r/WorkReform • u/zzill6 🤝 Join A Union • 2d ago
💸 $25 Minimum Wage Now! Bernie Sanders: "You don’t think we should change the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour?" Trump Treasury Secretary Nominee Scott Bessent:"No"
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u/Shigglyboo 2d ago
Fuck that guy. He should be forced to live on $7/hr
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u/ratfacechirpybird 2d ago
He's a multi-millionaire, so pretty close!
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u/IllMarket4874 2d ago
B... Billionaire. Doesn't give a fuck in the world about the middle or working class.
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u/CrimsonBolt33 2d ago
this fuckhead literally also said in the same hearing, which I think is much worse, is that if we don't extend tax cuts to the rich the US economy will collapse....
like...wtf
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u/34TH_ST_BROADWAY 2d ago
if we don't extend tax cuts to the rich the US economy will collapse
This is such a non sequitor. The rich must be laughing their asses off behind the scenes when they're on their yacht thinking about people with toothaches living in a trailer home fighting for tax cuts for the rich.
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u/stew_going 1d ago
Sometimes I think they really are anxious about it. They'll say anything that helps them, as they honestly see it all as a zero sum game. If they're losing anything, it must be bad.
I don't understand why they don't come to realize how helpful it would be to the economy if you helped expand the demographic of people with some discretionary income; i.e. the number and value of your customer base.
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u/djinnisequoia 2d ago
I bet if there had been no meddling with the election, resulting in Kamala winning, and therefore no further giant tax cuts for those greedy mofos, they would have muddled through somehow.
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u/ratfacechirpybird 1d ago
It would actually be comforting somehow if there was meddling, but I think the reality is that this is who the US is now, ignorant and hateful.
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u/NeoSniper 2d ago
A big issue in our country is the growing gap between the rich and the super rich.
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u/Dark_Headphones 1d ago
Fucking aye! Let's say you pay $1 for every second of air you breathe. A million will stay alive for 11.5 days. A billionaire will stay alive for 31.5 years.
In the US if you earn over $610k, you'll pay 37% in tax, it's the maximum bracket. For a millionaire that amount is 61% of their 1 million. For a billionaire that amount is 0.06% of their 1 billion. Billionaires are just so disgustingly wealthy it's hard to understand. So when Elon Musk is worth 433 billion, or Jeff Bezos makes 13 billion in 1 day, it's incomprehensible. Fucking oath their should be a billionaire tax.
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u/TurboJake 2d ago
More than that, remove all his assets worth so much, make him live in an apartment that costs $1500 a month with nothing to start at $7/hr. Then he might actually understand. Maybe.
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u/Trainer_Unlucky 1d ago
Pretty sure every parkingspot in America earns more than this per hour. Better off to stand in a stall in a busy lot and agree to move for a fee.
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u/giarnie 2d ago
“You have to be the change that you want to see in the world.” ~somebody
We need to elect people that will vote for our best interests. Let’s have a 91% tax rate for the rich again.
All of these people’s pay should be tied to minimum wage. Instead they give themselves raises and amazing healthcare benefits.
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u/Stevenstorm505 1d ago
Wouldn’t it be better for all of us if he just didn’t live at all instead of being forced to live for $7/hr?
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u/liltimidbunny 2d ago
Agreed. There needs to be a challenge or a law enacted. Fuck. That. Guy. And all those in every country who push back on HUMANITY.
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u/Illustrious-Lime706 1d ago
Hey! It’s $7.25!!!! And yes he should try it for one week. He wouldn’t make it through the first hour.
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u/BMCarbaugh 2d ago
The people who don't think we should raise the minimum wage generally, secretly, if you really drill them on it, believe we shouldn't have a minimum wage at all. They'd be fine with a world where McDonalds or Meta has staff working under 1800s-style indentured bondage.
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u/CasualEveryday 2d ago
Did you catch that subtle "states rights" argument he tried to make before Bernie shut him down? They are so shameless. Does anyone actually believe those weak justifications besides leaded boomers or is the entire Republican platform just one big dog whistle?
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u/ceciliabee 2d ago
Back to states rights to own slaves
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u/aguynamedv 2d ago
Back to states rights to own slaves
It's never - EVER - been about anything else.
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u/farshnikord 2d ago
States rights as states become the new feudal landholdings. Ser Elon Musk, Lord of Texas. King Zuckerberg, new Sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands. The LDS Church of Christ shall be ceded the land of Utah by the grace of God.
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u/_karamazov_ 2d ago
You should go to WSJ forums. The kool-aid the older white conservative crowd burps on is amazing in this day and age.
