Will America ever pay its workers a living wage?

[theworldismine13]

they have a shortage of "skilled" labor, I'm talking about simply working at McDonalds

It's the same difference

 

[theworldismine13]

This is exactly why illegal immigration is bad, because the influx of laborers, depresses wages...

Exactly, but motherfukers act like I'm starting a race war by pointing out simple economic principles

We do need immigration cuz we don't want to have a stagnant population like European countries have but immigration has to be within reason

 

[acri1]

Why is 10$ reasonable and 15$ isn't? Or is it reasonable in some areas of the country and not others? I think there could be some algorithm that adds in a bunch of factors that determines the "living wage" of an area, hell, America is so diverse in terms of cost of livings we'd damn near have to go county by county. 10$ an hour goes way further here in Louisville than it does in California or New York.

I agree...I was just using $10/hr as an example.

It'd be reasonable to maybe index it to the cost of living in your state or something like that.

 

[DEAD7]

The ease in which one economy/nation is placed side by side with and compared to a completely different economy nation, never ceases to amaze...

But a good start would be stating clearly what this "living wage" is...

 

[You Win Perfect]

Random reply but thought it might relate.

I was talking to an old head the other day (he likes to randomly start venting about how shytty america is). He said when he was 16 in the late 60's he left high school, learned a trade (for free) and got a good job at 16. He also got drafted to the Vietnam War.Then in the 80's America started replacing these skilled laborers with less skilled laborers (paying them far less of course) when computer automation started coming thru and he got layed off. And is barely making it.

Long story short: He was basically saying that all these years of school are a waste and we should be allowed at any age to learn a trade and work without going thru decades of school and in debt up to your head.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Doesn't really seem realistic for our economy, IMO. But I don't see any reason not to have a reasonable min wage like $10/hr or something.



That's not a realistic solution either...you give everybody a Master's Degree and you're just gonna have nyggas with Master's Degrees working at McDonalds. You can give people all the education and skills you want but there never going to be enough "well-paying" jobs for everybody. There are always going to be people working these types of jobs.

I'd say the best we can do is have a decent social safety net and socializied healthcare so that people have access to basic necessities regardless of income.

I agree that socialized healthcare is a great idea. But a social safety net is a bandaid for a broken economy. There are pockets of growth going forward, and IMO the govt should be pushing and equipping folks w/o direction into those fields; or at least equipping them with the basic skills needed to be an effective participant in the global economy. I'd rather have free higher education than more safety nets.... the safety net as a permanent fixture is a downward economic spiral.

 

[Robbie3000]

I'm not even sure what you mean by full employment, or what that means, so I never said that, what I said is that most Europeans countries including Germany have labor shortages, if you have a shortage of labor you have higher wages

There is no reason for wages to rise if you have excess workers

On the other hand a lot of European countries have stagnant economies and high unemployment

On the other hand they have dying populations because of low immigration

The point is there is no win win, there is a cost to everything

Full employment is defined as anything below 4.2 unemployment rate. Currently Germany's unemployment rate is above 5.0.

Therefore they have access supply of labor rendering your point mute especially since we are talking about low skilled workers.

 

[theworldismine13]

Full employment is defined as anything below 4.2 unemployment rate. Currently Germany's unemployment rate is above 5.0.

Therefore they have access supply of labor rendering your point mute especially since we are talking about low skilled workers.

its well known germany has a labor shortage http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...37c092-b66d-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_story.html

the skilled labor shortage combined with low immigration levels would obviously push the low skilled wages up

 

[tmonster]

no, because the world would end

 

[Liquid]

Of course they will. We live in the greatest country in the world!

 

[MidwestD]

a friend of mine is traveling over Europe, they discovered through inquiry that McDonalds workers in Germany start out making around 600$ a week, free healthcare etc. All I see in this country are people complaining that fast food workers don't deserve more money, because they themselves aren't making a living wage. Don't you think everyone should be making a "living wage"? Would that not be a benefit to our society? Or will the fabric of our society completely collapse if we were to do such a dastardly thing?

The bolded is very true, but very rarely brought up. pos rep

 

[jaffejoe]

No

 

[kevm3]

of their own volition? No. And this trend of globalization will only exert a downward pressure on wages, as they can now ship off those 'knowledge jobs' overseas.

 

[Rarely-Wrong Liggins]

a friend of mine is traveling over Europe, they discovered through inquiry that McDonalds workers in Germany start out making around 600$ a week, free healthcare etc. All I see in this country are people complaining that fast food workers don't deserve more money, because they themselves aren't making a living wage. Don't you think everyone should be making a "living wage"? Would that not be a benefit to our society? Or will the fabric of our society completely collapse if we were to do such a dastardly thing?

Germany? Ain't them them Krauts in Europe my granpappy kicked their ass in dubya dubya two? They pay so damn good 'cause no one wants to live in fukking Hitlerland, not even a mexican or a colored. They HAVE to pay that much, ya heathen. But you just the type of librul dummocrat that BO Hussein loves godless and gunless. I'm not about ter let my boys grow up in some socialists "paradise." I'ma cling to my guns, my religion and cheap replaceable labor. I make 28,000 a year and I be DAMNED if some mexican or negrodial has a better standard of living than me. Ain't racist just damn American.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

a friend of mine is traveling over Europe, they discovered through inquiry that McDonalds workers in Germany start out making around 600$ a week, free healthcare etc. All I see in this country are people complaining that fast food workers don't deserve more money, because they themselves aren't making a living wage. Don't you think everyone should be making a "living wage"? Would that not be a benefit to our society? Or will the fabric of our society completely collapse if we were to do such a dastardly thing?

I disagree with the notion of a living wage being equal to minimum wage