BigRedBuster Posted February 8, 2016 Share Posted February 8, 2016 Feelin' me, here, Brofessor? What's up with the Brofessor? another pathetic attempt at an insult? As for your post, I have a problem with a lot of those things too. Ted Turner is one of the largest land owners in the state of Nebraska along with the Mormon Church. When he first started here, he was a pathetic land owner basically ruining thousands of acres in the sandhills. From what I know, he has learned some lessons though and getting better at managing it. Not sure how you think you are going to prevent it though. I would prefer that land be owned by local ranchers. For the record, I have less of a problem with Ted owning that much than I do the Mormon Church. Ted will die someday and at some point, it will be broken up and sold off. The Mormon Church won't. From what I gather, you have a major problem working for "the man". So....my question is....why do you? Why don't you go start your own business and when you get big enough to pay employees, you can pay them equal to you and everyone would be happy? Also, I'm assuming you are not invested in stocks in your retirement funds. Moiraine. That is my biggest problem with jacking the minimum wage as much as some people want to. There should be a level of jobs out there that aren't expected to be on a livable wage for teenagers...etc. to get started in working and learning how to have a job. I live in a small town and have teenagers. One reason why you don't see teenagers doing some of these jobs is because they are just so friggen busy. I honestly don't know when my kids would work. They work over the summer. But, during the school year....no way. When you have a kid that is in 2-3 sports plus other activities and studying....it just doesn't leave much time to do anything else. They do need some down time. And....I absolutely despise Walmart. When Sam Walton started that company, it was built on promoting American made products. Nowadays, it is almost impossible to find anything in Walmart that is made here. Problem is, that is driven a lot by the consumers. How many consumers would be willing to shop at a different store in your small town if it were American made but cost more? It will cost more. I have spelled out on here many times my views on how to help fix that. But, the public is going to have to realize there will be a form of inflation. You can't expect a company to make a pair of shoes in the US for the same cost as in China. In the end, I think everyone would be better off because more Americans would be employed and be able to afford spending more. And, American companies wouldn't be competing with products made in China so they could charge more. Link to comment
cornographic Posted February 8, 2016 Author Share Posted February 8, 2016 When I was growing up in a small town we had family businesses around and we also had corporate fast food in our town. It used to be that high school kids were working those minimum wage jobs in the small town I grew up in. Now, when I'm back home the 3 to 4 times a year, it seems as though adults are working all of those jobs and the kids don't work anywhere. Does that have anything to do with anything? I don't know. Just a thought that came to my head. These places that got by with paying minimum wage was because HS kids can make enough living at home not paying bills and such on MW. Adults can't, thus the demand for higher wages? I don't know if that's comparable to larger communities but I would have to think it is somewhat? I hardly ever see high school kids working anywhere anymore. Maybe I'm having a hard time telling the difference between HS and college kids....idk. These days, maybe moreso than ever, there is intergenerational competition for crappy low pay jobs. And there's the immigration thing. The standard Latino practice is to have multiple adults working the low pay jobs and living together--i.e, families hang together to survive and pay the rent, etc. Common among Asian groups as well, or whoever, really. Fight for 15 has gained massive traction: Link to comment
cornographic Posted February 8, 2016 Author Share Posted February 8, 2016 When I was growing up in a small town we had family businesses around and we also had corporate fast food in our town. It used to be that high school kids were working those minimum wage jobs in the small town I grew up in. Now, when I'm back home the 3 to 4 times a year, it seems as though adults are working all of those jobs and the kids don't work anywhere. Does that have anything to do with anything? I don't know. Just a thought that came to my head. These places that got by with paying minimum wage was because HS kids can make enough living at home not paying bills and such on MW. Adults can't, thus the demand for higher wages? I don't know if that's comparable to larger communities but I would have to think it is somewhat? I hardly ever see high school kids working anywhere anymore. Maybe I'm having a hard time telling the difference between HS and college kids....idk. This was why my mom (I was in high school at the time) was always opposed to a big raise in the minimum wage and I agreed with her. The minimum wage jobs were done by high school kids. They didn't need to make enough money to make a living. But things have changed and because most minimum wage jobs are done by adults now who are on their own trying to get by, then the wage should also change, imho. Another big problem is everyone is told to go to college now which has made the college degree worth less. If everyone has a college degree then there are going to be people with college degrees doing low paying jobs. I'm sure there are hundreds/thousands of variables involved. This is a bit of a segue but I think more should have been done to incentivize keeping jobs in the U.S. It was/is morally wrong to have products made in China when how they treat their workers is illegal here. Why are we okay with letting our products get made under those conditions when we would arrest people here for doing the same thing? At the very least tariffs should be added but really, companies who do that should be prosecuted. It should not be legal. I think things might be a bit better now that China's economy is better but I dunno. I don't know enough about it. Bigger segue: I honestly think the Walmarting of America has a big part in our economic woes. We can buy things a little cheaper (although they break faster) but there are less decent paying jobs because things aren't getting made in the U.S. anymore, and the people who run those businesses aren't putting much $ back into the economy. If