Quote:
Originally Posted by twinklesweep
If I were willing to eat at McDonald’s (which I’m not—but that’s a whole other thread), I would have no problem paying $4.50 for a small order of fries if I knew that it meant that the workers were earning a decent living wage. Too expensive? Then, as I wrote in my previous post, I would juggle my priorities and perhaps eat out less frequently and/or make other changes that would allow me, frankly, to live with myself.
For goodness sakes, these workers are our fellow citizens! We were all working people at one time, and yes, some of us (myself included) owned small businesses as well. Do we improve our lot in life by diminishing that of others? To each her or his own, I guess, but for myself (and this is how I was brought up), I would find that unconscionable! I just don’t get it when working people are pitted against other working people. It’s not hard to see who benefits when this attitude is encouraged….
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Twinklesweep, please do not think that ALL people who do not support the minimum wage being at $15 dollars or making it so everyone has a "liveable wage" whatever that is, are not fair, kind, and caring of other people. Some are, maybe many are. But the person who said that most of us got here to The Villages by climbing the ladder of wage and work is probably right in my opinion. I haven't run into any trust fund babies here yet.
It is not only a matter of economics, where changing this would bring on an escalation of all prices, even for the low end of the wage earners, but taking away the way we are allowed and encouraged to begin humbly and work and make a better life for ourselves is just as bad if not worse than what you call entitlement. And that nasty stuff does exist, I am ashamed to say. This is my opinion, based on starting with very, VERY little and having more than I need to survive NOW, which I call rich.
I view the passage of my family from childhood and dependent financial living and their work history with great pride and see that most people who are able minded and able bodied and for whom college is too hard or not an option can start out with the current minimum wage and be able to make a good life for themselves. They may have to work two jobs when they are young like many people have in the past. I think how to live inside your income, even if it is low, needs to be taught to all children.
Making things real easy is often not the answer to social problems. Of course the needs of disabled on unable people who have no family calls to be taken care of by the rest of us, the government or by the social system. Unfortunately, whether it is true or not, a recent poll published last week says that 62% of the American people feel people take advantage of food stamps.
I see your kind heart and the kind hearts of those who support these ideas, but I have lived long enough to see that if you make things easy, you enable a good deal of laziness and help far fewer than you hurt.
It is important that people learn to take care of themselves and their own families...IF they can and that means doing without and sacrificing and saving and not thinking that what the people who have worked and saved and sacrificed for years, what THEY own and have is something you deserve at the beginning.
You would be willing to pay $4.50 for a burger at McDonalds because you have $4.50 to pay.