Seattle Passes Ordinance For $15 Minimum Wage

YES. That is where I came from Nothing!!!. Divorced parents poor living on beans and hot dogs. I was no child of privilege. I made it. Many of my friends did not. Some are in prison some are dead. Sorry but I grew up in a very poor violent environment. To say you had a rough childhood that's why you can't make a life for yourself is a cop out. I was stealing cars at 15, robbing people and many other things I should not have been doing. Watched one of my friends beaten and shot in the chest and die while the rest of us had guns pointed in our faces. But here I am a successful businessman. So yes you get what you make out of life. I have a buddy that came here from Mexico on a student visa. Could not even speak English and still has a very strong accent. But he now owns 2 businesses. So don't give me that poor kid bullshit
I lived it I made it
That crap don't fly with me. Those are just liberal talking points. Just don't try that B.S. on me.

 

FIFY

 

Congrats. You are highly resilient and a model of the 'bootstraps' philosophy. If more people were like yourself this would be a better country. I'm being serious here.

Trouble is, not all folks have that innate or learned resiliency trait. How people get this skill is another debate. But what about your friends who did not make it? It sounds like some had very poor outcomes and I do not think you believe they got what they deserved. So the idea here is to provide support for the less resilient among us. Not to just let them perish.

It's interesting to watch people who have beat the odds turn around and say 'Well I did it. Why can't everyone else?' I think this may be the same attitude demonstrated by multimillionaire CEOs and the types that gave themselves promotions with federal bailout money. Success is attributed to great interpersonal strength or business savvy and others who can't compete on the same level deserve much less. Whether success is acquired by merit or social capital from, for example, a rich kid who meets another rich kid at Yale, is yet another debate. The point here is there's a widening gap between the haves and the have-nots in this country and I believe it is because the haves get the have-nots to participate in fights among themselves, like this here minimum wage discussion, instead of organizing against the 1%. The truly middle class folks, whether there by 'bootstraps' or inheritance, are looking down at the ones just below them and saying 'you shall not have a piece of my pie!'. We're fighting over a tiny piece of pie. Let's focus on the big ass portion that's held by the wealthy mother fuckers.

...enter discussion about how the wealthy earned what they have...can do what they want with it...profit is good...it's the American way...

 

+1

I grew up in a very rich town and many people I knew then never made it either, some were so used to clinging to their parents that they couldn't do anything on their own. Others got in trouble and money coudln't buy their way out. On paper they had the opportunities that poor people do not.

My family wasn't rich, but my folks were very frugal and did not live beyond their means..never believed in credit except to buy a house. I was throwing newspapers at 9 yrs old b/c I wanted a new bike and was told I will earn that bike. At 11 I was making $100 a week doing yardwork for neighbors. Where there's a will there's a way

Not only did I earn money, I learned personal responsibility. My friends had all day to go play and yeah that kinda stunk sometimes but I never let it deter me.

 

Full time college, 2 jobs totalling 50-60 hrs a week for short money, and I did it. I had the luxury of living at home rent free however.

 

This is an argument that made me think a bit deeper, I appreciate your post.

 

Not sure if posted before, but this was talked about in my business class recently.

I'm not sure many of the employees understand how fast food businesses work. They are typically owned by the middle class people. They send most of their profits up the chain, and only get a small portion of the money. Now, with minimum wage going up, these same employers will be making less money because they have to spend more to keep employees. Yay for fucking the middle man!

 

So do you believe there is only a finite amount of wealth? So, in effect, to make everything fair we should take from one & give to another? Do you not believe there is more be created every day and people can go get it? And then what about the tax burden? Not arguing either way just trying to understand.

 

I think if people are making more money in current times causing inflation and the bottom of society are being left behind, it's OK to raise the minimum wage.

Because if inflation, due to the bulk of society making more money, increases enough that the lower end of society can't live off their wages....robbery/burglary or any other form of theft will increase.

 

wealth in this thread is money only, or $15/hr. so yes, there is a finite amount. the Fed will only print so much and their method of determining how much is specious.

trickle down does not work. so we need some system to make things more equitable. if big business can't run things and approximate a reasonable, equitable distribution of $$ then i'll ask the gov't to regulate. this is what Seattle's City Council is trying to do i think.

creating wealth through making up markets? yeah, it happens every day. all in all i'm not sure if it's good or bad. those residuals i think they are called, the packages of bad home mortgages that are (or were?) traded, they are bad.

i'm not sure about best tax agenda either. no comment.

i'm not advocating a system that i think could work because i'm do not know what is best. the more i think it through i liken where we're at in Murika to the fall of the Roman Empire and start to sound like my grandmother talking about the apocalypse. fatalistic, meh.

i'm just saying we shouldn't do a Larry, Curly, Moe thing and punch the guy below us because we're feeling the squeeze. if we're mindful of why we get so heated about a minimum wage hike then we can get perspective on the whole system and hopefully come about a solution.

 

According to Forbes, Austin, TX has been #1 for the past 4 years. Seattle is #11.

 

Anyone going to take a stab at post #226? I'm guessing Smoke may have lost interest.

 

Most of you are too young to remember the Inflation jimmy carter left on the USA. We got our first house with great credit .. Our rate with 10% down was 19%. That was good at the time..If (Big If) the USA ever start BOOMING again, Do you know what will follow??? Inflation like 1981..

 

I would say you are right about the money going right back into the market,heres my 2 cents about that. I worked for FedEx a few years ago and while i was there the amount of recent american citizens(people from the philippines, Soma,etc) went through the roof the job paid great and had incredible bennys. So talked to a few of the 40-60yr old coworkers from the philippines about what they do with there money each one of them said they send every penny that isnt needed back to their family in the philippines. Now to clarify i think that is very admirable but on the same note im seeing jobs that could be helping our economy be ineffective in that sense. So given the number of immigrants working in the american work force i imagine this isnt the only example of this and money that should be there to stimulate the economy is not.

 

I am all about helping the helpless. BUT I DONT GIVE A RATS ASS THE CLUELESS.

My friends that did not make it chose to continue the course they were on. I talked and tried to get them to change. But they unfortunately did get what they deserved. It is sad but no one forced my friend Scott to slam dope and overdose. No one forced my friend Mike to make meth and get 20 yrs in prison. They could of got out they could have changed the path as I did. Trust me if you talked to people I went to high school with they would say he is dead or in prison. I turned my life around when I was 22yrs old. No one forces people to live a life of crime or in poverty it is a choice. We have free will.

 

^^^ RIGHT FUCKIN' ON! ^^^^

If more people would have this kind of attitude this country would be much better off. Intelligence beats Ignorance in the end.

 

But im tired of paying for the ignorant

 

So we should all have the same? Knock all the rich down to be like the middle class and then give it all to the poor to be like the middle class? How did that work out for the USSR?

 

In a "developed" society you must take care of the weak AND the stupid. How many of us are willing to look a kid in the eye and say "I'm sorry. Your parents are ignorant (or lazy or stupid) so you get nothing". I don't think I wanna live there. I'll have to accept that some will get something they don't deserve so that others that do truly need help, get something.