Minimum Wage just went up to $11.50 in Washington State. The price of milk is $2.68 a Gallon.

[SuburbanFarmer]

LOL, wut?

Wages are a product of supply and demand. Period. Full stop. The only exceptions to that come from price controls like minimum wage.

Yes, but the entire market does not react to one segment having a higher supply - ie: More border jumpers picking vegetables does not lower the wage of an office tech.

That's not correct.They actually get paid more in some cases because the employers don't have to pay taxes on them (and they don't pay any taxes). Meanwhile they get plenty of gibs that Jedi is paying for in his payroll tax from his minimum wage job. That's less money Jedi makes to fund this demographic replacement policy.

Border jumpers are incentivized to breed. Their kids get free education. They get preferred admission to universities that Jedi does not receive. They get scholarships that Jedi cannot receive no matter how qualified because of his race. Those kids go on to take office jobs, engineering jobs, and more. When you have an open borders policy combined with this ridiculous anchor baby system we have, border jumpers are one generation away from flooding your skilled labor pools.

We actually don't need more people. Not at all. We need to deport people. We need to cancel visas and focus on assimilating the people we are now stuck with who were given citizenship. This could take generations.

So, you have immigrants that don't affect the general labor market.

Then you have their kids that grow up, get educated, and join the American workforce. As Americans.

What's the problem, exactly?

You may have noticed that our workforce has declined somewhat. We currently have a 3:1 pay ratio on SSN, soon to be 2:1. Gotta feed them idiot boomers, comrade.

[Smitty-48]

Fuuuuuuuck I wish I could pay $60 a month for 20/80 healthcare.
Instead I pay $1024/month for it.

You’re still identifying with the poor working man while making $22 an hour plus benefits?

Son, you done been snowed.

I wish I could pay nothing a month, for 100% coverage. . . oh, wait. . .

[SuburbanFarmer]

Supply and demand are what drive the wages you are bitching about. Something to consider..

Jedi appears to be talking about border-jumpers. People that perform actual 'work' for less than min-wage. Nothing to do with supply/demand OR the labor market that any American is involved in.

StA appears to be talking about H1Bs.

H1B's are where they hire outside our borders for cheaper labor that eventually goes home, right?

The issue is that 'it doesn't go home'. They pretend that no American can do technical work, then bring in an Indian/Chinese kid, and hire him for 2/3 the wage. Then re-hire him. And again.

I've seen it done even for basic reporting work.

[jediuser598]

See, even if you get a better paying job or whatever, move up the ranks from slurpee attendant to bottle washer, and then on to assistant manager of Baskin Robbins from there, you're not really going to be happy, if you haven't got a good woman to share your life with, and not to be too crude about it, but the other lads are not going to be too impressed, if she's not attractive.

Right now at the underwater basket weaving shop I work at, you stay there five years working 40 hours a week (which isn't hard to get if you work hard) you'll make $22 an hour with guaranteed hours. Benefits are healthcare that's $60 a month with 20/80 and $100 deductible, and an ESOP (I guess that's a pension? I don't know, DB says it is). So, 42 a year with decent benefits.

But if it's not all culminating with a good woman to share your life with, what's the point? What, you're just going to play video games on your off time, until you die alone?

Oh, no I was just making a statement on how well slurpee attendant to bottle washer makes, at least this slurpee attendant. Is it a good wage or should I be aiming higher you think? How's that compare to professionals?

[doc_loliday]

It isn't like that.

Well, I'm not sure what its like then. I'm not sure how spending your one and only life stagnating doing menial chores demands respect, but if it makes you happy knock yourself out.

[jediuser598]

Fuuuuuuuck I wish I could pay $60 a month for 20/80 healthcare.
Instead I pay $1024/month for it.

You’re still identifying with the poor working man while making $22 an hour plus benefits?

Son, you done been snowed.

That's after 5 years. I'm only 8 months in. I make $11.50 atm.

I actually don't know what I have here, or if there's some catch to their healthcare and/or benefits. If it is the case though, should I stay in lieu of moving on to something else that would pay less that has less benefits?

[SuburbanFarmer]

1 - The no-skill American worker is not working farm fields. This has been shown repeatedly.

2 - Using no-skill Americans at min wage is not profitable for Big Ag. The food system is so broken that it's not profitable without illegal labor.

3 - a constant demand to raise middle-class wages is not a negative, imo. They're barely keeping up with inflation, if you didn't notice.

Jesus.

1. The no-skill American worker isn’t working farm fields because a cheaper alternative is available. Derp.

No. It's been shown many times, that when farmers bring legal 'Merkan workers into the fields, they fall out within a week.
And nobody that's not third-world desperate would want to do the kind of work that Big Ag requires of them. 16-hour days, 7-day weeks for 2 months, then nothing, for less than min-wage. Gotta make the donuts.

2. If American wages make produce unprofitable then it is truly folly to continue to produce it. Similar to complaining that without slave labor cotton is unprofitable. First, the assertion is likely incorrect. Second, propping up an industry that can only exist through exploitation of non-citizens is immoral.

Couldn't agree more. You can blame the FDA and Farm Acts for the current situation. Farming on anything less than an industrial scale is now impossible.

3. I said taxes went up, not wages.

Taxes have never, and will never, determine a middle-class life. If your life is going to fall apart over 3-5%, you are not middle class.

[jediuser598]

It isn't like that.

Well, I'm not sure what its like then. I'm not sure how spending your one and only life stagnating doing menial chores demands respect, but if it makes you happy knock yourself out.

I can sum it up pretty quick.

Schools back where I came from were shit. Absolute shit. Waste of money. All of that area tended to be shit.

In order to have a better life, I moved to a place with better schools, more opportunity. Have to be in that place a year before I can go back to school, to avoid out of state tuition. Once I'm here a year, I'm going to said better schools.

[Smitty-48]

Right now at the underwater basket weaving shop I work at, you stay there five years working 40 hours a week (which isn't hard to get if you work hard) you'll make $22 an hour with guaranteed hours. Benefits are healthcare that's $60 a month with 20/80 and $100 deductible, and an ESOP (I guess that's a pension? I don't know, DB says it is). So, 42 a year with decent benefits.

But if it's not all culminating with a good woman to share your life with, what's the point? What, you're just going to play video games on your off time, until you die alone?

Oh, no I was just making a statement on how well slurpee attendant to bottle washer makes, at least this slurpee attendant. Is it a good wage or should I be aiming higher you think? How's that compare to professionals?

Forty two a year? Depends what sort of professional, that's about what I made as a Corporal after about two years in rank, but, I wasn't doing it for the money, I loved the job, and, chicks dig it, so there was that side benefit as well, had all the money I needed, because my total expenses were about $115/month, I was combat arms soldier, and I was getting dates on my off time, with some pretty spectacular young ladies, and so I was at the top of the pecking order as far as I was concerned at the time.

Recce Platoon + Chicks Dig It, that was what life was all about then.

[doc_loliday]

If you got a plan, then good on you. I did shitty jobs, saving for school, it sucked, but its definitely something most anyone can do.

I wouldn't worry so much about "a good school". It doesnt matter all that much.