This Is a Real Reason Why Middle-Class Incomes Remain Stagnant

[Chris]

Republicans refuse to vote for a minimum wage increase, and then complain that wages are too low.

 

[rightwinger]

Middle class wages are stagnant because that is what Reagan wanted

Low tax rates on the wealthy and low wages

How do low tax rates on the wealthy cause middle class wages to stagnate?

I didn't say they caused wages to stagnate
I said that we gave tax cuts to the wealthy with the understanding that the savings would "trickle down" in the form of more jobs and higher wages
Never happened...they just kept the money

 

[kiwiman127]

e

No. Minimum wage, the base for all wages hasn't increased with costs.

The minimum wage is not the reason the wages of technical professionals have been stagnant for the last 15 years.

Are you 100% sure about that?

The "Ripple Effect" of a Minimum Wage Increase on American Workers | The Hamilton Project
How raising the minimum wage ripples through the workforce - Equitable Growth
Minimum Wage Hike Would Benefit 3X More Middle-Class Workers Than Poor
Minimum Wage Mythbusters - U.S. Department of Labor

If raising the minimum wage just benefited those at the bottom, why do over 70% in multiple separate polls favor increasing the minimum wage? Probably because once those on the bottom see increases in their wages, it spreads upwards.
Polls show strong support for minimum wage hike

 

[9aces]

the problem with the people who are democrats. they believe we are here to make their lives for them. they don't care what it does to a business or us

back in the day you couldn't make enough to support yourselves or the kids you plop out. the fathers usually got a second job. now today the fathers are demanding a business raise all their prices on the good they are selling so they pay their sorry asses to work for them.

Something wrong with this Society. no honor or pride

Democrats support the working class. Republicans support the rich and wealthy.

They say that a lot. Proving it? Well proving it doesn't come so easily does it. If your statement were true, we'd have seen working class incomes go up during Barrack Hussein Obama's tenure. Which of course it hasn't.

Buying power from the working class people has regressed. Again during Barrack Hussein Obama's tenure.

You shouldn't feel bad about his failure though, he's never learned how to lead anything in his life, so watching him show no clue as to how is unsurprising.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Agreed. Years ago many of us had two or more jobs. Hell, I didn't have any kids and I had three jobs at one time just to support myself. If my full-time job didn't have me working on Saturday, I would make sure I had weekend work somewhere.

It was a different mindset back then though. If you needed more money, you just had to work more hours, that's it, not complain to your politicians that your employer was greedy.

I don't know any younger person today that has two jobs. If your job doesn't pay enough, don't learn a skill, don't keep trying to get into a company that pays well, just contact government and they will fill in the gaps.

These social programs took all the motivation out of people. Years ago the mood of the country was for everybody to get ahead. Today, the mindset is do enough just to get by.

Why didn't you take a job that paid all of your expenses?

Eventually I did, but I lived through the Reagan recession which was much worse than Obama's. I became unemployed at the beginning of that recession and took any job that paid, even if I was making less than minimum wage which was somewhere around $3.50 an hour at the time.

Once Reagan got the economy going again, I didn't want to live paycheck to paycheck. I took other jobs just for extra money.

 

[rightwinger]

Typical incredibly shortsighted RWdupe idiocy. These kind of policies have worked in the past. Austerity and screwing the workers hasn't.

Nobody is screwing the workers. The only person that can screw a worker is himself.

If you wish to invest in the stock market, does government give you the money for that? What about if you invest in real estate, or a race horse, or the commodities market?

Of course not. It's not taxpayers job to invest in anything. That's an individual responsibility and action. So if you want to make an investment in yourself (or anything else for that matter) then you do it on your own time with your own dime.

Workers are getting screwed royally

$30 trillion in wealth created since 2009 and almost none trickled down to the workers.

Time for strong unions again to hold back all labor until wages and benefits return

What unions? The only remaining unions now are government unions and they are putting the taxpayers in a serious hole. Unions are a thing of the past. They are in their rightful place--history books.

