|
.. My daughter is making $10/hour at a part time job she has while attending OSU. My son made $9/hour painting houses as a summer job. Both jobs pay/paid well above minimum wage. Thank yoy for reinforcing my point. Take your son, as an example. He was working at a skilled trade, and paid at a rate that would gross him $18,000 a year if he worked 50 40-hour weeks. It's a fairly safe assumption that your son got very few, (possibly no) fringe benefits as part of the deal- so the employer's cost was probably under $10 an hour with FICA, your state UE tax, etc. What sort of lifestyle would 18,000 a year provide anybody? Let's figure that after very minimal deductions for income tax and Social Security, a full-time house painter in your community takes home $1350 a month from a $1500 gross. If you have a state income tax, the amount could be less. (in reality, I bet there is very little exterior house painting done in your climate for several months each winter, so the house painter would be laid off and earning $zero- or probably working at whatever menial task was available- for part of the year.) From the $1350, deduct a flophouse rent. What is that in your area? Let's say $450 to rent a dirty little apartment in a questionable neighborhood or to split rent with a buddy on a decent place. Down to $900 bucks. Employer doesn't provide transportation to the job site so the housepainter needs a car. Figure $100 a month (average) in repairs to a wretched old beater and 50 gallons of gas per month at $3, and you're down to $650. Car insurance would be another $50 a month, but the housepainter will drive around without because he's got nothing to lose in a lawsuit and he can't afford to take $50 out of his $650. The housepainter does need to keep the lights on in his crumby little apartment and keep his cell phone going so he can take calls from the boss telling him where to go and paint the following day, so let's figure he keeps most of the lights off most of the time and gets by for $100 a month in utilities. Down to $550. A housepainter is going to burn up a lot of calories in a day, so there will be some grocery expense each week. I think a single guy can get by on about $7-8 a day if he eats a lot of rice and beans and maybe some cheap ground beef. Down to $300 a month, so out of the remaning $75 a week the housepainter needs to be totally responsible for all his medical and dental bills, maybe put aside something so he can take a college class once in a while and become better educated, gawd forbid buy a ticket to a movie or a ballgame or some other frivolous pastime once in a while, keep shoes on his feet and clothes on his back, and, of course, save for retirement. I wish him good luck. Maybe after 40-50 years he can save up enough capital to start his own business. Oh, wait.......he'll be 70 years old.......never mind...... Why can an employer, billing you son's time at $50-60 an hour or more, get by with sharing only $10 (including taxes) of that $50 or $60 with your son? It is precisely because that $9 wage *is* well above minimum. Despite the fact that nobody can live any sort of realistic life on $1500 a month these days, the fact that some jobs pay even less makes it easy to fill a job like this with somebody trying to rise by their bootstraps from abject and brutal poverty to a level of bare economic subsistence. Betcha a buck your son's employer thinks minimum wage is far too high, as he feels the need to pay a couple of bucks an hour more in order to attract adequate help. Betcha another buck he feels the "market" should set wages, that minimum wage distorts the market, and that he thinks his labor "costs" would be less in a "free market" environment. Few people objecting to the minimum wage feel that it is artificially *lowering* the cost of labor. |
wrote in message oups.com... . My daughter is making $10/hour at a part time job she has while attending OSU. My son made $9/hour painting houses as a summer job. Both jobs pay/paid well above minimum wage. Thank yoy for reinforcing my point. Take your son, as an example. He was working at a skilled trade, and paid at a rate that would gross him $18,000 a year if he worked 50 40-hour weeks. Chuck, the kid is in school and isn't going to make painting his life's endeavor so why should he be paid $25 an hour with just a few months experience? The rest of your "progressive" clap trap isn't worth reading. [ SNIP ] |
