CompuServe Thread

#Election Day Narcosis

11 messages in this thread
#173949From: Vic WagnerNov 24, 1994 1:05 PM
Have you considered that the reason there are so unskilled jobs available is because of the idiotic "minimum wage law"? Employers can no longer afford to train people because the government dictates how much they must pay for the priviledge of educating the uneducated.
#174046From: Paul IdolNov 24, 1994 9:41 PM
Yah, like the minimum wage is so high. Factory jobs used to pay $16, $18, even more sometimes per hour. Minimum is $5 or something, right? (And incidentally plenty of people violate even that.) Paul – wearing my black construction paper funeral suit
#174198From: Vic WagnerNov 25, 1994 7:27 PM
your point….if any?
#174344From: Paul IdolNov 26, 1994 6:34 PM
My point is that you have no point. The minimum wage isn't ruining anyone. Paul – wearing my black construction paper funeral suit
#174427From: Vic WagnerNov 27, 1994 2:21 AM
except those who might want to be able to learn a job and aren't worth the $4.35/hr until they do.
#174555From: Paul IdolNov 27, 1994 6:27 PM
Oh yeah, like the jobs that pay $4.35 are SO tough to learn, they just take weeks of grossly overpaid time from the employers' pockets. Righto. Paul – wearing my black construction paper funeral suit
#174659From: John DraperNov 28, 1994 1:17 AM
> Oh yeah, like the jobs that pay $4.35 are SO tough to learn, … Your sarcasm does not change the fact that low-paying jobs are low paying because they are (a) unskilled, (b) have side benefits, (c)are a 'learning' or 'entry level' job, or (d) probably a few I missed. Minimum wage jobs are taken by students, people newly in the job market, people who cannot obtain the skills to do a higher paying job. More importantly, they are taken by people who are willing to work, in preference to accepting welfare. Left alone, the market does an excellent job of regulating salaries, production, pricing, and so on. Not left alone, it ends up going downhill, with all the attendant suffering you see around you now. -larry
#174669From: Karl F. KugelNov 28, 1994 1:57 AM
Paul, the people who take those jobs ARE learning. Like how to show up for work on time, every day. Dressed neatly. Like how to follow instructions, and how to be polite regardless of how YOU feel. And what it's like to get a paycheck, and how to budget their money. Just because YOU don't need to learn these things doesn't mean that lots of people don't. -Karl
#174434From: John DraperNov 27, 1994 3:02 AM
Well, if a higher minimum wage is desirable, why don't we just make it $200/hr. and be done with it? -larry
#174556From: Paul IdolNov 27, 1994 6:28 PM
??? What a load of manure. That's not a response designed to promote discussion; that's a response designed to say "shut up" between the lines. Paul – wearing my black construction paper funeral suit
#174629From: John DraperNov 27, 1994 10:44 PM
> That's not a response designed to promote discussion; So you say. In actual fact, I designed that response to avoid all the intermediate steps in the discussion, to get to the crux of tha matter. The crux of the matter is that any change in the minimum wage is invariably met with an adjustrment in the cost of items or services. Rather than go through all the steps leading to the question I would inevitably ask, I just asked it up front/ > that's a response designed to say "shut up" between the lines. If you interpret it that way, it's your problem, not mine. I don't want you to shut up. I want you to tell me how you think an increase in the minimum wage would do anything useful at all. -larry