Stormy Daniels
Gold Member
- Mar 19, 2018
- 7,107
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First and foremost, Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, all tend to be wrong on a significant portion of the debate when it comes to these topics. This thread is not about raising the minimum wage. This is about having a realistic picture of the American employment market. What jobs are out there, what are they paying, who is available to fill them.
But one thing in particular that really baffles me is the absolute stupidity that many on the right use with arguments about how low wage jobs are supposed to be stepping stones, "first jobs", and all that nonsense. And it's very telling how many on the right think that suburban, white, unskilled workers on a GM assembly line during the golden years that made America great were doing jobs that warranted a lifelong career at a decent wage; yet unskilled urban black and Latino workers working in a warehouse are lazy, useless leeches who shouldn't be doing that job for very long and deserve nothing better than the ghetto wages that will make America great again.
The question becomes "What should happen with all these low wage jobs that aren't supposed to be filled but for a short time by people working their first job?" Do people really believe that there are such few of these jobs that they can be filled by teenage kids and college students home on break?
The data is from a few years ago, but we all know that wages have been largely the same for the past few years. Any change would be negligible for the point here. But it turns out that about 42% of Americans make less than $15 an hour.
The 16 - 20 age group makes up only 7.3% of the workforce. Nowhere near enough to fill the total positions that pay less than $15 an hour. So it is a complete falsehood to say that these are jobs that these positions are only stepping stones and should only be first jobs for teenagers and new high school grads.
The jobs available in America are dictated by those goods and services the American public has a demand to buy. The modern American working class must fill those jobs the American consumer's buying demands. Warehouse employees at Amazon, fast food workers, retail, restaurant servers and cooks, so and and so forth. This is the modern day American working class. Stubbornly insisting that the only well paying working class jobs should be in a coal mine, or a GM factory assembly line, is nothing more than interjecting an unfounded idealism into the natural market.
But one thing in particular that really baffles me is the absolute stupidity that many on the right use with arguments about how low wage jobs are supposed to be stepping stones, "first jobs", and all that nonsense. And it's very telling how many on the right think that suburban, white, unskilled workers on a GM assembly line during the golden years that made America great were doing jobs that warranted a lifelong career at a decent wage; yet unskilled urban black and Latino workers working in a warehouse are lazy, useless leeches who shouldn't be doing that job for very long and deserve nothing better than the ghetto wages that will make America great again.
The question becomes "What should happen with all these low wage jobs that aren't supposed to be filled but for a short time by people working their first job?" Do people really believe that there are such few of these jobs that they can be filled by teenage kids and college students home on break?
The data is from a few years ago, but we all know that wages have been largely the same for the past few years. Any change would be negligible for the point here. But it turns out that about 42% of Americans make less than $15 an hour.
The 16 - 20 age group makes up only 7.3% of the workforce. Nowhere near enough to fill the total positions that pay less than $15 an hour. So it is a complete falsehood to say that these are jobs that these positions are only stepping stones and should only be first jobs for teenagers and new high school grads.
The jobs available in America are dictated by those goods and services the American public has a demand to buy. The modern American working class must fill those jobs the American consumer's buying demands. Warehouse employees at Amazon, fast food workers, retail, restaurant servers and cooks, so and and so forth. This is the modern day American working class. Stubbornly insisting that the only well paying working class jobs should be in a coal mine, or a GM factory assembly line, is nothing more than interjecting an unfounded idealism into the natural market.
