Target Workers Get a Predictable Rude Awakening After Company Implements Minimum Wage Increase

[Smokin Joe]

The cost of labor hasn't kept up with production. We're working more, producing more, and making less money.

How much of that productivity is the result of mechaniztion? One guy with a couple of computers can do more now than a small army could 20 years ago, if the line is set up right.

[Smokin Joe]

@OfTheCross

Interesting theory,but like everything else that flies in the face of human nature,it will never work because there are ALWAYS people willing to live right on the edge of starvation and homelessness as long as they don't have to work. They will lie,they will steal,they will even sometimes purposely injure themselves in order to get paid for sleeping in. The only thing they WON'T do is go to work.

IMHO,the ONLY practical solution to this is to DEMAND that churches and other charities spend a MINIMUM of 75 percent (more would be betta) of the income they get to provide food,clothing,medical care,and temporary housing to the indigent. I don't see this happening,though. People in the "charity biz" tend to see the money that comes in as THEIR money,and they want to use it to build their empire on. As a result,the various preachers,priests,shamans,and other witch doctors will shriek in horror and demand any congressman that votes to do that be thrown out of office.

No one organization is as guilty of this as the Catholic Church. Those bastards give money,food,clothing,and shelter to a lot (most) of the illegals entering the country because they KNOW the illegals from the Catholic Countries to the south of us will donate a minimum of 10 percent of their welfare money to the Catholic Church,and 100 percent of their votes to whoever their local Priest tells them to vote for.

You have to squint and look really hard to tell the difference between organized crime and organized religion. Both want you to kiss their rings.

Not that the "lesser" religions are any better. The fact that they take in less only means they are less successful as shearing the sheep.

That's because there are a bunch of protestant denominations which are doing the same thing. Add them all up, and I'd wager the catholic effort pales.
Don't ignore, either that the federally sponsored ($6K a head) immigrant enablers are likely only using the name, and are as ecclesiastically connected with the denomination as Federal Express is with the Federal Government.

I would like to see the laws enforced against illegal immigration, and take whatever aid to their countries of origin, not here, no matter who sends it.

[Smokin Joe]

@thackney

Not to mention rent or house payment. I was living in Virginia Beach,Va in 1971 or so,and brand new 2 or 3br houses with carports were selling for 18 grand,with interest rates below 4 percent,and no down if you had a VA loan.

You could buy a new car or pu truck for 1500 bucks,and gas was from 18 to 25 cents per gallon.

Yeah, and minimum wage was $1.65

[Smokin Joe]

Incredible ignorance on parade.  Not one drop of understanding that forcing wages up forces the prices of the goods produced up as well, leaving the unskilled worker no better off at all. 

I marvel at your ability to form words.

You left out the government cut--as the numbers increase, so do the taxes on them.

[Cyber Liberty]

You left out the government cut--as the numbers increase, so do the taxes on them.

I was trying to keep it simple. 

[Wingnut]

I was trying to keep it simple. 

The old KISS method.  Man I forgot about that old axiom.

[sneakypete]

Yeah, and minimum wage was $1.65

@Smokin Joe

Yeah,and a man and wife,both earning minimum wage,could afford to buy a new  house.

[Smokin Joe]

@sneakypete

For me it's never been about the money... Like I said upthread, money's just a way of keeping score.
For me the reward is in the craft. Whether cowboying, bushcrafting, building a house or a dresser or a birch bark canoe, the art of moving things and tying down loads, Rebuilding a motor, Skyjacking a truck, anything mechanical, the beauty of well crafted code - For me it is in the mastery. And in the recognition of folks that really matter... The old masters whose praise comes damn hard and means something when it does come. That's when you know you are on target.

But yeah. Satisfaction. Doesn't matter which way... A good job well done has always given me that.

Worry about the work and the money will come.

Damn well right.

I like to work, not just to keep busy, but to accomplish something, too. Anything worth doing is worth doing as well as you can. If I can improve on that, then I gain even more satisfaction.

[Smokin Joe]

@Smokin Joe

Yeah,and a man and wife,both earning minimum wage,could afford to buy a new  house.

Yep. Over the road truckers were making $100 a week. Considered 'big bucks', and I was knocking back $2.35/hr on a marine construction crew. It was hard work, but it got me in the best shape of my life.

[Smokin Joe]

The old KISS method.  Man I forgot about that old axiom.

Well, if government is involved, simple is out.
(And lately, it seems government is involved in everything....)

[sneakypete]

@sneakypete

For me it's never been about the money... Like I said upthread, money's just a way of keeping score.
For me the reward is in the craft. Whether cowboying, bushcrafting, building a house or a dresser or a birch bark canoe, the art of moving things and tying down loads, Rebuilding a motor, Skyjacking a truck, anything mechanical, the beauty of well crafted code - For me it is in the mastery. And in the recognition of folks that really matter... The old masters whose praise comes damn hard and means something when it does come. That's when you know you are on target.

But yeah. Satisfaction. Doesn't matter which way... A good job well done has always given me that.

Worry about the work and the money will come.

Damn well right.

