[RANT]: Raise the minimum wage! This is so unfair!

[Get Right]

The CEO guy is fat and is colored red. Fat is greed. Red is danger, death and destruction.

Add to that the income "estimate" - $42M/year.....umm ok, the average CEO pay at the top 350 largest firms is only $15M/year.

 

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[Mbc]

1) Calm down. My reply was pretty lighthearted, I don't know why you're freaking out.

2) FDR was a very good war-time President, but that hardly means I have to agree with every one of his socialist ideas. The "slimy politicians" comment was not in reference to him.

3) If you "don't give a F*ck" about the American minimum wage, why are you in a thread about the American minimum wage? You tried to discredit my earlier post, so obviously you have an opinion on the topic. Share it.

4) "Some economists" saying something is not an argument. For someone who talks of proper debate, you have little.

-----

I believe a higher minimum wage is worse for the economy. It leads to inflation. So the Wal-Mart employee making $12/hour instead of $8/hour is happy for about 14 seconds before he realizes that a Big Mac now costs $7 instead of $4.

My other reservation is that it will just lead to a loss of jobs, which, being as the American infrastructure is still in pretty shit shape, is the last thing we need. When McDonalds is forced to pay employees $12/hour instead of $8/hour, they will find ways to cut costs. It will be more economically viable for them to invest in technology that outsources employees. No one will take your order, you will use a touch screen. We have cars that can drive themselves, you don't think we can have a machine that lowers shredded potatoes into a fryer for 30 seconds?

Wow that's freaking out? lol
Your point about job loss is logical, but does it correlate with data of places that have raised the minimum wage vs those that haven't? What if it costs more than 12$ to replace employees with machinery? Or what if the market actually doesn't want machines serving them burgers? How can you be sure raising the min wage = bad for economy?
My point is that there are so many variables, Mark Cuban actually came out saying retail and food industry should raise minimum wage to $12/hr. Does that mean he doesn't get free market economics or he's a socialist or anti-entrepreneur?
Is it possible that raising the min wage could actually improve the economy? In my opinion yes it's possible, for many factors such as increasing living standards, increasing productivity, increasing economic activity in a society. Some idiot might spend the extra money on an xbox. Another one might use it to create something of value because he's not an idiot but for whatever reason has found himself in a ditch in his life. It could reduce employee turnover, thus reducing long term training costs.

 

[Unknown]

In that same respect, no business which depends on free traffic from the Google SERPS has any right to be in business.

In any event, I parodied the picture for your Fastlane enjoyment.

While I enjoy the joke, there is actually a subset of people in between the slow lane and the fast lane (the median and the ceo in this case). The group of people who went to college and then worked hard to get out from under the massive debt that society wants us all to live with. I think they are generally people who just haven't found the fast lane yet (that's how it was for me), but they do exist These are people who live below their means, but are still working a slow lane job. They aren't really living the slow lane lifestyle, because they don't believe in buying things to feel better or to look better for their neighbors. I can't come up with a good term for this category, but I think we need it :-D

 

[DennisD]

I'm so far out of the loop I can't help but smile and laugh at the complaining.
YOU MAKE YOUR OWN MINIMUM WAGE.
Unique value provided to society earns money.
Provide more unique value to more people, earn more money.

In any event, I parodied the picture for your Fastlane enjoyment.

Damn fine job.
Just shared this image to my FB. Will probably rub some college friends and family the wrong way but dats the breaks.

 

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[Atown512]

I believe that economic illiteracy is by far the biggest problem in our society. First of all, why does every job need a living wage? What about that 15 year old kid who wants to get experience while living with his parents? He doesn't need to make a "living" at all!

Secondly, all this talk about minimum wage is straight hypocrisy. Why is there a gap between what is acceptable wage and what is not? By taking an unpaid internship we are in fact earning negative wages when you factor in the various costs of the internship. So for some reason, around -$10 to $0 per hour is acceptable for an intern, but $0 - $10 per hour isn't! Lol

 

[Durete]

I see a lot of hatred towards the "General population here'

Not everybody is on a minimum wage due to choice (or lack of choice)
Take me for example,
I'm working 70-120 hours a week for less than half of the minimum wage of my country.($5 an hour minus expenses such as : Luggage for travelling, food, medical checkups-which are in my country already $1600 - a month's salary.)
Ok, sure, I get to see the world and my job is quite fun, and 1 year of my work experience is the same worth of 3-5 years of most people that do work in my country of birth.(That is experience, sadly not the income).

