Economy

[Born N Bled Red]

1 minute ago, JJ Husker said:

This issue is also exacerbated by so many of our jobs existing in the service industry. As an example, look at all the coffee shops that are every 3 blocks no matter which way you go. At what point do they cease to exist? $15 per hour, $20/hr....$25? At some point people won’t be able to afford or won’t want to spend $8...$10...$12....$15 for some fancy coffee.

 

IMO, too much of our economy is dependent on these service type jobs. We can’t simply decide that these people need $21.21 per hour to make ends meet. Their jobs will disappear and their cost of living will increase, requiring even higher wages.

 

I absolutely agree our economy is way too service based. But, unfortunately that is the only industry we're left with when other sectors have shipped all the other jobs overseas to cut costs and line the pockets of the wealthy. Eventually the money made in America has to get back to the American people in order to sustain our population. The wealthy and corporations remove that money from the economy by 1) Hoarding it (both accumulation and refusing to pay living wages to employees) and 2) shipping it overseas. 

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

12 minutes ago, Born N Bled Red said:

High schoolers don't work any more, sorry, but its the truth.

And....yes they do.  I know one hell of a lot of High schoolers that have summer jobs or part time jobs while in school.  My three were some of them.  I honestly can't think of many of their friends that didn't have jobs over the summer at least.  I honestly can't think of any of my nieces and nephews that didn't have jobs either.

[BigRedBuster]

2 minutes ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

I absolutely agree our economy is way too service based. But, unfortunately that is the only industry we're left with when other sectors have shipped all the other jobs overseas to cut costs and line the pockets of the wealthy. Eventually the money made in America has to get back to the American people in order to sustain our population. The wealthy and corporations remove that money from the economy by 1) Hoarding it (both accumulation and refusing to pay living wages to employees) and 2) shipping it overseas. 

 

 

Wow....you have really bought into this evil business owner mantra.  

There are still a ton of manufacturing jobs in America.  One hell of them are going not filled right now even though they pay way more than $15 per hour.  Somewhere on here was an article that was posted about Nebraska not having enough people to fill jobs.  If I remember right, there were 40,000 job openings in Nebraska and only 15,000 applications for unemployment.

[Born N Bled Red]

1 minute ago, BigRedBuster said:

And....yes they do.  I know one hell of a lot of High schoolers that have summer jobs or part time jobs while in school.  My three were some of them.  I honestly can't think of many of their friends that didn't have jobs over the summer at least.  I honestly can't think of any of my nieces and nephews that didn't have jobs either.

 

Your three were? How long ago was this? And a summer detasseling job is not the same as a regular, year round, part time job that one would find in your proposed restaurant. 

[BigRedBuster]

1 minute ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

Your three were? How long ago was this? And a summer detasseling job is not the same as a regular, year round, part time job that one would find in your proposed restaurant. 

Mine are 21, 23 and 26.  And, their jobs were not "detasseling" jobs.  

 

CNA

Pool manager

Lifeguard

Farm help

Golf course labor

 

Question.....what jobs do you think High schoolers should be working?

 

[Born N Bled Red]

Just now, BigRedBuster said:

Wow....you have really bought into this evil business owner mantra.  

There are still a ton of manufacturing jobs in America.  One hell of them are going not filled right now even though they pay way more than $15 per hour.  Somewhere on here was an article that was posted about Nebraska not having enough people to fill jobs.  If I remember right, there were 40,000 job openings in Nebraska and only 15,000 applications for unemployment.

 

Freemarket. Pay more they will get filled. 

 

The fact is, a large reason there is such a shortage of employees is because wages haven't kept up to allow people to comfortably raise families. 18 years of raising your future employee is pretty darn expensive. If my job doesn't pay enough to do so, you're going to have fewer future employees. 

 

 

[JJ Husker]

12 minutes ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

Funny how "the market" is amazing until the people in power/ with wealth are the ones who lose due to "the market." 

 

 

Can you provide one example of anything ever negatively affecting owners or corporations while their lowest paid workers benefit?  Neither can I.

 

Like it or not, this is how our economy works (or in some cases, doesn’t work). I can tell you unequivocally that, with very few and limited temporary exceptions, I would not lower my pay or standard of living to be able to pay my employees more. When my costs go up, my sale prices go up. Luckily, so far, I’ve been able to make that happen. When the day comes that I can’t do that, will be the day I retire or become somebody else’s employee. We might be able to help make a dent in wealth inequality through taxation but I have serious doubts if it can be achieved through wages or minimum wage increases. Us bastards (I guess) will always find a way to pass it on to customers or take it from employees. Just being honest. That’s the way it works.

[Born N Bled Red]

1 minute ago, BigRedBuster said:

Mine are 21, 23 and 26.  And, their jobs were not "detasseling" jobs.  

 

CNA- cool. 

 

Pool manager- not regular, year round, part-time

Lifeguard - not regular, year round, part-time

Farm help- probably not- regular, year round, part-time

Golf course labor- not regular part-time

 

Question.....what jobs do you think High schoolers should be working?

 

 

Ha - you're the one who said you were going to hire a high schooler to work in your restaurant, I just told you that you wouldn't find one to do so. I'm all for high schoolers working. The reality is, they don't at least not to the level that existed 20 years ago. They are all too wrapped up in sports and other activities. 