wrote in message oups.com... . My daughter is making $10/hour at a part time job she has while attending OSU. My son made $9/hour painting houses as a summer job. Both jobs pay/paid well above minimum wage. Thank yoy for reinforcing my point. Take your son, as an example. He was working at a skilled trade, and paid at a rate that would gross him $18,000 a year if he worked 50 40-hour weeks. It's a fairly safe assumption that your son got very few, (possibly no) fringe benefits as part of the deal- so the employer's cost was probably under $10 an hour with FICA, your state UE tax, etc. What sort of lifestyle would 18,000 a year provide anybody? Let's figure that after very minimal deductions for income tax and Social Security, a full-time house painter in your community takes home $1350 a month from a $1500 gross. If you have a state income tax, the amount could be less. (in reality, I bet there is very little exterior house painting done in your climate for several months each winter, so the house painter would be laid off and earning $zero- or probably working at whatever menial task was available- for part of the year.) From the $1350, deduct a flophouse rent. What is that in your area? Let's say $450 to rent a dirty little apartment in a questionable neighborhood or to split rent with a buddy on a decent place. Down to $900 bucks. Employer doesn't provide transportation to the job site so the housepainter needs a car. Figure $100 a month (average) in repairs to a wretched old beater and 50 gallons of gas per month at $3, and you're down to $650. Car insurance would be another $50 a month, but the housepainter will drive around without because he's got nothing to lose in a lawsuit and he can't afford to take $50 out of his $650. The housepainter does need to keep the lights on in his crumby little apartment and keep his cell phone going so he can take calls from the boss telling him where to go and paint the following day, so let's figure he keeps most of the lights off most of the time and gets by for $100 a month in utilities. Down to $550. A housepainter is going to burn up a lot of calories in a day, so there will be some grocery expense each week. I think a single guy can get by on about $7-8 a day if he eats a lot of rice and beans and maybe some cheap ground beef. Down to $300 a month, so out of the remaning $75 a week the housepainter needs to be totally responsible for all his medical and dental bills, maybe put aside something so he can take a college class once in a while and become better educated, gawd forbid buy a ticket to a movie or a ballgame or some other frivolous pastime once in a while, keep shoes on his feet and clothes on his back, and, of course, save for retirement. I wish him good luck. Maybe after 40-50 years he can save up enough capital to start his own business. Oh, wait.......he'll be 70 years old.......never mind...... Why can an employer, billing you son's time at $50-60 an hour or more, get by with sharing only $10 (including taxes) of that $50 or $60 with your son? It is precisely because that $9 wage *is* well above minimum. Despite the fact that nobody can live any sort of realistic life on $1500 a month these days, the fact that some jobs pay even less makes it easy to fill a job like this with somebody trying to rise by their bootstraps from abject and brutal poverty to a level of bare economic subsistence. Betcha a buck your son's employer thinks minimum wage is far too high, as he feels the need to pay a couple of bucks an hour more in order to attract adequate help. Betcha another buck he feels the "market" should set wages, that minimum wage distorts the market, and that he thinks his labor "costs" would be less in a "free market" environment. Few people objecting to the minimum wage feel that it is artificially *lowering* the cost of labor. Pssst, Chuck............he is in high school. This is not a career but a summer job. If he comes back next year he will be making $10/hour. The 3rd summer brings $12/hour. Not bad for a non skilled summer job. ;-) And you made my point. If one chooses to skip an education in lieu of taking a $9/hour job painting houses, that is *their* choice. Now what is that saying about making your own bed? |
Chuck,
Do you think raising the minimum wage, would raise the salary of those already earning more than minimum wage? When you were selling used cars, did you pay the janitor $40 an hour so he could enjoy a decent standard of living, or did you horde all the money for yourself? wrote in message oups.com... . My daughter is making $10/hour at a part time job she has while attending OSU. My son made $9/hour painting houses as a summer job. Both jobs pay/paid well above minimum wage. Thank yoy for reinforcing my point. Take your son, as an example. He was working at a skilled trade, and paid at a rate that would gross him $18,000 a year if he worked 50 40-hour weeks. It's a fairly safe assumption that your son got very few, (possibly no) fringe benefits as part of the deal- so the employer's cost was probably under $10 an hour with FICA, your state UE tax, etc. What sort of lifestyle would 18,000 a year provide anybody? Let's figure that after very minimal deductions for income tax and Social Security, a full-time house painter in your community takes home $1350 a month from a $1500 gross. If you have a state income tax, the amount could be less. (in reality, I bet there is very little exterior house painting done in your climate for several months each winter, so the house painter would be laid off and earning $zero- or probably working at whatever menial task was available- for part of the year.) From the $1350, deduct a flophouse rent. What is that in your