But I cannot go back to my country due to their rules.
#1 My mum is bound to a wheelchair and not allowed to work.
- So if I come back and stay in my country I have to pay back everything the government paid my mum in the last 10 years: Starting out with a massive debt kills pretty much all your chances.
Last time I had a break from work I stayed at my mums house for a month during my vacation, the government charged my mum $1000 for that.(Which I had to pay ofcourse as she doesn't even have enough money to live a poor-man's life.)
#2 Education and age can kill your chances.
- I am to overqualified and to old to have a chance on a minimum wage job, or any other job in my country. (Bachelor with 2 masters, 27 years old. you need to be below 23 years or above 55 years old to have a chance to get a job, as there are too many mid-agers.)
#3 Not being able to start a start-up.
- I am not a resident of any country, therefor not able to register a company.
- Since my income of my current below-wage job is tax-free(I get paid in international waters) and I'm not a resident of any country all the money that I through my job is counted as "Illegal" making me unable to use it to start up a business.
- Since I have no "Legal" source of income (Heck even if my salary was legal) it would not give me the opportunity to get a loan to use that money as a start up.


------------------------------------------

That being said, I am going to start a business anyway, but that's only till I get caught, as once again: even while I'm born in one of the richest countries in the world: I'm not a resident, nor able to become a resident of my own country anymore.(as if I would register again I would be in a lifelong debt. Talking about $350.000-$450.000 here.)

Looks like I'm going to lose my current job soon enough though, as they changed the medical tests and include that you need vision with 2 eyes, while I'm blind with my left eye.

So it's going to be swim or sink for me. Hopefully the company will send me to the US before I get ditched outthough so I can open an USD$ account and start up.


P.s. from MJ's parodie I do match everything of the rich guy, except for the salary/providing value to so many people. /fail

 

[DennisD]

I propose that mustaches, top hats, canes, and monocles are mandatory attire for Fastlane Meetup 2015.

I was just thinking about how cool a style this was. Classy as F*ck.

 

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[RHL]

Wanna jump back in here again and point out that buisinesses that are structured with pay scales like this:

Bottom employee: $25,000/yr
Manager: $60,000/yr
Regional Manger: $100,000/yr
CEO: $10M/yr

Are companies where all the heavy lifting is done by the guy at the top, the CEO. He came up with the idea for the burger chain or software platform, he coded or developed the alpha version himself, he bought the land or mortgaged his house or hit up his parents to buy the first facility that was used to produce the product, he suffered through the lean years alone while HIS WIFE and HIS KIDS and HIS REPUTATION were the ones in jeopardy. When the company hit it big, the lower employees came in with no risk, a system already created for them to work in, and very little unique value to add. Any employee at an individual McDonald's store can be replaced by any mentally competent adult with less than 40 hours of training.

Contrast that to places where risks are more equitably shared-Law firms, engineering firms, medical practices. Every doctor or lawyer working there makes a hefty salary. While they might make 1/4 or even 1/10 what the head guy makes, they don't make 1/400th what he makes. Why is that?

Because they have to do the heavy mental lifting to work out case law, or diagnose patients, to avoid malpractice suits, and to bring technologies their clients need to the table. They have to work aggressively to forge paths that their employer has not traveled before, and because of the creativity and risk involved in that, they earn $300,000+/yr or much more.

If you're nothing but a forklift made out of meat, or a mop-swisher made out of meat, or a change-o-matic made out of meat, you'll earn shit wages. To use an analogy from something I know a lot about, there's a reason why a new engine for a V12 Aston Martin costs $50K while the oil filter cost $150-the more important a part is to the whole machine, the more it's worth.

