> From: John D. Giorgis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > At 08:01 PM 9/22/2002 -0500 Robert Seeberger wrote: > >I think the point is that people who make minimum wage should be *able* to > >afford housing but are not able too. > > I disagree with this. There is no reason why a high school teenager > flipping burgers at McDonald's *should* be paid enough to afford a > two-bedroom apartment. And, I should note, the very definition of a > minimum wage job is what you pay the lowest-rung worker, which would be a > high-schooler flipping burgers. Intents, Shminets, the definition of > "minumum wage" is the minimum. > > Secondly, these "statistics" almost certainly arrive at their result by > making use of "averages" for a Metropolitan Area. Yet, a minimum wage > worker, by definition, is probably demanding *minimum* housing, not > *average* housing. For example, I pay $605/month for a very spacious > one-bedroom apartment in a neighborhood dominated by immigrants. Many of > my colleagues from work who live in some of the neighborhoods around here > dominated by white 20-somethings pay as much as $900-$1000 for a studio > apartment. > > Thirdly, the idea that poor workers cannot afford housing is easily > disproven by simply *meeting* immigrants to this country. For example, > there are "regulars" at my Church that represent 105 different national > heritages. Just this weekend, I met three immigrants from Cameroon and > four others from Coite d'Ivoire for the first time. As you might imagine, > a great many of them are arriving here without much in the way of skills. > As you also might imagine, not all of them are living on the streets. > > Fourthly, our perspective on the "poor" in this country needs to be > tempered by the fact that the many social statistics in this country are > dragged down by the presence of immigrants. For example, if a family of > four from El Salvador arrives in this country with few skills and lives in > a one-bedroom apartment with clean water, sanitary plumbing, and central > heating - has this country failed this family or succeeded for it?
All of this logic I expect from a right wing. It's the job of the rich to make themselves richer at the expense of the poor. Right wing politicians have always consistently done this. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
