flacaltenn
Diamond Member
Oh, the discussion aint' over yet. A rational response to your "proposal" which you THINK should be an obvious solution to safety nets and welfare is that --- making folks COMFORTABLE in endangered menial jobs is actually immoral and has some very obvious NEGATIVE consequences to the long term welfare of the people involved in your altruistic spending of other people's money..
Oh, please. First, these jobs are hardly "endangered". They'll probably be the only jobs left at the rate the One Percenters are going at the middle class.
It's immoral, because you are simply promoting THE JOB and not THE PERSON. By making them comfortable in jobs subject to extinction thru technology, automation or transformation to the web. The focus should be on WHO is ELIGIBLE for inflated wage jobs at the very bottom of the work force. IMO -- only folks who are currently pursuing continuing or higher education should be eligible for min wage jobs. With some exceptions for seniors and the mentally challenged. THAT WAY -- they have a trajectory in the workforce pyramid. A GED would qualify. As would vocational training or comm. College.
Here's kind of hte problem with that mentality. Back in the 1980's, I worked two minimum wage jobs to pay for college at UIC. To pay tuition (when the army wasn't covering it for me) I had to work 10 hours a week. The rest of it went to paying rent, transportation and other stuff. I worked 35 hours a week between these two jobs. plus one weekend a month in the National Guard.
NOW- tuition at UIC costs close to $16,000 a year. You could work 40 hours a week and still not e able to afford it.
STill -- that was a better solution than taking on a mountain of debt thru student loans. You did the right thing. MAYBE could have reduced the pain by taking the 1st 2 years at a Comm College. I took freshman year at a Comm College and continued in academics for 5 more years at full colleges of my choice.. No academic advantage in the 1st 2 years of college paying PREMIUM prices for the standard trivial freshman/soph stuff.
What about the OTHER students buying your service? They are ones that have to subsidize jobs that are value-warped and inflated by "living wage".