area? Let's say $450 to rent a dirty little apartment in a questionable neighborhood or to split rent with a buddy on a decent place. Down to $900 bucks. Employer doesn't provide transportation to the job site so the housepainter needs a car. Figure $100 a month (average) in repairs to a wretched old beater and 50 gallons of gas per month at $3, and you're down to $650. Car insurance would be another $50 a month, but the housepainter will drive around without because he's got nothing to lose in a lawsuit and he can't afford to take $50 out of his $650. The housepainter does need to keep the lights on in his crumby little apartment and keep his cell phone going so he can take calls from the boss telling him where to go and paint the following day, so let's figure he keeps most of the lights off most of the time and gets by for $100 a month in utilities. Down to $550. A housepainter is going to burn up a lot of calories in a day, so there will be some grocery expense each week. I think a single guy can get by on about $7-8 a day if he eats a lot of rice and beans and maybe some cheap ground beef. Down to $300 a month, so out of the remaning $75 a week the housepainter needs to be totally responsible for all his medical and dental bills, maybe put aside something so he can take a college class once in a while and become better educated, gawd forbid buy a ticket to a movie or a ballgame or some other frivolous pastime once in a while, keep shoes on his feet and clothes on his back, and, of course, save for retirement. I wish him good luck. Maybe after 40-50 years he can save up enough capital to start his own business. Oh, wait.......he'll be 70 years old.......never mind...... Why can an employer, billing you son's time at $50-60 an hour or more, get by with sharing only $10 (including taxes) of that $50 or $60 with your son? It is precisely because that $9 wage *is* well above minimum. Despite the fact that nobody can live any sort of realistic life on $1500 a month these days, the fact that some jobs pay even less makes it easy to fill a job like this with somebody trying to rise by their bootstraps from abject and brutal poverty to a level of bare economic subsistence. Betcha a buck your son's employer thinks minimum wage is far too high, as he feels the need to pay a couple of bucks an hour more in order to attract adequate help. Betcha another buck he feels the "market" should set wages, that minimum wage distorts the market, and that he thinks his labor "costs" would be less in a "free market" environment. Few people objecting to the minimum wage feel that it is artificially *lowering* the cost of labor. |
"*JimH*" wrote in message . .. wrote in message oups.com... . My daughter is making $10/hour at a part time job she has while attending OSU. My son made $9/hour painting houses as a summer job. Both jobs pay/paid well above minimum wage. Thank yoy for reinforcing my point. Take your son, as an example. He was working at a skilled trade, and paid at a rate that would gross him $18,000 a year if he worked 50 40-hour weeks. It's a fairly safe assumption that your son got very few, (possibly no) fringe benefits as part of the deal- so the employer's cost was probably under $10 an hour with FICA, your state UE tax, etc. What sort of lifestyle would 18,000 a year provide anybody? Let's figure that after very minimal deductions for income tax and Social Security, a full-time house painter in your community takes home $1350 a month from a $1500 gross. If you have a state income tax, the amount could be less. (in reality, I bet there is very little exterior house painting done in your climate for several months each winter, so the house painter would be laid off and earning $zero- or probably working at whatever menial task was available- for part of the year.) From the $1350, deduct a flophouse rent. What is that in your area? Let's say $450 to rent a dirty little apartment in a questionable neighborhood or to split rent with a buddy on a decent place. Down to $900 bucks. Employer doesn't provide transportation to the job site so the housepainter needs a car. Figure $100 a month (average) in repairs to a wretched old beater and 50 gallons of gas per month at $3, and you're down to $650. Car insurance would be another $50 a month, but the housepainter will drive around without because he's got nothing to lose in a lawsuit and he can't afford to take $50 out of his $650. The housepainter does need to keep the lights on in his crumby little apartment and keep his cell phone going so he can take calls from the boss telling him where to go and paint the following day, so let's figure he keeps most of the lights off most of the time and gets by for $100 a month in utilities. Down to $550. A housepainter is going to burn up a lot of calories in a day, so there will be some grocery expense each week. I think a single guy can get by on about $7-8 a day if he eats a lot of rice and beans and maybe some cheap ground beef. Down to $300 a month, so out of the remaning $75 a week the housepainter needs to be totally