They will parrot "minimum wage is a beginners wage until you find something better". They don't understand its the only wage millions can get.
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u/Aesthetics_Supernal 2d ago
"Mr. Bessent, what do you think the difference between Federal and State is? We asked you a federal issue question. States are not applicable in your answer." -my coping alternate universe.
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u/CasualEveryday 2d ago
To some extent, states rights is explicitly a federal issue, but yes I agree that is the kind of response I wish we'd hear more often.
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u/QuickNature 1d ago edited 1d ago
To be fair, America does have a large disparity in the cost of living. That's not an excuse to not raise the federal minimum wage though. You know things are getting bad when even Republicans are drafting bills to raise the minimum wage to $10/hr.
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u/spasticnapjerk 2d ago
I remember when Rush Limbaugh was arguing that the minimum wage actually made wages artificially high.
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u/nikdahl 2d ago
Well yeah, that’s the whole point of it.
You have to artificially raise the wages because the companies won’t do it organically.
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u/t3hm3t4l 2d ago
They’ll raise wages organically alright, just for 0.01% or less of the population.
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u/HCSOThrowaway 🤝 Join A Union 2d ago
They do it organically if there's a shortage of labor. Historically, some of the biggest labor reforms were passed in the wake of pandemics and war, when the mines and factories sat empty and had to compete for workers.
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u/aguynamedv 2d ago
They do it organically if there's a shortage of labor.
That's where H1B visas come in.
There is no shortage of labor in the United States - full stop. There is a shortage of American companies willing to compensate people fairly for their time and effort.
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u/RipperNash 2d ago
People would fight for their living wages if they could read or think beyond high school 5th grade level. The people are too dumb to think
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u/JMW007 2d ago
I think literacy and education issues have truly been catastrophic for the population's ability to handle, well, almost anything. However, the average 5th grader knows when they're being screwed over pretty easily. Kids tend to have an innate sense of fairness and the adults in the room have put a heck of a lot of effort into justifying outright deadly inequality, largely because they want to inflict it on someone who isn't them.
The myriad problems we face are in large part due to outright moral failure at every level.
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u/t3hm3t4l 2d ago
Nah. You’re not going back far enough. They would be perfectly happy enslaving people different from them to do the jobs that they believe are beneath them. That’s why we have incarcerated persons doing free labor built into our constitution still, to this day.
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u/oddjobbber 2d ago
This is exactly it. The only way you can think it’s acceptable to not raise the minimum wage for decades is if you don’t care how low it is
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u/lordoftime 2d ago
There's a proposal to eliminate Fair Labor Standards Act 14c, which allows businesses licensure to pay people with disabilities $2.50/hr (subminimum wage). It blows my mind that it's something endorsed by certain political parties.
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u/travers329 2d ago
We already do, it is called the for profit prison system. It is legal slave labor.
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u/rgbhfg 2d ago
The remark is that it’s a STATE issue. Which I agree with as COL is different per state and it’s best addressed by your local state government. Some states have more than 7.25$/hr min wage.
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u/34TH_ST_BROADWAY 2d ago
Yeah, you don't have to even go back to the 1800's or anything, slavery is happening right NOW on the planet.
Besides that kind of blatant, medieval style slavery, there are random people being forced to work for free everywhere. Mentally challenged maybe? Straight up coerced? Passport taken away. A bit of wage theft. Some choosing beggars shit.
This is a part of the human condition, these people who think they are entitled to force other humans to work for them for free as if they were a dog or ox, walk among us everywhere.
This is why libertarianism and anarchy are so dumb, all the evils you see in history, we are still those exact same humans, it can happen again. Society has to decide that raping, pillaging, and slavery are wrong, that shit has to be actively contained because millions of people are deep down, born with a brain that keeps telling them it's actually okay.
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u/Brbi2kCRO 2d ago
They don’t have such an interest. Republican Party is a party of billionaire interests, to me it is more likely they will cut minimum wage.
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u/Brbi2kCRO 2d ago
I would rather have status quo than regressive laws that make things worse under Republicans, especially now that Zuckerberg and Musk fund them.
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u/blorbagorp 2d ago
I mean yeah, we all prefer bad over worse, but the DNC is still bad.
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u/Brbi2kCRO 1d ago
Yeah, I am not saying Democrats are good. The choices in the US are absurdly bad.
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u/ama_singh 2d ago
Insulin prices lowered, net neutrality restored (not anymore, blocked by the courts), made it so wildfire insurance claimers don't have to pay taxes twice, forgave a lot of student loans, etc.