@roamer_1

I am sorry to say I think this is a generational problem,and the grandparents of the current pre-teens are the ones mostly responsible for raising two generations of slackers.
MY generation,and most likely you fit into that category too,were taught to "Take pride in your work and yourself by doing everything you do to the best of your ability,no matter how menial the work seems to be". I remember a cadre in jumpschool getting in my face and screaming something like "You are useless and will never become a paratrooper! I am going to personally see that you wash out of the course!" Which of course pissed 17 year old me off,and I got right back in his face and told him that he and 3 more MF's like him weren't man enough to chase me off..

Let's just say the next couple of days could safely be described as "challenging".  After a few days he backed off,looked at me,smiled,and walked away.

Now jump school has quotas. They didn't need quotas during WW-2,the Korean War,or the VN War,but suddenly,they need quotas to graduate people as paratroopers who will NEVER parachute into combat because not 1 in a thousand of them have the strength or the determination to carry the equipment a soldier on his own behind enemy lines needs to carry. Or truthfully,would even be willing to do it if they could. They just want the badge for career enhancement opportunities.

The last two generations seem to have mostly been taught "union rules",which state "Do the absolute minimum you have to do to keep from being fired."

If this doesn't change America will no longer exist.

Providing of course that it isn't already too late to change.

[roamer_1]

@roamer_1

I am sorry to say I think this is a generational problem,and the grandparents of the current pre-teens are the ones mostly responsible for raising two generations of slackers.

MY generation,and most likely you fit into that category too,were taught to "Take pride in your work and yourself by doing everything you do to the best of your ability,no matter how menial the work seems to be".

The last two generations seem to have mostly been taught "union rules",which state "Do the absolute minimum you have to do to keep from being fired."

If this doesn't change America will no longer exist.

Providing of course that it isn't already too late to change.

I agree with you @sneakypete , but I have a different angle on that...

I think it is because grandparents are largely absent - They made their money and went south to have fun... That deprives the children of the wisdom of the patriarch and matriarch, who are also not there to throttle down the passions of the mother and father, keeping them steady.

And absentee fathers - Fathers are the ones that have traditionally been the teachers of the work ethic. That ain't altogether true - Mamma insisted on chores, but more from the position of needing the help. It was the old man who insisted on chores and made you do it over if you didn't do it right, and would kick your a$$ for you if you decided not to.

And I am partly guilty of that last one... I worked so hard and so long because baby needs new shoes, that by the time I figured out I was doing wrong, my kids were strangers to me. That did damage, even though I tried to fix it once I found out.

[thackney]

I agree with you @sneakypete , but I have a different angle on that...

I think it is because grandparents are largely absent - They made their money and went south to have fun... That deprives the children of the wisdom of the patriarch and matriarch, who are also not there to throttle down the passions of the mother and father, keeping them steady.

And absentee fathers - Fathers are the ones that have traditionally been the teachers of the work ethic. That ain't altogether true - Mamma insisted on chores, but more from the position of needing the help. It was the old man who insisted on chores and made you do it over if you didn't do it right, and would kick your a$$ for you if you decided not to.

And I am partly guilty of that last one... I worked so hard and so long because baby needs new shoes, that by the time I figured out I was doing wrong, my kids were strangers to me. That did damage, even though I tried to fix it once I found out.

Along those lines of thought, we are a more mobile society now.  Many now move away from family as I did.  It is easier to do now than a few generations ago.

[sneakypete]

Along those lines of thought, we are a more mobile society now.  Many now move away from family as I did.  It is easier to do now than a few generations ago.

@thackney

Not just easier,but essential for many career fields. If the work you do best and want/need to do isn't available where you live,you have to go to the work because it sure as hell isn't coming to you.

[roamer_1]

Along those lines of thought, we are a more mobile society now.  Many now move away from family as I did.  It is easier to do now than a few generations ago.

That's right... And I question if that is a good idea.

An example:
Who was it that thought it a good idea to take rowdy party oriented teenagers, put them all together a thousand miles from home, and expect them to learn and make good decisions?

There is something innately foolish in the very concept.

[Smokin Joe]

That's right... And I question if that is a good idea.

An example:
Who was it that thought it a good idea to take rowdy party oriented teenagers, put them all together a thousand miles from home, and expect them to learn and make good decisions?

There is something innately foolish in the very concept.

Those who survive learn the hard way. If they'd been back home, they might well have been well enough behaved to learn the same lessons more vicariously.

I had a good foundation, but learned those rules were there for a reason the hard way. The older I got, the more I got back to those basics. At least I had that to fall back on.

[roamer_1]

Those who survive learn the hard way. If they'd been back home, they might well have been well enough behaved to learn the same lessons more vicariously.

I had a good foundation, but learned those rules were there for a reason the hard way. The older I got, the more I got back to those basics. At least I had that to fall back on.

That's right... You and I have a similar story... Other than I never left home for very long... So I don't have the excuse. Still, return I did. Gratefully.

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

That's right... And I question if that is a good idea.

An example:
Who was it that thought it a good idea to take rowdy party oriented teenagers, put them all together a thousand miles from home, and expect them to learn and make good decisions?

There is something innately foolish in the very concept.

The Amish?

[roamer_1]

The Amish?

Rumspringa. You have a point.