How do people survive on minimum wage?

[Inthemiddle]

...business are not like the government they cant print more money so they have to charge more to make up the cost.......

And therein lies the problem with your position. No, they DON'T have to charge more to make up the cost. And in fact, charging more often will only result in a net loss. The truth is that modern day pay scales are entirely top heavy, not just from wages, but all kinds of special perks that people give themselves the higher up the control board. For example, I recently decided to do a little side project at work. I audited just one particular side perk that upper management at my job grants itself for the past year (unlimited food and beverage comps) . It turns out that we could eliminate that one perk, and give a raise to every bottom level hourly employee of $1.50 and hour, and still not incur any additional costs.

 

[Inthemiddle]

Yes.

You see, hotels sell their rooms for a rate.

Farmers sell their produce.

The price and the demand are inversely related (as price goes up, demand goes down).

To maintain the before tax profit margin = (selling price - production cost), if the cost rises, then the price must rise, and demand will decline.

Once demand declines, then there will be less need for maid service and tomatoe pickers.

This is Economics 101

LOL, just goes to show how little you know. The price of a hotel room is not going to go up because of an increase in minimum wage. Hotel rates are determined based entirely on what the market is willing to pay for it. Your argument fails at the point where you talk about maintaining the profit margin. Therein lies the entire problem with your position. It's predicated on some notion that a business owner is somehow entitled to extravagant riches.

 

[Inthemiddle]

The old saying goes: "you should be making your age in wage."

So, the minimum wage should be $14 for juveniles and $18 for adults? Interesting. Or are you advocating child labor, sending the 8 year olds out to work the fields?

 

[koshergrl]

I think I'm going to take my kids around to pick up cans this summer.

They'll be making considerable less than minimum wage, and they'll probably get a bee sting or two.

 

[Cecilie1200]

What part of the medical industry are you in anyway? Billing? Receptionist? Answering service? It can't be anything very technical if you can't see how a high tech supply line could be disrupted by just about anything.

Hells bells, the US props up puppets all over the world to keep critical goods flowing. And once in while it comes back to bite us in the ass.

Whenever you're done trying to make this personal and/or loftily claim, "You'd know how right I am if you were in that field, just take my word for it" and produce a REAL response, I'll still be here waiting . . . unless I die of old age first. At this rate, it might actually take you forty years to sack up and answer.

I've wasted long detailed threads on other forums trying to take conservatives through the baby steps required to trace a path from A to B. Maybe if you show some sign of learning ability beyond your peers, I'll take the time.

In other words, you've got nothing, you know you've got nothing, you lose, you know you've lost, and you're too much of a dishonest poltroon to admit it.

Thanks for playing. Buh bye. Come back when you have something to say.

 

[Cecilie1200]

No matter how many times I watch you lefties desperately trying to pretend people respect you by projecting non-existent anger onto their posts, it never ceases to amuse me. Almost as much as the kneejerk "I'm not a Democrat; no, REALLY!" response. Yeah, it says a lot for liberals that everyone's ashamed to be labeled one. I especially find it interesting that someone who posted attacking conservatives and consistently does so in other threads is anxious to convince people that he's not a liberal

I don't attack conservatives, I attack bad arguments. This board just happens to be filled with a great many weak minded "conservatives" who constantly present bad arguments. I'm just as likely to attack a liberal's bad arguments. There are other boards that are similarly filled with wing nut liberals, and I've attacked their bad arguments just the same. The problem with using bad arguments to maintain a given position is that it undermines whatever validity the position may hold. Like the wing nuts on this board to rail against Obama for the stupidest of reasons. I'm not an Obama supporter, but fighting him with bad arguments is more dangerous than those who might present good arguments to support him. If you weren't such a partisan hack you'd notice that I've said plenty against Obama, against his stimulus, against the health care law, against his newly announced immigration policy. But I won't sit here and agree with people who take those positions with stupid reasoning.

