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> These people should be focused on how they can increase their long term earning potential instead of helping to further squeeze out the middle class. "These

> These people should be focused on how they can increase their long term earning potential instead of helping to further squeeze out the middle class. "These people" -- what, people with awful jobs? "further squeeze out the middle class" -- how is this squeezing out the middle class? Low end salaries in the US are a tragedy of the commons. Because people can cobble together subsistence services when collecting a "salary" (e.g. by going to the ER for medical care or collecting food stamps to eat) companies are able to get people to work for them for artificially low prices. Effectively, taxpayers are subsidizing Walmart and Macdonalds for paying people too little. This is not the same as, for example, providing decent welfare or unemployment benefits that go away when you have a job. That drives up salaries because it makes having a shitty job seem worse than just collecting welfare. Instead we have income-based support that cuts in even for people who are working. The middle class are being squeezed by medical costs which are in large part driven by the US healthcare situation. If our health costs were under control, the "middle class" would have enjoyed healthy salary increases over the last decade.

bigtunacan 12y ago
'"These people" -- what, people with awful jobs?' People with completed unskilled jobs that could be performed by a twelve year old if labor laws allowed. An unfortunately high number of unskilled, unmotivated people take jobs at places like McDonalds with no ambition to do anything better. Raising the minimum wage ONLY raises the minimum wage in terms of earning, so yes it squeezes the middle class as their earning comes closer to the minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage results in inflation and raising costs; this directly impacts the middle class. Quite frankly many of these are also providing services that just aren't necessary; they are purely convenience. People only have so much money to spend, so raising prices results in fewer sales as some people will switch to substitute goods. In the example I'm working with here, buying groceries and cooking at home is a cheaper substitute good for McDonalds; as the cost of McDonalds raises more people will substitute this with cooking at home. This is just the basics of supply and demand. So yes, "these people", anyone with a low paying unskilled job should be doing anything in their power to develop needed and in demand jobs so they can raise their earning potential. Aside from the few that move up to managerial roles at a place like McDonalds there is no earning potential. These are the types of places where you get hired with no prior job experience or skills. They are not now, nor have they been in my lifetime, sustainable careers.
- anigbrowl 12y ago
  This is not basic supply and demand. You're making the common error of applying the laws of perfect competition to a complex, non-zero-sum marketplace. So suppose more people do substitute away from McDonalds to cooking at home; that means more jobs in the supermarket and consumer packaging industries, to name but two. anyone with a low paying unskilled job should be doing anything in their power to develop needed and in demand jobs so they can raise their earning potential Guess what, taking classes or developing a new skill often costs money, even with the internet, community college subsidies and so on. If you only pay people barely enough to live, then there's nothing left over for them to invest in career development.

bigtunacan 12y ago

'"These people" -- what, people with awful jobs?' People with completed unskilled jobs that could be performed by a twelve year old if labor laws allowed. An unfortunately high number of unskilled, unmotivated people take jobs at places like McDonalds with no ambition to do anything better. Raising the minimum wage ONLY raises the minimum wage in terms of earning, so yes it squeezes the middle class as their earning comes closer to the minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage results in inflation and raising costs; this directly impacts the middle class. Quite frankly many of these are also providing services that just aren't necessary; they are purely convenience. People only have so much money to spend, so raising prices results in fewer sales as some people will switch to substitute goods. In the example I'm working with here, buying groceries and cooking at home is a cheaper substitute good for McDonalds; as the cost of McDonalds raises more people will substitute this with cooking at home. This is just the basics of supply and demand. So yes, "these people", anyone with a low paying unskilled job should be doing anything in their power to develop needed and in demand jobs so they can raise their earning potential. Aside from the few that move up to managerial roles at a place like McDonalds there is no earning potential. These are the types of places where you get hired with no prior job experience or skills. They are not now, nor have they been in my lifetime, sustainable careers.

anigbrowl 12y ago
This is not basic supply and demand. You're making the common error of applying the laws of perfect competition to a complex, non-zero-sum marketplace. So suppose more people do substitute away from McDonalds to cooking at home; that means more jobs in the supermarket and consumer packaging industries, to name but two. anyone with a low paying unskilled job should be doing anything in their power to develop needed and in demand jobs so they can raise their earning potential Guess what, taking classes or developing a new skill often costs money, even with the internet, community college subsidies and so on. If you only pay people barely enough to live, then there's nothing left over for them to invest in career development.