It makes me so angry how badly people devalue labor.

@VeronicaPrincess "If it weren't, it wouldn't exist."

Quote of the fucking year.

@BlueMetalChick It bugs the hell out of me when someone looks down upon a working person. Oh, and thanks for the BA.

@PlumBerries Now if only most people felt that way.

@BlueMetalChick [c=#7700B2]I would like to believe most people do feel that way[/c]

@PlumBerries This comments section is enough to prove that wrong. Unfortunately.

@deadgerbil +1

@ronisme1 where do you get your facts. There was a net job loss during obamas time in office. Tbe stock market has been up and down since teumphas been in office but the job and evonomic growth only happened after the tax cuts. To give obama credit for the growth of the economy is nothing short of delusional. He considered 1 percent eonomic growth to be the new normal. He thought better trade agreements were impossible too. It is cleatly a case of different policies giving different results.

@Tiusflow better trade agreements? Well having tariffs put against us at record rates. The average citizen is paying more money then in the previous administration. Tax reduction? Ha, I got a 100% tax increase last year and I made the same amount as the previous year. Trump is destroying the usa. He is pissing off allies who are slowly but surely moving away from us. He is trying to put his all white policies into effect in the USA. He will go to jail when he gets out of office. You sir need to open your eyes and see what's going on

@Tiusflow the tax cuts were only for the very rich

@BlueMetalChick right I'm not implying other ppl don't have a higher cost of living. My brother lives in a city his rent is $1000. I don't- rent here is closer to $400. But $250 a week does not pay all your bills period.

@Powderflask So the solution is to find a better paying job and if that includes upgrading your skill set so be it. No one is forcing you to stay in a low paying job.

@hippyjoe1955 Then you're saying every single person who is not earning enough money needs to find a better paying job.

Which means that over half the jobs in the country would be vacant.

I don't think you realize this but those lower paying jobs are still necessary to society. They're still integral to society. It's logically impossible for every person to simple "get a better job". If you work at an office and you don't make enough money, so you try to get a promotion, you have to compete against everyone else in the office for that promotion. Only a small number of people can earn that promotion or get that pay raise. Most of them won't be able to do it. Meaning most of your workers still still be underpaid.

That shouldn't be acceptable. Having a majority of your work force which is employed full time and performing jobs necessary to the economy but who aren't being paid is not a properly functioning capitalist society.

@Vetrov How much do you charge?

@VeronicaPrincess Fair point, but those other forms of entertainment are legal. Sex work is not. Which is why sex workers often make such money, because their customers are willing to pay more since they don't have a legal option.

My dad used to sell marijuana. He made $2,000 a day from a walkup on our street. The weed wasn't worth nearly that much money but people were willing to pay it because they didn't have an alternative, especially not a safe one. My dad has never had any other criminal associations, he's never been in a gang, he isn't part of any kind of drug peddling operation. So buying from him was a lot safer than buying from Latin Kings dealers or the mob. And his customers recognized that so they'd pay higher prices in exchange for not having to worry about getting shot.

@BlueMetalChick True. Being a sex worker would also seem to carry a lot of risk - one crazy john could end your life. The std's and pimps would also be scary. The business should be legalized, so the professionals engaged in it can have legal protections. And pay their fair share of income taxes.. 😏

@CountScrofula The lowest value payable is right. You nailed that one.

@BlueMetalChick where do you get you statistics from?

I am not saying work is worthless i am just saying putting in 40 hours a week doesnt entitle you to anything except 40 hours wages

@Tiusflow The CBO, primarily, but also the Cato Institute and a number of studies by UM Amherst. And a couple from the US State Department and the Commonwealth Fund.

@JoeyFoxx This is gonna sound hella nerdy but it almost reminds me of the Dark Side of the Force in "Star Wars." No matter how good your intentions are in using the Dark Side, it will always corrupt you eventually. The governments and unions wanted the money to do what they felt was right for the working class, but over time, the money eventually corrupted them.

@BlueMetalChick Money, in an of itself, isn't evil. There's the old saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

We have lots of disingenuous actors in society. We all need to be more collectively intelligent to sniff them out.

I get into arguments with my daughter about AOC and folks of her ilk. Semi-informed do-gooders that ride fads of misinformation to promote ideas that have little basis in reality.

But then it's hard to say she's a big problem when you have the old fucks like Mitchy and Pelosi who want old-school confrontational and stagnant politics.

There are so many ways that we could be investing in jobs that would benefit everyone. We have a crumbling infrastructure. Healthcare research is being driven by big pharma. Alternate energy sources and plant-based nutrition should also have government backing.

There's money in this for everyone. We don't need a goody-two-shoes approach. We just need to dig in.

Oh, and elect a President with a brain, who can lead and compromise.

Haven't had one of those since HW and Clinton (first term).

@DarlingSelah Also this.

