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High-School Bathroom Cleaner: "$15/Hr Salary Will Change Everything"
Presented without comment...
My job is what’s called a “restricted” position — the California education code’s name for specially funded positions that can employ only people who meet certain conditions (they’re from impoverished areas or have disabilities, for example). Restricted workers have a set wage rate, which means I haven’t been able to ask for a raise, and I can’t earn overtime.
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"work is not the hardest part of my life. The hardest part is saying goodbye to my 4-year-old son when he asks me not to go to work again."
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The one thing that hasn’t been good about the job is the pay. When I started 10 years ago, I made $8.65 per hour; now I make $9.85 per hour.
But I just learned that’s going to change. SEIU Local 99, the union that represents me and more than 30,000 other school workers here, just negotiated a new contract that will raise my pay to $15 per hour by 2016. This is a big deal for the 20,000 of us who make the district’s lowest wages and are covered by the raises. It might be an even bigger deal around the rest of the United States, since $15 per hour is the goal of a movement in cities around the country to improve the lives of working people.
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I’m not exactly sure how my life will be at $15 per hour. I’ve never made that much money, and I’ve been doing custodial work since I was 15. I started out while I was still going to school myself, as a part-time custodian at St. Nicholas, a parochial school in the San Fernando Valley. Back then, in 1997, I was making $7.25 an hour. After I graduated from San Fernando High School, the parochial school offered me a permanent position, and I worked there for four years, eventually making $8.50 per hour. Later, I jumped to Van Nuys High.
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So a raise like this won’t just give workers more — it will give the district happier parents.
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Life's a garden Dig it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me4q2gWNKl4
Won't change nearly as much you think with $5/gal gas, $5 per loaf of bread, and the $150/month water bill.
If all goes as the Fed plans, inflation will have him poorer.
He's gone from $7.25 to $9.85 in the past 17 years...I'd say inflation has already kicked him square in the nuts.
But he doesn't know why his nuts hurt because he, as do most people, can't make the distinction between nominal and real gains.
The US Dollar - a changing measuring stick for the benefit of those at the top.
He doesn't know it. He has to be thinking...Look at the bigger numbers.
Assuming inflation at 4%/yr the last 17 years, his $15/hr is worth about $7.50. Assuming real inflation of about 10%+ (real inflation being things someone making his wages actually buys like food, fuel) his $15/hr is worth about $3. Congrats bud!
How long does it takes for someone to start looking for something new when there are no opportunities in the current job?
I'd say he spent 16 years and 6 months too long in that job.
What if that's all his brain is capable of?
Survival of the fittest, BITCHEZZZZ!!!!
Same guy in 2016.....Damn I'm making $5.15 more per hour but I can't buy as much as I could two years ago.
... and in the meantime, the safety net programs were all de-funded to make budget for the $15/hr wage hike.
Anyone thnks the common man is ever going to win one, is wrong. Just dead wrong.
If you can't beat them join them? Or marry one?
Instead of getting visas it will be to get .gov benefits.
Obama floods the country with illegals and new voters for a democratic 2016 win. Provides ample welfare and freebies as payback for voting.
Well, everything is about to explode in price offsetting your gains for being nothing more than a mediocrity accepting person who never dreamed to be more than a broom pusher. They have numerous programs to increase education and job possibilities.
So now, what about paramedics - a skilled profession with a lot of responsibility and risks - who make $15 a hour? What now? Let them keep getting paid the same as a janitor? Or bump their salary up to $30? The problem is not the lower end pay scales, it's the upper end. People who are making $500k, $2 million a year do not provide that much value add. Shrink the top end pay scales..... something tells me that will solve a lot of problems...
Good GOD, man... Who would create the jobs?
I'm curious as to the down votes....
Help me learn, what is wrong with my comments? My general thought was the wage gap... such a gap in dollars, yet in my opinion not an equal gap in contribution. Honestly asking.
This is a libertarian site (mostly). The rich are viewed as being more superior humans (which is judged by the amount of money you are able to accumulate). This applies to all humans EXCEPT those who are suspect - in ANYWAY - from benefitting from Fiat money (unless, the benefits are indirect enough where the human benefitting wasn't aware if the connection to The Fed - this might takes a ruling from the Libertarian Council). Those who are NOT rich are expected to "know their place".
So, in summary. Survival-of-the-fittest, Bitchezzzz!!!!