Nobody doing valuable stuff for a lot of people earns minimum wage.

 

[smarty]

I believe that economic illiteracy is by far the biggest problem in our society. First of all, why does every job need a living wage? What about that 15 year old kid who wants to get experience while living with his parents? He doesn't need to make a "living" at all!

Secondly, all this talk about minimum wage is straight hypocrisy. Why is there a gap between what is acceptable wage and what is not? By taking an unpaid internship we are in fact earning negative wages when you factor in the various costs of the internship. So for some reason, around -$10 to $0 per hour is acceptable for an intern, but $0 - $10 per hour isn't! Lol

I didn't read your comment but from your profile picture, business doesn't look good

 

[Jake]

Hourly minimum wage is the minimum DAILY wage in some countries. Hell, a minimum wage earner would be upper middle class or better in many countries.Why do business owners who take all the risk owe you this lifestyle? They don't.

Placing unnecessary burdens on the people who provide the jobs in the first place is ridiculous. But I think most people here understand this...we're not on Reddit.

/rant

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I see a lot of hatred towards the "General population here'

Oh, and there's no "hatred" toward the CEO/Rich Guy/1% Dude? Politicians and the media encourage "Rich shaming" as that's narrative that gives them votes from the intellectually challenged. Class warfare is at its 52-week high.

These stupid comparisons go on in the fitness world too.

Post a fit muscular woman with abs on Facebook and watch the hatred fly.

"Narcissist" (because she cares deeply about her health and what goes in her mouth?!?)
"That woman looks like a man!" (Oh and you look like Frosty the snowman that's dived into a vat of butterscotch)
"I don't have time for that!" (No, but you have time to see every episode of Dancing With the Stars don't ya?)
"I'd rather spend time with my kids than be at the gym!" (Implies that the fit gal is a bad mother)

Notice here that the hatred is framed as an either/or, and an absolute. It never is, but that's how you mentally trick yourself into believing your mediocrity.

And yet, if you're fat and can barely fit into an economy seat on SW Airlines, you get a pass. Hell, there's an entire gym chain (planet fitness) that revolves around "fit shaming" where fit people are shunned, discriminated, and even expelled from the facility.

Crap like this makes me believe that Idiocracy's intellectual apocalypse is now at hand.

 

[Unknown]

Crap like this makes me believe that Idiocracy's intellectual apocalypse is now at hand.

Idiocracy is the best documentary ever written by a time traveler

 

[Vick]

You know the thing that pisses me off the most.

In are youth, we learn a shit load very quickly about the world we live in.

And most of it is all bullshit.

 

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[Jake]

You know the thing that pisses me off the most.

In are youth, we learn a shit load very quickly about the world we live in.

And most of it is all bullshit.

All information sources have a bias. Travel when time allows it.

 

[Mike Kavanagh]

Ever stop to think that the reason minimum wage hasn't gone up is because employment demand is near zero in most parts of the U.S.?

If someone gets pissed because of their wages, and leave, I have several qualified individuals to come take their place at their wage.
Not only that but most people are afraid to leave. They don't know where that comfort money is going to come from.

 

[Ninjakid]

Not gonna get political or economic here... but if you're older than 22 and are still working at a minimum wage job... and HATE IT... then you really need to take a good hard look at what got you there and change your damn path.

Anyone with half a brain doesn't need to rely on a minimum wage job.

I say it again. Anyone with a brain doesn't need to rely on a minimum wage job.

Even if it takes you some time to build a business that generates a livable stream of passive income, you can always use or develop some kind of skill, market yourself, and use that skill to make money. And considering how pitifully little minimum wage is, you could easily make more than a minimum wage job will pay you if you work full-time. Also, it depends on where you live, but needing the money is no excuse. In Canada, try to apply for a job, they'll get back to you in a week, MINIMUM. You'll maybe get hired a minimum of two weeks later. It will be two or three weeks before you see a pay check. So that could be SIX WEEKS until you see any money from that place.