you have 10 small businesses making $1,000,000 in profit and 1 Walmart making $1,000,000 in profit, the small business owners are each going to be spending their $100,000 in profit just on essentials they need in order to live decently. That money is going directly back into the economy, being spent on goods at other stores. But with Walmart, $900,000 is just sitting in a bank somewhere not doing anyone any good except for a couple people in Arkansas and their descendants. Oh, and our taxes are spent to build roads that lead to Walmarts, or just to bring them into our towns. Oh, and Walmart spends less % on charity than the small businesses. That is a fact. But they'll make sure they tell everyone as loudly as possibly how much they're spending on it. They'll also argue that they bring in jobs, but people had jobs before Walmart existed. The costs of Walmart are hidden. They have cheaply priced goods but we're paying for them in other ways, even if we never shop there. The same goes for lots of huge stores. All correct. Wally World signs you up for food stamps your 1st day OTJ. They also announced a week ago that they are shutting down ~450 of their smaller "specialty" stores. Job creation and job destruction works out to ~ net 0 growth with corporations. I've boycotted race-to-the-bottom Wally World since it's inception, but the few times I've gone in their w a friend, I was just astounded at how crappy the products were/are--especially the clothing. Even back in the Great Depression, the working class had decent made in America wool and tweed suits to stand in the food lines. Today it is jammy bottoms, t-shirts, and hoodys. Link to comment
cornographic Posted February 8, 2016 Author Share Posted February 8, 2016 Feelin' me, here, Brofessor? What's up with the Brofessor? another pathetic attempt at an insult? As for your post, I have a problem with a lot of those things too. Ted Turner is one of the largest land owners in the state of Nebraska along with the Mormon Church. When he first started here, he was a pathetic land owner basically ruining thousands of acres in the sandhills. From what I know, he has learned some lessons though and getting better at managing it. Not sure how you think you are going to prevent it though. I would prefer that land be owned by local ranchers. For the record, I have less of a problem with Ted owning that much than I do the Mormon Church. Ted will die someday and at some point, it will be broken up and sold off. The Mormon Church won't. From what I gather, you have a major problem working for "the man". So....my question is....why do you? Why don't you go start your own business and when you get big enough to pay employees, you can pay them equal to you and everyone would be happy? Also, I'm assuming you are not invested in stocks in your retirement funds. I did not know this about bad ol' Ted. As for the Mormon Church, well, the day the Mormon Church disbands and dissolves will be a better day for the world. But the point is, I don't think any entity should be controlling that much land and cramming most of the human population into cramped cities. Yeah, not generally a fan of The Man. That's why I'm union. Power to the People, baby. As WSDEs grow in popularity, it will be a no brainer as to whom one decides to work for/with--just ask Mondragon. As to investment, nothing wrong with investment, but that whole system needs to be cleaned up big time, infused with some ethics, and taken out of the control of the casino capitalists. Link to comment
cornographic Posted February 8, 2016 Author Share Posted February 8, 2016 Richard D Wolff on the subject of Worker Self Directed Enterprises(WSDEs): Link to comment
BigRedBuster Posted February 8, 2016 Share Posted February 8, 2016 Richard D Wolff on the subject of Worker Self Directed Enterprises(WSDEs): Great...go start one. Nobody is preventing you from doing it. Why still work for "the man"? Link to comment
cornographic Posted February 8, 2016 Author Share Posted February 8, 2016 Richard D Wolff on the subject of Worker Self Directed Enterprises(WSDEs): Great...go start one. Nobody is preventing you from doing it. Why still work for "the man"? I'm a union guy, not a company guy--there's a difference. I don't have a need or desire to start up a small biz/ WSDE at present. Maybe when I "retire". There's a certain satisfaction in working with 10s or 100s of union guys all pulling together on a job as opposed to so-called "rugged individualism". Link to comment
BigRedBuster Posted February 8, 2016 Share Posted February 8, 2016 Glad you're happy working for "the man". Congrats. The point of my question is, and you pretty much proved it, if someone wants to do that, go for it. There isn't some law prohibiting you from starting one. If it's wildly fantastic, then workers will flock to those and they will live in bliss the rest of their lives. If not, they won't. Link to comment
cornographic Posted February 8, 2016 Author Share Posted February 8, 2016 Glad you're happy working for "the man". Congrats. The point of my question is, and you pretty much proved it, if someone wants to do that, go for it. There isn't some law prohibiting you from starting one. If it's wildly fantastic, then workers will flock to those and they will live in bliss the rest of their lives. If not, they won't. yup Link to comment
cornographic Posted February 8, 2016 Author Share Posted February 8, 2016 300 Union Plumbers Spent The Weekend Installing Water Filters For Flint Residents For Free http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2016/02/01/3744770/hundreds-of-union-plumbers-spent-the-weekend-installing-water-filters-for-flint-residents-for-free/ Link to comment
BigRedBuster Posted February 8, 2016 Share Posted February 8, 2016 300 Union Plumbers Spent The Weekend Installing Water Filters For Flint Residents For Free http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2016/02/01/3744770/hundreds-of-union-plumbers-spent-the-weekend-installing-water-filters-for-flint-residents-for-free/ That's great. Link to comment
VectorVictor Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 300 Union Plumbers Spent The Weekend Installing Water Filters For Flint Residents For Free http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2016/02/01/3744770/hundreds-of-union-plumbers-spent-the-weekend-installing-water-filters-for-flint-residents-for-free/ But...these Union Plumbers are robbing from the people of Flint the experience of pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. Won't someone think of the bootstraps? Link to comment
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