responsible for all his medical and dental bills, maybe put aside something so he can take a college class once in a while and become better educated, gawd forbid buy a ticket to a movie or a ballgame or some other frivolous pastime once in a while, keep shoes on his feet and clothes on his back, and, of course, save for retirement. I wish him good luck. Maybe after 40-50 years he can save up enough capital to start his own business. Oh, wait.......he'll be 70 years old.......never mind...... Why can an employer, billing you son's time at $50-60 an hour or more, get by with sharing only $10 (including taxes) of that $50 or $60 with your son? It is precisely because that $9 wage *is* well above minimum. Despite the fact that nobody can live any sort of realistic life on $1500 a month these days, the fact that some jobs pay even less makes it easy to fill a job like this with somebody trying to rise by their bootstraps from abject and brutal poverty to a level of bare economic subsistence. Betcha a buck your son's employer thinks minimum wage is far too high, as he feels the need to pay a couple of bucks an hour more in order to attract adequate help. Betcha another buck he feels the "market" should set wages, that minimum wage distorts the market, and that he thinks his labor "costs" would be less in a "free market" environment. Few people objecting to the minimum wage feel that it is artificially *lowering* the cost of labor. Pssst, Chuck............he is in high school. This is not a career but a summer job. If he comes back next year he will be making $10/hour. The 3rd summer brings $12/hour. Not bad for a non skilled summer job. ;-) And you made my point. If one chooses to skip an education in lieu of taking a $9/hour job painting houses, that is *their* choice. Now what is that saying about making your own bed? Chuckie is full of crap.........he has been blinded by the socialist liebral mindset. The whole notion that somehow raising the minimum wage will automatically raise the lifestyle of people is just horse ****. All it does is creat inflation, and make outsourcing overseas that more economical. No one is guaranteed anything in life......a "decent" apartment with no roomate nor a car, tickets to a ball game etc etc. Funny thing, I know many people that started their own businesses on a H.S. education, without saving for 40 years, it is called ambition and hard work........unlike the liebral slobs that want to sit around and have guvmint tale care of their every need. |
wrote in message ... On Mon, 26 Sep 2005 09:36:29 -0400, "Starbuck" wrote: Chuck, Do you think raising the minimum wage, would raise the salary of those already earning more than minimum wage? My wife is in the construction business and the ONLY people who make minimum wage are the winos who work for the rent a drunk companies. The Mexicams who work with a shovel make $100 a day and up (in union free Florida) It is hard to say how much the rent a drunks make a week since they never show up 5 days in a row. If the guy from the labor pool even shows a glimmer of hope he will be scooped up be a contractor. The only thing the minimum wage does is raise the bar higher across the board......and when you have labor availible offshore for less, it creates more of an incentive to move those jobs offshore. Liebrals believe that a corporation\s pupose is to provide jobs......which is false. A Corporation's purpose is to make profits for its investors. |
P Fritz wrote: "*JimH*" wrote in message . .. wrote in message oups.com... . My daughter is making $10/hour at a part time job she has while attending OSU. My son made $9/hour painting houses as a summer job. Both jobs pay/paid well above minimum wage. Thank yoy for reinforcing my point. Take your son, as an example. He was working at a skilled trade, and paid at a rate that would gross him $18,000 a year if he worked 50 40-hour weeks. It's a fairly safe assumption that your son got very few, (possibly no) fringe benefits as part of the deal- so the employer's cost was probably under $10 an hour with FICA, your state UE tax, etc. What sort of lifestyle would 18,000 a year provide anybody? Let's figure that after very minimal deductions for income tax and Social Security, a full-time house painter in your community takes home $1350 a month from a $1500 gross. If you have a state income tax, the amount could be less. (in reality, I bet there is very little exterior house painting done in your climate for several months each winter, so the house painter would be laid off and earning $zero- or probably working at whatever menial task was available- for part of the year.) From the $1350, deduct a flophouse rent. What is that in your area? Let's say $450 to rent a dirty little apartment in a questionable neighborhood or to split rent with a buddy on a decent place. Down to $900 bucks. Employer doesn't provide transportation to the job site so the housepainter needs a car. Figure $100 a month (average) in repairs to a wretched old beater and 50 gallons of gas per month at $3, and you're down to $650. Car