 

1 minute ago, BigRedBuster said:

 

 

[Born N Bled Red]

1 minute ago, JJ Husker said:

Can you provide one example of anything ever negatively affecting owners or corporations while their lowest paid workers benefit?  Neither can I.

 

Like it or not, this is how our economy works (or in some cases, doesn’t work). I can tell you unequivocally that, with very few and limited temporary exceptions, I would not lower my pay or standard of living to be able to pay my employees more. When my costs go up, my sale prices go up. Luckily, so far, I’ve been able to make that happen. When the day comes that I can’t do that, will be the day I retire or become somebody else’s employee. We might be able to help make a dent in wealth inequality through taxation but I have serious doubts if it can be achieved through wages or minimum wage increases. Us bastards (I guess) will always find a way to pass it on to customers or take it from employees. Just being honest. That’s the way it works.

 

Kudos for the honesty. Just don't whine about the quality of employee you attract then or the ability to retain them then, I guess. Good luck to you and your company. 

[Born N Bled Red]

I'd add to since you seem to want to believe that I'm discussing in absolutisms about employers. I know there are good employers that treat their employees very well. I called out specifically the Wal-Mart's and Amazon's of the world, who rely on corporate welfare, shipping jobs overseas, pay such a wage that their employees require government assistance to make ends meet. If you don't fall into this category, it wasn't about you. 

[JJ Husker]

2 minutes ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

 

Ha - you're the one who said you were going to hire a high schooler to work in your restaurant, I just told you that you wouldn't find one to do so. I'm all for high schoolers working. The reality is, they don't at least not to the level that existed 20 years ago. They are all too wrapped up in sports and other activities. 

 

 

And I can think of numerous local restaurants that A) tried to keep up with increasing wages but then B) closed their doors because they could not fill the jobs (or they got just got tired of the struggle). Who does that benefit?

 

Look, anybody realizes that if you’re having trouble filling positions, that the way to solve the problem is to pay more. Supply and demand. But what happens when paying more and charging more doesn’t work? Lots of recent examples compounded by the pandemic to answer this question. And taking it back to what started this, a business owner should not have to compete against government unemployment. It makes many bad situations impossible to survive.

[teachercd]

1 hour ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

Look I appreciate your defense of a $15/ hr starting wage as it is generally as it's pretty close to Average (though slightly below) in Nebraska. Meaning there are a lot of jobs that pay worse. https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Hourly-Salary--in-Nebraska

 

 

 

I also appreciate your defense of B.B. Hemmingway. Clearly you feel I unfairly called him out. My comment was on the wage he presented, not his business in specifics, though I can see how it could be read that way. 

 

 

 

That being said, when I was 20 years old, working for $15/ hour part-time in hog confinements working my way though college, I felt it was a fair wage given the part time nature of the work and the skills necessary to complete the job. It certainly would not have been a wage I could have afforded to work for, if I had say gotten a girl pregnant at senior prom and entered the workforce fulltime rather than go to college. That was nearly 20 years ago. Adjusted for inflation, that same $15 an hour, which was fair in 2004, would need to be $21.21 now to equal the same value for the same work. https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/2004?amount=15 

 

So tell me, use the inflation calculator I've linked here, put in your hourly wage, the year you worked for that wage, and todays year. Did you really work for less than $15/ hr?

No way you f#&%ed at prom.  

 

Did you?  For that matter, how many here f#&%ed on your prom night?

[Born N Bled Red]

2 minutes ago, JJ Husker said:

And I can think of numerous local restaurants that A) tried to keep up with increasing wages but then B) closed their doors because they could not fill the jobs (or they got just got tired of the struggle). Who does that benefit?

 

Look, anybody realizes that if you’re having trouble filling positions, that the way to solve the problem is to pay more. Supply and demand. But what happens when paying more and charging more doesn’t work? Lots of recent examples compounded by the pandemic to answer this question. And taking it back to what started this, a business owner should not have to compete against government unemployment. It makes many bad situations impossible to survive.

 

Government unemployment isn't the reason jobs aren't getting filled in Nebraska. 

[teachercd]

I used to run football camps.  First year the HC said he was a bit worried about charging more than 10 dollars per kid (basically to cover the cost of the camp shirt)

 

Next year I told him we should double it (the price, not the shirt) and we did.  Got even more kids out.

 

Third year he came to me and asked what I thought about going from 20 to 40, I said "f#&% yes" and we did and I found cheaper camp shirts!

 

By about the 5th year we were charging 50 a kid and we would get 30-40 kids out...

 

No idea why I posted this but I just like thinking about it again.

[JJ Husker]

8 minutes ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

Kudos for the honesty. Just don't whine about the quality of employee you attract then or the ability to retain them then, I guess. Good luck to you and your company. 

Thanks. I’ve been lucky so far. Have had no trouble at all retaining employees. There is not one person here with less than 15 years. That would indicate (to me anyway) that maybe I’m not too evil or too much of a d!(k to work for. And that I’ve been able to pay enough to keep people. I know I could attract a little higher quality employee if I paid more, which I’d love to be able to do, but my industry just won’t support it.