Low-Wage Workers Are Effectively Slaves

nice word you just learned but incorrectly used. Keep it up i heard you pulled yourself up by the bootstraps, though never quite learned what strawman means.

Meanwhile back in reality fatty, junk food is cheap and healthy "real" food is expensive. Its a topsy turvy world we live in and most people I know who are pushing the boundaries of wealth are spending a pretty enviable amount of money on looking like they're "nothing but bones" (and then even more to get them motivated to do some gym shit to put muscle on said bones).

I think Barbariser hit the nail on the head though, at least in passing. The real problem isn't "low wage workers being slaves" its there's very little upward mobility in the system. People glorify hard work and all that and yeah it's super important but no one should pretend it's the only factor. There is a LOT of being in the right place at the right time (aka luck) and even more social connections involved if you want to even go from middle classed up. Going from poverty? You've got to dodge about a thousand things that could ruin your life before anyone even considers you an adult to have a hope in hell. All that's WITH the systems in place that are designed to make it easier for Joe Blow to have a hope.

So why does the U.S. have such a low social mobility when it has some of the hardest working people in the developed world? Canada, Australia, Scandinavia, Germany, New Zealand .etc all have more poor people moving up in proportion when compared to the U.S.,. Their minimum wages are much higher and their working hours and productivity per worker are generally a lot lower. China, which has some of the longest working hours and worst working conditions in the industrialized world, also has the second worst social mobility in the study. "Only reason", huh?.

Al......it's not either/or nor is it black and white. It's a bit of a mix. One does have to actually work to make something more of themselves. No it's not easy and won't be handed to you just because. But it's also not impossible if one is willing to do what it takes. Problem is too many people think like you do and don't try.

And frankly....it is easier to apply for assistance than try to make a go of it. Kudos to those that do better themselves. They have my respect.

@BeardMaster: lol keep on trolling.

@Ace6301: "junk food is cheap and healthy "real" food is expensive. "

Why do people perpetuate such nonsense? It's been studied time and time again; junk food is always more expensive. Although buying heathly food costs less, it takes more time to prepare.

Junk food = fast, high calories and low nutrition. Though often made without much protein or fibre, so you don't remain full as long.

Homemade healthy food = cheap, takes longer to prepare, keeps you feeling full longer.

But, alas, this is OT. Can't expect people to be well informed,

@leviathan91: They cannot quit, they need the job; they may be creating a risk if they quit.

Completely agree. While you can get a lot of calories for cheap from $1 burgers and such...you can absolutely eat extremely cheaply and very healthy at the same time. The idea that poor people have to eat junk due to cost is a myth and simply excuse making.

So, if the employees are essentially slaves. does that make the employers effectively slave masters, in your opinion?

Ahaha you're using a blog as a source?

Hold on and let me find a extreme-right wing blog that counters your arguement.

'Low-wage' workers in first world countries would be upper-middle class in third world countries. Complaining you need comforts like an HDTV are first world problems.

It's all relative.

Well, we've managed to label "internet access" as a basic human right.
HDTV's aren't far off.

http://life.nationalpost.com/2013/12/06/a-healthy-diet-costs-2000-a-year-more-than-an-unhealthy-one-for-average-family-of-four-harvard-study/

So while you're wrong on the price thing you are right on the time it takes to prepare. Which is actually just another strike against the poor. Not only is it more expensive to eat healthy but it takes time to prepare. You can't really support the "You just aren't working hard enough" rhetoric and then turn around and say they should be taking the sort of time required to prepare something healthy when they can cook up something cheap, easy and unhealthy.

I can post blogs too.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-harlan-md/health-food-prices_b_862770.html

If someone doesn't want to spend their time making a cheaper, healthier meal, and would rather gorge themselves on the MCDonalds value menu, that's their choice.

However is is cheaper to eat healthy.

Yea which is my point. In third world countries the lower class live on like $1 per day.

In first world countries the lower class are 'entitled' to internet, computers, cell phones, microwaves, etc., etc. and a minimum income set by some bureaucrat in DC.

Those damned Harvard research papers. Someone should tell them they're comparable to blogs (Also someone should tell the National Post that they're just a blog now and not staffed by journalists)! Dudes also assuming everyone already owns a full array of cooking appliances, utensils, time to cook, and the skills to cook well (which is an expensive skill to acquire). Yeah I'm going to go with Harvard on this.

I suppose you're just misunderstanding the situation.

1.) It's entirely possible to work a full time job, and go to school for skills which will later allow you to find a better paying job (hopefully one you enjoy as well)
However, it's hard work. I'm talking 6-7 hours of sleep, and very little downtime to game/watch movies etc.

2.) The only real arguement for "Fast food is cheaper" is on a Calories/$ ratio, which isn't the correct way to look at things. Sure, a $1 cheeseburger might have 300 calories, but it has no nutritional value and is made with little to no fiber or protein (hurray for meat fillers and pink slime!), meaning your $1 cheeseburger might have more calories, but $1 in whole grain rice would make you feel "full" for twice as long.