This is me laughing at you again.

By all means, continue insisting that you're brilliant and free-thinking, and it just HAPPENS that the only "ignorant, partisan hacks" around, requiring your "oh-so-insightful" correction are conservatives. It's the funniest thing I've seen since the last time my cat fell in the bathtub.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Holy shit. I was hoping you'd repeat that bullshit stat 50 more times.

Itvdoesn't matter anyway. Wages IN GENERAL are too low. Get your head out of your ass and stop apologizing for the wealth hoarding that is ruining our economy.

Well, I'm so glad that you decisively proved that stat wrong by firmly proclaiming it "bullshit", and then hurrying on to "Whatever, the important thing is that THE WORLD IS NOT THE WAY I WANT IT! ::stomping of little feet::"

I just don't know WHAT we would do without your brilliant, factual reasoning and analysis to guide us. Probably have to get my three-year-old to replace you, or something.

 

[Cecilie1200]

I apologize, that 2.2% figure was under President Bush. The current number is 5.2%--but my entire point is still valid.

In 2011, 73.9 million American workers age 16 and over were paid at hourly rates, representing 59.1 percent of all wage and salary workers.1 Among those paid by the hour, 1.7 million earned exactly the prevailing Federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. About 2.2 million had wages below the minimum.2 Together, these 3.8 million workers with wages at or below the Federal minimum made up 5.2 percent of all hourly-paid workers. Tables 1 through 10 present data on a wide array of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics for hourly-paid workers earning at or below the Federal minimum wage. The following are some highlights from the 2011 data.

Minimum wage workers tend to be young. Although workers under age 25 represented only about one-fifth of hourly-paid workers, they made up about half of those paid the Federal minimum wage or less. Among employed teenagers paid by the hour, about 23 percent earned the minimum wage or less, compared with about 3 percent of workers age 25 and over. (See table 1 and table 7.)

Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2011

I retract my apology, 5.2% of all hourly paid workers are paid minimum wage--when taking into account the entire workforce that 2.2% number is more accurate.

PLEASE, "Google", for the love of God, PLEASE stop with all of these "pesky" statistics and facts.

You are going to cause leftist heads to collectively EXPLODE!

And the downside to that is . . . ?

 

[thanatos144]

You want to see how successful the concept of eternally increasing a wage is, and how it affects the economy...here ya go:

Detroit. Once arguably one of the most productive, vibrant cities in the US.

That has more to do with "free trade" than mw. In fact, I don't believe a single worker at the autoplants was making mw when they closed, where they?

No that has to do with having crooked democrats run the city for 40+ years.

 

[thereisnospoon]

They don't, they can't, I've been saying that for years, more than 75% of those working for minimum wage are adults and minimum wage currently has the lowest spending power in history. In the richest country in the world, the poorest worker should make a living wage.

First, you nor anyone else on your side can define or refuse to define "living wage"..
I presented a link to a table from MIT which for example stated that a worker with a family of 4 in Los Angeles must make $34 per hour to earn a "living wage"..Imagine that.... Imagine a federal mandate for a living wage means tested for metropolitan area. A mandate that a convenience store clerk or any other low skill job has a min wage of over thirty bucks an hour.
That's absurd.
Minimum wage work is for unskilled people with little or no formal education. You don't hire a kid to work in the hardware store in town and pay him $25 per hour. It's not realistic. Oh, you're going to respond with some nonsense about the guy who's worked in the same hardware store for 15 years and has a family to support...Well, he should be looking for ways to improve his skills set and make himself more marketable which will give him greater earning potential. No one does not get paid for "putting in time". One gets paid based on their ability to help the business earn a profit.
Everyone who works and wishes to improve their earning power has the ability to give themselves a raise.
Tell ya what sheila...Start a small business, pay the living wage, keep your prices competitive with other similar businesses and let us know what that works out for ya?
BTW, here's the link for that chart.....Living Wage Calculator - Introduction to the Living Wage Calculator

 

[Cecilie1200]

Every career pays well if you bring value to an organization. A reality that liberals refuse to acknowledge...