My understanding is back-in-the-day, a typical CEO made 40x the average worker. Now it is what 400x? 4,000x? The point being is that I doubt the contribution of a CEO has risen that much - instead they have just figured out how to withdraw that much more money out of the worker....
You pose good questions. Assuming down voters to be "libertarian" is incorrect as I am Libertarian and have posed the same questions. Do doctors make 500K up from 350K? It's BS just to throw the extra hourly yet the rest of us get to suck it.
Perhaps, if you'd think like a Libertarians for a moment, you'd understand that the CEO is a more superior human and deserves whatever the free-market (via the board of directors) is WILLINGLY giving him in exchange for his superior abilities (and genetics).
The worthless scum humans on minimum wages are genetically inferior and should be willing to eliminate themselves - AND their worthless DNA bling - from the society.
Japanese CEOs make 16x average worker's salary. That's deflation for you.
Now you know why inflation matters.
Today the truly rich have gotten their wealth through unconstitutional legislation. Even those that started out as producers. In a true Libertarian's world the only possible way to get rich is by a mutually beneficial transaction (helping people). The richer you got, the better off everyone else would be.
you just gotta shine on over the downvotes, dude. the voting thing is corny anyway. just 'speak' your peace. that's all anyone can do.
Poor guy probably doesn't know that that extra cash will probably nix some of the benefits he gets now.
Wonder who he voted for?
Enjoy the new competition! There will be also a lot BS, MS, PhD bathroom cleaners for $15/hr.
It will sort of be Good Will Hunting at every school.
Some of them Polish Cleaning Ladies were MDs in the home country.
..The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation.. nothing has changed.
What they don't realize is a rising tide of regulatory decree sinks all boats moored fast to the harbor.
The free market forces which raise all boats are by definition in direct conflict with regulatory manipulation, the sad part is thanks to regulatory malpractice the lower quintile is stuck in poverty with no means of escape, what's worse they are foolishly led to believe more regulation is the way out.. it probably won't end well.
Well, what about those self-regulation banks?
I guess that means California lifeguards will be wanting a raise.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/20/lifeguard-pay-200g-riles-california...
This guy translated:
"I did nothing to deserve this raise. I didn't work harder or better. I didn't train myself or set goals. I just got it. So the system has now reinforced the undesired behavior. And before this job, I never thought of doing the things that would get me more money, and I certainly won't now. Oh, and I also have no comprehension whatsoever how raising the minimum wage to such an outlandish number is going to ripple out and affect everything around me."
The poor ignorant bastard doesn't understand that he REALLY DIDN'T GET A RAISE. The school he went to didn't teach that. The TV program he watches doesn't talk about that. His union wants him to believe that they're getting him a raise to justify their existence. All lies and BS.
$15 an hour? Factoring in inflation, you're making less than ever.
Keep in mind, The Fed wants a lot more inflation. In the back of my mind I've been wondering how they would get it. Well this might do the trick: get local and state governments to hike minimum (or in this case, restricted) wages and let the dumb money flood the market. Everyone is as happy as pigs in shit -- for about two years -- before inflation eats them alive and they are right back where they started except a lot of debt money just evaporated from the Fed balance sheet.
I'm a sick bastard, ain't I? You'd think I was a banker.
Wage inflation is not the kind of inflation they want. That would be bad detrimental to their fiat system.
You think they are trying to save the dollar?
I think they are working this every which way. If I were a One-Worlder I'd make it so the common man was indebted to the oligarches, and then I'd pull the plug on the whole thing.
Not that I am, mind you. Just say'n.
Wow! What an ignorant story. The school should just go out and buy a BR-18 battery power floor scrubber and replace 2/3 of their cleaning staff. That way, Raul will have a lot more time to stay home with his kids and watch tv.
If you always do what you've always done
You'll always get what you've always got
Wait until he finds out he Still can't live on $15 an hour after tax deduction.
California is financially unsustainable. Public sector unions own this 'burg. On Monday, public employees will no longer be able to "spike" their pensions with unused sick and vacation leave. As a result, here in Contra Costa county alone, 85 (many cops) are going to retire by Friday. In addition (I made mention of this @ ZH last week), I'm 64 and I still work. Guy directly across the street from me...50 year old steel worker been on disability for 7 years. I get to watch him do brake jobs in his driveway for side money. Guy to the left of me...sheriff's deputy, same age as the steel worker.....full disability but apparantly has enough money to collect vintage '60s chrysler imperials. 4 of them in his backyard. To the right of me...cashier with a bad back...full disability. On a positive note, at least all she does is stay fucked up on pain pills. So there it is. The California Dream. Only ones being left out of it are private sector producers. If I wasn't living it.....I wouldn't believe it.