For the cost of a meal at Mcdonalds ($10), one can buy all sorts of vegetables, rice, beans, and maybe even some meat if it's on sale.Again, it takes time to prepare, and thus some effort is required, but it is possible.

3.) I'm not responsible for how much effort someone wants to put into their life.
If they think it's "easier" to not get a degree, or to learn a trade, so be it. If they feel it's "easier" to buy a cheeseburger after work, rather than spending 5-10 minutes preparing a meal, again that's their choice.

Cooking Appliances - I've never rented an appartment/house that did not have a stove/fridge.

Utensils - Not everyone has silver spoons like you do. I bought a knife/fork/spoon all for $1, want 5 of each? $5. So pricey i dont know how i afforded it.

Time to cook - It takes 1-2 minutes to season a chicken breast, put it into an oven, and set the timer. While waiting for it to cook, cut up those veggies you bought for less than $4, and when you're done making a salad, your chicken is pretty much cooked.

Skills to cook - This is a joke right?

LOL nibroc LOL

Harvards just a blog bro.

"Utensils - Not everyone has silver spoons like you do"

That cut pretty deep though. Those only get used for special occasions mind you. The first set that is. The second one gets used a bit more often.

This was a pretty good thread all things considered

LOL

2 minutes is too long to cook healthy food, I'd rather eat pink slime at Mcdonalds.

LOL

Going to school is too difficult, I'll just watch TV instead

~~~~~~~~~~~

Why am I fat, and working minimum wage? Ahh, it must be because I'm poor.

LOL

Just ignore aljosa, nibroc

Yeah i try to ignore the trolls.

Sometimes it's fun to respond though :P

That's true

LOL @ people thinking poor people are poor because they're lazy, that has got to be the dumbest thing I've seen all week

I've read through most of the comments in this thread and don't think anyone said that.

It was mostly nibroc

This is exactly what it comes down to for both.

Yes because a blog by a professional economist whose research focuses on social mobility, who shows no proof of partisan bias and who provides a half dozen links showing you the sources for the graph (which itself was created by another professional economist who is also an Ivy school grad, and is the only thing here that is actually important) is clearly the leftist equivalent of an "extreme right wing blog".

Ye it is easily to say go get a decree in something, you have to pay for that decree by going into debt, which is a huge risk. It is bullshit that you have to pay for education, the system is set up like that, ye you can self educate yourself but if your not wiling to go into debt for a sheet of paper that says you can do something then you won't be able to do anything with it since the system is set up like that. Even after all that time and money you spent getting the decree, your not gaunteed a job, your competing with other people who have the same decree. Even then you might find out you don't even like what you studied your degree in ,your going be miserable at your job. I don't count success in money, but how good of a person you are and how happy you are.

Work for the worst possible wages available or live destitute. It's not chattel slavery but it's certainly not freedom.

Liberals... the army of victims.

If you have a victim mentality than nothing I or anyone can say will make you successful.

Now hurry up and get me my fries.

@FragTycoon:

The other side plays the victim game too. The "Everyone's out to get my money" kind of whining.

@ultimate-k: yeah, all schooling should be free.

f*** the people teaching the classes, they don't need to feed themselves or pay rent.

You're totally right, they're complete jerks for not guaranteeing their students a job at someone else's company.

Regardless of outcome, someone is bound to get f*cked. The question is who and how much.

@thebest31406: or, oh, I don't know... Put some effort into getting as skill someone will pay more than minimum wage for.

F*** around here a simple 2 week forklift course pits you $7 above minimum wage.

"Ohh but it's so hard to go learn a skill"

"Oh but then I won't have as much free time"

This generation is full of self entitled idiots(mostly)

It gets worse and more trivial than that, unfortunately. I can't get through this season without hearing about how the war on Christmas is persecuting evangelicals, for instance. Nor can I get through a week without hearing about how the left wing media is drowning out the conservative voices in America.

Of course, on the flip side you hear similar complaints from the more left wing crowd: They've taken to using the term "corporate media", for example.

Everyone ends up playing the victim card because it's so effective.

And this is why I do not support increasing minimum wage. Who does it hurt? The middle class. Do I get a $7 raise when minimum wage goes up? No, they would just be making closer to what I do, so, prices for goods & services go up and that means I get hurt. You know what drives up wages? Demand for workers... right now companies can pick to fill one position with 1000 applicants. They can pay lower wages because of this. Back when things were booming, companies had to entice quality workers with more compensation & benefits. Not anymore.

12 Years A Low Wage Worker

I dunno if corporate media gets complained about so much because it sides against "the worker" and such as much as it does because it fucking sucks at journalism in favour of felating celebrities. Maybe I'm on the wrong websites.

Nibroc is dumb

Slaves

NOT slaves