How Could Companies Like Wal-Mart EVER Pay What People Call A "Living Wage"?

no, but it'll boost them into proper nutrition and safe housing.

maybe even allow them to buy some new clothes once or twice a year.

You're assuming that many poor people in the U.S. don't have the ability to pay for any of those three.

no, I'm suggesting that if they could afford basics necessities of life with something left over, that they'll spend it on lifestyle improvement rather than starting from scratch in a new location.

Keep trying if you want... but you'll continue to be wrong.

Out of curiousity just how well do you actually know poor people? How much day to day interaction have you had with them?

I'm going to go out on a limb that I have more direct contact with the impoverished and homeless on my morning dog walk than you have in your lifetime.

So lemme think about this one... First up would be the ones that fell through the cracks.

First would be my friend Phil. He's in his mid 30's and kinda looks like one of the Duck Dynasty folks... but dirty. He's a functioning alcoholic who goes into seizures if he DOESN'T drink. I tried to bring him indoors a few years back over the winter, but once it warmed up he was happier doing the urban camping thing.

He makes a living on disability support and sign flying. He'll work if it's somehting he can do... like push a wheel barrow. He's actually really smart, but only firing 3 of 4 cylinders.

Then there'd be the guy I call MacGoo. A slightly built fellow around his early 50s who I think stays at the shelter up the street. He's a little off when his meds run out, but totally harmless and somewhat helpless. It's guys like this that I buy a couple cartons of Native (i.e. tax free) cigarettes for every month. He begs for 25 cents at a time from people.

At the extreme end, there's Skippy. A portmanteau of Hippie and Schizophrenic. I've watched this guy writing things out like he's Benny Russel on the sidewalk and seen him screaming at lamp posts. This same guy also carried an injured bird around for a month and hand fed it back to health.

Of course, there was a mention in my BR a while back about Nifty Dave. A guy I'd squatted with back in the 80s. I got luckier than him and got off the street. Dave was there so long he wouldn''t have known how to live any place else.

You've obviously never worked at some of the schools I've worked at.........

nope, I haven't.

but seriously... you're trying to get into a pissing match over who has more experience with poverty? first hand or trying to provide relief from it?

also known as "the safest assumption ever posted on the internet."

did this make it into the Dayton's greatest hits thread yet?

Still waiting for Dayton to tell me all he knows about poverty and poor folks...

At least he now knows that they somehow find the time to walk to the grocery store in all weathers and work often two or three jobs and raise their families.

Unlike the delicate little flower he is.

There are federal programs that pay for vocational programs...

...but you have to prove that you've got the intelligence to make it worth it to the .gov.

If it's a zero sum gain, then it's a zero sum gain. How is that about punishment?

Have you got a source for that?

Until the Tea Party comes to town:

Boo on the Tea Party.

But I was thinking more along the lines of the Workforce Investment Act.

Working in school districts in low income areas mainly.

Personal experience here...

So I got laid off ffour years ago. I'd had ten years experience in PC support, and a bachelor's degree in religions studies. Maybe I could've gotten a job flipping burgers, but I figured I'd be over qualified.

I figured my ten years experience in PC support was worth something, but it wasn't. People didn't care about experience, they wanted an A+ certification.

So I go to the Memphis, TN Don't Got A Job office, they give me an ACT test. I pass it well enough that they gave me a voucher worth several thousands of dollars. I take it to New Horizons, turn it into a CCNA certification, and now I've got a 50k + job with a great company, a 3K square foot house on over an acre out in the country, and two dogs and three cats.

Just sayin'.

So we're still yakkin' about this? Fuh why? I still haven't seen any of the pro-thievery shits in this thread explain why people who work at Wal-Mart are somehow "owed" executive-level pay.

Yes, "boo on the Tea Party" for wanting the Feds and states to quit fuckin' stealing from people to fund the lazy and unmotivated. How dare they interfere with the leeches. I mean, here are all these fuckers doing nothing to improve their own lot in life; how dare you begrudge them the money you busted your ass to earn? Those opposed here on WF are the same motherfuckers who got all condescending and scornful when I presented them with the opportunity to fund my efforts -- and yet here they fuckin' are, once again, pooh-poohing resistance against being fucking stolen from to finance lazy motherfuckers.