Es hora de jubilar, Viejo.
All the 50 states are using Fed company scrip paper.
None of it is sustainable.
i guess if he were smart, when he gets his $15/hr, this janitor will accidentally slip on the bathroom floor and get disability.
hey, if minimum wage is so good, just pay everyone a million dollars.
One thing that amazes me about this story is the fact that anybody in California is making $9.85 per hour. Here in Indiana our local McDonald's has a sign out "Now Hiring Starting Pay at $9.00 per hour". Speaks volumes for being so close to an open border.
Screw the naysayers. I hope this guy does get his raise, and that he gets to do some fun things with his kid before the whole thing comes crashing down.
A society that can "afford" 100 million dollar CEOs can cough up a lousy 15 dollars an hour to someone who has to actually WORK for his money.
Take the kid to the movies, buy him some great toy he's always wanted, but was not affordable before, whatever.
Oh, and did I forget? Screw the naysayers. Time to let some of the great unwashed enjoy a little largesse.
Open up your checkbook then and get to writing! Buy him a car too. Share the largesse....
A society doesn't "Afford" $100 MM salary for CEOs, companies that see value [correctly or not] in spending their own company money [unless of course they are parasites like GM, than it is US taxpayer money] do.
Menial labor is not the only type of labor in existance. Otherwise teachers, Dr's, researches and so on, never worked a day in their lives.
In USA if someone is "unwashed", 99% of the time because of their choice to remain so. However, if someone would like to enable them to enjoy a little largeesse, that someone is certainly free to spend his/her own money. Or better yet, help the "unwashed" aquire the skills beneficial to society and free up the entry level job to some kid while s/he is working to increase his/her ability to contribute to society.
Good day.
I suppose you are a sayin' that if we put folks like you in charge, you will fix things by redistributing the wealth, eh? Yeah, that's the ticket--the government should just steal someone else's money to give to that guy. And if that doesn't work, heck, just set mandatory wage limits. And, back to reality, that's been tried and it fails. Communism, RIP, and hopefully soon in this nation.
I suppose you are a sayin' that if we put folks like you in charge, you will fix things by redistributing the wealth, eh? Yeah, that's the ticket--the government should just steal someone else's money to give to that guy. And if that doesn't work, heck, just set mandatory wage limits. And, back to reality, that's been tried and it fails. Communism, RIP, and hopefully soon in this nation.
I suppose you are a sayin' that if we put folks like you in charge, you will fix things by redistributing the wealth, eh? Yeah, that's the ticket--the government should just steal someone else's money to give to that guy. And if that doesn't work, heck, just set mandatory wage limits. And, back to reality, that's been tried and it fails. Communism, RIP, and hopefully soon in this nation.
I suppose you are a sayin' that if we put folks like you in charge, you will fix things by redistributing the wealth, eh? Yeah, that's the ticket--the government should just steal someone else's money to give to that guy. And if that doesn't work, heck, just set mandatory wage limits. And, back to reality, that's been tried and it fails. Communism, RIP, and hopefully soon in this nation.
Got news for you
The government is already restributing the wealth.
Maybe it's time it went to those who deserve it rather than the white collar thieves
Bemused... Behind your comments 100%. This site is full of apologists for the ultra rich, you know the kind that would gladly stab another in the back to enrich themselves. Don't expect any sensible commentary from that type.
I believe government is responsible for preventing people of simpler minds from being exploited. I think even those with better minds need protections as well. While the governments have failed to provide those protections for the most part, in this case I think they have done the right thing.
Thank you ss...I DO get called names a lot here, like "communist", etc...which makes me laugh, because I'm anything but.
And I'm not anti-rich, but I DO believe that those blessed with good fortune should appreciate what they have, and not begrudge those with even less for wanting a share too. MY way would be to employ those folks, and PAY them enough so that they aren't forced into dependency.
What the hard-asses don't seem to grasp is that they ARE paying for these folks, and will CONTINUE to pay one way or another. So, denying them the ability to be self-sufficient actually CAUSES the whole welfare-mentality these folks decry!
My "communist" ideas would actually put them to work instead of just sending them a check. But, my way is harder, and requires more work. WORK is what the hard-asses don't want to do, or pay others to do.
If the janitor really cared about providing for his children, he wouldn't have brought them into the world while living in California on $9.85 per hour.
