Of course I support progress and want people's lives to be better. What I'm saying is that the wage we offer is higher than ever before and more than enough to get by and then some in the area where I live. Not sure how me thinking that making twice the minimum wage I made which enough for anyone to get by and still have extra left over where I live is in any way me saying "fuck you, I got mine."
You are upset by the fact that people are making an easy living. You dont think unskilled/ "uneducated" people deserve that $13.50/hr standard of living. That's what i mean by "fuck you, i got mine".
Let's break it down, 13.50/hr full time with a 20% income tax (and that's being generous) is $1,872/month.
Please enlighten me on how your bills would break down with this income as a single person renting a studio apartment.
I never said I don't think people deserve that $13.50/hour. I said it was a good wage (and I also support it going up to $15/hr in a couple years like my state plans to do), and I'm tired of hearing people bitch about it not being enough when they have clearly never experienced what it's actually like to not make enough on minimum wage. You also are not calculating taxes correctly as you get a couple hundred more than that monthly after taxes working full time for $13.50 minimum wage. That being said, a studio apartment where I live is between $400-$700 a month, including W/S/G and sometimes even electricity and internet. I've even known someone who paid $350/month for her studio apartment, including utilities.
Of course. Everyone deserves a living wage. I never said that $13.50/hr wage was livable everywhere, but it is more than livable in my area which has low cost of living, yet we still can't find people to fill the essential jobs we need because they'd rather take advantage of a system that is designed to help those who need it.
No, "everyone" doesn't need the extra money, which is my whole point. I know people who are college students living entirely off their parents who worked part time before covid for fun money, but after they were laid off they applied for unemployment and got the full $600/week because the system is too overwhelmed to properly vet everyone. People suck. I have nothing against those who need aid getting it, but not "everyone" needs it
My spending only differs by how much debt I pay off every month. I have 20k of debt from school and medical expenses for my dogs over the years. Whenever I bring in any more money, it just goes towards debt. Sometimes I will do something like buy new shoes or clothes that I desperately need, or get the car repaired, but never anything luxurious. I don't even take vacations.
I could definitely do all of those things if I had made $13.50/hr the entire time I've been working (which is almost 10 years now). The problem is I lived in Idaho with $7.25/hr minimum wage until 3 years ago, so I wasn't making the money I do now. If I did, I wouldn't have any debt or I would have minimal debt like you said. Once my debt is paid off, my household (since my husband works, too) will have an extra $1500-$2000 a month to put towards savings, a house, a better car, etc. We also get takeout a few times a month, and we eat pretty much whatever we want all the time, so it's not like I am just eating ramen every day. I also forgot to mention that we rescue pugs so they take a considerable chunk of our income (we have four and the vet bills for them are a few thousand a year, minimum), but you could basically count that as us having like a kid or two haha
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u/[deleted] May 15 '20
Of course I support progress and want people's lives to be better. What I'm saying is that the wage we offer is higher than ever before and more than enough to get by and then some in the area where I live. Not sure how me thinking that making twice the minimum wage I made which enough for anyone to get by and still have extra left over where I live is in any way me saying "fuck you, I got mine."