Yeah, 30 trillion since 2009, and who was President during all that time? Oh, that's right, blame Reagan.

Exactly...and Government Unions are not allowed to strike

The drop in wages and benefits corresponds to the decrease in power for the unions

Imagine the workers getting a bigger piece of the pie again, it would be great for the country
The money is there......Workers need to start demanding it

What you don't understand is that your idea only works in your little world.

In reality, all costs to business get passed down to us--the little people.

For instance, everybody wants cleaner air. Oh how nice cleaner air is. So in the trucking industry, we got hit with all kinds of environmental costs. A new tractor today costs over 10K than they did seven years ago. Why? Because of all the pollution BS they have to manufacture those trucks with.

Then we have this stuff called Diesel Emission Fluid, or DEF for short. It's a separate container that squirts that goofy fluid into the exhaust pipe to make it cleaner. During the Bush regime, the EPA forced refineries to make diesel fuel cleaner by greatly lowering the sulfur content. Since that time, diesel fuel increased to around a dollar a gallon more than gasoline, and it's still that way today. Prior to that, diesel was cheaper than gasoline.

So my employer has to pay more for trucks, more for diesel fuel, has to buy DEF for the trucks, and 80% of the problems with the trucks we have have to do with some pollution gadget going haywire. So who do you think pays for all this, my employer?

Of course not. My employer has to increase our fees to our customers. Our customers who manufacture the products we buy at the store has to increase their prices to cover additional transportation costs. That's how it works in the real world.

The economy is bigger than the trucking industry

Money is being made...wealth is being created by the workers
Less of that money is being shared with workers than it was 35 years ago

 

[Billy000]

I've been saying this for years. Unfortunately most of the Republican candidates have been talking about expanding this program. Hopefully they can be re-educated before one of them gets elected:

This Is a Real Reason Why Middle-Class Incomes Remain Stagnant

H-1B visas are used by large corporations to bring into the United States cheap foreign workers who typically have college degrees. Corporations like this because they can control these foreign workers, and keep wages low for Americans by hiring foreigners. H-1B visas are a big reason why real wages in our country have not increased for the average worker.

Each year, companies are allowed to import 65,000 new hires from foreign countries, plus another 20,000 who have received a degree from an American university. The result over the past decade has been to staff corporations with hundreds of thousands of foreigners in good jobs that should have gone to Americans. Many middle-aged Americans with families to support, particularly in hi-tech fields such as computers, are unable to find a good job today because of this terrible program. Now things are getting even worse. Some companies are misusing this program in order to lay off American workers and send their jobs overseas, after the foreigners are trained here in how to do the work. This results in an offshoring of thousands of jobs, which are then permanently lost to our country.

Despite this, misguided candidates for president support expanding H-1Bs, which would take even more jobs away from Americans. Marco Rubio, for example, introduced a bill earlier this year in the U.S. Senate that would triple the number of new H-1B visas allowed annually. Any economist will confirm that as unemployment decreases in our country, real wages should be increasing. But this is not happening and the H-1B visa program to bring cheap foreign labor into our country is the reason why. It is time to end H-1B visas, not expand them.​

Lol re-educate? Are you so naive to think republicans don't already know this is happening? Stop pretending republicans actually care about the middle class.

The establishment Republicans know this, but I don't think Trump understands it, nor Cruz or Carson

Trump and Carson understands next to nothing. Cruz likely knows but will do anything to protect the interests of corporations. You know who funds this guy's campaign?

 

[rightwinger]

Middle class wages are stagnant because that is what Reagan wanted

Low tax rates on the wealthy and low wages

It's what Reagan wanted, huh?

Here we go again with the blame transference from the left: Don't blame our precious Obama, he can't do anything wrong. Blame the President that left the White House 27 years ago. Yeah, that's the ticket.