Right, because ALL children are planned...
Advice like yours is worse than useless.
Your emotional arguments are useless. People who don't plan their families based on what they can afford to provide for their children either don't care how the children will live or expect for other people to pay their expenses.
He should move to Mexico or Central America... Lower inflation and I hear all the Janitors are relocating north.
Why don't they cut the teacher's salary/benefit instead and spread it to the non faculty staff.
Any class being taught that doesn't require thinking like Math or Math Sciences should capped. Teaching electives to elementary school or a high school shop teacher shouldn't net you a 6 figure salary...
This guy works harder than a lot of the adminstrative staff.
The irritating thing is, this article wasn't written by him, but some policy-driving group somewhere by a copywriter making $100k from grant money.
Exactly, the grammar is way too good for a $15.00/hr Mexican janitor. If he did write it he's just too lazy to get a better job. He could be writing policy for the Obama administration with sentance structure like this.
Last sentence of the article. Written in a partnership with an advocacy group (Leftist, no doubt) practicing humanities journalism. Aka leftist propoganda.
And suddenly the problem comes into focus.
Yes, he's one of the below average inferior humans.
Human worth does not originate from job related skils level.
But pay most of the time does.
Possibly. He could just be unambitious. Ignorant of economics, definitely.
Y'see if everyone's wages were raised by any signifcant amount regardless of inflation------ real inflation in the survival commodities------ those commodities would rise in price to eat up all his 'raise' and if I know anything about the sellers in a wage inflationary economy, they will add another 10% to price increases because the opportunity to do so universally can hardly be challenged.
You can double everyone's income and all you will get is higher priced goods and services. Back to square one.
It is only possible for a "Segment" to get a mininumum wage hike and have it result in an increase in that segment's standard of living, and we can see the result of that in the Steelworkers' and Auto unions. It eventually destroyed Detroit, the valleys of Allegheny and other counties, in W. Va. Pa, and Ohio, while auto workers were making twice what their neighbors who didn't work in autos made. So union workers made out at the expense of their friends, relatives, and neighbors.
It's called stealth exploitation.
No, No. You have it all wrong. It's the good kind of inflation, demand pull. It floats all boats. Everyone will have so much money that instead of buying Skippy peanut butter they can upgrade to Jiff.
Put down your guns. In a society which pours publicly-schooled brains full of crap like self-esteem and entitlement, the message of gaining skills to increase the value of your labor fails. No skills = not much pay. That doesn't mean that there are not opportunties, e.g., to become a supervisor, but the damage done to the economy by centralization and PhD-dweebs being given the ropes has resulted in slim pickens for advancement. If America ever wakes up and humbles itself to the truth that men cannot direct the economy or the weather, things might improve. The only ones that keep bringing up the view of inferior are folks like you. But perhaps it does make one feel mighty righteous.
He could be handicapped
What does society do with those who are incapable of taking care of themselves for whatever reason?
Lock them up or gas them?
If those who could take care of themselves would, we could easily afford to take care of those who truly can't.
Apparently thats not going to happen until we start taking heads.
Socialists usually gas them since the results of their policies are a shrinking pie and somebody has to go in that situation.
some people around these parts celebrate if they have a "handicapped" child. bene's for life. a winner in the linthead lottery.
I call B.S. on this article. While it may be possible that he excelled in English as a student, I just don't often see highly articulate, persuasive people making under $10/hour.
My argument is that these could not be direct, uninterpreted quotes of what this individual actually said. It was "cleaned-up" to build empathy with the readers.
Had someone read what he ACTUALLY said, there may have been less inclination to support this wage hike. For example, instead of saying:
He actually said:
It's all media manipulation to fit someone's agenda.
Good catch on the meta-meaning. Yeah it was probably heavily edited, that's not uncommon when one is trying to create a sympathetic character.
I use the word "character" deliberately. I write fiction and create "characters". Since it is fiction, it is perfectly acceptable. But when the MSM starts creating "characters" you gotta wonder where they are headed with that. Sometimes they'll do it to "make" a story, meaning there was no actual event or anyone involved as reported, they just made the whole thing up. Same as I do when I set out to write fiction.
Of course my characters have wings and set people on fire -- or eat them -- so it's pretty clear why I have to "create" them. Not like I'm bucking for a Pulitzer Prize or anything with my "character".
I may have read your work, I spent a lot of unproductive time in my youth reading about such things. If so then all 'characters' have a story and just because you didn't create it donesn't make them uninteresting or un-noble.
