My week living on the minimum wage

New York Daily News ^ | February 7, 2004 | HEIDI EVANS

[BlessedByLiberty]

LOL! Priceless.

[Jaidyn]

Good post. I will add that most families have two incomes and/or child support. If single mother homes don't have child support income, that is another problem for law enforcement, not us, to supplement those who don't pay. Also, people making minimum wage get supplements for school lunches, healthcare for the children and various other non-income incomes.

[Larry Lucido]

This sorry excuse for a writer should try being self-employed for a few months. Then she'll find out that after paying employee salaries, taxes, and overhead, business owners often go for weeks at a time on less than minimum wage.

[fuzzycat]

Amen ! See my post above. Whiners.

[BlessedByLiberty]

Ah, but you and others have an instinctual drive that this woman obviously does not: pride and a desire to better oneself. I think those qualities are driving forces in the work ethic.

You saw where you were and wanted to do something for which you could be proud; you educated yourself and worked hard. That is the difference between people who feel entitled to all of the benefits others strive to provide themselves and their families. They want the benefits but have not the drive, the pride to push themselves to earn it.

[lepton]

Minimum wages aren't for life-long jobs for single-earnerr families. They are so kids an unskilled can get into the market and get some experience. Should this woman be required to pay the local kid enough so that he could support a family of five?

[Arkinsaw]

arkinsaw for president!!!!!!!!!!

Now there is a campaign slogan destined to lose!

[sweetliberty]

"I wonder if she thinks she should pay the sitter the same minimum wage?"

Most day care workers DO get paid minimum wage. Where do you think the money comes from to pay them.

I'm not sure if I am at an advantage or disadvantage here, and I don't often discuss this issue on FR. I can and have seen this from both sides. I have worked with people who have minimum wage jobs and are supporting families on minimum wage jobs and will probably never have much more than minimum wage jobs. They often either lack skills, or initiative or often they just aren't that sharp. It is easy to say "this is what I would do," but not everyone has the ability to realize their potential; indeed, many don't even possess the potential.

I also understand the economic arguments and how driving up the wages, drives out business and lower skilled workers. I understand the idea of bettering yourself, getting more education and better jobs, but it is just inaccurate to say that everyone can do that. People come to poverty in different ways and many made their beds, that's true, but there are others who honestly do not know how to make it better or who come to poverty through circumstances that are no fault of their own and already have families and financial responsibilities. Not all the children living in poverty are born to crack whores and unmarried teenaged girls.

I honestly don't know what the answer is. I read these threads sometimes and shake my head at the apparent lack of understanding or compassion for people who are not so blessed as we are with intelligence, motivation, good parenting or whatever. In that respect, most FReepers are rich, regardless of our economic standing and sometimes I think we take that too much for granted. Others seem to have forgotten where they came from and have contempt for those who are still there. Not entirely beyond understanding, but still, the scriptures say that we should heed the cry of the poor.

It isn't our place to judge how someone comes to poverty. Sure, there are the lazy, the addicted, the criminals and n'er do wells, but there are also those who work hard to try and help themselves, and instead of a hand up, sometimes it seems like we have a boot on their necks. Are we to treat the hard-working poor with the same contempt as the lazy poor? There seems to be moral inequity in that. Perhaps instead of welfare for the one who won't work, we should supplement the wage of one who will as an incentive to make a better living off welfare than on. Just a thought.

[lepton]

How 'bout being a little more generous and sympathetic, instead of looking down your noses and[...]

So, charity? We're establishing minimum donation rates?

[lepton]

Frankly, this is much more about a reporter doing a version of "The Simple Life", than it is about how people earning minimum wage live on it.

[Mears]

As someone who was raised fatherless in the depression and then raised 5 kids of my own this is the most nauseating thing I've ever read.

Poor baby,slumming it for a week.

[sweetliberty]

"Your best strategy is to move to a place that has the lowest cost of living."

While I agree with you in theory, where is a person making that little money going to get the money needed to relocate...I mean apart form the homeless guy who can hop on a bus and go wherever he pleases? Doing it with any belongings and a couple of kids can be time consuming and expensive, even if you do it all yourself.

[AlBondigas]

I think the article is a bit one sided.

Is it just me ? Doesn't anyone else remember the TV expose a few years ago re: NYC entitlements
IIRC a non-working mother w/ 2 kids would draw about $42,000/yr in food stamps, housing assistance, AFDC, WIC, etc.

[sweetliberty]

LOL! Somehow I think that guy is in the program for more than a week.

[BlessedByLiberty]

It is in our compassion that we donate to charities, volunteer in churches and temples to help the less fortunate. It is through our personal motivations that many of us help people truly in need. The American people do not lack for compassion.

It is through our compassionate natures that we are manipulated by politicians to fund so many experimental programs that do not work, that waste money attempting to better educate, feed or help people.

We fund education all the way through college (and night school) if necessary, to help people like this woman.

Her child does not have to go hungry: AFDC and WICK and other benefits are available.

Her child does not have to be homeless - there are countless programs to assure shelter.

Her child does not have to go without medical care - again all hospitals must take Medicare/Medicaid patients and there are public hospitals.

Food, shelter, helathcare - no I'd say Americans and the people on Free Republic are already helping her.

The minimum wage is her choice.

[sweetliberty]

I am reading Star Parker's book, Uncle Sam's Plantation. She is the epitome of someone who has been to the bottom and gotten out....on her own but for God's help. Very good read. I would recommend it highly.

[nmh]

Well if your skills are worth minimum wage ... shouldn't that motivate you to IMPROVE yourself and rise ABOVE that? Geesh! With all the crazy give away money out there from the government for the "impoversihed" there is NO excuse for such a ridiculous sob story.

[nmh]

Well if your skills are worth minimum wage ... shouldn't that motivate you to IMPROVE yourself and rise ABOVE that? Geesh! With all the crazy give away money out there from the government for the "impoverished" there is NO excuse for such a ridiculous sob story.

[sweetliberty]

"The minimum wage is her choice."

I guess one of the points I was trying to make is that there is no incentive for people who are on welfare to get off. I realize I am digressing a bit, but the problems are interrelated. We are quick to criticize government programs that subsidize people who won't work, but seriously, what is their incentive to get off welfare if it would be the equivolent of a pay cut?

I agree with you about charitable organizations, by the way, and I also believe that if the government kept their grubby hands out of our pockets, that we would be more able and willing to be charitable.

[sweetliberty]

See mu post #88.