CharmingBasil8 “Take Risks” Template

I want it. Grand pianos aren't cheap, and I've gotta have somewhere to put them all.

In all seriousness though, people just need to learn to live on less than they make. Maybe don't buy the super expensive car or the Steinway model D concert grand if you can't afford it just yet.

True-many people need to learn how not to be in debt. However, if a full time minimum wage job can't cover the necessities of life, like an apartment and food, you're either working far too much for it to be healthy just to survive or you're going into debt just to survive. You might say that they should get a better job, but should any full-time job, regardless of skill, not allow you to survive

"minimum wage jobs" generally pay higher than minimum wage, if you stick around more than a couple months to get a raise. I don't think the issue is that the minimum wage is set to low, I think the issue is flooding the country with immigrants, which inflates the supply of workers and keeps wages down.

And there's more to it than that even. Taxes are too high and there are too many regulations. I definitely think higher wages would be a good thing, but there are a lot of factors at play in the market and setting the minimum wage higher through legislation can't possibly address all the other issues that are really causing wages to be what they are.

It's also difficult when our companies are shipping the jobs to other countries because it's cheaper labor. Why pay Americans more than you do now when you can just build a factory in Mexico and pay those workers less?

woo.
Instead of getting paid $7.25 an hour, I get paid $8 an hour, and $8.50 +1 week of unpaid vacation each year if I work an unfulfilling job for 1 year. Thrilling.

Germany is the second most popular immigration destination in the world after the US.
They have seen a massive decline in jobs as those in industry have been exported to other countries
The minimum wage there is €9.82 per hour. They also have mandatory sick leave, paid parental leave, and 20 days of paid holiday each year. They also pay more tax and Germany is famous in Europe for its Bureaucracy and regulation. At the very least, a minimum wage is required that rises with inflation

I know a kid still in highschool who gets paid like $15 an hour at McDonalds lol
he's been there like 2 years I think
At my "minimum wage" job I started about $1.50 above minimum wage, before any raises

Thrilling. Sounds like an amazing deal. This is like saying it's fine to pay waiters less because they get tipped. Waiters getting tipped shouldn't be something you have to do, but a reward for good service, which motivates waiters to work harder, not an excuse for restaurants to pay waiters less.

If we are congratulating a company for paying workers slightly more than the wildly insufficient federal law requires, but still massively less than they need to live, something is wrong. Companies like McDonald's could easily pay workers $20 an hour-they do in other countries-but they don't want to.

The big problem in the US is that to increase the minimum wage, you have to pass a new law, but in most developed countries, there are people who adjust the minimum wage for inflation and cost of living

the economy literally won't allow it. There's more to it than just raising the minimum wage. Immigration has absolutely decimated the value of labor, and factories are being moved out of country. That's higher supply, lower demand. You do the math.

The economy can 100% take it. Any large company can afford to pay workers like they do in, say, Austria or Denmark, which have high minimum wages, in all their branches. They just don't want to because it decreases profit, and profit is above all else to them. And if your company doesn't survive paying workers a fair wage, they shouldn't be in business. Germany, Spain and Italy have had similar numbers of immigrants to the USA, and they have far higher standards of living. They are all dealing with the same problems as the USA in terms of a high supply of labour and a low demand, but they can still afford to give their citizens basic necessities. If the economy really is that reliant on not paying workers enough to survive, it shouldn't exist.

The economy cannot 100% take it. That's literally not how economies work. Maybe you should look at the profit margins on some of these companies.

In the US, companies don't have to give you any time off for anything. They offer some days off when you work a low-paying job for 1 or 2 years to incentivise staying. I have no problem if a company seeks profit until it ends up putting people into seeking second jobs or working 50-60 hours a week just to make ends meet, with few sick days, little to no paid vacation, and no parental leave, and therefore having an extremely unhealthy work-life balance. It's surprising what you guys allow companies to do to you. In every other civilised country, they have unlimited sick days, mandatory paid vacation, and the only other countries without paid parental leave are Swaziland, Lesotho, and Papua New Guinea. Literally, countries you bombed into the ground and whose economies were destroyed by massive conflicts take better care of their workers. You have more paid vacation in Syria, Yemen, and North Korea than in the US, the largest economy ever and most powerful country in the world

but forcing companies to pay their workers more via legislation isn't going to make it any better. easing regulations and lowering taxes will. not saying every company would raise their wages immediately, but if some did, more people would want to work for them and other companies would probably follow suit in order to compete.
but right now that's going to be difficult for a lot of companies, and forcing them to pay higher wages is going to put a lot of people out of jobs in the end.
maybe you should try starting your own company, then you can pay your employees $20 an hour or whatever. see how long that lasts you.