Sure they do. How well does Mcdonalds do if they have no burger slingers? Seems like they are the heart of Mcdonalds making money but they are the lowest paid in the company.
Same for retail clerks, housekeepers in hotels, janitors, etc.

Corporations historicall pay the least to the ones they depend on the most to keep the business running.

They are obviously paying those "burger slingers" what they are worth or those "burger slingers" would walk out and find another job.

Not to mention the fact that there are endless examples that McDonald's is really proud of where their employees started off "slinging burgers" while taking advantage of their tuition reimbursement employee perk and ended up with successful careers inside and outside of McDonald's.

Well, honestly, how much do liberals think McDonald's should pay for a job that could be expertly done by anyone over the age of 12 with an IQ of 100? The fact that they need it done doesn't negate the fact that there are literally hundreds of millions of people in this country who can do it if the loser currently doing it decides he doesn't want to. The day it takes them longer than five minutes to come up with a list of qualified candidates longer than your arm, it'll be worth more money.

Of course, I'm always amused by the shallow thought processes of liberals who assume the "most essential" job in making any business successful is whichever one the liberal himself actually sees being done.

 

[Borillar]

---(They don't they just exist after 3 years they become zombies)----

Article> One of my clients recently reported getting a job at a fast-food restaurant. Since she's been unemployed and desperately looking for work for nearly a year, I was thrilled for her. She was very excited that she'll be making $7.50 an hour -– a whole quarter more than minimum wage.



After she left my office, I got out a calculator. I've never worked for minimum wage, so I didn't know exactly how much -- or how little -- money that is.



Assuming 80 hours per pay period, my client will be bringing home around $462 every two weeks. That's with no health insurance or retirement contributions.



If I brought home $924 a month, would I even be able to survive? I decided to find out.

read more How do people survive on minimum wage?- MSN Money

It's possible, but it isn't easy. I had to support myself and family on a part time minimum wage retail sales job back in the mid 80's. I was going to college full time and had a small stipend from my GI bill benefits. We had to live in poor part of the city in the best rental house or apartment we could find within our means. We qualified for food stamps, so that helped a lot. We bought food at a grocery outlet where we could get factory seconds, generics, and no name brands. We weren't getting filet mignon steaks, like conservatives seem to think. We bought clothing at goodwill stores. I drove an old beater car that I maintained as best I could. We didn't have any health insurance. We had a TV and VCR, both 2nd hand for entertainment. Life didn't get better until I graduated from college and had something more to offer employers. If you want the better things in life, you have to go work to improve yourself. Go to school, learn a trade, join the military, whatever.

 

[koshergrl]

Leftists are not "anti-business." That would be simply dumb. They are anti-corporatism, which is an increasing problem you need to learn more about.

Your lip-service is meaningless.

But don't take MY word for it:

Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. investors overwhelmingly see President Barack Obama as anti-business and question his ability to manage a financial crisis, according to a Bloomberg survey.

The global quarterly poll of investors and analysts who are Bloomberg subscribers finds that 77 percent of U.S. respondents believe Obama is too anti-business and four-out-of-five are only somewhat confident or not confident of his ability to handle a financial emergency.

The poll also finds a decline in Obama’s overall favorability rating one year after taking office. He is viewed favorably by 27 percent of U.S. investors. In an October poll, 32 percent in the U.S. held a positive impression.

“Investors no longer feel they can trust their instincts to take risks,” said poll respondent David Young, a managing director for a broker dealer in New York.'

Bloomberg - Business, Financial & Economic News, Stock Quotes ve&sid=a8UiI1bCRdmY

77% of the investor class blame Obama. Now find out who 77% of the working class blames for their situation. It's not Obama. He didn't sink the economy. He inherited the mess.

