202 replies to this topic

[luvsmyncis]

The good news is I finally was able to get a refrigerator 6 months ago. It's a small dorm one that was on sale at Target, but hey. I've had countless bologna sandwiches since. I never told anyone that I'd been for years without one, because I didn't want people to look down on me. It's amazing having a fridge, guys. Now I know how rich people feel.

[Futurama]

The good news is I finally was able to get a refrigerator 6 months ago. It's a small dorm one that was on sale at Target, but hey. I've had countless bologna sandwiches since. I never told anyone that I'd been for years without one, because I didn't want people to look down on me. It's amazing having a fridge, guys. Now I know how rich people feel.

 

 

Now you can move onto your next purchase...

 

 

[talbs]

The good news is I finally was able to get a refrigerator 6 months ago. It's a small dorm one that was on sale at Target, but hey. I've had countless bologna sandwiches since. I never told anyone that I'd been for years without one, because I didn't want people to look down on me. It's amazing having a fridge, guys. Now I know how rich people feel.

 

Hey just because you are "not poor" doesn't mean you're rich. Don't go feeling like you've caught up with the Jones' just yet.

Edited by talbs, 18 September 2014 - 11:24 AM.

[luvsmyncis]

Hey just because you are "not poor" doesn't mean you're rich. Don't go feeling like you've caught up with the Jones' just yet.

I got an iphone too, bitches.

I earn more than minimum wage, though. Now that I've been with the company for over 10 years. I get to wear an ugly polyester vest now. It was quite lucky my dead father's parents were well off and were able to buy this house for my family, otherwise I'd be living at my maternal grandpa's house. You wanna talk about poor? He served 30 years in the army. And he's hispanic. Ew. I feel poor just thinking about him.

[Sweeney]

I know that's what you said. So if not being able to afford a "luxury" that even the poor seem to own (which was one of several examples I used to describe my financial situation at the time) doesn't mean I am poor, then what does? Obviously my examples don't suffice.

What does mean you're poor?

Working 16 hours a day so your kids can eat. Giving up time with them to keep them alive. Skipping meals to pay your rent. Driving a car into the ground because you can't afford the $100 it would cost to repair it, and then being fucked because you sure as shit can't afford a new car, and winding up spending 2/3 of your wages on public transport, plus the childcare you need because you can't get home in time to pick your kids up from school. Poor is not being able to apply for a job that requires a callback, because your home phone got cut off last week. Wearing the same clothes for a week, because you have to spend your change on the bus, instead of the laundromat. Having to spend more money on preprepared food, because you don't have the time at home to cook. Dealing with people who think you're a piece of shit, because you work at McDonalds. Poor is treating yourself to a bottle of perfume on your birthday, from the consignment store. Poor is going to the pub after work for their cheapest beer because holy shit anything is better than going home.

Poor is deciding whether to trade your sanity for an extra loaf of bread next week.

[luvsmyncis]

What does mean you're poor?

Working 16 hours a day so your kids can eat. Giving up time with them to keep them alive. Skipping meals to pay your rent. Driving a car into the ground because you can't afford the $100 it would cost to repair it, and then being fucked because you sure as shit can't afford a new car, and winding up spending 2/3 of your wages on public transport, plus the childcare you need because you can't get home in time to pick your kids up from school. Poor is not being able to apply for a job that requires a callback, because your home phone got cut off last week. Wearing the same clothes for a week, because you have to spend your change on the bus, instead of the laundromat. Having to spend more money on preprepared food, because you don't have the time at home to cook. Dealing with people who think you're a piece of shit, because you work at McDonalds. Poor is treating yourself to a bottle of perfume on your birthday, from the consignment store. Poor is going to the pub after work for their cheapest beer because holy shit anything is better than going home.

Poor is deciding whether to trade your sanity for an extra loaf of bread next week.

 

Oh BOO HOO.

An extra $2 an hour, $80 a week, $320 a month isn't going to help... wait a second. Yeah, an extra $320 would be like fucking heaven, actually.

[Mishelle]

Also for the record no one is saying to just jump from $7.25 to $15 every state and county that has decided to raise the minimum wage has set up a system where it gradually increases over the course of years. Paying your workers 1 or 2 dollars extra every year isn't going to tank the entire business.

[NapisaurusRex]

I'm not being obtuse, I just believe your "facts" arent true. How can you say that anyone with a minimum wage wage job in a city does not have livable wages? How the hell do these people live then? 

They work til they die and then they die in debt. I don't understand what you're saying here.

[Eagles]

 

They work til they die and then they die in debt. I don't understand what you're saying here.

 

Sounds like the majority of the population. So now the people working minimum wage jobs shouldn't have debt? Because i'm pretty darn sure the majority of the middle class has a great deal of debt as well. 

[NapisaurusRex]

Sounds like the majority of the population. So now the people working minimum wage jobs shouldn't have debt? Because i'm pretty darn sure the majority of the middle class has a great deal of debt as well. 

Yes, but there's a difference between building a retirement fund and choosing to die working and dying working because you had to buy food. There's a difference between being in debt for something tangible like a house and being in debt for electric. 

[Mizk]

Sounds like the majority of the population. So now the people working minimum wage jobs shouldn't have debt? Because i'm pretty darn sure the majority of the middle class has a great deal of debt as well. 