The most loved characters are not those who are the strongest or the smartest, but those who persevere through challanges we as the reader would rather they not choose to do.
This is all starting to look like a replay of the late 70's. If devaluation can't be jawboned into existence, an attempt will be made to create it through minimum wage hikes, some sort of engineered oil shortage and big labor walkouts.
There is already a drought to act as scapegoat for rapidly rising food prices, and an excuse to exponentially increase EBT, supporting prices.
And Janet is beginning to resemble a cornered Mongoose lately.
Do we sense an acceleration toward that brick wall down the road there?
I lived those times as a young man cleaning toilets for my first three jobs. The only saving grace was that I worked my butt off, lived on peanut butter sandwiches and generic mac n cheese in th box, and saved every penny I could. Thanks to the rising interest rates, as well, at least I benefitted from CDs with interest in the double digits, enough to compensate for inflation and pay out a bit. It was still possible with to improve your status as those dollars bought a hell of lot more than they do today, adjusted for inflation.
Mac n' Cheese in the box, is the BEST of them all. I am still grateful to eat it once a week, a great treat.
It is one of the 4 main food groups so don't knock it. You too should be thankful it was invented.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmac n' Cheese.......
It's what's for dinner. Lunch or breakfast, too.
Blame and demonize the poor. ZH's favourite sport. If there was a World Cup of douchebaggery, ZH'ers and their allergic reaction towards minimum wage would earn 'em the top of the podium.
That's maybe putting it a little strongly -- but I have to agree with your general observation. I think it must be the Libertarian slant around here. I could comment more on that, but will not. It makes no particular difference anyway.
Just have to understand the view of a politically-correct society whose sometimes sincere but economically-misguided acts harm the poor and merely create another "crisis" for progressives to bravely address by taxing their neighbors to ease their consciences.
True, but not really the same thing.
Everything is tangled up. Anyone thinks it is this way or that way is deluded. It is every way from Sunday, now.
And updating workers wages to inflation actually harms the poor? Damn. It's like that other douchebag that said Blacks were happier being slaves.
He's the only dad that has to go to work? I bet I work at least 20% more hours per week than he does. The bottom line is I make the most of the limited family time I do have. Does he?
He's so tired from washing some floors, bo-ho. It's hard for me to feel sorry for him after years of doing things like hanging 5" rigid pipe in a hot power plant for 22 days straight while my family was on vacation without me. Shit happens, but it's becasuse of my work ethic that I never have to miss another family vacation and have the means to more than make it up to them.
Stop confusing poor with lazy.
And how do you know that guy is lazy? And you're not just ranting on the poor?
Emotionalism. The outfit that wrote it (listed at the bottom of the article) calls it humanities journalism. Aka leftist propaganda.
A lot of men go to work and their families don't know if they'll come back in one piece. But you won't see any articles about them.
The only demonizing that goes on is when posters jab ZH for being politically incorrect. Just ain't OK to ever discuss things about the poor, ya know. Might discourage them or bust their self esteem.
It's not about political correctness or not. Discuss about the poor all you want. But when you discuss it in the most douchebag way possible, then it's another issue.
Minumum wages rewards the inferior humans and allows them to survive and breed. Real Libertarians know that inferior humans should - when they realize what losers they are, should - remove themselves, and their DNA bling, from society. It's this inablity of the inferior humans to remove themselves from society that keeps us from acheving Libertarian Enlightenment and a fully competative society.
Oh Fuck off. I have put myself back through school for my masters by working a 50 hour a week job an saving up. You are what you make yourself. That's not about me caring less for my fellow human, that's about me caring more about my family.
Not precisely. If you're born into wealth, most probably you'll have it rich all your life. And you didn't do shit for that.
...and your are talking about 1% of the country. My father grew up poor Kentucky white trash with a dad that used him as a punching bag. He never hurt me and became a titan of industry on his own with no help. It can be done. I am not against helping in opportunity, I am against handouts to the point of futility, comfort and no desire to make things better.
Sure. It can be done. Or it could have been done... before. Nowadays, upwards social mobility in the US is mostly dead. Goes in hand with how all the benefits of decades of higher productivity ended up in the hands of the wealthy and not the workers.
so yeah, what my wife and i have done was done twenty years ago...not in the last 3 years.....you need some tissues?
You want this guy to have more money, send him some fucking money instead of continuing to erase what's left of the American job market for feel good politcal reasons that have no base in reality.
