President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

There are two ways to go with this chart - one, technology has made it easier to be more productive (which is true) and the gap between the lower line and the upper line is very comparable with the wealth inequality gap over the same period (so somebody is making the money). And no - it doesn't have to be this way, it isn't a "natural" outcome of the economy - it has happened via legislation, tax breaks etc. as the European graph lines show.

 

lol I put the chances of this happening at 1%

 

Cuomo does have a Leisure Suit Larry feel to him.

 

Texas damn near lost the entire power grid. Deregulation is awesome!

Texas' Power Grid Was 4 Minutes And 37 Seconds Away From Collapsing. Here's How It Happened.

 

Do you eat at fast food places? While I agree that there are still some kids using them as entry-level, part-time jobs.... it's really not all of the workers. Lots of seniors. And others. So, I disagree. I think if you work a full-time job in America.. don't care what it is... you should be able to have a home, a car (or afford public transportation), basic utilities plus streaming/cable, phone and food and some discretionary money. I'm not talking about flying overseas, but able to drive to the beach for a vacation or go out to eat once or twice a week. $15 is $600 dollars a week. That's barely enough.

 

Ay, there's the rub.

At my wife's store there are exactly three full-time employees (manager, logistics manager, replenishment manager), out of about two dozen. She wants to be a replenishment manager. I doubt that's ever going to happen.

Full-time employees basically can have everything you laid out. Problem is, lack of people getting the hours and/or benefits to be full-time.

 

Did you read my post? I specifically said part-time fast food/grocery store jobs for kids and followed that up by saying raise it for actual jobs.

 

I did miss the phrase part-time. Apologies.

 

I'm in that boat now where I'm working 38 hours per week - two less than needed to get benefits.

 

Well, that sucks.

My wife was working plenty of 40-hour weeks before the company's latest edict. Actually became full-time during a nine-month experiment (one associate in high-volume stores can be full-time) that was discontinued as soon as those nine months were up.

So she's back on my health insurance (which costs 2 people 3.5 times more than just insuring myself) . . . until I get thrown overboard.

Raising minimum wage without creating some minimum benefits is just putting a dirty band-aid on a problem.

 

OK, but if is set up that way the franchise owner is going to hire a bunch of kids at the part-time el cheapo rate and toss the 40-something folks who are just getting by (and bless their hearts aren’t cut out for much more) out on their ass. And then people will bitch when those 40-somethings need to use (more) safety net benefits.

Fast food crews haven’t been primarily students for a long damn time now.

 

I don't have an answer for that Catch-22, and it really won't be any different than when places start putting in self service kiosks. People will lose jobs if it's cheaper to go automated vs. paying higher wages. If you turn minimal skill jobs into careers, then the kids don't get entry level jobs. It may be a death spiral any way you look at it.
Most of the students I have who work either work in dining places (fast food or chain sit down) or grocery stores. I can go into about any local place at any given time and have a current or recently graduate/in college student working there. They don't go to after school jobs at local factories or car dealerships.