most people who make minimum wage aren't primary wage earners.

[Kip]Like you could possibly know that[/Kip]

Belize minimum wage: USD 1.25 to cut sugar cane all day (45 hour work week)


but wait:
the tax system here is regressive, I.E. if you are poor, you don't pay taxes....

The American tax system is even better. If you work and make around 15K a year and have a child, you actually get back about 3K at tax time. I dont see how you could live on 15K, so its understandable, especially when we get raped at the pump/mailbox every week.

this is a seriously hot potato, but I have to say, i can see the problem with min. wage as a business owner. If it was higher, I would have less people working for me, and so there you have it, you can pick between higher unemployment or lower min wage
(colossal oversimplification alert)

No, youd probably just raise prices. The assumption will always be that you are 100% efficient and have exactly as many people as you need working for you and therefore cannot cut jobs and would be forced to raise prices accordingly....Therefore a vicious cycle.

Whoa, now. Back of the USPS. They are pretty self-sufficient, and only gets a small amount of tax money.

slingin' drugs is better than workin' at McDonalds i guess.

the big mac is a drug all its own, no? food addiction is the new new [insert drug here].

Didn't the Freakonomics guy, or someone similar, study the low-ranking drug slangers and calculate that the street level dealers actually make less than minimum wage?

No, no...as in bills (electric, gas, etc.)

Sorry to offend.

yep. read that, and honestly, the most common reason (for most) to deal drugs is so you get them for "free", so its a devolving ( in that you are tranferring power to your addiction) circle, no?

I make minimun wage, and I make less than 15K a year. As a single person, it is enough to live on as long as you you have no outrageous expenditures (I don't have a car or cable TV or home phone, and my water and sewer in included in my rent). However, it is healthcare that bites you in the ass, since jobs like mine don't offer any sort of benefits. Being a waitress pays the bills just fine. It DOES NOT, however, allow you the extra little bit required to go get some fillings or wisdom teeth pulled. Or the echogardiogram of my heart I'm supposed to have done every four years...

The only thing that really bothers me about the current system, though, is that if I were to screw up and get pregnant (out of wedlock), I'd be able to get federal assistance out the ass for things like this, but since I'm responsible and just a single, mid-20's, low-income employee trying to make enough to live on plus a little more to make it to comfortable status, I don't qualify for shit. I just hate that it's only those that have messed up that are given the breaks, you know? Why don't I deserve some help in getting the medical care I need? Or at least options for my heart medication that don't cost more than I can afford?

don't we pay less than any other country for gas per gallon?

low-ranking drug slingers (street corner, mostly drug addicts) maybe, but there sure seem to be a lot of folks in ghetto areas with Direct TV, Big Screen TV's, expensive clothing, and expensive vehicles.

how unfortunate.

I don't know what's going on in your cities, but in Cleveland, I don't see any poor people with satellite dishes, expensive clothes or $80,000 cars.

rent-tronics, baby, plus all the shit that you can pull out of the most recently spiralling meth-head's suburban split level...
I used to sell (carpeting) to apartment complexes in ATL, and I have seen some real nice electronics in some *unfavorable* apartments--- advertising---hell--rap in general preaches materialism to a broad audience, many of whom can not afford it, but feel compelled not to at least front to the best of thier ability.

sheeeeiiiiit.

down here, there are plenty of Ford Expeditions parked in front of shack housing projects. usually with spinning rims, dvd players, and bass for days.

My favorite is the door open so you can see the big screen tv and lawn furniture in the living room.

See, I was talking about this subject to someone at work the other day. He was arguing that if the price of minimum wage went up, then prices would go up. His thinking was that this was the same sliding scale as oil. I don't see it that way. I think if m.w. goes up, and prices for say, cds go up, retailers are shooting themselves in the foot. Wouldn't more people have expedible income, therefore they would spend more? Therefore retailers would move more units? If they raise prices, hypothetically you'd be at the same point, and isn't the point to actually sell?