Do you realize that the minimum wage hasn't gone up since the mid-late 90's? Yet at most other jobs, you usually get a raise of around 3-3.5% each year? Why is it that the rest of us deserve the benefit of staying ahead of inflation, whereas these people making minimum wage are not allowed. It's always such a huge deal when anyone says they should be making more to support their families.

I understand that you can't simply raise minimum wage to whatever you want, but it should go up steadily with inflation. The cost of living has skyrocketed in the last decade, yet minimum wage has remained stagnent. This is outrageous to expect people to try to survive on. How can you say it won't help them to be making more money to cover the costs of increasing prices.

Have you ever heard of a show called "30 Days", its made by the guy who made that movie SuperSize Me. In this show, he and his wife lived for 30 days on minimum wage jobs. If you had watched that show, you would see that it is extremely hard to live off of that kind of dough. On top of that, but you don't have health insurance to cover the cost of illness and/or injury.

A whlie back, my girlfriend and I lived for about 2 years on minimum wage. No kids, no car payment, no mortgage, just rent/utilities/food/etc. And still we were barely making it, in fact several times, we had to borrow money from my parents to make ends meet some months. Some people can't go to their family for help. Many have families, many have car payments, mortgages, etc. And I can't imagine how this is like to live. No savings, no retirement fund, no college fund for your kids, nothing, paycheck to paycheck. And costs keep going up year after year. Many can't afford to drive to their job anymore with the cost of gas. Many can't afford to heat their homes this winter. Many can't even afford to have their kids go to school, because they need them to get jobs to help out the family. Oh yes, it happens.

Increasing minimum wage should go up each year, just like any other job, if we are all expected to keep up with inflation. Otherwise they will all get left behind...decide it's not worth their time to work, and either steal it, or take it from government programs like welfare. They will be forced to abuse the system like so many others. Rewarding them for getting out there and working for their money is the only way to actually keep them there. But whatever....keep up the hate.

First of all, it's not necessarily immediately obvious that a Wal Mart employee with a $1/hr raise is going to increase his spending budget at Wal Mart by $2,000/year.

Who knows? They might be starting their entry-level employees at something slightly above minimum wage, like $6/hr or $7/hr. Not that that's such big money compared to $5.15/hr.

is 3.5%, it is a fairly "thin" margin business.

He wants the minimum wage raised so that his competitors will have to raise their wages also. For WMT to raise wages without their competitors doing so would put them at a disadvantage in being able to compete on prices.

The company is also trying to improve their PR.

I don't like WMT because they destroy small-town small business and I grew up in a small-town rural atmosphere that is disappearing.

No one is forced to go to work at WMT. If it is not acceptable, don't work there.

First of all, just because a job starts you out at minimum wage does not mean that you'll have to wait 10 years (or however long Congress waits to give the next minimum wage increase) to get a raise yourself. I've worked many fast food and convenience store jobs over the years and have known a good many co-workers who had been there for seemingly ever and who were making $10/hr and up compared to my $5 to $7/hr job. There are basically about five things you can do with that minimum wage job: (a) use it work work your way through school and get a new job that pays better; (b) use it to work your way through school and get promoted to a big corporate office job with the same employer; (c) hang around forever, learn everything there is to know about the job, and make 2 to 3 times what the greenhorns are making; (d) hang around long enough to make manager; or (e) hope your boss fires you or otherwise puts you out of your misery in three months or less. Then the other darn thing that's going on is people should figure out whether their little Wal Mart jobs are paying them enough money to support a family before they have kids instead of making a bunch of kids they can't support and then complaining about how greedy Wal Mart is.

What is it about some who seem so intent on punishing success, and rewarding failure? Big Oil is evil because they are successful (in the past few years, anyway). Wal-Mart is evil because they are successful.

Let me ask a question--has a poor person here ever hired anyone here for a job? Could it just be that when companies are successful, they also create jobs and economic prosperity?

Anyone who believes a minimum wage job is designed to be a permanent job at a permanent fixed wage simply has a very skewed way of thinking. A minimum wage job is either an opportunity to begin a career, succeed and be promoted, or a temporary job until something better comes along. No one dreams of making a minimum wage. But some dream of managing a Wal-Mart, or owning a McDonalds, and begin their dream by accepting a minimum wage job.

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"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."
Winston Churchill

Now, Barn, I don't hate them because they are successful. I used to love them. Sam built his empire based on good strong competitive values such as service with a smile, employee stock ownership and low prices. The problem is that the competition died and Wal-mart is still reaping the benefits without having to be competitive. When the price of milk at a convenience store beats the price at Wal-mart, something is just wrong.

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Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive. - Theodore Roosevelt

and still make minimum wage then you are doing something wrong in your job. It is generally for fast food and equivalent workers and even then only a starting point. Prove yourself and you'll earn more or become a manager. My very first job was at Taco Bell and I became an Assistant Manager in less than a year and got a raise. It's not that difficult.

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JMS gets another English lesson:

Quote:

there is no "mostly unique;" thats like saying "sometimes always," its an oxymoron - its either one or the other.

The result:

Quote:

By the mid-19th century unique had developed a wider meaning, “not typical, unusual,” and it is in this wider sense that it is compared. The comparison of so-called absolutes in senses that are not absolute is standard in all varieties of speech and writing.

..and haven't been able to move up since...???

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The last time this country mixed politics with religion, people got burned at the stake.