See, that was the point of my earlier thread. I knew you cunts weren't going to help me out, that wasn't the point of that little charade.

The point was, you pieces of fuckin' shit don't give a damn about the poor; you just want to see the motivated, the achievers, fucking leeched off of until they no longer have any motivation to advance society. Why?

Because you are, first and foremost, anti-progress. You are against human advancement. You're not for it. I think that's fairly well established, now. You're not fuckin' humanist; you're anti-humanist.

Well they aren't saing they're owed executive-level pay.

Though I'm not all together sure what they think they're owed.

They're owed nothing. They get what they negotiate for. You sign a contract saying you're going to get minimum wage, you're still not owed fucking anything. What you get, though, is minimum wage. Because that's what you fucking agreed to. Don't agree to that? Negotiate for something better. If your negotiations don't get you something better, then fuckin' don't accept employment. (By the way, it should go without saying -- but this being WF, maybe it does need to be said -- the "you" in the preceding is the general use of "You".)

You don't accept the terms of an arrangement and then bitch because the terms you accepted aren't to your liking. It was on you to hold out for better terms or walk the fuck away.

By the way, do you know what a "living wage" is? It's the wage you need to earn in order to put a roof over your head and food in your belly. That's it. That's all. A living wage is not "what I need to support my 18,467,374,737 babies by 13,547,474,84 baby-mamas while driving a brand new car and living in a 3-bedroom apartment.

If your "professional" skills are so fucking lackluster that you're earning your pay at fucking Wal-Mart, then shut the fuck up about a "living wage."

This fucking bullshit is coming out of spoiled, entitled fucking Millennials who got trophies for showing up and gold stars for not shitting themselves. It has nothing to do with the real world, and I'm about drained for what little empathy I ever had for it.

I pulled myself up from fucking nothing to where I am now. And all of Leftforge will attest that I'm the most horrible, untalented writer who ever lived:

Well, I fuckin' did it. So all Leftforge's fuckin' pity party sob stories can fuckin' do it, too.

(See? There's the risk you run, Lefties. You rag me to the dogs and back as untalented, well guess what? When I make it big, I suck all the air out of your sob stories about your favorite pet sloths.)

I remember working at Walmart. During one period, management would announce almost every Friday

"We need to cut payroll for this week. Does anyone want to volunteer to go home early?"

So what did these poorly paid Walmart employees do?

They bailed out of there like the store was on fire. If they wanted to work and earn more money, why didn't they hang around and work their scheduled hours?

What did I do? I hung around, worked my maximum scheduled hours then when it got time for me to leave I reported to the manager that several departments would now be completely uncovered once I left. Naturally despite Walmarts strict policies on hourly employees not working overtime (time and a half pay) I was not only allowed overtime but REQUESTED to work it.

Which is how I routinely got 45 hours of work in a week rather than the 39 I was scheduled for.

Probably also how I kept that job for nearly 9 years despite being considered a jerk.

Jesus tapdancing christ.

See, that's the opposite if what I experienced. When I worked at a grocery store during college, everybody wanted more hours. Nobody wanted tie off. They wanted to work.

You disagree on some particular point? Or are you just upset that state-facilitated fucking theft isn't looked on favorably? Maybe you think theft is just fuckin' peachy as long as it's not your money that's being stolen. Well, newsflash, dingus -- it is your money that's being stolen. You're engaged, part of the year, in compulsory labor for the benefit of Joe Stoner who can, but won't, get his lazy ass off the couch and support himself.

News Flash: The Tea Party isn't about saving my money. It's not a grass roots organization. It's owned by rich as fuck people. They don't care about my money. They care about the people that already own a shit ton of money. Why should I have any loyalty to them?

Ah, the 'bot is back to "TAXES ARE THEFT!!1!!" again, is it?

Shoes, don't waste your time on him.

Wow.. Castle has officially taken the dumb as fuck crown from Dayton.