These investor class sonsabitches are a big part of the reason why the economy is in the toilet. And I'm not talking about the small-time investor (like me) who has a few thousand dollars in bonds. I'm talking about the Wall Streeters who accumulate fortunes by producing nothing more than the motion of numbers on computer screens. These are the "investors" Bloomberg is talking about. How confident were these investors when Bush was busily wrecking the Economy?

What these "investors" are concerned with is the possibility that a second-term Obama might be receptive to the pressure being applied by an increasingly informed working class and start raising taxes and closing the loopholes that transformed the rich investor class to super-rich.

Yeah, cuz everybody knows investors don't understand the economy.

Investors don't blame Obama. They're waiting until he's out of office, and they don't have to worry about being targeted and penalized.

 

[tererun]

First off, you can survive on minimum wage. What you cannot do is expect a lot of things that are not necessities. You also need to chose where you live. No, you cannot afford an apartment in a major city for yourself, but I know plenty of places where you can get cheap and good housing. Your car will have to be used, if you have one, and you will not be able to get a loan as they will require full insurance coverage. You can forget about a huge cable bill, and if you cut out TV entirely (which is easy today with a less expensive HS internet account.) Don't plan on an Iphone, and deal with a low cost cell over a landline. Credit is only for emergencies, and that does not include any sales.

The reality is that plenty of people cannot imagine living without the expensive perks of a higher paying job, but there are people who do it. You have to learn to cook. You cannot eat out, even fast food has become too expensive. Forget the bar. Forget the movies. Deal with necessities, and stay away from credit as much as possible because any monthly payments are going to kill you fast.

Most kids have hard times with it because they have school loans, a car payment, car insurance, credit card bills which racked up in college, and they are used to living off of parents or friends. To tell the truth I could easily live on a minimum wage job right now. My expenses are rent, internet, car insurance, gas, power, and food. I could eat well for myself on 200 dollars in Food stamps if I had to because i know how to cook and I stay away from a lot of processed snack foods which tend to be pricy, and bad for those with sugar problems. I would probably find a roommate to split things with, and have no trouble making it on a grand a month. I could do even better if i found a nice weather area and picked up a smaller vespa instead of a car.

None of this would be possible if i had school loans, credit card payments, a car payment, or even a standard mortgage. People in the US feel entitled to a whole lot, but you can survive on less luxuries if you had to.

 

[tjvh]

First off, you can survive on minimum wage. What you cannot do is expect a lot of things that are not necessities. You also need to chose where you live. No, you cannot afford an apartment in a major city for yourself, but I know plenty of places where you can get cheap and good housing. Your car will have to be used, if you have one, and you will not be able to get a loan as they will require full insurance coverage. You can forget about a huge cable bill, and if you cut out TV entirely (which is easy today with a less expensive HS internet account.) Don't plan on an Iphone, and deal with a low cost cell over a landline. Credit is only for emergencies, and that does not include any sales.

The reality is that plenty of people cannot imagine living without the expensive perks of a higher paying job, but there are people who do it. You have to learn to cook. You cannot eat out, even fast food has become too expensive. Forget the bar. Forget the movies. Deal with necessities, and stay away from credit as much as possible because any monthly payments are going to kill you fast.

Most kids have hard times with it because they have school loans, a car payment, car insurance, credit card bills which racked up in college, and they are used to living off of parents or friends. To tell the truth I could easily live on a minimum wage job right now. My expenses are rent, internet, car insurance, gas, power, and food. I could eat well for myself on 200 dollars in Food stamps if I had to because i know how to cook and I stay away from a lot of processed snack foods which tend to be pricy, and bad for those with sugar problems. I would probably find a roommate to split things with, and have no trouble making it on a grand a month. I could do even better if i found a nice weather area and picked up a smaller vespa instead of a car.

None of this would be possible if i had school loans, credit card payments, a car payment, or even a standard mortgage. People in the US feel entitled to a whole lot, but you can survive on less luxuries if you had to.

