Originally posted by Pete D:
I think we already established that a minumum wage job isn't a living wage. As far as jobs, poverty and unemployment, I might suggest taking a course in Macroeconomics. You said you are a college student, so it shouldn't be that hard to find one




Minimum wage, in my opinion, is for the dime-a-dozen jobs at McDonalds where you have zero responsibility, zero accountability, and the job description is designed for the type of person who SHOULD be making minimum wage... an unskilled teenager... someone without a family to support. If you don't like being paid minimum wage, acquire some skills, work ethic, timeliness, etc and get a higher paying job. I've held a job since I was 12 years old and have never been paid minimum wage because I had training, applicable skills, good work ethic, I was not a pain in the ass always arguing with my boss, and i showed up for work on time. Are these things so difficult?

You should head back to your Macroeconomics course yourself and ask the professor about the differences between "cyclical" unemployment and "structural" unemployment. In down times, such as the recent mini-recession, there is structural unemployment, where there simply aren't enough jobs to go around. In normal times or up times, such as now, there is cyclical unemployment, which means the unemployed are generally between jobs, moving around, etc. Many an economist has said that a nominal amount of unemployment is in fact a good thing because it always provides a fresh crop of people ready to start a new job immediately.

So I ask you... regarding jobs, poverty, and unemployment... these people that have been unemployed so long as to drop below the poverty line and take welfare, etc... why don't they have jobs? Is it because there simply aren't any out there? (possible, but unlikely) Is it because there hasn't been a single person hiring in the three years Bush has been in office? (now completely impossible), or is it because of some other factor?

I would venture a guess at number 3...

Diesel owns you