This happened in the land of Facebook:
Yes, I did unfriend you — why? You insulted the burger flippers and the counter clerks, as if your Big Mac, Coke, and fries, somehow makes you superior to thepeople who worked hard to make sure that your lunch was prepared in a clean environment and served to you promptly. If it weren’t for them, you’d have had to make your own fucking sandwich.
Guess what, the minimum wage is SUPPOSED to be a living wage. Anyone who works 40 hours a week should be able to provide a good home for themselves and their family.
You know what? You think being able to write a pivot table in Excel is so important? It isn’t. Not really. The human race survived for thousands of years without Excel. We built an industrial world without even electricity. And with electricity, we created global communications — without Excel. Excel is nice. It’s a useful tool — but it’s not the measure of intelligence or humanity.
You know what’s more important? Being able to grow a crop and bring it to market. Without that skill, we all starve. You know what else is important? Good plumbing. Without clean water, we die of cholera and typhus. You know what else is important? People in service industries — because they make it possible for you to have a clean room in the hotel, a meal served to you in a restaurant, a ride to the airport, and all the other thousands of little chores you take for granted.
They are not your flunkies, they are not your slaves, they are not your servants — they are your partners in a technological civilization, they make it possible for you to live inside your pampered white bubble, isolated from the daily chores of existence. That you — you flaming asshole — think you have the right to be abusive to any other human being for any reason at all — that reveals more about the failure of your parents to teach you social skills and your own lack of compassion for your fellow human beings than it says about anything else that falls out of your mouth as “opinion.”
Yes, I’m angry. Because I knew some of the men and women who were beaten in the thirties and forties by corporate goons so you could have a forty-hour work week, a weekend, access to public education, social security, and other benefits hard won by the labor movement.
The only thing you are required to say to that burger flipper or that counter clerk is simply, “Thanks!” And mean it!
Telling them that you disapprove of their life choices is not an item on the McMenu. And if it were — you couldn’t afford it.
So, yeah — you’re an asshole and I defriended you.
Harsh — but a good kind of harsh!
This is your Weekend Open Thread. Talk about that, or whatever else you’d like, within reasonable bounds of decorum and discretion — or go beyond them if you’re a famous writer like David Gerrold!
ok…two questions
one, are the rumors true that republicans are secretly working for wendy because of their absolute hatred for the bealls, who seem to own brough, and will live with a democrat for two years and then run somebody sane
two, in the canary islands a couple of weeks ago and there were women swimming while wearing full burkas. does that seem strange to anybody but me (and its not the fact that they are muslim but the fact that they are in the ocean fully clothed, sort of like why we get upset when the hispanics from lake elsinore swim in the ocean while wearing their levis, it just does not seem right)
Yes, some Republicans would much rather live with 2 years of Wendy Gabriella than a likely 12 years of Bill Brough. Apparently, there are qualified Republicans in South County. Who knew?
And yes, you have a point — other cultures’ customs, especially when it comes to personal modesty, are always objectively wrong.
Minimum wage is a starting point, trainee, bottom rung, temporary wage. The statement above “…the minimum wage is SUPPOSED to be a living wage. Anyone who works 40 hours a week should be able to provide a good home for themselves and their family.” Is FALSE, flat out.
Why anyone would believe anything that’s titled as “minimum” anything would think that it was supposed to be anything other than exactly what it says is beyond me. If it’s supposed to be a living wage call it that! If it’s supposed to be a fair wage, then call it that! If it’s all a bunch on BS then I’m going to call it that too! It’s all BULL SHIT!
All that increases in the min. wage do is raise taxes, raise expenses for goods and services, raise the base costs of nearly everything and decreases the average workers buying power. Since nearly everyone makes more than minimum wage, nearly everyone suffers from the inflation caused by it, except the tax man…since I’ve never heard of the tax rates sliding to adjust to compensate for the increases. It hurts the working poor the most since they are least able to adjust to those increases and most of them aren’t making min wage.
“Since nearly everyone makes more than minimum wage….”
Stop right there. What proportion of the workers in the country do you think works for more than the minimum wage?
Note also that the minimum wage is a benchmark, so that some places will pay 50 cents or $1 or $2 more than the minimum wage. If the minimum wage were still $5.00 (or whatever), they would still be paying $5.50, $6, or $7 rather than $9.50, $10, or $11 — yet they wouldn’t fall into your category.
You have seniors citizens making minimum wage. In what sense are they “trainees”?
