Some conservative LTTEs regarding minimum wage: Stop spending so much, move, or get a better job

[alp227]

Last edited Mon Oct 1, 2012, 09:25 PM - Edit history (2)

I noticed this LTTE to today's local paper:

Not earning enough? Workers can relocate

I agree completely with Diana Doner ("Workers have forgotten how to live within means," Letters, Sept. 22), but would like to present an additional perspective. A capitalist society does not guarantee anyone any wage, fair or otherwise. If we are to enjoy the fruits of the system, we must also be ready to endure its harsh realities. If a worker feels that he is not being paid a living wage, he has the option of relocating to a place where the living costs are lower and/or the wages are higher. He can choose to live at the mercy of the others, or be proactive and shape his own destiny. All over the world, millions of people give up the security and comfort of their current home and move to faraway places to better their lives.

What's going on in my city is a ballot initiative to raise the city minimum wage from the state minimum $8 to $10. A poll taken in May 2012 found 56% support. However, the San Jose Mercury News editorialized AGAINST the initiative.

Doner's letter:

Workers have forgotten how to live within means

In response to Eileen Parker ("Too many workers lack a decent wage," Letters, Sept. 18), I have a different view of the success of the middle class in 1950. At that time the house was a very small bungalow and one American-made car. The wife did not work but she also did her own cleaning, painting, made the children's clothes and rarely if ever went out to dinner. This family did not want a house bigger than they could afford nor two expensive cars. They walked to the library and waited for Dad to come home to go to the grocery. They did not stand in line for the first TV; they waited years until they could afford to pay cash for it. They saved for Christmas, there was no credit card debt and people lived within their means. This lifestyle had nothing to do with unions.

The letter by Parker:

Too many workers lack a decent wage

In 1950, a man could own a house and a car without his wife having to work. The middle class was not rich, but there was enough food and clothing and people got by. In 1950, approximately 30 percent of workers were in a union. The wages steadily rose and the middle class could spend money when they were being paid a living wage.

Now only 7 percent of workers are in collective bargaining, and the vast majority of the middle class does not have a living wage even if they work. If one cannot buy groceries, one is not going to buy luxury items, and this closes business after business since the 1 percent is not spending money in small local companies and the other 99 percent are not earning enough to spend our economy back.

Every worker deserves a living wage.

So the writer of the 9/29 letter takes the Ron Paul/libertarian positions of "let the free market decide" (just ask the sweatshop workers making pennies an hour in Third World, low-regulation countries how that Free Market is working out) or "if you're poor, there's always charity". Regarding the part "be proactive and shape his own destiny", sure, good luck trying to pay for college through a minimum-wage job if you're trying to shape your own destiny with higher education.

Re the 9/22 letter: the middle class "had nothing to do with unions"? Plenty of evidence ties strong middle classes with strong organized labor. As Time magazine reported in a 1986 article "Is the middle class shrinking?" (http://web.archive.org/web/20071118070550/www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,962753-2,00.html):

It is the flip side of the middle-class exodus that has many liberal scholars in an uproar. Economist Barry Bluestone of the University of Massachusetts believes the shift in the U.S. economy from unionized, factory work to service-industry professions has brought a substantial loss of jobs with middle-class pay. The blue-collar jobs tended to be unionized, goes the argument, while the new service industries typically offer no such wage and , job protection. Says Michael Boskin, a professor of economics at Stanford: "Some sectors of the middle class that had implicit security in their jobs have been rudely awakened."

It's true back then that TV was a luxury back in 1950. The following decade, the television became a mainstream product though, as television service expanded beyond the big cities. And families could walk to the library? I think walking far distances was more common back in that time, and societies were generally safer and less afraid of being ambushed while walking.

Like TVs, credit cards became a mainstream item by the decade of the 50s. Sadly, as wages have lagged behind the cost of living (http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/606214/u.s._wages_are_stagnant,_while_cost_of_living_has_skyrocketed_--_and_it%27s_all_because_of_greed/), families have no choice but to pay for even food with credit cards.

[safeinOhio]

1. Rising tides raise all boats,

so double the minimum wage.

[Heather MC]

2. interesting

how people who have never had to live at the minimum wage think. I don't think they realize how good they have it because of minimum wage workers.

How good would the top hospitals be if they were never cleaned? Would they really be able to enjoy their favorite 5 star Restaurant without the dishwasher, waiter, cooks, host?

How much gas could they purchase if the attendant never came to work and turned on the pumps?

And who watches their kids and clean their houses if the minimum wage workers didn't exist?

these people wouldn't be able to wipe their asses without the minimum wage worker, because who would stock the shelves in the grocery store.


Without an army of people willing to do those service positions on a daily basis. There would be no luxury anything, no hotels, restaurants, hospitals, grocery stores, gas stations, first class on an airline, top notch spas, car washes. House cleaning. And my personal favorite no fast food joints. They should be grateful so many millions of people are willing to sacrifice on a daily basis to keep their asses looking good and smelling good.


No industry in this world runs without the benefit of people. So the people at "top" could stand to be a lot more fucking grateful for the ones below. Gratitude goes both ways.