insurance would be another $50 a month, but the housepainter will drive around without because he's got nothing to lose in a lawsuit and he can't afford to take $50 out of his $650. The housepainter does need to keep the lights on in his crumby little apartment and keep his cell phone going so he can take calls from the boss telling him where to go and paint the following day, so let's figure he keeps most of the lights off most of the time and gets by for $100 a month in utilities. Down to $550. A housepainter is going to burn up a lot of calories in a day, so there will be some grocery expense each week. I think a single guy can get by on about $7-8 a day if he eats a lot of rice and beans and maybe some cheap ground beef. Down to $300 a month, so out of the remaning $75 a week the housepainter needs to be totally responsible for all his medical and dental bills, maybe put aside something so he can take a college class once in a while and become better educated, gawd forbid buy a ticket to a movie or a ballgame or some other frivolous pastime once in a while, keep shoes on his feet and clothes on his back, and, of course, save for retirement. I wish him good luck. Maybe after 40-50 years he can save up enough capital to start his own business. Oh, wait.......he'll be 70 years old.......never mind...... Why can an employer, billing you son's time at $50-60 an hour or more, get by with sharing only $10 (including taxes) of that $50 or $60 with your son? It is precisely because that $9 wage *is* well above minimum. Despite the fact that nobody can live any sort of realistic life on $1500 a month these days, the fact that some jobs pay even less makes it easy to fill a job like this with somebody trying to rise by their bootstraps from abject and brutal poverty to a level of bare economic subsistence. Betcha a buck your son's employer thinks minimum wage is far too high, as he feels the need to pay a couple of bucks an hour more in order to attract adequate help. Betcha another buck he feels the "market" should set wages, that minimum wage distorts the market, and that he thinks his labor "costs" would be less in a "free market" environment. Few people objecting to the minimum wage feel that it is artificially *lowering* the cost of labor. Pssst, Chuck............he is in high school. This is not a career but a summer job. If he comes back next year he will be making $10/hour. The 3rd summer brings $12/hour. Not bad for a non skilled summer job. ;-) And you made my point. If one chooses to skip an education in lieu of taking a $9/hour job painting houses, that is *their* choice. Now what is that saying about making your own bed? Chuckie is full of crap.........he has been blinded by the socialist liebral mindset. The whole notion that somehow raising the minimum wage will automatically raise the lifestyle of people is just horse ****. All it does is creat inflation, and make outsourcing overseas that more economical. My point was that business has a vested interest in maintaining a certain number of poor and desperate people who will work for mini-wage or less, not that mini-wage should be raised. That would be another discussion. No one is guaranteed anything in life......a "decent" apartment with no roomate nor a car, tickets to a ball game etc etc. Funny thing, I know many people that started their own businesses on a H.S. education, without saving for 40 years, it is called ambition and hard work........unlike the liebral slobs that want to sit around and have guvmint tale care of their every need. |
Chuck ,
You are absolutely incorrect. It is in the businesses best interest to make sure his cost as good or better than his competitors. It is in the businesses best interest that his employees spend lots of money expanding the economy. You like to look at the world as a us vs. them. There are many people who believe all negotiations can be a win win situation. wrote in message oups.com... P Fritz wrote: "*JimH*" wrote in message . .. wrote in message oups.com... . My daughter is making $10/hour at a part time job she has while attending OSU. My son made $9/hour painting houses as a summer job. Both jobs pay/paid well above minimum wage. Thank yoy for reinforcing my point. Take your son, as an example. He was working at a skilled trade, and paid at a rate that would gross him $18,000 a year if he worked 50 40-hour weeks. It's a fairly safe assumption that your son got very few, (possibly no) fringe benefits as part of the deal- so the employer's cost was probably under $10 an hour with FICA, your state UE tax, etc. What sort of lifestyle would 18,000 a year provide anybody? Let's figure that after very minimal deductions for income tax and Social Security, a full-time house painter in your community takes home $1350 a month from a $1500 gross. If you have a state income tax, the amount could be less. (in reality, I bet there is very little exterior house painting done in your climate for several months each winter, so the house painter would be laid off and earning $zero- or probably working at