Everyone on food stamps isn't a freeloader

But, they also need a living wage to RAISE or buy there food or BUILD or pay a house payment so they don't have to live off Govt. programs (OUR TAX DOLLARS) !

 

Uhhhh no. If you raise minimum wage, you will simply have inflation. The answer is for those people to get off of their lazy ass if they're only making minimum wage and get another full or parttime job to support themselves. Stop mooching off of the real producers.

 

So., the fact that the income gap between the rich and the poor is at least 10 times what it was 50 years ago doesn't mean anything to you. I guess there is no room at all at the top for them to give back anything. Do they really need a Ferrari for every day of the week and maybe 1 , 150 foot yacht instead of two, 2 multi million dollar homes instead of 5. There is plenty of room at the top for them to pay a better wage to their employees without impacting consumer cost at all. Do you really think gasoline needs to be $3.50 a gal. Oil companies are making unbelievable unprecedented profits and still receiving Govt, subsidies on top of that protected by there Repuke buddies. Don't give me that inflation B.S. argument. The rich want be richer and they don't care at whose expense. Does a CEO'S salary need to be 200 times more than that of one of his employees and what kind of raise does he and his congressman buddies get every year. Their getting mega -super - wealthy on the backs of the people responsible for building this friggin country THERE SLAVES !!!!!!!!!!

 

Washington State has a minimum wage that is set by a voter-approved cost of living adjustment. It's currently 9.19, but will raise to 9.32 on January 1st, 2014.

Sadly, this has caused companies to move to other states, leaving Washington with a unemployment rate 7% almost as high as the national rate 7.4%.

 

So, let's cut the minimum wage to 12 cents a hour and the Walmart employees can live in dormitories in enclosed compounds with barbed wire 6 people to a room like they do in China . Oh ,and maybe they could work a hundred hours a week and afford 2 bowls of rice a day instead of 1. People talk about raising the minimum wage causing
inflation so if we lower it to 12 cents an hour is Exxon going to start selling gas for 30 cents a gallon again ,is bread going to be a nickel a loaf again. HELL NO!!!!!!!!!!

 

The government does not need to raise the minimum wage. They need to place regulations that would force companies to compete for employees and thus allow the wages to be raised naturally.

1; Outlaw ALL sweatshop products in the US. This would make it far more expensive to operate outside of the US, and help stem outsourcing.

2; Stop giving tax breaks to corporations. Give them to small businesses instead. Coroporations do not create jobs. They are as big as they will get in a free market. Small businesses need ti hire people to grow in order to compete. More workers on the market means more competition between companies to get the best, and hire wages and better benefits.

3; Bring in more foreign companies to create more jobs.

 

So, you're for higher wages ,your method of getting there is just different . So, how does that effect your version of higher wages causing inflation.

 

Inflation is going to happen anytime new money is added to the market. Forcing it in makes it hit harder. At least by allowing it to happen naturally the inflation is kept at a minimum. The only problem is that by outlawing sweatshop products, certain products will cost more.

 

Well, that brings us back to a point I've made many times on this thread. We either pay more up front for our products or subsidize low wages with Govt. assistance programs via our tax dollars or by my other point, I keep making ,mega -rich companies can absorb the increases receiving reasonable profits instead obscene profits !

 

Hmm, so when CEOs, Board Members, Sports Figures, Movie Actors, Wall Street Gurus go for the Gold, that simply raises inflation. Well, we should cut the profits, salaries, pay checks in half, yours included, to end that nasty inflation, correct?? And if those moochers get jobs that also raises inflation!!! My gawd, don't let them make a living.

 

I would have to see the cause and affect for that statement. Where is the proof the companies left due to a .13 expected raise an hour? LMAO!!

 

It spins my wheels how some can try to justify a fellow american, who gets out of bed everyday and goes to work to do what they can to provide for themselves and their families. Im talking about working americans who are so underpaid they have to get govt foodstamps. Think about that, really think those on the left and those on the right?
Since when do we force americans TO WORK and not give them enough to even BUY FOOD!!!!!!!!!

The right champions big business right to underpay americans, they fight tooth an nail not to raise in the minimum wage, they want social security dismantled they want medicare and medicaid gone, they want huge tax cuts for the rich. They demand small govt but they are just fine with companies underpaying americans and the govt having to give them food stamps to supplement corporate payrolls. They find it perfect that millions of jobs that were outsourced and thats what CAUSED the huge rise in food stamps. This has gotten way out of hand with this wild ridiculous far right.

 

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Banchie, I also would like to see the data on the % of food stamp recipients in the state compared to the national average. If its lower, BAM !, the whole premise of my thread has been validated !

 

Keep on crunching numbers, making assumptions about why people are in trouble and believing that the America where anyone can get by through hard work and education alone still exists. Perhaps some day you'll fall on hard times and learn the harsh reality that others are living every day. How did you people ever become so heartless and cold..Ayn Rand would be proud....she collected social security btw.

 

Did the founding fathers think it was fine for people to be squatting on and stealing other people's land against their will?