Apparently you are one of those people who feel entitled. (see highlights above^)

 

[thereisnospoon]

---(They don't they just exist after 3 years they become zombies)----

Article> One of my clients recently reported getting a job at a fast-food restaurant. Since she's been unemployed and desperately looking for work for nearly a year, I was thrilled for her. She was very excited that she'll be making $7.50 an hour -– a whole quarter more than minimum wage.



After she left my office, I got out a calculator. I've never worked for minimum wage, so I didn't know exactly how much -- or how little -- money that is.



Assuming 80 hours per pay period, my client will be bringing home around $462 every two weeks. That's with no health insurance or retirement contributions.



If I brought home $924 a month, would I even be able to survive? I decided to find out.

read more How do people survive on minimum wage?- MSN Money

It's possible, but it isn't easy. I had to support myself and family on a part time minimum wage retail sales job back in the mid 80's. I was going to college full time and had a small stipend from my GI bill benefits. We had to live in poor part of the city in the best rental house or apartment we could find within our means. We qualified for food stamps, so that helped a lot. We bought food at a grocery outlet where we could get factory seconds, generics, and no name brands. We weren't getting filet mignon steaks, like conservatives seem to think. We bought clothing at goodwill stores. I drove an old beater car that I maintained as best I could. We didn't have any health insurance. We had a TV and VCR, both 2nd hand for entertainment. Life didn't get better until I graduated from college and had something more to offer employers. If you want the better things in life, you have to go work to improve yourself. Go to school, learn a trade, join the military, whatever.

The operative in your post is "Seem"..
Newsflash, we don't think Food Stamp people buy Filet Mignon....However, you should get out more.
Example..I was in line waiting to pay for my groceries. In front of me were two very well dressed black women. Between them were two very full carts full with groceries. Beand name stuff, steaks and all kinds of goodies.....No biggie right? Out come the Food stamps!
I check out after paying for THEIR groceries and mine...I walk across the parking lot....These women are loading their taxpayer funded bounty into a Cadillac..A car that could not have been more than two years old.
Please do not attempt to convince anyone there is not rampant fraud in our social programs..WE ARE BEING RIPPED OFF By the federal government and these fucking parasites!

 

[Againsheila]

---(They don't they just exist after 3 years they become zombies)----

Article> One of my clients recently reported getting a job at a fast-food restaurant. Since she's been unemployed and desperately looking for work for nearly a year, I was thrilled for her. She was very excited that she'll be making $7.50 an hour -– a whole quarter more than minimum wage.



After she left my office, I got out a calculator. I've never worked for minimum wage, so I didn't know exactly how much -- or how little -- money that is.



Assuming 80 hours per pay period, my client will be bringing home around $462 every two weeks. That's with no health insurance or retirement contributions.



If I brought home $924 a month, would I even be able to survive? I decided to find out.

read more How do people survive on minimum wage?- MSN Money

It's possible, but it isn't easy. I had to support myself and family on a part time minimum wage retail sales job back in the mid 80's. I was going to college full time and had a small stipend from my GI bill benefits. We had to live in poor part of the city in the best rental house or apartment we could find within our means. We qualified for food stamps, so that helped a lot. We bought food at a grocery outlet where we could get factory seconds, generics, and no name brands. We weren't getting filet mignon steaks, like conservatives seem to think. We bought clothing at goodwill stores. I drove an old beater car that I maintained as best I could. We didn't have any health insurance. We had a TV and VCR, both 2nd hand for entertainment. Life didn't get better until I graduated from college and had something more to offer employers. If you want the better things in life, you have to go work to improve yourself. Go to school, learn a trade, join the military, whatever.