Well, we could have slave wages and there'll be a lot of job openings I guess.
dont care about it much, but when this facist obama has us back to the 70s what happens then. oh , b lame bush
Maybe then, ZH will do what it always do: blame the poor. Or when the combination of decades of Obamas, Bushes, Clintons, Reagans; takes you back to Feudal Times, and when you all end up poor... damn, who will ZH blame then?
don't look now but the percentage of employable adults that are actually employed is back to the 70's.
A $15 hourly wage will end most apprenticeship jobs that require training for industrial skills, such as the Machinist and Toolmaking trades.
If your industry can't keep their workers wages with inflation, then it might better just go away.
He was way better off in '97 making 7.25/hour.
He's not paid too little. The teachers and the lifeguards are paid too much.
So a 50% raise in two years. My labor costs are 65% of my production costs (industrial laundry) or about 30 cents per unit. Raising that to 45 cents per unit means a direct passalong to the customer. Their cost goes from 48 cents to 63 cents immediately and more by the time that raise filters through all my suppliers, utility costs, fuel and supplies that keep us operating.
Winter's coming, better take a lesson from the ants, grasshopper.
Boiling a frog. It all happens so slowly nobody notices. But over a generation it's gone. Peak oil is pretty much the end of all that, BTW. They've been inflating on expectations of stored energy, but no more. We're ZIRP and NIRP now forever. Or else we're in a deflationary death spiral. Watch for it.
And if he's into health food, that one hour of work, next year, will buy him a loaf of organic, non-gmo, gluten free bread.
Who in the hell would want to eat that? Also; there is no GMO wheat grown commercially in the US.
Many people have an intolerance to gluten, i.e. wheat allergy, non-celiacgluten sensitivity, and celiac disease, and they don't even know it, that's why many allergy sufferers are moving towards eating gluten free products.
"there is no GMO wheat grown commercially in the US."
Not Commercially, but it is "cropping" up here and there.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/05/30/187103955/gmo-wheat-found-in...
Nevertheless, In the hypothetical situation of my first post, the "loaf" in question, was "gluten" free (no wheat proteins), so it certainly could have GMO in it (corn) even if it is organic.
Most "gluten-free" foods sold in the USA contain genetically modified organisms.
Why is this so? Because the primary ingredient in most gluten-free foods is corn. And most corn-based foods are made with genetically modified corn. Around 85% of the conventional corn grown in the USA is genetically modified corn, and that corn is engineered to produce its own deadly insecticide right inside every grain.
When GM corn is harvested and made into gluten-free foods, the insecticide stays with it and resides in the gluten-free food. As a result, people who are buying gluten-free are often exposing themselves to the risk of toxicity from GM corn.
http://www.naturalnews.com/037494_gluten-free_GMOs_GM_corn.html#ixzz36uEtcU4v
As California goes, so follows the rest of America.
... Which is the #1 reason America is boned.
Too bad we can't kick California out of the country.
San Andres may provide the needed impetus.
+1 Political Refuge
For the Thoreau quote: " ..The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation.."
Henry was a Working Class Hero of mine.
Every student should be required to read "Economy," ONE Chapter of Walden at least, before graduation from high school.
Walden by Henry David Thoreau - Chapter 01-1 - Economy .Fuck off SEIU Local 99...
Better find another trade, your job will be displaced. Stop the liberal twist that your life will be better. For how long? Fucking saps. Have a look into your $15/hr future. How does it feel to vote for Hope & Change?
iRobot Braava 300 Series
Seriously? Watching that advert shouts genetic cul de sac to me.
I'd rather see this guy make $15 / HR doing the day to day tasks that keep any institution clean and habitable than some asshat administrator making $250,000 per year plus full pension for attending a few district meetings a year and getting kickbacks from vendors to supply such crap as ipads for each child or LCD display boards "for the children". Maybe the children really just need clean floors and toilets and a person they can look at and realize honest work = honest wage, and lifes not really going to be driving that $100,000 car to work being an educational profesional.
Very good points.
The janitor, trashmen, etc. do honest work. A-holes at the top pushing papers and slinging power frequently make things worse just to try to make themselves look good.
Got no problem with the guy making $15, $20, or $50 an hour, if that is the free market rate for that type of work. If someone dictates that that is going to be the rate, then I have a huge problem with that. By the way, I guarantee that the fatass $250k administrator is not making a free market wage. He was either elected, or appointed to the position and would be lucky to make $10/hr out in the real world.
