On 11/1/2014 5:22 PM, F. George McDuffee wrote:
On Sat, 01 Nov 2014 12:31:44 -0400, Tom Gardner
wrote:

snip
$15/hr for a burger flipper
is STUPID!

Why can't people have some responsibility for their lot in life and not
just have everything handed to them or have some corrupt organization
fight for unearned benefits using extortion, threats and blackmail?
/snip

Problem is that one way or the other the individual makes at
least that much, as it costs at least this much to live in
the US, assuming they are not living in the storm drains and
dumpster diving for food.

If they are engaged in criminal activity, it is estimated
they will cause *at least* 10X damage for the amount of
money they "earn." Thus if you have a "car clouter," that
steals a package worth 50$ from a car, they will have caused
500$ damage by smashing a window, requiring replacement.
This equates to at least 300,000$ or more societal loss.

If they are employed in low paying jobs, particularly in
high cost areas such as SF or NYC, the taxpayer still takes
it in the shorts because of the social safety net costs for
SNAP, section 8 housing, Medicare, etc. etc. for which they
must pay (now or later).

It would appear far more efficient and equitable to require
the employers to pay the 15$ (or more) per hour and include
these costs in their register prices for their customers,
rather than hiding these costs by foisting these off on the
general taxpayers, many of whom are not customers.

In many cases this will indeed "squeeze" the returns of the
corporate employers and their 1% stockholders, but they can
afford it, based on their rapidly increasing share of the
GDP and wealth.

The alternative is the creation/expansion of third world
enclaves in the US economy, with all of their problems.

Correction of this problem will be expensive, but no where
as expensive as not correcting it.




I'm all for the "Star Trek" society! But humanity ain't ready or
willing. As long as the degree of greed exists, this is what we have.
So, disincentivizing striving to be a 1%er is NOT the way to go...yet.
Again, something for free has no value.