The operative in your post is "Seem"..
Newsflash, we don't think Food Stamp people buy Filet Mignon....However, you should get out more.
Example..I was in line waiting to pay for my groceries. In front of me were two very well dressed black women. Between them were two very full carts full with groceries. Beand name stuff, steaks and all kinds of goodies.....No biggie right? Out come the Food stamps!
I check out after paying for THEIR groceries and mine...I walk across the parking lot....These women are loading their taxpayer funded bounty into a Cadillac..A car that could not have been more than two years old.
Please do not attempt to convince anyone there is not rampant fraud in our social programs..WE ARE BEING RIPPED OFF By the federal government and these fucking parasites!

Just think, if minimum wage were a living wage, we'd have little need of food stamps and other government handouts and the fraud wouldn't be so rampant.

 

[koshergrl]

If dewdrops were diamonds and there was a chicken in every pot...

Sorry, this is the real world. Nobody is handing out rainbows. Life is hard and people have to work their asses off and then some to survive.

So tell me...are the people who are earning min wage living?

They are?

Then they're earning a living wage.

Just because they think living means they drive an expensive care, get cable, have 15 pr of Nikes and spend an average of 2 hours in bars a night, and $100 on fastfood every two weeks doesn't mean they're right.

Living is having shelter, water, and food. That's it.

Your friend is alive, for example.

 

[thereisnospoon]

I saw Seattle calendars side by side, one made in Hong Kong, one made in the USA. Guess what? The Hong Kong calendar cost more.

Everyone would rather pay less for their things but I'd rather do without than support shipping jobs overseas or companies that underpay their employees. I still can't believe Michael Jorden got paid more for doing ONE commercial for Niki than all their other employees were paid in a YEAR! I don't buy those shoes.

Heck, I would rather stand in line in the grocery store than go through the self check out, I believe in supporting jobs in the USA and all that costs me is time.

Oh, and I'm just as upset about the illegals and GUEST workers coming into this country to take our jobs and reduce our wages as I am with the companies going overseas to find cheaper workers or to get out of paying taxes.

95% of products manufactured via outsourcing are cheaper than the products made here.

I'll say it again - the cheaper the product the more demand - the more expensive the product the less demand.

Demand creates jobs....

I would love it if we manufactured all our products here in the USA but the truth is that unions are so greedy and expensive and that goes right into the cost of the product. Not to mention the shit we do manufacture here - the components to make those items are from overseas anyways - they just assemble that shit here (which is one of the problems with a flat tax but that is a different topic).

My point is that the cheaper the product the more you sell of that said product hence the more business hence the more casheers and the more shipping and more gas sold etc....

So outsourcing itself creates jobs just because it keeps demand up due to the cheap prices.

Oh and as far as what we pay those in other countries........ Yeah we may pay 2-3 bucks an hour but at the same time that 2-3 bucks an hour converted to their currency is like 10-12 bucks an hour.... Of course that is why these items are so cheap... Despite all the economic shit our dollar is still worth a lot around the world....

Boeing blamed the 787 debacle on the unions. They OUTSOURCED the jobs because they said they could get cheaper labor. Then, the union jobs end up fixing the mess caused by those outsourcing. My husband was kept busy for months trying to figure out ways to make all those parts that didn't fit go together. The company is still blaming the unions for the delay in the delivery and the massive problems due to the outsourcing. Yeah, I guess in a way outsourcing does create jobs, it sure made jobs for Boeing here in the USA.

AS for those overseas jobs, yeah, I know the pay is good for them, why do you think I offered to follow my job? I could live a lot better on $4.00 an hour in India than I can on $8.50 an hour here. Funny house those jobs are for THEIR citizens. Why is it that we're the only country in the world that doesn't protect jobs for our own citizens? BTW, even China had a minimum wage. I'm toying with the idea of getting rid of the minimum wage and having a maximum wage like Japan....I mean, do you honestly believe those CEOs EARN 500 times more money than their employees?

Unions are not the reason why jobs were sent overseas. Changes in tax law, rewards for outsourcing and changes is government regulation is the cause of our jobs being outsourced.