You mean like the free market wages earned by steel and coal and textile workers in the 1880s? Yeah, I'll bet all those poor bastards went to sleep every night so proud to be propping up free market capitalism they could hardly contain themselves.
Ohhh thank you massah fo letting me live.
$40hr isn't life changing if you don't know what to do with it on top of getting taxed to death and the FED continually fucking you out of it's worth.
The only difference between a homeless bum and $15hr in CA is a roof over your head.
Amazing how some people think an extra $150 per week is life changing. I really have a hard time listening to people like that. I'm not trying to be an asshole but Eric Cartman is right "poor people suck".
His comprehension level must already have his mind picturing a brand new mercedes.
"His comprehension level must already have his mind picturing a brand new mercedes."
Sadly, no. More likely he's thinking he won't need a "payday" loan at the end of every month to pay the rent. Maybe, pay off his mom for that loan she gave him when the transmission on his car broke.
Try not to make people out as stupid. Everyone is trying, in their own way. I have three college degrees and 30 years in the technology industry, but that won't save me if the world comes apart in a bad way. I could end up down on my knees picking shit with the rest of the chickens. Not stupid, just couldn't zig-zag around the collapsing fortunes of a vanishing world.
Could happen to any of us. Maybe even, will happen to all of us eventually. Now is not too soon to learn some humility.
"Now is not too soon to learn some humility."
Aaaaamen!
An extra $150 per week translates to an extra $7,800 per year.
When you consider that the median household income in this country hovers around $50,000, many people would consider that a big deal, even after Uncle Sam takes a bite of it.
How the f*ck do you know what someone might be able to do for themselves if they had an extra $150 a week? Are you really that much of an arrogant prick....or do you just play one here on ZH?
tl;dr I am the epitome of poor decisions, having decided to raise a family despite making less than $10 per hour while living in the most expensive state in one of the most expensive nations on earth.
He probably has a PHD http://whenyouputitthatway.com/phd-graduates-working-as-janitors/
Why is it people don't see themselves as being easily replaced by a machine? $15/hr demanded for a job that's worth $8/hr = NO job very soon. Basic supply & demand is lost on the leftist mind.
It's sad that much of human knowledge is built on past knowledge but that never seems to be the case in economics where we make the same mistakes over and over forever and never learn a damn thing. There should be no minimum wage at all, nevermind raising it and if the market wasn't being raped by the government and the Fed, there wouldn't be a call for a minimum wage. It's like a person taking 50 types of medication, most of which is to counteract the side effects of the other medications, and then blaming nature when all he had to do originally is wait for his cold to go away.
Well, past experience shows us that without a minimum standard, it's a race to the bottom.
Bravo!! And while we're at it why can't those 6-7 year old kids work in the coal mines if they want to. Damn do-gooders watch'n out for everyone.
The question is what is a janitors position really worth? It's not a highly skilled position. Is it worth 9$ an hour or 15$ an hour? With inflation, is he really getting a raise?
adjusted for inflatoin, this guy will soon be making less than he ever made in his entire life.
Inflation being what it is, 15$ an hour today is like 4$ an hour in 1998.
Hmmmmm, so if your boss offers you a raise....what do you do..... turn it down cause of inflation? I'll bet .
Honestly 15$ an hour for custodial work is fair nowadays..... a pack of ground beef chuck is 10$ . . for the small one.
Say every person has to have 3 square meals a day (5$ breakfast 9$ lunch 12 $ dinner ) you need atleast 20~26$ a day for food (I think you could probably break that down to 5$ / 5$ / 5$ if you really wanted, but the food will pretty much suck, where I live a pizza pie is 13.50 and if you deliver . . . expect to atleast tip 2~3$ bucks to not look like a scumbag.
Say your household expenses (utilities rent and Telcom Services, not food) are around 1500$ a month
Say you spend about 5$ish a day traveling to and from work . . .
say food and travel costs you between 20~ 30$ a day (to live and work and get to work and back), thats about 600$ ~ 900$ a month
+ rent and utilities (atleast 1100~ 1500 ) depending where you live.
So you need to make atleast say . . .2000$~$2400 a month after taxes or around . . . 25~30k a year CLEAN after taxes.
that works out to around 67$ a day working 7 days a week at 8.33$ an hour.
And we aren't even talking , going out having SOME fun, buying the occasional bottle of Jameson etc. . . you are pretty much "suffering" and the entire point of working and living pretty much starts losing all meaning.