Interestingly enough, I've never worked a minimum wage job in my life, and right now I don't even have a job. But I still have people saying that I should get a job, even if it's something small, like working at a fast-food place. "It's just for now," "you're still young," "you need to start small so you can work your way up." Like, really? You think I would give up my current income and freedom and spend 8 hours a day with people I wouldn't spend 8 seconds with, for far less money than I make now? No thanks!

People shouldn't make excuses for their selves. You don't HAVE to work a crappy low-paying job you hate. You aren't stuck in this position. It won't magically all get better once you get a degree. Use your brain and heart, and make a change.

 

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[Draven Grey]

In that same respect, no business which depends on free traffic from the Google SERPS has any right to be in business.

In any event, I parodied the picture for your Fastlane enjoyment.

View attachment 8777

Thanks for this. I've already started offending a lot of people with it

 

[Ninjakid]

Interestingly enough, most people will look at the CEO guy with disgust, rather than ask "how do I be that guy?"

 

[twdavis]

Interestingly enough, most people will look at the CEO guy with disgust, rather than ask "how do I be that guy?"

Entire crux of this thread.

 

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[SBS.95]

Interestingly enough, most people will look at the CEO guy with disgust, rather than ask "how do I be that guy?"

The difference between internal and external locus of control.

Probably the only worthwhile thing learned in Psych 101.

 

[RogueInnovation]

You know the thing that pisses me off the most.

In are youth, we learn a shit load very quickly about the world we live in.

And most of it is all bullshit.

Heh heh!

As for the thread topic, I don't think villainising your bosses (like in this poster) is a great strategy(kinda obnoxious), but I can understand the sentiment. A lot of bosses are terrible and irresponsible and themselves are sidewalkers.

But that is due to how TOUGH business is to truly grasp.

We COULD take a survey of "sh#t bosses" in the country and reallocate resources to treat people more equally, and adjust wages somewhat.

But, skilled CEO's might consider a different wage set up, if the idea behind it and reasoning is sound, for sure.
Just need to be less vague and snippy about it, because generally they'll assume its so you can buy a plasma, not because you are genuinely struggling.

I don't want my employees to struggle to live, but you know... Its not totally one sided.
But yeah, I get the sentiment.

 

[RHL]

Interestingly enough, most people will look at the CEO guy with disgust, rather than ask "how do I be that guy?"

It's because of the programming man. My parents were objectively smart as shit; my Dad went to Penn, my mom was a chemical engineer with tons of patents at the forefront of her field and now a computer science professor. But they always hated the CEO's and the fat cats because their un-accomplished parents taught them to. They never thought to try and become them even though they were so smart. In the same way, I came up, I went through school, and not to brag, but I wasn't like a lot of the people here. I didn't suck at school or hate school or drop out. I got 99th percentile SAT and GRE scores and excelled in a ton of subjects. I was in 400 level physics courses by my second year in college. I supposedly knew all about economics and how businesses and even nations worked on paper, and yet I was too damn ignorant, too damn stupid to figure out that little fact I just quoted from NinjaKid until TMF finally woke me up to the truth by beating me over the head with it page after page after page.

That's the part of the "1% Hate" and the "CEO hate" that I loath most. If I ever become really rich, I won't give a shit if people hate me for it (just like I'm sure Pia Muehlenbeck and Erin Heatherton don't lay up at night worrying about the fatties hating on their abs on Instagram), but I hate it because it makes people blind to a way they could improve their own lives, smart, resourceful, generous people who really want good for themselves and their neighbors and their families spend their lives in chains at a desk because of this stupid political nonsense teaches them to hate the rich blindly and to blindly accept that the only way you can become rich is by being greedy and selfish and causing harm to other people around you and under you. I don't care that "1% hate" makes people hate the rich; their reality can't change rich people's reality. I care that 1% hate makes the 99% slaves themselves because the ideology blinds them to the truth and binds them to mediocrity.

Make the same choices, get the same results. Be a sidewalker and bitter about the rich, live poor for a lifetime. Be a fastlaner and emulate the rich, live free for a lifetime.

 

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[GuestUser113]

Post a fit muscular woman with abs on Facebook and watch the hatred fly.

