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Should We Raise the Minimum Wage? (Original Post) Quixote1818 Aug 2015 OP
Yes, we need to raise the minimum wage Hydra Aug 2015 #1
Amen on the visa programs. Old Crow Aug 2015 #4
I'm in IT too Hydra Aug 2015 #5
Pleased to meet you. Old Crow Aug 2015 #6
Nice to meet you as well :) Hydra Aug 2015 #7
No worries. Old Crow Aug 2015 #8
Ya, there's a silent but well funded movement that is trying to run elections on cult of personality Hydra Aug 2015 #9
We need mincome in this country. For everyone. onecaliberal Aug 2015 #2
~Whew~ Glad to see he came out in support of raising the minimum wage. Old Crow Aug 2015 #3

Hydra

(14,459 posts)
1. Yes, we need to raise the minimum wage
Sun Aug 16, 2015, 01:17 PM
Aug 2015

Or have a Guaranteed minimum income implemented. We also need to shut down visa programs that are being used to exploit workers.

Greed is not good. We need to throw out the RW economic models, because as usual, nothing they want works.

Old Crow

(2,212 posts)
4. Amen on the visa programs.
Sun Aug 16, 2015, 02:24 PM
Aug 2015

As an IT worker, I've seen the damage they've caused. By all rights, computer programming jobs could have and should have been a powerful engine for strengthening the American middle class. Instead, corporations have been allowed to game the system and depress wages at a cost of billions of dollars. It's criminal, really. Hillary Clinton's support of the H1-B visa program is one of my main issues with her and one of the reasons I'm supporting Bernie Sanders.

Hydra

(14,459 posts)
5. I'm in IT too
Sun Aug 16, 2015, 02:34 PM
Aug 2015

And I've had an absurd time trying to get and keep IT work. I had to jump through 3 different sectors since the 2008 crash to get back into my first profession. I've also seen abuse of J1 visas and read about the other more menial ones for temp workers.

It's crazy how badly employers want to be above the law.

Old Crow

(2,212 posts)
6. Pleased to meet you.
Sun Aug 16, 2015, 02:46 PM
Aug 2015

I've been noticing and enjoying your posts in other threads. How nice to learn you're a kindred spirit from the IT world!

Over a decade ago, on an online forum discussing IT work, I had an eye-opening moment. I was discussing the H1-B visa program with a visa holder who was over here from the Philippines. Nice guy, unquestionably. He was understandably delighted with the fact that he'd managed to get a position over here and that after just a few years' work, he'd be able to return home to the Philippines and buy a beautiful house staffed with a live-in maid with the cash he was stashing away. He was very plain-spoken, and wrote, "I can understand how you feel. Basically, your own country has sold you out."

Whoa. He nailed it. Amazing that even a foreigner benefitting from the situation is able to plainly see what's going on.

Hydra

(14,459 posts)
7. Nice to meet you as well :)
Sun Aug 16, 2015, 02:55 PM
Aug 2015

And that is pretty mind-blowing. I hope he did well here and was able to get home safely, I've seen a lot of people who came here trying to make it, and wound up leaving penniless due to employers screwing them or just simple cost of living here. Some of the J1s I knew were scrounging for food and living with 5+ people in whatever small place they could get.

Race to the bottom at its best.

I'm glad you like my posts- I get the feeling I rub a lot of people the wrong way, but being an activist is something I sorta always did, so can't seem to unlearn the habit

Old Crow

(2,212 posts)
8. No worries.
Sun Aug 16, 2015, 03:06 PM
Aug 2015

I've never been rubbed the wrong way by one of your posts (not yet, at least!). I look for posts that contain good observations, good insights, and good ideas. Yours qualify. Posts that I dislike are those that seem into personality worship--regardless of whether it's Hillary, Bernie, or Obama--or group-think. Logic rules. I guess that's the IT-person in me.

Hydra

(14,459 posts)
9. Ya, there's a silent but well funded movement that is trying to run elections on cult of personality
Sun Aug 16, 2015, 03:17 PM
Aug 2015

I remember reading something posted here a few years ago trying to push the idea that we try to relate to candidates and then adopt their policies, no matter what they are, and that should be the natural order of things. Basically, to the best salesperson goes the presidency.



Maybe I'm weird, but I need a little(ok, a LOT of) substance.

Old Crow

(2,212 posts)
3. ~Whew~ Glad to see he came out in support of raising the minimum wage.
Sun Aug 16, 2015, 02:17 PM
Aug 2015

Had he not, I can pretty much guarantee I would never have watched another of John Green's videos.

But, boy-o-boy, it seemed like stating that raising the minimum wage a small or moderate amount is probably a good thing was akin to getting him to pull out his own teeth: he did it, but it wasn't easy or painless.

Maybe it's just me. I've been shaking my head so long--30 years--about the abysmally low minimum wage and all the fallacious arguments presented against raising it that I have little patience for those only now figuring out the obvious.

On edit: Recommending because Green does present some interesting info here, particularly the study contrasting Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

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