"The best part about being a Democrat is never having to say you were wrong."
Ray from Cleveland

Reagan was the King of Supply Side Economics

Reduce taxes and regulation on the wealthy and it will trickle down in wages and jobs for working Americans

Who would have figured the wealthy would just keep the extra money?

What are you talking about? Reagan had tax increases just as he had tax reductions. But the President isn't in charge of taxes anyway--the Congress is which happened to be Democrat at the time.

We had some great economic years under Reagan just like we did under Clinton and even GW. If you are going to try and blame a guy that's been dead for 12 years for what's going on today, at least give him credit as well.

The Reagan revolution was built on government spending in Defense. Tripling the deficit covers up a lot economically. Stupid Carter ran on a balanced budget and got killed for the economy

Cutting taxes on the wealthy has been a disaster....time we return to a reasonable tax structure

The top 10% of wage earners in this country pay about 70% of all collected federal income taxes. If 70% is not enough, then tell me what percentage is.

It is called an income tax
Your claim only affirms that a small percentage is claiming most the income....Something we already know

 

[9aces]

the problem with the people who are democrats. they believe we are here to make their lives for them. they don't care what it does to a business or us

back in the day you couldn't make enough to support yourselves or the kids you plop out. the fathers usually got a second job. now today the fathers are demanding a business raise all their prices on the good they are selling so they pay their sorry asses to work for them.

Something wrong with this Society. no honor or pride

Democrats support the working class. Republicans support the rich and wealthy.

They do? The Rich and the Wealthy have their reins tight upon their Democratic puppets. You don't think the Clintons went from worth less than a million, to worth more than 200 million without producing a single thing in their lives by doing anything useful did you?

Barrack Hussein Obama is rapidly increasing his wealth. How?

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

the problem with the people who are democrats. they believe we are here to make their lives for them. they don't care what it does to a business or us

back in the day you couldn't make enough to support yourselves or the kids you plop out. the fathers usually got a second job. now today the fathers are demanding a business raise all their prices on the good they are selling so they pay their sorry asses to work for them.

Something wrong with this Society. no honor or pride

Democrats support the working class. Republicans support the rich and wealthy.

Democrats support tax and spend. Republicans support lower taxes and spending.

 

[Chris]

Gallup recently found that 76% of Americans favor raising the minimum wage, while only 22% oppose it.
Yet Republicans continue to block a rise in the minimum wage.
Why?
Because Republicans only represent the 1%

 

[9aces]

the problem with the people who are democrats. they believe we are here to make their lives for them. they don't care what it does to a business or us

back in the day you couldn't make enough to support yourselves or the kids you plop out. the fathers usually got a second job. now today the fathers are demanding a business raise all their prices on the good they are selling so they pay their sorry asses to work for them.

Something wrong with this Society. no honor or pride

Democrats support the working class. Republicans support the rich and wealthy.

They do? The Rich and the Wealthy have their

Businesses are not your personal piggy bank to be used for an unsustainable spending party.

Workers wages are not the personal piggy bank of employers.

For decades, employers have been raising prices claiming higher wages, except the higher revenue never made it past the employers pocket.

Actually worker's wagers ARE the personal piggy bank of employers. Where do you think those wages come from?

 

[OnePercenter]

Your plan would raise the prices of everything.

-Back down ALL costs, prices, fees, to January 1, 2009 levels and hold them for 10 years which will eliminate inflation.

You can't do that in a free country, you can only do that in a Communist or Dictator country. Nobody can tell a business they have to produce products or services at a loss and stay open.

Sure you can. How would backing down sales prices AND wholesale prices create a loss?

 

[9aces]

the problem with the people who are democrats. they believe we are here to make their lives for them. they don't care what it does to a business or us

back in the day you couldn't make enough to support yourselves or the kids you plop out. the fathers usually got a second job. now today the fathers are demanding a business raise all their prices on the good they are selling so they pay their sorry asses to work for them.

