From
CNN, 1/8/12A few miles north of the Georgia Avenue Food Cooperative, Andono's husband, Alan, 47, serves steaks to some of the targets of the Occupy movement: the 1% of Americans who have enjoyed nearly 60% of all gains in income over the last three decades
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http://www.payscale.com/research/AU/Job=Cook,_Restaurant/Hourly_Rate
That site shows hourly pay of between AU$13.82 and AU$21.51.
We don't customarily tip because the wait staff are also paid a living wage.
I wonder... abandon tipping in favour of mandating that all the restaurant staff get a living wage and... what? Food is a little more expensive, but that is offset at least a little by customers not having to tip. And any shortfall would be paid for by the customers living in an economy where people have actual disposable income, so buy more stuff, so provide more jobs, so ... oh wait. I am describing "trickle up" economics, now, aren't I?
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A living wage just changes the wage floor and eventually resettles to where it's "barely" enough.
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Oh, wait! No it doesn't!
Australian network admin wage:
http://www.payscale.com/research/AU/Job=Network_Administrator,_IT/Hourly_Rate
Yes, a living wage changes the wage floor so that the minimum one can earn is _enough_ to live on. You say that like it's no improvement over the situation in the USA, but if you believe that, you are inadequately acquainted with reality.
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I look at the way the USA conducts itself and I see smoking wreckage of hubris still trying to act like it's doing everything better than anyone else. I do not see any reason not to be frank about that. The Americans who agree with me will not take offence, and the ones who don't are free to be as offended as they like.
Sacred cows make the *best* burgers.
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In fact, I detect much the same "when will they ever get with the program" sense of superiority from your prior remark as any ugly American I've encountered.
I haven't held up the American "way of life" as sacred, either. Like I said, criticism isn't condescension. Yes, we suffer from hubris, and in that regard we are hardly alone, save in the ability we have to sometimes show it outside our borders. I get a bit of a burr up my butt when noses start getting looked-down, and I shudder when one of my fellow countrymen do it to others as well.
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I think that the US is circling the drain, and I think that American arrogance (which *obviously* exists (hello! circling the drain!) strongly enough to overwhelm good sense, whether all Americans are possessed of it) has led to the current predicament.
What do you want from me? To prevaricate and say that I think that the USA is the Greatest Nation on Earth? Or to precede my snark with caveats and exclusions explaining that I am aware that there are a lot of Americans who are at least as frustrated as I am with the block-headed approach of so many of their compatriots?
I snark it as I see it. Cope or don't.
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Absolutely not, and nothing I've said is reasonably able to be construed as such. I want nothing from you, per-say. I'm telling you what is appreciated and what is not, precisely that criticism is appreciated and condescension generally is not. Criticism is saying we a problem exists which could be handled better. Condescension is holding up your own against ours and making values judgements against an entire people, like this:
"It boggles my mind that they would rather their country turn into a third world nation than actually examine the alternatives"
and..
"...does not need to look at world's best practice for health care, wage justice, health care or anything else"I've tried my best to illustrate the difference between the two. You have chosen your words in much the same way as the American who would happily go to abroad and chide the Brits for having it all wrong on matters of self-defense and self-protection and ( ... )
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you are certainly entitled to your opinion. its not an opinion that most americans share though. maybe you should learn to accept and appreciate that.
Am I permitted to express exasperation at that, even contempt for the sorts of people who yell "YEEAAAH!" at the suggestion, by a politician, no less, that someone who cannot pay for health insurance should be left to die?
of course. but that's hardly a widespread view. getting your panties in a bunch about it seems to me like a huge waste of time.
Tell me how to "accept and appreciate" a country whose lack of regulation and oversight of finance markets led to the populace being ripped off without their knowledge or permission, led to one of the most spectacularly damaging and widespread economic meltdowns of all time and dragged half the world down with it?its easy. rather than focus entirely on the negatives, look at the bigger picture of the ( ... )
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