JDG said: > 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.
As you say. But not everybody who is on minimum wage are flipping burgers to earn a bit of pocket money whilst they're at high school; infact many of them aren't. A "living wage" for for a family of one adult and two children is in the region of $30k a year, which breaks down to $14/hour. 60% of Americans earn less than that. > 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. The problem is that real cost of housing has soared; from in the low 20% of total income in the 60s to 37% in 1999. Also, minimum housing, as you put it, is still *right* on the upper edge of affordable for people making minimum wage, many of whom will have to do two jobs in order to pay it. > 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. Of interest, have you seen where they are living? how do they earn their money? > 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? That seems a quite extraordinary argument. If you're telling me that you are happy for immigrants to live in conditions that you wouldn't expect your "fellow Americans" to live in, then I'd say the US has quite clearly failed them. Just because they have come from a shockingy terrible background, you can't seriously tell me it's ok for them to 'just' live in a terrible one now, can you? At risk of sounding like I'm preaching, if you've not read it (and from reading your post, I'm guessing you haven't) I'd recommend Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed for an eye-opening account of what living on minimum wage is like. This is a highly intelligent woman (in her 50s) who spends a year living in areas where employers are crying out for staff. It contains detailed descriptions of the places she has to stay in, and her exact financial incomings and outgoings, the jobs she does, and the environments she has to work in (Wal-Mart, cleaning, care-work etc). It's very sobering stuff. Rik. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
