Heard on a train, today:
“There’s no point having a baby if you can’t afford it”
“Yeah!”
“I mean, you have to give it all your money”
“Yeah!”
“Think of all the sneakers you could buy with that!”
“Yeah!”
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Your soliloquy rings hollow my friend. It is good advice to tell your own children or your buddy next door not to have children until they can afford them. I will grant that.
When you apply this advice to society or a class as a whole, it paints a very paranoid picture, deliberate or not.
I understand that you don’t mean to imply that the lower class is conspiring en masse to take advantage of society, but this is what you are doing here.
So my follow up: What about the people that take your advice? They are still working a shitty job and not making a livable wage. How do you justify that?
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I, too, would like to see an explanation for this, and which moderator did it.
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The minimum wage is now, inflation-adjusted, at 1950s levels. By your reasoning, shouldn’t we now be at full employment?
In fact, decades of hard data show that raising the minimum wage causes neither inflation nor unemployment, although Republicans take it on faith that it must.
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And if they were clutching their pearls while they did it. i much prefer to leave general profanity and eliminate rude, personally insulting, and inconsiderate language. But I guess it’s not our house.
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@Cowicide can tell you which mod did it, it’ll be in the Edits tab on his profile.
I think in that regard you may be a victim of your own haste to be “first” in a thread instead of taking the time to write something a little more well thought out. I think many of us, including certainly myself, have been guilty of that.
I think most can agree that people shouldn’t do anything they can’t afford (including corporations and society at large). But for you to make the blanket statement as you did in regards to McDonald’s workers (as was the context via the boingboing post) wasn’t very considerate of the many people who are struggling in the USA with kids through no fault of their own.
I just don’t think you should be shocked (or act shocked) when you get that kind of reaction when you make a post like that in context of the greater boingboing post you’re adding it to. It makes it appear like you’re ignoring the main issue with McDonald’s and instead choosing to blame the victims.
Maybe it wasn’t your intent, but if you look at the context, I would hope you could understand why people got riled up.
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I don’t think capitalism breeds poor people. I think parasites on that system do.
What good is a system that’s helpless to defend itself against said parasites? It’s like doing everything you can to have a poor immune system, but then being shocked when you catch the flu.
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Well I don’t take it on faith that it must or even would, not unless we are talking about doubling it overnight. Then I’d expect short term unemployment as small businesses adjust. I don’t see a large correlation between wages and employment levels, obviously in a good economy more people are employed and probably making more money. Someone in a minimum/low wage position in a good economic time is just as likely to be making the same wage as during an economic downturn (assuming they are still employed…of course they might not be working as many hours, but that’s a separate issue.) I’d expect a steady but gradual rising of the market for most consumer goods, with staples like food being hit the hardest and fastest. It really wouldn’t be inflation, not in any traditional sense - of course you can spin that how ever the press/political group would like to. It’d simply be the adjustment to pre-living wage income percentages. With percentages being the key issue here, just because you are making $15/hr doesn’t matter if everything you buy has doubled over the last 5 years. Now I wouldn’t expect that to hold true in all areas, but when you are dealing with low income earners things like food, gas, housing are that areas that are going to be the most volatile and hurt them the worst.
I realize Australia has a much high minimum wage than we (the US) does, and I know a lot of things are more expensive…the questions I can’t answer are what things, buy how much, and how does the government play a role in all of it.
can tell you which mod did it, it’ll be in the Edits tab on his profile.
Oh, I don’t care. The hearts were all in the right places. 
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1968 was a good year for minimum wage yet the the world didn’t end. Imagine that.
McD’s pays as little as they are legally obligated to do. Being a for profit corporation, that’s exactly what we can expect. They are all about profit after all. While I despise it, I also understand why it’s happening. Our lawmakers have decided the corporate interests outweigh human ones. Let’s focus on changing the law instead of mocking companies who operate within its boundaries.
McD’s is a soulless company that gets not a penny of my money. Yet, I’m actually quite surprised they even have that kind of helpline. That’s money they aren’t required to spend. Kudos for trying McD’s. Shame on us for them needing it.
Face facts, we voted to put these senators and congressmen on the hill. With the current encumbancy rate, I’m sure they think they are doing exactly what we want them to do. After all, we keep voting the same schmucks back in office until some scandal finally pushes them out. Shame on us all.
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Let’s focus on changing the law instead of mocking companies who operate within its boundaries.
I agree for the most part, but I think we can and should manage to do both to some degree. Of course legal repercussions are the priority. But, I don’t think just because people blanket themselves up into a corporate entity that it should protect them from scorn when they do unethical things to society.
Self-responsibility shouldn’t be allowed to disappear under a heap of legalese and paperwork. They are still people doing bad things to other people. Whether they are within a corporate entity or not should stop making any difference to the rest of society. Wrong is wrong no matter who or what group does it.
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I wouldn’t look for Soylent Green on the shelves any time soon. As areas advance and the standard of living increases, the birthrate goes down. Many western countries are near the point of negative population growth, especially when you factor out population increase from immigration.
We have already talked about the fact that 49% of pregnancies are unintended and that contraceptives and health care are expensive. Stop pretending otherwise. So, what you really mean is that poor women should not be allowed to have sex.
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No. But most of us think if YOU lose your job, we should put YOU in a sack and toss you into the river. . . (evil grin)
Actually, we have a fix for that. It’s called DISABILITY insurance. I pay for it, both out of my taxes (SSI Disability) and directly (thorugh payroll deduction)
Disability is a pain in the ass to get, even when people really legitimately need it.
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Agreed. There are already too many sanitized places on the webtubz made safe for teh chidrens. BB is a place for adults and adult discourse, that’s what keeps bringing so many of us back here all the time.
I have to admit that the hearts are kinda amusing compared to disemvoweling. 
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Oh, I know, I had to use mine several years ago. But it’s better than NOTHING, which was the alternative. Of course, spending a month in the hospital, and on oxygen and unable to walk without assistance helped. . . .
I wouldn’t call all of us “adults”… grown up and legally of age, but I think adult is stretching it a bit.
Plus, profanity isn’t necessarily going to hurt kiddos, anyway, even if there are young’uns around. I’m quite foul-mouthed around my kid, and she’s none the worse for wear so far… I’ll let you know what her therapist says in about 20 years, though.
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That sucks. I’m sorry to hear that. Hope you are better now!
I think there are a fair number of people who have issues functioning in society for a variety of reasons (even if it’s not an immediate apparent condition like what you had) who could use long term disability. But this all goes back to our broken system, and how do we fix it to work like it should.
