5 ms·

Did you mean the high end, or the low end? A college dropout can make a killing in Silicon Valley, if they are also: a talented software developer. OTOH, some

by readme 13y ago

Did you mean the high end, or the low end? A college dropout can make a killing in Silicon Valley, if they are also: a talented software developer. OTOH, some of the other dropouts might end up working as BART train operators, who seem to make between 12 and 15k/yr, which is likely for full time, in a city where it costs about 1/4 of that just to scrape by on a monthly basis. It is not right to employ people at a wage that they cannot possibly subsist on. These people all ended up as bart train operators for one reason or another. Maybe they were lazy. Maybe they got shafted in life. Maybe they're dumb. But does that mean they should be paid a substandard living wage? No. Meanwhile the luckier, more industrious, or combination thereof, are making over 10x the amount of the lowest paid workers. Min wage needs to be raised, a lot. Look at Australia.

netcan 13y ago
Did you look at these numbers? Where do you think minimum wage applies here?
- readme 13y ago
  Yes, I actually looked quite thoroughly. It applies in that the minimum wage is too low, so the bottom end of the workers have an extraordinarily unfair salary, in spite of the fact that they probably work 40+ hour weeks driving subway trains. I have made a histogram to illustrate this problem: http://pastie.org/8106373 http://pastie.org/8106373 You can see from the data that the highest paid worker makes at least 25x the amount of the lowest paid worker. This is not what I'd call fair. To be clear, it's not just the BART. We could do this with salary data from any municipality or corporation in the US. I am operating on the assumption that many of the "train operators" are full time workers, which is not indicated in the data. I'd say it's a fairly good bet, though. That is easily one of the most hazardous and unpleasant jobs, yet they are paid dirt. See, it doesn't matter how hard you work in our society. You can dig the dirtiest hole every day, sweat, and bleed, and you will be rewarded with a substandard wage. Instead, we reward the things that propel us forward, which does make sense: anyone can dig a hole. The problem is that not everyone has equal access to the means to acquire the skills which are so jealously rewarded. Yet, they do everything right anyway, work hard, and this is what they get. A 25x lower paying job than the highest paid executive. We can fix this by raising the minimum wage to something fair. Australia has theirs at around $16 USD.
  - carlyle4545 13y ago
    If the US passed legislation to raise the minimum wage to a rate you feel is "fair" (whatever that means), how do you propose the Fed deals with the rampant inflation that'll surely erase any perceived benefits of said legislation?
    - readme 13y ago
      The actual demand for goods and services which would rise as a result of the lower class having enough money to actually buy them is not the main driver of inflation. The main driver of inflation is the printing of more money which is inherit in our fiat currency system. I advocate a return to a resource-based fractional reserve system as a way of mitigating inflation overall. Since Nixon took the US off the gold standard, credit use has spiraled out of control: http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2000/0900lead.pdf http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2000/0900lead.pd... You want to talk about increased demand causing inflation? Look no further than consumer credit.
  - netcan 13y ago
    Sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. Some titles have PT in them. i assume this means part time. If there were a large number of full time workers earning around minimum wage, I would expect to see a lot of salaries around 20k p/a. Only ~1% of total compensations are between $17-$23k and they all have job titles that can be found above and bell that band. About half have PT in the title and I assume others are something else other than full time. Anyone above that band wouldn't be impacted by an increase in minimum wage. Anyone below that band is part time and may be earning near minimum wage, but most probably aren't. I don't have a problem with minimum wages. But, it don't look like an increase would impact here anyway.
    - readme 13y ago
      I will adjust my script to incorporate PT and repost asap!
  - readmepastie 13y ago
    Here's the data from the pastie Salary Workers 0-10000 180 10000-20000 88 20000-30000 97 30000-40000 181 40000-50000 167 50000-60000 476 60000-70000 633 70000-80000 732 80000-90000 322 90000-100000 207 100000-110000 99 110000-120000 86 120000-130000 56 130000-140000 42 140000-150000 23 150000-160000 11 160000-170000 7 170000-180000 7 180000-190000 4 190000-200000 1 200000-210000 3 210000-220000 1 220000-230000 1 230000-240000 1 240000-250000 1

by readme 13y ago

netcan 13y ago

Did you look at these numbers? Where do you think minimum wage applies here?

readme 13y ago
Yes, I actually looked quite thoroughly. It applies in that the minimum wage is too low, so the bottom end of the workers have an extraordinarily unfair salary, in spite of the fact that they probably work 40+ hour weeks driving subway trains. I have made a histogram to illustrate this problem: http://pastie.org/8106373 http://pastie.org/8106373 You can see from the data that the highest paid worker makes at least 25x the amount of the lowest paid worker. This is not what I'd call fair. To be clear, it's not just the BART. We could do this with salary data from any municipality or corporation in the US. I am operating on the assumption that many of the "train operators" are full time workers, which is not indicated in the data. I'd say it's a fairly good bet, though. That is easily one of the most hazardous and unpleasant jobs, yet they are paid dirt. See, it doesn't matter how hard you work in our society. You can dig the dirtiest hole every day, sweat, and bleed, and you will be rewarded with a substandard wage. Instead, we reward the things that propel us forward, which does make sense: anyone can dig a hole. The problem is that not everyone has equal access to the means to acquire the skills which are so jealously rewarded. Yet, they do everything right anyway, work hard, and this is what they get. A 25x lower paying job than the highest paid executive. We can fix this by raising the minimum wage to something fair. Australia has theirs at around $16 USD.
- carlyle4545 13y ago
  If the US passed legislation to raise the minimum wage to a rate you feel is "fair" (whatever that means), how do you propose the Fed deals with the rampant inflation that'll surely erase any perceived benefits of said legislation?
  - readme 13y ago
    The actual demand for goods and services which would rise as a result of the lower class having enough money to actually buy them is not the main driver of inflation. The main driver of inflation is the printing of more money which is inherit in our fiat currency system. I advocate a return to a resource-based fractional reserve system as a way of mitigating inflation overall. Since Nixon took the US off the gold standard, credit use has spiraled out of control: http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2000/0900lead.pdf http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2000/0900lead.pd... You want to talk about increased demand causing inflation? Look no further than consumer credit.
- netcan 13y ago
  Sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. Some titles have PT in them. i assume this means part time. If there were a large number of full time workers earning around minimum wage, I would expect to see a lot of salaries around 20k p/a. Only ~1% of total compensations are between $17-$23k and they all have job titles that can be found above and bell that band. About half have PT in the title and I assume others are something else other than full time. Anyone above that band wouldn't be impacted by an increase in minimum wage. Anyone below that band is part time and may be earning near minimum wage, but most probably aren't. I don't have a problem with minimum wages. But, it don't look like an increase would impact here anyway.
  - readme 13y ago
    I will adjust my script to incorporate PT and repost asap!
- readmepastie 13y ago
  Here's the data from the pastie Salary Workers 0-10000 180 10000-20000 88 20000-30000 97 30000-40000 181 40000-50000 167 50000-60000 476 60000-70000 633 70000-80000 732 80000-90000 322 90000-100000 207 100000-110000 99 110000-120000 86 120000-130000 56 130000-140000 42 140000-150000 23 150000-160000 11 160000-170000 7 170000-180000 7 180000-190000 4 190000-200000 1 200000-210000 3 210000-220000 1 220000-230000 1 230000-240000 1 240000-250000 1