@BlueRain And I too had to work for what I have. I was born into homelessness in a third world country. I was illiterate until age 12. I didn't wear my first pair of shoes until age 9. The only reason I'm not dead is because I worked for what I have now. But that was far away in a different part of the world, in a different time period. Where and when I am now, the cost of living is very high and the value of labor is very low. A majority of full time workers are still below the poverty line and qualify for public assistance programs like welfare and food stamps. Even though they work full time for a living, they cannot afford to support themselves because it costs so much just to have essentials and they are paid so little. So if you can't even work a job full time to make ends meet, then what can you possibly do? Sure, you can try to get a raise or a promotion or a higher job. But only so many people can do that. There's aren't enough "higher jobs" for everyone to work. Lower jobs exponentially outnumber higher ones, and they're still essential to society. Meaning if we base pay upon job scarcity, then there will always be an underpaid majority. Most people will always require assistance or not be able to support themselves despite that they work full time.

@BlueMetalChick you should be commended for your accomplishments. No one gave me anything. I had to find it. I’m blessed to live in a country where there is opportunity.

@BlueRain There is opportunity here too but it's fading fast because of a growing sentiment that only those who do not work should be paid. Over half the wealth here is inherited from someone else and almost all of those with the most money have never worked at all in their lives, but still expect to be paid more every year.

Where did I tell her to shut up Rambo.. if you haven’t noticed she don’t need help!..
It’s supply and demand guys.. if a markets saturated. The item will be cheap and wages will be low.. good for the consumer. Bad for the employee.. the world still turns..
go get a job in another industry..

@TheOneyouwerewarnedabout "Go get a job in another industry"
So, imagine everyone took your advice. Necessary industries would collapse overnight because nobody works for them.

Once again, you played yourself.

I was referring to her first reply with that. I know why it’s like that, but it’s still a broken system. “Get a different job” logic completely fails because the jobs that’d be left still need to be filled @TheOneyouwerewarnedabout

@Tiusflow Imagine if everyone took your advice. Then you're have a ridiculously high unemployment rate, and necessary jobs would be left vacant. Entire industries would collapse.

All because you think it's fine to not pay your employees for the work they do. Is that such a crazy idea? Paying people for doing work? Apparently that's a radical concept these days and we should not expect anything for our work.

@BlueMetalChick actually unemployment is at an all time low

@Tiusflow Is it really? Because the U7 sure doesn't say so. Neither does the CBO.

And people your age are forced to stay working for a lot longer and can't retire because they're getting paid nothing. Meaning that people who should have been able to stop working a long time ago are still in their jobs, hence why unemployment for people 18-27 is more than triple the national average.

But you don't seem to think that's a problem apparently. Old people having to work when they shouldn't, young people not being able to work at all, everyone who is working making shit worthless wages and having to take on second jobs or use welfare assistance. I guess you don't see an issue with that.

@BlueMetalChick again, while I don’t disagree... and while the minimum wage definitely needs increasing.. it will eventually be a ripple effect in the economy. The cost of goods and services rises when wages are increased... That triggers cost of living rising as well. Then everything is back to the struggle it was
The adjustment needs to happen from the top...
it seems all the wealthy want to continue capping the minimum wage yet the super wealthy never have limits

@BlueMetalChick we have a living wage in the UK. How people can live on that, I dont know:(

@SW-User The UK has its head screwed on a little straighter than we do here in the States. We do nothing but diarrhea all over people who work jobs and instead give all the money to people who have never worked a day in their lives. Just yesterday, Sean Hannity was bitching about his taxes. His yearly profit is $36,000,000 and he has a net worth of $220,000,000. He was whining about the prospect of only making a profit of $15,000,000 yearly because that's not enough.

@FloridaGuy Apparently. If you work a full time job as a cashier or a janitor or a bartender, your work isn't worth enough that you deserve to make enough money to support yourself and you need to take on a second full time job and shut the fuck up.

Or so people tell you.

I’ve been there. Still, I believe the compensation for labor should be based on the value that labor contributes with no regard to the employee’s cost of living. @BlueMetalChick

@Tiusflow So if higher minimum wages leads to higher unemployment that why might it be that the states in America which have tried increasing the minimum wage saw no increase in unemployment? Increasing wages increases unemployment except that...it doesn't.

Imagine if you were running for public office on this platform. "Pay people less!" Who the hell is gonna vote for that?

@BlueMetalChick that is simply not true. But neither was your statement about how many people live in poverty. You need to do some real research. If wages go up employers will hire less people. Its a fact. You want life tp be fair. Only children expect life to be fair. It is the main difference between conservatives and leftists. I know I used to be a left winger. Conservatives believe in freedom which creates its own fairness.
"If you aren't a liberal when you are young you have no heart. If you aren't a conservative when you are older you have no brain".
Winston Churchill

@Tiusflow So you're telling me that the CBO, the State Department, all studies done by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the right-wing CATO Foundation, the AHF, the Commonwealth Fund, and the World Health Organization are all lying. All those institutions, some being left-wing, some being right-wing, all of them are completely full of shit, but YOU know the truth.

The funny part is, I'm more conservative than you are. Because a pillar of conservatism is to decrease the size of government and use a little money for welfare as possible. My platform does both of those things. Your platform...y'know, doesn't.