Like Napiform said, poor people are in debt because they had the audacity to want food, shelter, or wamth during the winter. Middle class people are in debt because they wanted a 2 story house instead of a 1 story house, or because they wanted a pool in their backyard

EDIT: It wasn't exactly what Napi said, and I don't want to put words in her mouth

Edited by Mizk, 18 September 2014 - 06:16 PM.

[DonValentino]

No one said anything about my Wal-Mart post and I spent six minutes looking up figures and doing math

[NapisaurusRex]

No one said anything about my Wal-Mart post and I spent six minutes looking up figures and doing math

Sorry, I've been doing a lot of skimming cause I feel like there's been a lot of repetition.

I don't have a job right now, that was my point. I think you're vastly overestimating the amount of people that will lose their jobs. At my previous job, there were four employees besides the owner, and his mother (who still gets a paycheck). Oh, and the accountant that came in once a week to do payroll. Would you say that's a good example of a small business? I know for a fact that he could have afforded to pay me $10/hr, and business would not have suffered in any recognizable manner. (What I mean by that is that he would of course be profiting less, but it would be negligible, and the extra $2 I would have been making would have improved my life vastly compared to the amount it would negatively effect his). 

 

Now take a business like Walmart. Do you think they wouldn't be able to pay their employees $10/hr? In the United States, they have 1.4 million employees (1% of the entire working population!) and 2.1 million worldwide. Guess what their NET profit was last year. Here, I'll tell you: 17B (their gross income was 117B lol) If they paid all 1.4 employees $10 ($20,800) instead of $7.25 ($15,080/yr), they would be spending $8B more a year, assuming all their employees work 40 hours a week 52 weeks a year for 7.25. Imagine the purchasing power of all those employees that could now afford better things. A majority of that money would go right back into Walmart's pockets anyway! The higher ups might not get such large salaries/bonuses, but from the perspective of the American economy, it's much better to put that money in the hands of all those people than a select few elites. 

You did a fantastic job with googling. Now imagine how much less time you'd have to do this if you had a job.

[Eagles]

How do you suppose that wal*mart can afford to essentially lose half of their profits? 

[Eagles]

If you think that the increase in wages is all going to go right back into their pockets because of increased consumer spending power... youre wrong. As mentioned in many of the "sob" stories previously... the money would not be going to a walmart. 

To say that the increase in wages would make a significant impact on their net profits would be quite exaggerated.. There are millions of places for these people to spend their money. And what about the workers that would have been already receiving $10 an hour? Must you increase their wages? Or should their higher ranking job be reduced to a minimum wage job? Im sure that would go over well

[Norava]

I don't think minimum wage should be ridiculously high, but I feel that you should be able to live a decent life (not just scraping by 24/7) off of minimum wage.

[NapisaurusRex]

But then the profits will go back to them because more people will have more money to buy from Walmart...

It wouldn't be to buy from walmart, it'd go toward paying bills, debts, gas, and food.

[Mishelle]

If you think that the increase in wages is all going to go right back into their pockets because of increased consumer spending power... youre wrong. As mentioned in many of the "sob" stories previously... the money would not be going to a walmart. 

To say that the increase in wages would make a significant impact on their net profits would be quite exaggerated.. There are millions of places for these people to spend their money. And what about the workers that would have been already receiving $10 an hour? Must you increase their wages? Or should their higher ranking job be reduced to a minimum wage job? Im sure that would go over well

http://www.cbsnews.c...mart-execs-pay/

I think Walmart will live.

[luvsmyncis]

It wouldn't be to buy from walmart, it'd go toward paying bills, debts, gas, and food.

Food from Walmart.

[NapisaurusRex]

Food from Walmart.

I dunno what it's like in Texas, but food here isn't cheapest at Walmart.

[luvsmyncis]

Everything is cheaper at Walmart.

[Frizzle]

Including slave labour.

[Grimley]

The costs of living vary from state to state and city to city. If the point of raising the minimum wage is to provide a “living wage,” why should the minimum wage in areas such as Billings, Montana and Laramie, Wyoming be the same as areas such as Manhattan, New York or San Francisco, California?

 

What you said is EXACTLY how my husband and I feel about the issue...after all, a "living wage" is monstrously different from one locale to another; we both cringe every time the whole supposed living wage language is used in any argument about this whole thing.

[Legitboi]

It wouldn't be to buy from walmart, it'd go toward paying bills, debts, gas, and food.

 

 

same here..... i have to pay alot of debts..... and i live in singapore.

[Eagles]

 

Okay, rant- For those fast food employees striking for $15 an hour, let’s do some math. At $15 an hour Johnny Fry-Boy would make $31,200 annually. An  E1 (private) in the military makes $18,378. An E5 (sergeant) with 8 years of service only makes $35,067 annually. So you’re telling me, Sally McBurgerflipper, that you deserve as much as those kids getting shot at, deploying for months in hostile environments, and putting their collective asses on the line every day protecting your unskilled butt?! Here’s the deal, Baconator, you are working in a job designed for a kid in high school who is learning how to work and earning enough for gas, and hanging out with their equally goofy high school pals. If you have chosen this as your life long profession, you have failed. 

 

I literally just saw this same thing quoted word for word on a website. You don't copy things word for word from a website and claim them to be your own thoughts when you are having a debate, especially claiming that it was your own rant