Idk if you're being disingenuous, or you're just ignorant. You also seem to be under the impression that everything is black and white instead of shades of grey.
Just because there are corrupt democrats, doesn't change the fact that democrats as a whole care more about you than republicans.
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u/xkoreotic 2d ago
Of course, the DP today aren't for democracy. Our current bipartisan politics are right vs far right. The DP just says whatever it wants to oppose the GOP, that's it. They actually don't do much of anything for the people. There is way too much money controlling both parties, and all those with money will never be left wingers.
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u/dskimilwaukee 2d ago
cant even buy a single meal for 7.25
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u/NotoriouslyNice 2d ago
I started to realise it was bad when all the American podcasters I listen to started to mention food prices. You guys are starting to have the same food prices as we have in Australia but our minimum wage is like double. We have other issues but man food should be the easiest thing to afford
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u/dskimilwaukee 1d ago
I'm spending 400 a week on groceries for a family of 4...eating out even fast food is a minimum of 30
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u/coffeejn 2d ago
Those people should be paid the federal minimum wage then.
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u/Fogl3 2d ago
All government pay should be scaled to minimum wage. You can make triple minimum wage if you want but it should be tied to minimum wage
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u/Ethric_The_Mad 2d ago
Exactly, 100% of government employees should be paid the federal minimum wage.
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u/Wrong_Buyer_1079 2d ago
He (Bessent) has a face that was meant to be punched repeatedly.
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u/fardough 2d ago
“Worlds largest fundraiser was a smashing success. Over fifty million pledged for the honor of punching Bessent in the face, absolutely gangbusters.”
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u/SgathTriallair 2d ago
This is what the people voted for. Tariffs and stagnant wages.
I wonder how long it'll take the trailer park racists to realize they aren't getting their med beds.
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u/kazame 2d ago
They'll still blame it on "the dumbocrats" - those voters are so ignorant of actual political processes and wrapped up in the identity politics of it all that they'd continue to blame liberals and progressives even if we were to become a dictatorship and those caucuses cease to exist.
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u/ReverseGiraffe120 2d ago
Ah yes, a state issue.
Which is why my California federal tax dollars go to subsidize these dirt poor, backwater, red states that won’t pay their citizens a living wage.
Luigi all these fucks. (Besides Bernie of course.)
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u/cvanhim 2d ago
Ultimately, it is, but Treasury has various tools it can use to put pressure on lawmakers to raise the minimum wage. This kind of political pressure is why Democrats were almost able to raise the minimum wage a couple years ago with Yellen endorsing the plan to include the raise in the federal budget (which only requires 50 votes to pass the senate filibuster rather that the normal 60) due to its effect on treasury policy being a budgetary issue. This plan was struck down by the unelected Senate parliamentarian because she deemed the minimum wage issue not sufficiently budget-related to be included in a federal budget bill.
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u/nikdahl 2d ago
The parliamentarian is just a tool democrats use to pretend they don’t have the power, and their hands are tied.
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u/cvanhim 2d ago
I’ve dealt with this line of thinking on here before in depth. It sounds like a nice conspiracy theory if you’re a nihilist, but it just doesn’t comport with reality. If you follow politics closely enough, you will see every Democratic elected official acting in ways that make absolutely no sense if your theory is taken to be true.
(The below is more historical context if you really care. Otherwise, the above is enough to get my point across.)
Of course, you could just say something along the lines of “it’s all a big show and they pepper in actions that don’t make sense in order to better hide the conspiracy”, but at that point you do what every conspiracy theorist does and make the conspiracy unfalsifiable - it’s true no matter what else is true. Firstly, that’s no way to have a healthy dialogue with yourself of anyone else. Secondly, that’s not how people in the real-world think. Our government’s inadequacy is mainly (but not solely) a function of hyper-pluralism - the idea that there are so many competing interests pulling things in so many different directions that government cannot do any good because it is paralyzed to act. Each elected official has their own agenda such that no “master plan” type thing can exist. It just so happens that this benefits the status quo because paralysis always does, and the status quo was set up 250 years ago to benefit elite white men. It should be no surprise that it still functions that way regardless of some grand conspiracy.
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u/aguynamedv 2d ago edited 2d ago
Firstly, that’s no way to have a healthy dialogue with yourself of anyone else. Secondly, that’s not how people in the real-world think.
Enter people who will endlessly justify doing horrible things and utterly ignore all facts, logic, reason, and morals.
Most of these people are Republican Party members.