whatever menial task was available- for part of the year.) From the $1350, deduct a flophouse rent. What is that in your area? Let's say $450 to rent a dirty little apartment in a questionable neighborhood or to split rent with a buddy on a decent place. Down to $900 bucks. Employer doesn't provide transportation to the job site so the housepainter needs a car. Figure $100 a month (average) in repairs to a wretched old beater and 50 gallons of gas per month at $3, and you're down to $650. Car insurance would be another $50 a month, but the housepainter will drive around without because he's got nothing to lose in a lawsuit and he can't afford to take $50 out of his $650. The housepainter does need to keep the lights on in his crumby little apartment and keep his cell phone going so he can take calls from the boss telling him where to go and paint the following day, so let's figure he keeps most of the lights off most of the time and gets by for $100 a month in utilities. Down to $550. A housepainter is going to burn up a lot of calories in a day, so there will be some grocery expense each week. I think a single guy can get by on about $7-8 a day if he eats a lot of rice and beans and maybe some cheap ground beef. Down to $300 a month, so out of the remaning $75 a week the housepainter needs to be totally responsible for all his medical and dental bills, maybe put aside something so he can take a college class once in a while and become better educated, gawd forbid buy a ticket to a movie or a ballgame or some other frivolous pastime once in a while, keep shoes on his feet and clothes on his back, and, of course, save for retirement. I wish him good luck. Maybe after 40-50 years he can save up enough capital to start his own business. Oh, wait.......he'll be 70 years old.......never mind...... Why can an employer, billing you son's time at $50-60 an hour or more, get by with sharing only $10 (including taxes) of that $50 or $60 with your son? It is precisely because that $9 wage *is* well above minimum. Despite the fact that nobody can live any sort of realistic life on $1500 a month these days, the fact that some jobs pay even less makes it easy to fill a job like this with somebody trying to rise by their bootstraps from abject and brutal poverty to a level of bare economic subsistence. Betcha a buck your son's employer thinks minimum wage is far too high, as he feels the need to pay a couple of bucks an hour more in order to attract adequate help. Betcha another buck he feels the "market" should set wages, that minimum wage distorts the market, and that he thinks his labor "costs" would be less in a "free market" environment. Few people objecting to the minimum wage feel that it is artificially *lowering* the cost of labor. Pssst, Chuck............he is in high school. This is not a career but a summer job. If he comes back next year he will be making $10/hour. The 3rd summer brings $12/hour. Not bad for a non skilled summer job. ;-) And you made my point. If one chooses to skip an education in lieu of taking a $9/hour job painting houses, that is *their* choice. Now what is that saying about making your own bed? Chuckie is full of crap.........he has been blinded by the socialist liebral mindset. The whole notion that somehow raising the minimum wage will automatically raise the lifestyle of people is just horse ****. All it does is creat inflation, and make outsourcing overseas that more economical. My point was that business has a vested interest in maintaining a certain number of poor and desperate people who will work for mini-wage or less, not that mini-wage should be raised. That would be another discussion. No one is guaranteed anything in life......a "decent" apartment with no roomate nor a car, tickets to a ball game etc etc. Funny thing, I know many people that started their own businesses on a H.S. education, without saving for 40 years, it is called ambition and hard work........unlike the liebral slobs that want to sit around and have guvmint tale care of their every need. |
Chuck,
This is not an attack on you, but I think your view of the world is clouded by your personal experiences as a used car and used boat salesman. In those professions it is a us vs. them mentality. Most businessman take a long term look at the business and their employees. If you didn't do that with your employees shame on you. If you did, why do you think other businessman don't? "Starbuck" wrote in message ... Chuck , You are absolutely incorrect. It is in the businesses best interest to make sure his cost as good or better than his competitors. It is in the businesses best interest that his employees spend lots of money expanding the economy. You like to look at the world as a us vs. them. There are many people who believe all negotiations can be a win win situation. wrote in message oups.com... P Fritz wrote: "*JimH*" wrote in message . .. wrote in message oups.com... . My daughter is making $10/hour at a part time job she has while attending OSU. My son made $9/hour painting houses as a summer job. Both jobs