Something wrong with this Society. no honor or pride

Democrats support the working class. Republicans support the rich and wealthy.

Democrats support tax and spend. Republicans support lower taxes and spending.

I wish that were true. Of late Republicans seem to be almost as fond of spending as Democrats.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

It's what Reagan wanted, huh?

Here we go again with the blame transference from the left: Don't blame our precious Obama, he can't do anything wrong. Blame the President that left the White House 27 years ago. Yeah, that's the ticket.

"The best part about being a Democrat is never having to say you were wrong."
Ray from Cleveland

Reagan was the King of Supply Side Economics

Reduce taxes and regulation on the wealthy and it will trickle down in wages and jobs for working Americans

Who would have figured the wealthy would just keep the extra money?

What are you talking about? Reagan had tax increases just as he had tax reductions. But the President isn't in charge of taxes anyway--the Congress is which happened to be Democrat at the time.

We had some great economic years under Reagan just like we did under Clinton and even GW. If you are going to try and blame a guy that's been dead for 12 years for what's going on today, at least give him credit as well.

The Reagan revolution was built on government spending in Defense. Tripling the deficit covers up a lot economically. Stupid Carter ran on a balanced budget and got killed for the economy

Cutting taxes on the wealthy has been a disaster....time we return to a reasonable tax structure

The top 10% of wage earners in this country pay about 70% of all collected federal income taxes. If 70% is not enough, then tell me what percentage is.

It is called an income tax
Your claim only affirms that a small percentage is claiming most the income....Something we already know

Yes, it is income taxes, the taxes that fund just about every goodie in our federal government.

Income is not claimed, income is created.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

the problem with the people who are democrats. they believe we are here to make their lives for them. they don't care what it does to a business or us

back in the day you couldn't make enough to support yourselves or the kids you plop out. the fathers usually got a second job. now today the fathers are demanding a business raise all their prices on the good they are selling so they pay their sorry asses to work for them.

Something wrong with this Society. no honor or pride

Democrats support the working class. Republicans support the rich and wealthy.

Democrats support tax and spend. Republicans support lower taxes and spending.

I wish that were true. Of late Republicans seem to be almost as fond of spending as Democrats.

I wouldn't go quite that far. The Republican Congress has lowered the deficit quite a bit, but not to my satisfaction. I understand that with Obama hanging the government shutdown over their heads, there is only so much they can do.

 

[Chris]

The city of Seattle raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour and unemployment went down.
King County’s jobless rate dips to 3.3 percent; lowest in 7 years

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Your plan would raise the prices of everything.

-Back down ALL costs, prices, fees, to January 1, 2009 levels and hold them for 10 years which will eliminate inflation.

You can't do that in a free country, you can only do that in a Communist or Dictator country. Nobody can tell a business they have to produce products or services at a loss and stay open.

Sure you can. How would backing down sales prices AND wholesale prices create a loss?

Simple. If you make widgets for $5.00 a piece, and government forces you to sell your widgets at $4.50 a piece, then you are losing money.

 

[francoHFW]

EVERYONE is paying about the same in ALL taxes and fees, and that doesn't work and isn't fair. Your stat is disingenuous propaganda.

Fair is everyone paying the same. That's sort of the definition of fair.

Not anywhere but Pub dupe world...

 

[OnePercenter]

And how often do you "do the right thing?"

When you go grocery shopping, do you go to the most expensive store or the store with lower prices? If you have a lawn care company, did you hire the most expensive one, or did you find somebody that mows your lawn at a reasonable price? When you need your car repaired, do you choose the garage that will repair it for $850.00, or do you choose the garage that will do the exact same work for $650.00?

So if you won't overpay people to do work for you, why do you think companies should?

I do the right thing everyday. I pay my employees what they deserve, twice or more of what my competitors pay. I can do this by using good debt, which any good business person can do.