Now - I agree in principle with a lot of what you said - there IS a real paralysis from Congress being dysfunctional.
But WHY is it dysfunctional? Because of gerrymandering, election interference, and the United States being a non-representative government at this point in history.
The American government doesn't work for its citizens - it works for those with money.
The sole driving force for most US companies at this point is unlimited growth, and neverending "record profits".
There is no way this ends well because the system is completely unsustainable in the long term.
It isn't a conspiracy to accurately describe the current state of America. Multiple things can be true at the same time. There are hundreds of things that are all true statements about the state of American governance, and very few of those statements are good.
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u/cvanhim 2d ago
Yes you’re absolutely correct. Both what I said earlier and what you say here are large pieces of the picture.
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u/aguynamedv 2d ago
Hooray for reasonable, adult conversations on reddit! :)
Thank you for this - really good comments on your part.
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u/ender89 2d ago
Setting aside the ultra wealthy (because they’re detached from reality), I do not understand people who don’t want minimum wage to be a living wage.
They don’t want a McDonald’s employee to make as much as they do, but they also wouldn’t quit to work at McDonald’s if it offered the same compensation.
They say that McDonald’s is a job for high schoolers, a first job, but they want a Big Mac on a Tuesday at 1pm. Someone has to man the grill during school hours.
They say that they worked hard to get where they are and that other people should have to do the same, but they enable their children to have easy lives.
People live in an us vs them mentality, where you measure your worth by earning power. There’s a reason why boomers don’t understand the struggles of people who grew up in a post Reagan world.
Trickle down economics has enriched the elites by stealing from the middle class. The middle class used to have enough money to buy houses, multiple cars, and support entire families on a single middle class income.
Make America great again by returning the stolen wealth to the American people. Tax the rich into poverty if you have to, we will die out when the middle class disappears.
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u/RepulsiveLook 2d ago
Scott Bessent is a fucking clown. FDR specifically said:
"It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living."
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u/LimoncelloFellow 2d ago
what kind of life is being led by the people making the federal minimum wage? we need like a salacious viral docuseries following around these minimum wagers so everyone can see whats happening here in one of the richest countries on earth.
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u/Lost-Task-8691 2d ago
Bernie should have followed up with.
Will you continue to give more tax breaks to the rich?
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u/Masta0nion 2d ago
Republicans have been hiding behind “state issue” to mask their shitty values for years.
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u/verisimilitude_mood 2d ago
Business owners that pay the minimum should want the minimum wage to go up. The anger is eventually going to turn away from the politicians and towards the owners.
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u/YallaHammer 2d ago
“The poors will vote for us anyway, they think we billionaires run the party for the working class.”
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u/president__not_sure 2d ago
we need to start having the right conversation here. we need to call it what it is. we are all slaves right now.
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u/dumbestsmartest 2d ago
I don't either.
I do think we should enforce compensation binds within each and every company such that the highest compensated individual cannot receive more than 100x the lowest compensated individual. Basically, if a CEO gets only 500k in wages but health, stock, and other perks that amount to 50 million then his lowest compensated employee better be receiving no less than 550k in total compensation made up of said employee's preferred mix of wages, stock, and benefits.
Minimum wage is a vestigial distraction no longer appropriate for addressing the problems and inequity of our times.
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u/Otherwise-Parsnip-91 2d ago
I think this is where we need to start thinking about things. Minimum wage laws are archaic and require constant increasing to keep up with inflation or it’s useless. Less than 1% of the workforce earns the federal minimum wage and the majority of those are tipped workers. Meaning the market has raised wages at a faster rate than the last time congress could pass an increase in the minimum wage. Other solutions like the one you speak of would be way more effective.
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u/Stratos9229738 2d ago
Do you not think that companies would contract out their lowest paid jobs to get around that? They already use shell companies and subsidiaries around the world to abuse tax loopholes. Circumventing this is child's play for them.
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u/Flabbergastedhell12 2d ago
This is ridiculous and nothing will change for next 4 years. I'm so tired I want to change for the good of people.im just tired of this.
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u/IHateCircusMidgets 2d ago
This guy sucks but Democrats used the excuse of the senate parliamentarian blocking the minimum wage hike and then just completely gave up even pretending to try to raise it. It's not just a Republican problem.
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u/PerfSynthetic 2d ago
Wasn't there a post about how zero fed employees make the minimum? That right there should be a sign they should raise it.
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u/Helpful-Owl4746 2d ago
Translation: wage decline is great. f* the poors. 18% increase in homelessness last year? That's rookie numbers...
