4 ms·

All that you needed to break down was the car failing, or someone falling sick. Minimum wage in the US hasn't kept pace with inflation for decades, and rents,

by devdas 6y ago

All that you needed to break down was the car failing, or someone falling sick. Minimum wage in the US hasn't kept pace with inflation for decades, and rents, school fees and the costs of medication have kept rising even faster. Banks charge even higher overdraft fees, so the small joys of a pair of branded shoes or a fancy phone are affordable, but the longer term gains aren't likely to be in reach. Escaping poverty needs 20 years of everything going right. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/04/economic-inequality/524610/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/04/economi...

mc32 6y ago
True the minimum wage hasn’t kept up. That’s mainly due to exporting manufacturing offshore. People want cheap crap but they also want to keep wages high. Bernie understood this which is why he was against trade agreements and cheap labor. Now people are used to paying $5 for a Tshirt. They want to get paid $15 an hour but also balk at a $20 Tshirt. You can’t have it both ways.
- acdha 6y ago
  > True the minimum wage hasn’t kept up. That’s mainly due to exporting manufacturing offshore. That’s partially true but this trend has been widespread well outside of manufacturing, too. There’s no shortage of companies engaged in wage theft, converting full time positions to contract, changing benefits plans to shift more cost to the workers, etc. in every sector. Programmers are in high demand but even in tech, consider how many companies contract out core competencies or, especially, have things like helpdesk jobs which pay considerably less than they used to and no longer have a promotion path. There’s been a well-funded push to roll back the New Deal since around the end of WWII. This has included funding libertarian think tanks, religious denominations which encourage self-reliance and distrust of the government, etc. One big factor feeding into demand for cheaper goods is that people are acting rationally in a world where their income lags behind their parents or grandparents at the same age. Kevin Kruse wrote a book about this a while back which is good for understanding some trends in the 20th century: http://kevinmkruse.com/book/one-nation-under-god/ http://kevinmkruse.com/book/one-nation-under-god/

by devdas 6y ago

mc32 6y ago

True the minimum wage hasn’t kept up. That’s mainly due to exporting manufacturing offshore. People want cheap crap but they also want to keep wages high. Bernie understood this which is why he was against trade agreements and cheap labor. Now people are used to paying $5 for a Tshirt. They want to get paid $15 an hour but also balk at a $20 Tshirt. You can’t have it both ways.

acdha 6y ago
> True the minimum wage hasn’t kept up. That’s mainly due to exporting manufacturing offshore. That’s partially true but this trend has been widespread well outside of manufacturing, too. There’s no shortage of companies engaged in wage theft, converting full time positions to contract, changing benefits plans to shift more cost to the workers, etc. in every sector. Programmers are in high demand but even in tech, consider how many companies contract out core competencies or, especially, have things like helpdesk jobs which pay considerably less than they used to and no longer have a promotion path. There’s been a well-funded push to roll back the New Deal since around the end of WWII. This has included funding libertarian think tanks, religious denominations which encourage self-reliance and distrust of the government, etc. One big factor feeding into demand for cheaper goods is that people are acting rationally in a world where their income lags behind their parents or grandparents at the same age. Kevin Kruse wrote a book about this a while back which is good for understanding some trends in the 20th century: http://kevinmkruse.com/book/one-nation-under-god/ http://kevinmkruse.com/book/one-nation-under-god/