"Narcissist" (because she cares deeply about her health and what goes in her mouth?!?)
"That woman looks like a man!" (Oh and you look like Frosty the snowman that's dived into a vat of butterscotch)
"I don't have time for that!" (No, but you have time to see every episode of Dancing With the Stars don't ya?)
"I'd rather spend time with my kids than be at the gym!" (Implies that the fit gal is a bad mother)

That has to be the funniest thing I have read in a long time. People are so oblivious to fact that it stares you right in the face.

 

[Charnell]

I wish these people would understand what a price floor was.

All that raising the minimum wage does is creates a huge gap of unemployment and competition. If I have $30 an hour to spend on employees, and I can get 3 for $10 an hour, I'll hire 3. Minimum wage goes up to $15, now I can only hire 2. I'm not going to increase my $$ per hour total, I'm going to reduce my employees, and if those two can't do the work of three, I'll fire them and find two people that can, because competition is fierce.

 

[ddzc]

In that same respect, no business which depends on free traffic from the Google SERPS has any right to be in business.

In any event, I parodied the picture for your Fastlane enjoyment.

View attachment 8777

This is AMAZING

 

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[GuestUser113]

I wish these people would understand what a price floor was.

All that raising the minimum wage does is creates a huge gap of unemployment and competition. If I have $30 an hour to spend on employees, and I can get 3 for $10 an hour, I'll hire 3. Minimum wage goes up to $15, now I can only hire 2. I'm not going to increase my $$ per hour total, I'm going to reduce my employees, and if those two can't do the work of three, I'll fire them and find two people that can, because competition is fierce.

 

[Mr.B]

If you're nothing but a forklift made out of meat, or a mop-swisher made out of meat, or a change-o-matic made out of meat, you'll earn shit wages.

A little sidetrack...

"They're made out of meat"

"Meat?"

"Meat. They're made out of meat."

[Read the whole story here]

 

[Ninjakid]

How the CEO guy feels about all the hate

 

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[DayIFly]

I wish these people would understand what a price floor was.

All that raising the minimum wage does is creates a huge gap of unemployment and competition. If I have $30 an hour to spend on employees, and I can get 3 for $10 an hour, I'll hire 3. Minimum wage goes up to $15, now I can only hire 2. I'm not going to increase my $$ per hour total, I'm going to reduce my employees, and if those two can't do the work of three, I'll fire them and find two people that can, because competition is fierce.

Oh man, this is what is wrong with the educational system...

Your example is an intro into how to use a model, i.e. making assumptions and working them through to a conclusion. It´s too simple, it´s not a comprehensive model of the labor market. And that´s okay, because 18 year olds are sitting in the class. Only very basic assumptions are applied here.

If you change the assumptions, the outcome will be different. And that´s the controversy, it´s about which assumptions are more or less disputably. That´s why we can talk all day about this.

On an individual level it´s understandable. If I worked 16 hour days the last 5 years without taking a day off and build the Fast Lane and someone says "Oh man, he got lucky/he is greedy/etc., he should raise my wage!", I would be angry.

But on the aggregate level, i.e. economics, it gets hairy. So the best way to sum it up, everyone can believe what he likes best, because we have religious freedom

 

[Charnell]

Oh man, this is what is wrong with the educational system...

Your example is an intro into how to use a model, i.e. making assumptions and working them through to a conclusion. It´s too simple, it´s not a comprehensive model of the labor market. And that´s okay, because 18 year olds are sitting in the class. Only very basic assumptions are applied here.

If you change the assumptions, the outcome will be different. And that´s the controversy, it´s about which assumptions are more or less disputably. That´s why we can talk all day about this.

On an individual level it´s understandable. If I worked 16 hour days the last 5 years without taking a day off and build the Fast Lane and someone says "Oh man, he got lucky/he is greedy/etc., he should raise my wage!", I would be angry.

But on the aggregate level, i.e. economics, it gets hairy. So the best way to sum it up, everyone can believe what he likes best, because we have religious freedom

What? You said a lot, but you didn't really say much. You said the model is wrong, but you didn't correct me. Do you mind elaborating?