[B Calm]

3. Republicans HATE working people!

It's all about Cheap Labor!

[Maraya1969]

4. As someone said in another thread, Europe has regulations about how much more the CEO

and top executives can make than their hourly employees. That keep the income gap from being too big. What we have here is top executives robbing from the till and giving the workers, who actually make the company work, peanuts.

It is thievery. And it needs to be known to everyone and something needs to be done about it.

Raising the minimum wage is a good start though.

[eurekaworkers]

5. California Has the Lowest Minimum Wage on the West Coast

Minimum Wage Factoids


Minimum Wage Factoids

62% of all Minimum Wage Workers are Women

“In 2011 more than 62 percent of minimum-wage workers were women compared to just 38 percent of male minimum-wage workers. Slightly more than 2.5 million women earn the minimum wage or less, while approximately 1.5 million men do. This imbalance is even more drastic once you consider that women were just 46.9 percent of all employed workers in 2011.”

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2012/06/women_minimumwage.html

2 of 3 Minimum Wage Employees Work for Large Profitable Corporations:

Two out of three low wage workers are employed by large corporations with more than 100 employees:

http://www.nelp.org/blog/entry/dol_issues_over_248000_in_penalties_to_walmart_supplier/

Raising the Minimum Wage is a Job Booster, Not a “Job Killer”

“A significant body of academic research has found that raising the minimum wage does not result in job losses even during hard economic times.

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2012/06/minimum_wage.html

$12.00 An Hour Will Raise A Worker Out of Poverty

A $12.00 an hour wage, while not a “living wage,” will lift a worker working 34 hours a week over the Federal poverty level for an individual in Humboldt County.

http://fairwages.org

The Gasoline Index 1968-2012

In 1968 an hour’s pay at minimum wage ( $1.60) would buy almost 5 gallons of gasoline (@ $0.33/ gal.) but today in Eureka an hour’s minimum wage ($8.00) will buy a little less than 2 gallons of gasoline (@ $4.37 per gallon.)

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html

Today’s Minimum Wage Worker is $7,000 Poorer Than a 1968 Worker

At $7.25 an hour, today’s full-time minimum wage retail worker, security guard, child care worker or health aide makes just $15,080 a year. Last century’s 1968 minimum wage worker made $21,944 a year, adjusted for inflation.

http://letjusticeroll.org/news/001216-raise-minimum-wage-raise-america

Worker Productivity Grew, Worker’s Wages Shrank

Worker productivity grew 80 percent from 1973 to 2011. The average worker wage fell 7 percent, adjusted for inflation.

http://letjusticeroll.org/news/001216-raise-minimum-wage-raise-america

The Reduction of Minimum Wage Value Has Cratered the Middle Class

In 2010, our nation’s economy was growing, but most Americans didn’t feel it because 93 percent of the income growth went to the richest 1 percent. The bottom 90 percent of Americans got none. It sure wasn’t always like that. Between 1938, when the federal minimum wage was first enacted, and 1968, when it peaked in value, the bottom 90 percent of households shared 69 percent of the nation’s income growth. The middle class was able to grow.

http://letjusticeroll.org/news/001216-raise-minimum-wage-raise-america

California Has the Lowest Minimum Wage on the West Coast

California $8.00
Oregon $8.80
Washington $9.04
Nevada $8.25

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._minimum_wages

Raising the Minimum Wage is Overwhelmi​ngly Supported by the Public

This June, a Zogby Analytics survey of likely voters found seven out of 10 supporting a raise above $10 an hour (including 54 percent of Republicans). Notably, 71 percent of young people (18 to 23 years old) favored it. Likewise, last November’s “American Values Survey” by the Public Religion Research Institute showed two-thirds of Americans in favor of a $10-per-hour minimum.

Jim Hightower http://www.nationalmemo.com/our-disgraceful-minimum-wage/

Defending the Community

$12.00 Minimum Wage for Large Employers

http://fairwages.org

http://eurekafairwageact.wordpress.com

email: [e-mail]

Get Involved, Your Skillset is Needed!

[starroute]

6. Minimum wage workers pay no federal income tax and are eligible for food stamps

Maybe somebody ought to ask these letter-writers whether they want their taxes to subsidize the ability of a Walmart to hire people at the minimum wage -- or if corporations and business owners ought to be asked to shoulder the expenses of their own businesses that are earning them billions.

[DotGone]

8. Many minimum wage workers do Pay federal income taxes and are not eligible for food stamps

Many minimum wage workers do Pay federal income taxes and are not eligible for food stamps. As a long time min wage worker, I know this first hand. A single adult with no children makes way too much money to qualify for SNAP. Only when children come into the mix would one qualify. This is an indication of how much a joke the poverty thresholds are. With EITC, the income cutoff for paying no fed income taxes is ~11K IIRC which is well below min wage. Again, what a joke. Those who think min wage living is great are sure welcome to try it. They're not going to last long.

[treestar]

7. Where is this paradise where wages are high and living costs low?

I'm sure if poor people knew where it was, they'd move there.

Smug assholes. They got theirs.