McDonald's: $23 Billion in profit
KFC: 8% profit margin
Amazon: $54.6 Billion in profit

I think they can afford to pay their US workers more and give them benefits

Net profit is different than revenue. Net profit is after all the expenses are paid, including wages.
The net profit for McDonald's was $7.11 billion in Q1 2022
The net profit for Amazon was $21.48 billion in Q1 2022
Amazon has also in the past had negative net profit, but I guess they just should've been paying their workers more
In Q1 2022, Ford's net profit was $11.57 billion. In Q1 2020 their net profit was -$3.09 billion, preceded by a net profit of just $0.05 billion, and followed by three more consecutive quarters of net loss. But I guess they had plenty of money to spare and they were just paying their workers too little.
Tesla had a net loss every month for 6 1/2 years. But I suppose Elon Musk is just so greedy that he wasn't paying his workers enough.
In Q4 2020, Exxon Mobile had a net loss of $22.44 billion, next quarter was a loss of $19.10 billion, next quarter was a loss of $13.33 billion, and the next quarter was a loss of $5.9 billion.
The highest net profit that Cracker Barrel has had in 13 years was $0.26 billion in Q3 2021. Their starting pay is just under $11 an hour. But you're right, they can definitely afford to pay way higher than that. So greedy aren't they.

Things are a lot more complicated than you know. Should companies pay employees more on good years, only to slash wages when there's a bad year? Is that going to be sustainable for the workers?

So I guess in that case, profit goes above morals. Do you seriously think that you, as an individual shouldn't be paid a fair wage or allowed to take any time off just so that some big company can make billions in profit. At least have a minimum wage that allows you to survive. I don't have a problem with companies that do that

It's a business, they exist primarily to make profit....
If they can't make a profit, they will literally cease to exist eventually. And then who has jobs?
Allowed to take any time off? Employees are already able to take time off. That doesn't mean they can just choose not to show up to work whenever they feel like. Companies couldn't function like that.
They seem to be surviving all the same.
Why is it wrong for the companies to seek profit, while it's ok for the workers to seek profit?

You do realise that this already happens in countries with significantly higher minimum wages like Austria. They are just used to paying for the price of fair labour through the price of the goods. You are treating this as if it is some crazy concept, but a liveable wage that rises with inflation is already in place in every developed country except for the richest nation ever.

ok, hear me out
but maybe you think that
if the cost of goods is raised
that the cost of goods will be higher?
maybe?

and then how far is your higher wage gonna get you when everything's more expensive?

Money is a good thing until you make it impossible for people without it to get it. There needs to be some sort of safety net for everyone, and there needs to be a healthier work-life balance, especially in the US - e.g. mandatory paid holidays, paid parental leave, and a minimum wage that rises with inflation. It needs to be easier for people without the money to get to the money, and for people with the money to not burn out and keep the money

Totally agree with you there. Money is a great thing but there should be a bit of a balance at least. Not that everyone should have the same amount of money but there are billionaires that just don’t have to worry about money and then there are people that are working minimum wage and struggling to put food on the table. It should be easier for people in need to earn money and relieve themselves of the stress it causes.

Yes. I have a particular issue with the US minimum wage, as most developed countries have either a committee or some other way of reviewing the minimum wage annually to make sure it rises in accordance with inflation and cost of living. The 1960 minimum wage in today's money is over $9, and the current one is $7.25

Smaller workforce = higher wages

take from that what you will

This is correct, but you can't solve problems like this with just disposing of a bunch of people

i need more of it

A way to not let it have stress over you is to not let it control you.

Very true

I'm so glad you agree.

Money is the root of all evil