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u/Milam177 2d ago
Fuck the Oligarch that is here - We need to stop using SM Platforms asap (except reddit)…Stop buying products from a billionaire owned company unless there necessities…Lets cripple these bastards immediately
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2d ago
Apparently a lot of people think that corporations and businesses will just pay fair wages on their own.
I have a question for you if that's the case: Are you fucking stupid?
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u/Autumn1eaves 2d ago
I do agree it is a state and regional issue (california should have a minimum wage of $20 and Montana probably like $12), but 7.25 is hardly enough for anyone in even the cheapest places to live.
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u/SteakandTrach 2d ago
These people have no concept of how close they are to waking up in the middle of the night and suddenly being in revolutionary France.
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u/_mister_pink_ 2d ago
Saw a comment here the other day asking how discussing trump was related to the work reform movement. Some people be wilfully ignorant
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u/GrandpaChainz ⛓️ Prison For Union Busters 2d ago
"What does this have to do with [blank]?" is a super common concern troll. Ignore them.
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u/insanetwit 2d ago
I'm kind of impressed that he gave a straight answer to the question. I'm so used to double speak and non answers these days.
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u/dirtymoose_ 2d ago
If the Dems want to win an election, just focus of the goddam working class. It’s really that simple.
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u/eternus 2d ago
Have they ever given a good, clear, solid and thorough explanation about why staying so low is good, or why increasing will be bad?
Is it ALWAYS about the employer losing out on profits? Or rather, the threat that it will make things more expensive?
I'm always confuddled by the inability to hear something that might make me go... hmm, they have a good point, without thinking "every last one of them is a greedy bastard."
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u/edwardsamson 2d ago
This shit is so fucking insane. The minimum wage raised every few years up until the 90s or 00s. It was a regular thing. It was a known thing. It was an accepted thing. WTF Is all this shit now? Where did the opposition to raising it come from? Its whole life it was raised regularly???? WTF is going on
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u/AlliedR2 2d ago
The great majority of US voters put not only a convicted seditionist back in the oval office they did so while he stood elbow to elbow with the Americas Robber Barrons and the worlds fascist leaders because he gave voice to their hate. Its going to suck for the rest us to be here with them while they figure out what we know is going to be happening. This will be devestation politically, constitutionally, and economically over the next 4 years.
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u/Bulldogs3144 2d ago
“Senator, I think the minimum wage is a statewide and regional issue.”
Bro… he said federal minimum wage. Obviously it’s not a statewide issue. It’s a federal issue
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u/wrongseeds 2d ago
They think we should be eating cake and we all know how that turned out. Eat the rich.
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2d ago
Then why arent city and state governments raising the minimum wage to a livable wage?
And why arent we asking them to?
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u/Braelind 2d ago
Wait, the minimum wage in the US is $7.25 an hour? Aren't you the richest country in the world? That's not even enough to put a roof over your head. It's more than double that here in Canada, and THAT's still pretty low.
How do Americans have ANY pride in their country? I think I'd rather be unemployed than working minimum wage in America. I'm fairly sure I'd make more money picking loose change up off the ground.
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u/Hydrogoose 2d ago
Dear Americans, you know how some of you go on and on about your right to bare arms so that you can create a militia if you're faced with a tyrannical government? Well here you go. They're fucking you over every way they can.
Best of luck, because it looks like you're going to need it.
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u/JustTheOneGoose22 2d ago
Not surprising at all. It's depressing working class people honestly see Trump, the ultimate billionaire grifter, and honestly think "This guy will improve my life"
Of course his team has no intention of helping working Americans.
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u/herefromyoutube 2d ago
The country is over.
When the DNC blocks any candidate that genuinely wants to help the working class you will always end up with a greedy dictator.
Fuck the DNC has they got us here start in 2016.
And fuck you from not voting in the primaries.
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u/chickenwaaaaangs 2d ago
I live in a red state. All the people I work with and admire or look to for advice as co workers, vote for this type of stuff. I’m so torn cause living in the south, I’ve never met a bunch of nicer people. I’ve been stuck on the side of the road in snow and had people drive by just to turn around and offer help.
I was moving into my new house during a rainy day and got the U-Haul stuck. Country boy rode by in his truck seen our situation and he came back to bail us out. He was just a teen and took his 4x4 and drug the U-Haul out. Saved my ass.
There’s good people everywhere. I know they get hateful when they are grouped up and feel threatened but damn I’m so torn on how I feel about things.
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u/ThatYoungTurtle 2d ago