AMERICA: Land of the free (stuff), home of the mediocre

Roxiebelle · July 10, 2019, 1:57pm

Well all the Dem candidate clowns are LIARS! It just spews from their mouths like projectile vomit free this, free that, minimum wage, reparations, tax the rich, demonize the 20% (which used to be the 1%) confiscation of guns and wealth, the new green deal, and it just goes on and on ad nauseum! I say let the fools keep it up.

WuWei · July 10, 2019, 1:57pm

Sorry, I think you’re confused about what they are doing and why. And two full time jobs is only 80 hours a week.

Are you counting side hustles? Yes, I’m hip.

Excast · July 10, 2019, 1:57pm

Thank you for your usual reasoned, well thought out contribution to the topic.

wiley8425 · July 10, 2019, 1:57pm

From last year:

Of course that’s only the people who are working two or more jobs. Then there’s the people who can’t even find full time work. They’re part of that average too.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-04/why-so-many-americans-still-work-multiple-jobs-in-strong-market

What’s 4.4 million looking for full time work have to do with whether or not people can afford to live in housing that costs $24,000/year on average just for rent/mortgage while the Federal minimum wage sits around $7.25/hr? Bootstraps people.

wiley8425 · July 10, 2019, 1:58pm

Well gee, I certainly think so considering I’m the one you quoted who brought it up.

wiley8425 · July 10, 2019, 1:59pm

Who needs to work 100 hours a week when you can live like a king on $7.25/hr?

WuWei · July 10, 2019, 1:59pm

wiley8425:

From last year:

The U.S. labor market has come a long way in recent years, but one key measure has barely budged – reflecting lukewarm wage gains as well as broader shifts in the economy.

Multiple-job holders made up 5.1 percent of the total employed in August, and the share has been hovering around 5 percent since the expansion began in mid-2009.

That’s despite unemployment having plunged to 3.9 percent, an almost five-decade low and less than half the level seen in the immediate aftermath of the recession. Monthly hiring gains averaging 207,000 this year are well ahead of the 2017 pace, and the September payrolls report due Friday is projected to reinforce the strong demand for labor amid a shortage of qualified people.

Of course that’s only the people who are working two or more jobs. Then there’s the people who can’t even find full time work. They’re part of that average too.

More recently, the tally of part-timers who’d prefer a full-time position has fallen to a post-recession low of 4.4 million.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

What’s 4.4 million looking for full time work have to do with whether or not people can afford to live in housing that costs $24,000/year on average just for rent/mortgage while the Federal minimum wage sits around $7.25/hr? Bootstraps people.

Good for them. That’s how you get ahead until the next tax raise.

Excast · July 10, 2019, 1:59pm

I am counting folks that begin working for the day before 8am and finish after 10pm…often closer to 11. The only break being a small amount of time in between shifts to move to the other job.

wiley8425 · July 10, 2019, 2:00pm

Really? I thought it was going out and buying stock in Walmart. Who knew?

Jezcoe · July 10, 2019, 2:00pm

I go 7AM to 10 PM all the time.

Crappy TV doesn’t make itself.

peek-a-boo · July 10, 2019, 2:01pm

They represent the exception, not the norm.

About .2% of the workforce to be exact.

WuWei · July 10, 2019, 2:01pm

And you know quite a few people who do that? Strange, I don’t know anybody who does it.

I know some people who work a couple of days a week here and a couple somewhere else. Mostly waitresses.

WuWei · July 10, 2019, 2:02pm

Another good option. Amazon would be better.

WuWei · July 10, 2019, 2:03pm

Ok, if you say so.

Optrader · July 10, 2019, 2:03pm

Jezcoe:

Excast:

In a time of almost unprecedented wealth transfer to the very top, there is no reason why people should need to work 100 hours a week in order to maintain a basic standard of living. Working one full time job should be more than sufficient.

I realize many who bow before the altar of the ultra wealthy cannot even fathom of a society in which workers are treated with as much respect as wealth hoarders, but it’s quite possible. Maybe turn down the conservative TV and radio hosts who are paid more in a year than you are in a lifetime in order to train you to be docile servants of the idle rich.

I see it that in a nation as wealthy as ours is, most of our problems are self imposed.

The thing about the people pushing back against any sort of social change that is basically returning to a system that was thought of as well and good for most of the 20th century and saw the rise of the large middle class in favor of lassez faire/Ayn Randian Capitalism is that the more people who are left behind by that unnecessarily cruel economic system, the more who will turn towards an even more radical form of socialism than is being advocated.

But all that hope created by 8 years under Obama should have eliminated all hopelessness and poverty!

highroller · July 10, 2019, 2:03pm

I am paid to fill a seat so my employer can charge for that time. I tried the “working hard” but this job does not reward hard work.

But, I digress, I do have to get back to work.

WuWei · July 10, 2019, 2:04pm

I saw an article yesterday that says Gen Z believes they are the hardest working generation ever.

Excast · July 10, 2019, 2:05pm

I can hope for conservative America to start voting and thinking with their self interest in mind instead of what Rush, Tucker, Trump and the rest of the millionaire boys club tells them too. So far, those hopes would not have amounted to much of anything.

WuWei · July 10, 2019, 2:05pm

So yes you’re at work, no you’re not working. I rest my case.

JayJay · July 10, 2019, 2:06pm

It was not implied in the slightest.