Originally Posted by
timsatt1
food water clothing and shelter ...plus a loving family is all you need in life. Us Americans, yes me included, have trouble comprehending this. I know we feel like we need more than that. But you dont. People on minimum wage survive. No they dont live in the nicest places. But had they put more effort in school and throughout life, in most cases, they would probably be better off.
You have to earn your job and your wage. nothing should be handed to you. I wish they would quit teaching people that they need to rely on government in order to survive. But that is the way it is. So be it. Life was never meant to be perfect.
I try to stay away from political commentary in public, so I won't weigh in on one side or the other, but minimum wage is hard. You can survive, but timsatt1, start doing the math. Assume you work 50 hrs a week @ minimum wage. Now assume you are married with 2 young kids (pre-school age).
Now look around in a big city and see where you can live. How much do you have left over for groceries / car / bills? Now -- how much is left over for clothes / toys / books / etc. for the kids.
It doesn't work. And guess what, you now live in a bad-education part of town (that's what you could afford). So your kids won't get a good education. But maybe you will spend hours with them a day supplementing? Nope - you are working more than one job if you make minimum wage and have a family. Looks like the kids will have a hard time "just doing better in school" as you said their parents should have done.
Poverty (and yes minimum wage for a family of 4 is poverty) breeds poverty. It is a viscous cycle.
Talk politics if you want. But don't talk about things that you don't know about and act like it's not a big deal -- people live it every day and it is a big deal, and there is no easy solution like "well, you should have just avoided it".
You can only have one favorite team. There are no "second favorites".
-- Chris, resident of Arrowhead East (St. Louis)
Bookmarks