*Greeters at Walmart, Security Guards at most Banks, Most Retail sales folks, most chains and franchises, Gas station attendents, all fast food workers, every dish washer in the state – just to name a few. That leaves Real Estate Agents, Doctors, Lawyers, Public Employees, Accountants (not HR Block mind you), Elected Officials, some Hair Salons and Car Salesman. Hmmm….As Dr. D, so rightly explains….the Minimum Wage follows the rise in the cost of living – it does not lead it. In the days when we made $1.15 a hour minimum wage, the good paying jobs paid $2.40 to 3.50 a hour. Extrapolating that figure: If the Minimum Wage is $11.20 an hour, a good paying job would be about $24 to $36 dollars a hour. How much do the workers at Angel Stadium make again?
*By the way – really love the Captain Kirk photo with those Goonies, Gremlins or Gerbels…..He earned his pay for that one.
They’re…called…TRIBBLES! (said with halting, Shatner-esque delivery)
*Tribbles? Is that anything like the Shingles or worse? Thanks, now we remember…..it was “the Tribbles” – which they tried to make into a TV series to replace the Brady Bunch. The results were too fuzzy….if you get our meaning.
Consummate horseshit. Harry Truman (and a reluctant GOP majority in Congress) doubled the minimum wage in 1949. The professional pants-wetters — the business lobby — screamed exactly what Overmyer’s screaming about: utter economic catastrophe. Yet, when the legislation passed and wages increased, the flag still flew over the Capitol Building, quiet reigned on the Potomac, and the republic was unharmed. So unharmed that we enjoyed more than two decades of economic prosperity — a prosperity fueled by decent wages and government spending.
“All that increases in the min. wage do is raise taxes, raise expenses for goods and services, raise the base costs of nearly everything and decreases the average workers buying power.”
If changes to the minimum wage so distort the economy, what do astronomical executive salaries do to costs? And if you say something along the lines of ‘well they’re the ones who create wealth’ how come the vast majority of, for example, hedge fund managers, earn dump truck loads of cash while they underperform a stupid index fund with a 0.015 expense ratio?
Prove YOUR Claims! Show me the numbers and their sources!
I think a lot of your claims are pure BS, now I might be wrong and I’m willing to listen, BUT prove your numbers and sources…
*Brother Carlo, “Liars figure….but figures don’t lie!” If you are hispanic, live with five working grown ups that make $5 dollars a hour…….that’s $25 dollars a hour for a 40 hour week……..or $1000 a week minus any taxes, and FICA and whatever. So let’s say it comes to $850. Hopefully, they have no kids and can collect food stamps. If their rent is $1600 a month for a three or four bedroom apartment, they share two cars and have no internet, cable and have all utilities included……..well….you sort of get the idea. Living wage? Not so much!
405 update by the VOC: City Leaders Propose Alternative to I-405 Toll Lanes
http://www.voiceofoc.org/county/article_02828da4-3a79-11e4-a307-df4ae7059cb4.html
Nor bad for a minimum wage. Maybe the government workers should be paid that too.
Minimum wage would be a step up for Diamond. Maybe he ought to take a fast food job to pay his bills.
As regards the cases that I do for CATER — for now, minimum wage is about right. I only get paid if we win and if a judge awards fees. That is why most public entities feel pretty secure that no lawyer will challenge them on their wrongdoing — and, therefore, you often get a lot of corruption. Luckily for me, I do have other work that pays a lot more than minimum wage, although I’ve had to put more than I wanted of it aside to do the CATER work justice.
(I’ve almost entirely given up on trying to explain to the anonymous cowards around here the difference between “self-employed” and “unemployed.” You can’t make someone understand what they’ve decided not to understand.)
I’ll tell ya something Greg … you don’t need to take the bait of every fuckin asshole.
There’s a concerted effort to raise this theme all over the local political blogosphere right now, Vern. I’m not “taking the bait”; I’m setting the record straight — and, hopefully, leading readers to decide that they’d prefer my actions to those of these anonymous dinky character assassins.
Don’t you find it hilarious that after all this bellowing about someone calling him the “Northwoods Night Stalker,” Chumley’s website is now up there with his friend Cunningham’s as being an Anonymous Defamation Clearinghouse? If the man had any shame … but why bother to complete that sentence?
Greg,
These tactics say more about the owners of the blogs that tolerate them than it does about you. They’re clearly willing to stoop pretty darn low just too annoy you.
Their lack of character shouldn’t cause you any concern. You can’t fix classless.
Thanks, Ryan. Other people (who would follow Vern’s advice to ignore the critics, or who might just spike their comments) may think that my engaging them sometimes (as I even do with Stanley Fiala, who is at least not anonymous) is foolish. I don’t think so. I think that showing that one can take the punch, shrug it off, and come back with a legitimate rejoinder is useful. I think that it makes such people — especially, at this moment, whoever is pretending to be representing the Booster Club at the Brea-Olinda Choir — look like the cowardly assholes that they are. Some people don’t feel that they can take on this sort of self-appointed character assassin because of their work obligations, etc. — but I’m my own boss and I don’t think that it hurts my business to the point where I would worry about it. And I think that my standing up to them in some way has to terrify them, because they don’t have a lot of tricks besides this one in their bag. And I do look forward to the day when one of them breaks ranks — not uncommon in politics — and then I can collect all of the vicious defamatory statements in a nice bundle and perhaps call them to account. OC politics would be better for that.
greg,
even though you are a commie, and probably an atheist, we on the right side of the issues, still respect you
*Dr. D., taking the high road is always preferable to munching on the remnants of the downed Vulture Class. We wish we could maintain our calm and aplomb as much as you do, but since “we don’t have the proper standing – as pundits”…..we are forced to respond in kind at times!