You misuse apparently for your own reasons the term "outsourcing".
Outsourcing is not the evil thing liberals make it out to be.
There are literally tons of examples of outsourcing that have been going on for a very long time.
Take a builder of homes for example. He uses sub contractors to do the work. That is outsourcing.
When an auto manufacturer contracts an outside company( source) to make parts for them, that is outsourcing.
Ok, show me where the problem is.
As for your mention of the 787..You are way of base.
Boeing wanted a site near a major port on the east coast. They chose Charleston for many reasons. One South Carolina is a right to work state and is the least unionized state in the US. Of course the unions screamed bloody murder. The Obama Justice Dept sued Boeing based on some belief that the company was moving some operations to SC to evade unions. Since when is it the business of the sitting president whether or not a company wishes to locate where unions cannot make problems for them?
Boeing also chose Charleston due to the airport which has a 12,000 foot runway. The port is one of the busiest and most accessible on the east coast. The Port of Charleston also has much lower fees than other east coast ports due to lower labor rates and other fees.
SC is a very business friendly state.
Oh, wages at Boeing are about union scale. That is deliberate. Pay the workers well and keep the unions out.

 

[thereisnospoon]

It's possible, but it isn't easy. I had to support myself and family on a part time minimum wage retail sales job back in the mid 80's. I was going to college full time and had a small stipend from my GI bill benefits. We had to live in poor part of the city in the best rental house or apartment we could find within our means. We qualified for food stamps, so that helped a lot. We bought food at a grocery outlet where we could get factory seconds, generics, and no name brands. We weren't getting filet mignon steaks, like conservatives seem to think. We bought clothing at goodwill stores. I drove an old beater car that I maintained as best I could. We didn't have any health insurance. We had a TV and VCR, both 2nd hand for entertainment. Life didn't get better until I graduated from college and had something more to offer employers. If you want the better things in life, you have to go work to improve yourself. Go to school, learn a trade, join the military, whatever.

The operative in your post is "Seem"..
Newsflash, we don't think Food Stamp people buy Filet Mignon....However, you should get out more.
Example..I was in line waiting to pay for my groceries. In front of me were two very well dressed black women. Between them were two very full carts full with groceries. Beand name stuff, steaks and all kinds of goodies.....No biggie right? Out come the Food stamps!
I check out after paying for THEIR groceries and mine...I walk across the parking lot....These women are loading their taxpayer funded bounty into a Cadillac..A car that could not have been more than two years old.
Please do not attempt to convince anyone there is not rampant fraud in our social programs..WE ARE BEING RIPPED OFF By the federal government and these fucking parasites!

Just think, if minimum wage were a living wage, we'd have little need of food stamps and other government handouts and the fraud wouldn't be so rampant.

What is a "living wage"?
Look, this is business and economics.
Let's say for a moment the law of the land is "living wage"..Every Metropolitan Statistical area is means tested for the minimum wage required for some one to "live"....Whatever that means.....Using the chart I supplied earlier in this thread, let's take the living wage for Bergen County NJ....The chart says that a household with 2 adults and two children must have an income of over $33 er hour. So if one adult works and the other is a dependent, the other adult MUST by LAW be paid $33 per hour regardless of his skill level or experience. So based on a simple set of statistics a convenience store clerk who claims he or she is the sole earner for three other people can tell the store owner "by law you have to pay me $33 per hour.
Guess what genius, the store manager is going to tell that person to take a hike because the store owner simply could not afford to pay such an absurd amount of money to a worker who might generate $5 per hour in revenue for the store.
The store owner is going to hire only single people with no dependents. According to the chart the living wage for a single person with no dependents is about $12 per hour.
For an unskilled non revenue producing worker even that is too much money.
AT the end of the day, if overall wages are ratcheted upward by government decree, prices will also have to be increased so that business can meet the additional cost of labor. It's all relative.
The ONLY way a person can get themselves a raise to significantly higher levels is to improve their skills and their value in the workplace market.