pay/paid well above minimum wage. Thank yoy for reinforcing my point. Take your son, as an example. He was working at a skilled trade, and paid at a rate that would gross him $18,000 a year if he worked 50 40-hour weeks. It's a fairly safe assumption that your son got very few, (possibly no) fringe benefits as part of the deal- so the employer's cost was probably under $10 an hour with FICA, your state UE tax, etc. What sort of lifestyle would 18,000 a year provide anybody? Let's figure that after very minimal deductions for income tax and Social Security, a full-time house painter in your community takes home $1350 a month from a $1500 gross. If you have a state income tax, the amount could be less. (in reality, I bet there is very little exterior house painting done in your climate for several months each winter, so the house painter would be laid off and earning $zero- or probably working at whatever menial task was available- for part of the year.) From the $1350, deduct a flophouse rent. What is that in your area? Let's say $450 to rent a dirty little apartment in a questionable neighborhood or to split rent with a buddy on a decent place. Down to $900 bucks. Employer doesn't provide transportation to the job site so the housepainter needs a car. Figure $100 a month (average) in repairs to a wretched old beater and 50 gallons of gas per month at $3, and you're down to $650. Car insurance would be another $50 a month, but the housepainter will drive around without because he's got nothing to lose in a lawsuit and he can't afford to take $50 out of his $650. The housepainter does need to keep the lights on in his crumby little apartment and keep his cell phone going so he can take calls from the boss telling him where to go and paint the following day, so let's figure he keeps most of the lights off most of the time and gets by for $100 a month in utilities. Down to $550. A housepainter is going to burn up a lot of calories in a day, so there will be some grocery expense each week. I think a single guy can get by on about $7-8 a day if he eats a lot of rice and beans and maybe some cheap ground beef. Down to $300 a month, so out of the remaning $75 a week the housepainter needs to be totally responsible for all his medical and dental bills, maybe put aside something so he can take a college class once in a while and become better educated, gawd forbid buy a ticket to a movie or a ballgame or some other frivolous pastime once in a while, keep shoes on his feet and clothes on his back, and, of course, save for retirement. I wish him good luck. Maybe after 40-50 years he can save up enough capital to start his own business. Oh, wait.......he'll be 70 years old.......never mind...... Why can an employer, billing you son's time at $50-60 an hour or more, get by with sharing only $10 (including taxes) of that $50 or $60 with your son? It is precisely because that $9 wage *is* well above minimum. Despite the fact that nobody can live any sort of realistic life on $1500 a month these days, the fact that some jobs pay even less makes it easy to fill a job like this with somebody trying to rise by their bootstraps from abject and brutal poverty to a level of bare economic subsistence. Betcha a buck your son's employer thinks minimum wage is far too high, as he feels the need to pay a couple of bucks an hour more in order to attract adequate help. Betcha another buck he feels the "market" should set wages, that minimum wage distorts the market, and that he thinks his labor "costs" would be less in a "free market" environment. Few people objecting to the minimum wage feel that it is artificially *lowering* the cost of labor. Pssst, Chuck............he is in high school. This is not a career but a summer job. If he comes back next year he will be making $10/hour. The 3rd summer brings $12/hour. Not bad for a non skilled summer job. ;-) And you made my point. If one chooses to skip an education in lieu of taking a $9/hour job painting houses, that is *their* choice. Now what is that saying about making your own bed? Chuckie is full of crap.........he has been blinded by the socialist liebral mindset. The whole notion that somehow raising the minimum wage will automatically raise the lifestyle of people is just horse ****. All it does is creat inflation, and make outsourcing overseas that more economical. My point was that business has a vested interest in maintaining a certain number of poor and desperate people who will work for mini-wage or less, not that mini-wage should be raised. That would be another discussion. No one is guaranteed anything in life......a "decent" apartment with no roomate nor a car, tickets to a ball game etc etc. Funny thing, I know many people that started their own businesses on a H.S. education, without saving for 40 years, it is called ambition and hard work........unlike the liebral slobs that want to sit around and have guvmint tale care of their every need. |
| All times are GMT +1. The time now is 03:24 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004 - 2014 BoatBanter.com