What I conclude from this is, that no one earning under 80,000$ a year should pay a dime in taxes, not even sales tax, inflation has completely destroyed the sustainability of livelihoods for people earning under 40,000$ a year.
The only way you could make it under 12$ an hour is by fucking surviving on shit processed food, at which point I would just fucking quit if I was stuck in that situation and opt to live in the fucking amazon rain-forest panning for gold, leave and write a book and sell it to dumb people who like to read books about hardships that people over-come because it somehow makes them feel like they are getting something out of it by relating a third world problem someone had to their first world "struggle"... people eat those shit books up ;) just saying.
Not everyone is as lucky as some of us, to have the means to sustain a not extravagant yet comfortable existence, and honestly, instead of picking on the poor janitor who is making 15$ an hour for sweeping up your obese kids puke from the floor, why not chase down the banksters with pitchforks instead and make some meaningful "change" we can all agree with . . .
Nothing drives me more apeshit than some do-gooder saying that's fair, or that's not fair. Sounds like a second grader at recess. THERE IS NO FAIR!!!! Life isn't fair, the universe isn't fair. Besides, who gets to determine fair? You? Me? Obama? Hitler? I'm sure he thought it was perfectly fair to exterminate a few million “lesser” human beings. I don’t think they thought it was very fair. Nature isn't fair; look at the bad lion eating that poor infirm little gazelle. Of course if the lion doesn't eat the sick gazelle it spreads illness through the heard and they all die. That would be more fair. Nature and the universe have laws that we all have to abide by, like it or not. We don't like the way certain universal laws work, such as supply and demand, so we try to change them with our own laws and then we wonder why they don't work. Get used to it; universal laws cannot be changed. If you don't like it, find an alternate realm (I understand LSD and certain mushrooms are excellent in that regard).
If you like the law of the jungle, go live there mate. Society has laws to at least ameliorate inherent injustices.
I didn't say I liked the law of the jungle. I was simply stating that fair is a subjective term, and using it as the basis to make a decision is idiotic and leads to unintended consequences. Arbitrarily raising the minimum wage seems "fair", to the recipients of that benefit. What about the millions of high school and college grads that will now not be able to get a starter job because it is no longer economically feasible to hire them. Tell them how "fair" that is; especially the 50% African American youth between the ages of 18-25 that are currently unemployed. Go ask them if they wouldn't take a job paying 7 or 8 dollars an hour, then tell me how "fair" this is.
So if I come to your house, beat the tar out of you, cause I'm bigger/stronger/meaner, and take all your stuff ....well, your just s.o.l. cause it's just the law of the jungle baby. Do I have that right? OK.
Now, where'd you'd say you lived?
Why can't we have a 1 dollar breakfast, a 2 dollar lunch, and a 5 dollar dinner?
I gave you a plus one but really, the rent is too fucking high.
If you want lower prices, a lower rent, food and utility bills.
Drag Janet Yellen out into the street and hang her from the neck, by the time she stops kicking all prices will be half of what they were when you woke up.
Real estate taxes are skyrocketing. They fund the bloated ranks and salaries of useless local government officials and regulators.
Or $5 a day traveling on workdays is $1250 a year (no bus pass in any major city except maybe NYC works out to $5/day, try $2).
$5/meal per person is a lot. Organic, cage-free range free eggs are $4.50/ dozen. A loaf of bread is $3 max. 3 eggs and toast is $1.25 a day. Cereal might be $1.13 a day. Lunch? Turkey sandwich and a coke: $1.50. Go home and roast a chicken that feeds you for 5 meals. Total cost to roast a chicken: $7.50 (with herbs, spices, or BBQ sauce). Make yourself a half cup of rice to go with it: $.12. You're at $2 for dinner. Try $5 a day. And you haven't even bought a fruit or vegetable yet. Splurge on yourself and make it $10, that's $3650 a year on food.
Rent? Could be a lot. At even $1.25 a sqft you're looking at $1000 for a one-bedroom 800 sqft apartment. $12000 a year.
Utilities: 800 sqft apartment should go more than $90 a month ever in any climate or city. $1000.
You need to clear $17k a year to live off that. Assume 20% effective tax rate: $17k/.8 = $21,250. That's $11 an hour for 2000 hours a year. You get your tax return back... Assuming of course you paid the health insurance put option mandated upon you by our fearless leader
Thank god there's no connections between minimum wage jobs and immigration. As if anyone in Mexico wants to make $30k a year sweeping a high school floor. Right-wing nut-jobbery.