Trickle Down: "My Heart is Filled with Water"

[paft]

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

Comments

[anfalicious]

Read below: "must be enough to support the wage earner in reasonable and frugal comfort."

The original settlement in 1907 accounted for light, clothes, boots, furniture, life insurance, union pay, sickness, books, newspapers, alcohol, tobacco, transport fares and so on. Since then it has changed through the natural course of politics but that initial ruling still guides decisions. Working 40 hours a week one should be able to support a family in reasonable and frugal comfort. They should be able to put three squares on the table, a dry roof over their head, be able to afford to get to work, clothe themselves in other than rags, insure themselves and their belongings and participate in the cultural activities of the community. Without all of these things (and probably some others I'm neglecting) a person cannot be said to have access to their community. I know you, especially, don't understand concepts like "community" or "greater good", but I'm happy to be living in a country where these things are taken as serious necessities for a happy, productive and successful nation.

[gunslnger]

So let's do the math and see what that is. First, what's a family?

[omnot]

Do it yourself. http://www.livingwage.geog.psu.edu/

Your intention and belief is that you will arrive at some figure which you can argue is too high, and will put businesses out of business, cost jobs etc, etc.

Fine. Go ahead and make that argument. But while you are warbling on about the harm that paying people enough money to live on will do to America, I will be looking at the smoking wreckage of the US economy smoldering on, giving the lie to any argument for the maintenance of the status quo or a move to weaken the position of workers in the US.

Remember: employees are also customers, if they have money.

[gunslnger]

Your intention and belief is that you will arrive at some figure which you can argue is too high, and will put businesses out of business, cost jobs etc, etc.

Really? Wow, you should start a psychic hotline business then. I mean, your prediction is right up their alley.

Do it yourself.

I see that in your rush to condemn a position I haven't stated yet, you missed the vital question I asked.

[gunslnger]

And I looked at that link for my area and there's several significant flaws with it.

[geezer_also]

But when we are a smoking wreckage, just think how many people will drown trying to cross the Pacific instead of just the Rio Grande.
Oh wait, you guys enforce your immigration laws.

[kylinrouge]

The thing about the living wage is that it pretty much will vary depending on where you live. What it costs to rent a place, what food prices are like, transportation, and whatnot. You can probably calculate some numbers by taking the non-disposable bills of a bunch of people in the area and taking the median. It wouldn't be the most accurate, but it would be a start. Also, other countries have developed ways to calculate a living wage with some success. Their models could be studied.

Many people who make below the 'living wage' in their area tend to commute. Some commute pretty far.

By definition, the living wage can not be one national objective number, so in that respect you have a point, but it is far from incalculable on a regional basis.

Also, any concerns about the response from 'the market' is conjecture and should just be dealt with as it comes up, if it even does. It doesn't seem to come up in other countries.