Felony take down on Broadway & 10th in Santa Ana. @9pm
About 10 to 15 cop cars stopped a Cadillac, guns drawn, order the people out one at a time just like on the show “cops” They had one young man get out and then the driver, a woman, the cops told her to take the baby in the back with her and to open the rear gate door. Seems there was another but that person must have jumped out elsewhere.
What kind of mother takes her baby with her on a crime?
*These were probably just Catholic revilers, celebrating the Boston College win over St. Pat and the big Sark. What did happen at the 99 cent store…..did they take some Pampers without paying? Nice to know even people with Cadillacs can still get food stamps to feed their families. Glad it is Sunday and we can watch the Red Zone…..all day!
Maybe, but after they were cleared they were cut loose.
I have no doubts that those who wish to raise the min wage want to do good things for those who labor for it. Why can’t any of you understand that I do too? why is it SO HARD for you to simply accept that there’s another perspective, other than yours, that might be correct as well?
I accept that you may believe that you’re helping laborers and that you may not be willfully blind in doing so. But how you think that, at a time that the wealthy are wealthier than ever (or at least in the previous century), taking money away from the middle class (of which sole income minimum wage workers are at best the bottom rung) helps the overall economy is mystifying.
Maybe we should play at “reductio ad absurdum” argumentation. I’m willing to concede that the minimum wage should not be $50 per hour. Are you willing to concede that it should not be $0.50 per hour? If so, then we can each explain why.
Jesse Jackson, for whom I presume you have contempt, used to have a good line: that “the U.S. had full employment under slavery.” You understand, I hope, that at base that’s a statement about the minimum wage.
Min wage workers are NOT middle class. They are working poor, perhaps trying to be middle class. They still qualify for a great many assistance programs as well. Those making a little more than min wages seldom do and they along with the rungs of the working poor, and the lower middle class get screwed in the process. We make too much to get help, not enough to get ahead and we are the ones that get screwed the worst by the inflation.
Nobody has given me a raise in six years, three of which I have been in cancer treatments. What I made then certainly doesn’t go as far as it did and every time the min wage goes up those who are strained already are the ones who take the burden.
Name one thing that’s gone down in the last 6 years? I can’t afford new electronics, that’s about the only thing I can think of that’s cheaper.Lots of companies are down in revenue and are struggling since the real estate crash and some of them are still trying to recover. Every time they turn around there’s some new increase in expenses.
This is one of the reasons that companies have left CA and moved their HQ’s to other countries.
I’ve got a great response to your call for a universal income;
https://ocap.ca/the-neoliberal-danger-of-basic-income/
General notice to readers:
As someone is messing with the Voice of OC’s RSS feed and link again, please note that until further notice (and ideally, in my opinion, until forever) an emergency access portal to the Voice of OC main page will be available in the “Other Local Blogs We Like” menu near the bottom of the rightmost column. Be sure to use it often.
Let me add something to the discussion, here’s an interesting article that speaks about a universal income for all because we have run out of jobs.
http://theweek.com/article/index/267720/america-is-running-out-of-jobs-its-time-for-a-universal-basic-income
Eventually we’ll probably end up there, but we’ll need to have a majority that is willing to pay for people to live rather than starve. We’ve not been heading in that direction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsjwrA_Oo18#t=136
More discussion of the current working poor.
*Between Freshman and Sophmore years at USC…..we got a job at American Thermos Products in Anaheim. The Minimum wage was $1.10 an hour. American Thermos Products offered a job unloading boxcars for $1.35 a hour. That work at 115 degrees during summer, will get your attention. I did such a good job they gave me an upgrade to $1.45 a hour as a Plastic Mixer. You would mix 50 lb bags of white with 25 lbs of black and create grey plastic thermos tops in an injection molding machine. They told us that if we did good, the following year we could become a lead person and make $1.60 per hour. After 10 weeks of summer, we went back to school at USC, to play bridge and socialize at Frat and Sorority houses. Living wage? Hmmm. had to live at home, buy that .29 cents a gallon gas and eat Hostess Twinkees and Chocolate Cup Cakes……for lunch. But hey, as Carlo would say……not everyone can make a Middle Class income.