 

I'm not cold. I'm just sick of struggling to meet the bills, as I watch other people NOT struggle. I am very close to signing up for food stamps myself. Why? Why keep trying to compete in society at a disadvantage? Am I living just fine? Yes. Can I get food stamps for the last 2 years if I had wanted to? Yes. But I am at least TRYING without them. I am watching millions not even try. Just get that govt money folks!

 

It means that there is far more money and profit to be had today than there was 50 years ago. It also means that the quality and standard of life for those poor people has improved vastly over the last 50 years. Most of our poor have heat and AC, a computer, internet, a car, a smartphone, a tv, cable, etc etc. With that being said. when you have that much more money available, you would expect that the people who understand economics and personal finances will be the ones who benefit the most from that. USUALLY, those people are the rich people. Most rich people didn't become rich by being stupid and lazy. Most of them became rich because they understand how many works and how to use it to improve your lot in life to the best of their ability. Kudos for them.

Who do you think you are that you get to go around and tell people what they can or can't do with THEIR money? And what are you going to say to the starving guy in Africa who thinks that it's unfair that you have a two bedroom house or apartment, heating and AC and a washing machine while him and his kid heat to death inside of their mud hut wearing one of their two pairs of clothes that they've never had the luxury of washing? You do understand that if you make >$32,000 a year that you are part of the 1% when you take into account the rest of the world... right? You better be careful of attacking the 1%... you might be on the short end of that stick one day.

I'm a capitalist. I do not believe in subsidies or bailouts. Subsidies and bailouts do not exist in capitalism, they are a purely socialist construct. If you have a problem with subsidies and bailouts, go cry to your socialist Messiahs. Socialism is a disease on an otherwise healthy and productive society.

 

No you're missing the point. Some higher inflation does not significantly impact people who are not working for minimum wage. It DOES, however, significantly impact those who are working for minimum wage. So you can't just raise minimum wage expecting for those people to have their lives improved. When you do so, a slight bit of inflation happens to make up for the increase in wages and those poor people are poor again and they're still crying about raising the minimum wage. We've raised the minimum wage a bunch of times in this country and they keep coming back and asking for more. Why? Because inflation happens and they're right back where they were. The same thing is happening in Australia. Their minimum wage keeps having to be increased because they keep having inflation and their poor people are still poor even though they're working for $15 an hour minimum wage.

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Falling on hard times is different than not wanting to get a second or third job. That's called being a lazy *****.

 

How many people who qualify for some form of assistance are not still struggling?? Sure, everybody has there anecdotal stories about people on food stamps an welfare driving new SUVs. I mean really, statistically. You yourself can to the conclusion that just trying is not always enough anymore. Don't begrudge others the help that they need

 

Finally, a conservative admitted it. Now, since some people fall on hard times and our program(SNAP) helps those people..................no matter if there is fraud, waste, and abuse in the SNAP program, until you can come up with a program that helps the needy, food stamps is not going away.

And get this, even if we were to do away with food stamps and design another program, it would be ripe with abuse too, since we are human and nothing we design will ever be perfect. Just because some people abuse a program doesn't mean the program of helping the needy is bad.

This is why we object the GOP's stance on food stamps. The GOP only wants to focus on the abuse, fraud, waste, because if they acknowledge that food stamps is a good program because it helps the needy, then they would have no argument in trying to remove it from our government safety net.

 

The abuse of food stamps isn't anecdotal. It's well known to anyone who lives in communities where they are prevalent, including the businesses. I know the exchange rate for cash is 2 for 1. Just the other day my neighbors invited me over for a cook out. The main course? $250 for steaks. Big boxes of them. The last time I had money to buy steaks like that was when I was making $70k a year. These guys do nothing. For years now. And it's like that all over the community. I suggest Americans start waking up before these programs destroy the fabric of our society.

 

There are some groups who need help like the disabled, elderly and children. No argument there. However, food stamps could be tweaked to easily get rid of the fraud and abuse. Just off the top of my head. You would require drug tests for those applying for the food stamps. If they fail, they don't get it and can't get it for a certain period. If you have a parent who has several children and has been on food stamps for a certain amount of time, those children need to be taken out of that abusive home, away from that irresponsible "parent" and into homes in which loving, caring people who are capable AND WILLING to provide for those children will do so.

This would solve much of the abuse in the program. It would also solve the problem of women going out and having 6 or 7 baby daddies and having 7 or 8 welfare babies to collect checks. It's a twofer.

 

Honestly, the answer is available to everyone but very few actually implement this solution. If you don't like companies paying employees low wages then simply stop patronizing those establishments. Stop going out to eat, stop shopping at big box and discount stores, stop going to the mall, join a co-op or grow your own food instead of going to the grocery store and let the owners know why you no longer shop there. If enough people did that then the companies would have no choice but to raise their wages just to get their business back. One thing that you shouldn't do is complain about the situation while taking full advantage of the situation.

 

So the urbanization of America is Obama's doing? Really?? He caused all the dependency? And, how is he a socialist. I'm curious to know how you define socialism.

 

What's your business, and how many people or families does your business support with a living wage?