Why? Why isn’t an honest days labor enough for you?
Yet they are unskilled. Which was your criteria for not being worth paying a living wage.
We could institution price controls on apartments, but I suspect you think that would constitute government overreach.
I’d suspect, given the vast number of vacant houses since 2008, we have plenty of housing (which you seem to agree with, see below). I don’t think supply is the problem. An open market for housing that is volatile and subject to the vagaries of the markets and speculation is the problem. when you commoditize necessities of life, you throw lives into chaos.
I agree with you here completely, except for the part about the minimum wage. You want to fix the homeless problem? Give them housing, no strings attached:
When people have housing, stability, and dignity, it is far easier to pull yourself up out of a hole. I think we need to look at these problems not from a market based perspective, but from a human-center perspective.
I’m all for linking minimum wage to inflation, and I never said otherwise. But that doesn’t necessarily make housing more affordable. I could put words in your mouth and then proceed to refute them too, but thats gross.
All I’m saying here is that 30% of minimum wage @ 40 hours/week =/= the cost of a 1 bedroom apartment, and there was never an assurance that it would.
There was a time I supported a minimum wage increase, but I think we’re past that, as a wage hike only helps those who are working. When there are no jobs, it doesn’t matter how high the minimum wage is, because nobody’s actually being paid.
As we move further towards full automation, we need something more drastic like guaranteed minimum income.
I’m not at all bothered by rent control (you seem to have imagined me as a caricature of some old right wing jesus-n-guns type in your mind to argue against, so sure, go for it I guess?). The vast supply of housing I was referring to is foreclosed. Owned by banks that ruined the lives of the people who deserve to live there. I think we should confiscate those ill gotten gains and use those houses to, you know, house people.
And I also think that if your job doesnt pay for the lifestyle you want, then you should work towards the job that does. The fact that it hits such a nerve with so many people here is a bit mind blowing.
I think it’s reasonable for anyone who works 40 hours a week to expect their job to fund a “lifestyle” which includes things like food, clothing, shelter and basic medical care.
If you don’t think the people who serve you food deserve to be able to live, you shouldn’t buy that food, then - you shouldn’t get to use others as essentially slaves.
People who work deserve to be able to live. Actually, EVERYONE deserves to be able to live, no matter what kind of work they do or don’t do. That our society doesn’t provide the basics of survival to everyone is a sign of its complete failure.
I didn’t say they dont deserve to be able to live. What is it with the commenters here stuffing ridiculous words into the mouths of anyone they disagree with?
Our society is a complex organism, and it acts like one. If you dont further the interests of the organism, then before long you cease to be a part of it. I know its cold and unforgiving, and it would be awesome if we could all live in nice houses, even those of us who dont feel like working. But that just isnt the world we live in.
The fact that simple and obvious truths, even inconvenient ones that you dont like very much, have to be eli5’d here is just plum silly.
If people keep thinking you’re saying stuff that you’re not, you need to work on your communication. But you ALSO need to work on your reading, as you’re talking about “nice houses”. You appear to be the first person to mention houses in this discussion as far as I can tell. People aren’t asking for everyone to live in “nice houses”, they’re asking for people to be able to LIVE. So your rhetoric of “Well some people don’t deserve that” either means you’re saying some people don’t deserve to live, or you’re going wildly off topic and whining how it’s unfair that nobody else what’s to talk about the thing you want to talk about in a topic that it has nothing to do with.
Heh, fair enough. I just got tired of using burger flippers as an example, but going back to them, I think the people who prepare our food, even fast food, contribute to society, and therefore deserve a decent standard of living.
oh, well, in that case please show me where I said that minimum wage earners dont deserve to live then.
This article isn’t “asking for people to be able to live”. It is asking for people to be able to earn the smallest amount of money possible, then live in an apartment (not a studio, and not with any roommates), while only spending 30% of their income on it.
I know first hand that lots of people work their asses off at demanding jobs exceeding 40 hours a week, while sharing studio apartments that cost more than 30% of their income, and yet they still lead fulfilling and happy lives.
i totally agree, “decent standard of living” is a pretty subjective turn of phrase though.
I’m completely unopposed to raising the minimum wage, but I really don’t think it will have a dramatic effect on the housing options available to those earning minimum wage.
