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Originally Posted by pan6467
Did you even truly read my post?
How did you get equitable to liveable from my post. I never suggested paying the same, just enough to live ......... so please do not put words into my mouth or try to make my argument look like something it isn't.
So we should have poor people who work their asses off for 40 hours and be paid wages that are just above or below poverty level.
So someone who is unskilled but works his ass off for 40+ hours a week SHOULD struggle and barely make it??????
Yet the CEO who pays everyone to make him look good can make 100's of x's what that poor schlob makes.
Oh and by the way...... are you saying because someone didn't graduate high school or college they are not worth wages that would give them a decent life?
And this isn't another country, this is the USofA supposedly the greatest country ever, yet we can't get corporations to pay people enough to live decent lives.
You don't want to raise wages ....... fine then the guy making $10/hour or and works 40 hours a week doesn't have to have income taxes. CEO's can have that burden added onto theirs.
I know plenty of people WITH college degrees that have been at jobs for years and are making only $10/hour..... because the job started at $7.50 and you get a 25 cent raise a year..... if you are lucky... some years no raises.
I know people who have been laid off by companies here that were making over $30,000/yr only to find that any job that is hiring is hiring at most $6.75 with no benefits.
You tell people to work hard and that they can live a decent life......... then you argue that if they haven't reached certain levels of education, no matter how hard they work they don't deserve to make enough to live and have some pride and feel like men?
You'd rather have them barely make enough to live and watch CEO's make so much they don't know what to do with it....... but because they are who they are.... they obviously know where the money needs to go far more than the guy who has to decide whether his family can eat this week or have the electric shut off.
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No, Iīm suggesting that people have something to STRIVE for. I know and understand the position you are taking. It is dear to me in ways you do not know and could not know.
I worked in NYC and lived in NJ in 1991. I made $4.35 working a small mom and pop garment factory working from 7am to 7am from Monday to Saturday. I got home every day around 8pm in a township that had blue laws so everything but grocery stores were closed on Sunday. In order to buy any work related clothing I had to travel to the next county or go into New York City.
When I first started working for this company I worked only 40 hours and asked for a raise, they suggested I wanted a raise and they said they had more hours to work available. Eventually they gave me a raise to $8/hr after I took on the duties of another gentleman that went on vacation and did both jobs, mine normal one and this new one. So my total hours increased even more since the original job I got hired to do I had to now do late at night.
I was sick or on vacation I did not get paid. If I had a doctors appointment I clocked out and did not get paid for those hours. There were many times I clocked out on Wednesday evening I had already worked 40 hours.
One day I got fed up with the whole thing and went to a career counselor. They tested me and had a potential job for me. Within 24 hours I had secured a new job doubling my total income. It was a corporate job, I stayed there until I closed the company after it was divested. I jumped from company to company until I landed where I am now. I have been with this corporation for 10 years now.
It took me a number of years NOT staying in the security of a particular job but taking risks that I did not want to but had to in order to better my lot. I know according to career counselors that I am underpaid since I have not yet gone above $100,000. But let me tell you, I am happy where I am. I have no stress. I get 3 weeks vacation a year, 2 weeks of sick days, summer fridays where from Labor day to Memorial day I get every other Friday off. I can take off early to go to doctorīs appointments. I get a good number of other perks, like a pension plan, bonus based on profit sharing, 401k matching. Many many other perks that I cannot even begin to list.
The moral here is that I could have stayed where I was like many other people at that garment company. I know many people still working there who have worked there for 25 years. I have surpassed many of them in income, but in happiness I could not say, because some of them equate security of the same place as something important to them.
I donīt have a college degree, I barely graduated from High School having to retake a science in summer school because I failed physics.
I believe that I wanted to have a better life, one better than what was just handed and given to me. I worked very hard for where I am, and will continue to do so. I resent anyone who isnīt willing to exert some effort to improve their lot in life and expect someone else to just divy it up for them.
I was laid off from my wonderful corporation, they gave me a severance package for 9 months. Looking for jobs there were few and far between, I ended up taking a pay cut that I know most people in poverty would never achieve. But I retrained and retooled my skills to make myself more desireable and marketable. I was eventually rehired back to the company because my skills fit the long term goals of the company something I prepared and worked hard for.
The mom and pop operation could not have ever provided me such a lifestyle. I could not have ever expected it. It would have been silly for me to think so. Just like I do not think that a CEO cannot provide me that lifestyle. I created it on my own with my own resources and my own blood, sweat, and tears, and sacrifices.
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