20.00 a hour for mcdonalds

The person who tossed my house the paper before school was in their 40s and drove a beaten up car. This was in the 90s. I legitimately didn't know a single kid doing that job. The St. Petersburg Times, as it was known at the time, wasn't hiring children to deliver papers on their bikes because that was a very inefficient manner to deliver papers to a large number of houses compared to a poor adult with a car.

 

Oh the irony, I’m going to remember this post the next time my neighbors mail gets delivered to my house, which will probably be in a few hours…

 

Yeah, when I had the paper delivered it was usually hispanic adults in a car. I'm surprised Republicans havent made a big deal that they are taking those jobs from our children.

 

I've posted this quote from the Wealth of Nations many time, but it fits here

 

i think it’s pretty clear the lessons you learned from your ‘work’

 

Sure I observed that the job I did for beer money was some people's means of living because of their circumstances, and that is a pretty shit state of affairs. It wasnt a 'starter' job for them.

 

huh. Principles? It’s not a principal. It’s coercion by force. You whip up emotional arguments about entitlement and get people to vote your way. I cannot speak for all businesses and their practices but people pay what they think gives them an operable business. Once they equation is not sustainable they close. Most entrepreneurs have an intimate relationship with failure and persistence

 

Having to work to pay for food or anything is coercion by force too. Why do you think people do backbreaking work for little money? How do you think capitalism functions? We all just freely choose everything? This isnt a text book.

 

got it. Then maybe you need some therapy. You cannot save others. Even your most ardent Uber left PhD in psychology or psychiatry will tell you that. But I know that won’t stop you from trying to separate me my my assets with the assistant of forced participation in another bogus economically illiterate program sold as assistance that of course you can champion while exempting yourself. All that being said your still a gator and I’ll toast you in your jersey at the swamp

 

I cant personally save anyone. I'm not sure why you think therapy is required for people that have some empathy towards others and their circumstances and think a better world is possible, perhaps that speaks to your mentality and limited imagination. Its interesting that you believe strongly that I cant save others but that I can separate you from your assets. I cant do that either! So maybe just chill out a little. Go Gators!

 

Only one issue. If starter work jumps up to $40-50k, that's nearly average/median income levels. So the average/median household income rises significantly. The demand for housing, cars, TVs, the latest iPhone, etc. spikes and you'll see rising prices across the board. And we're right back where we started, with people arguing a starter wage still can't afford a middle class lifestyle. Maybe the answer is that a starter wage isn't supposed to.

 

Sure, if the housing supply stays the same. If we decommodified housing to some degree that would probably work better than raising wages and doing nothing else, hoping it all works out. But given how much (on paper) personal wealth is tied to property value in this country ...

 

To pay for gas in his moms car that he borrowed?

To take his girlfriend to a movie?

Pay for prom?

Save up for those Jordan II's that I wont pay for.

Buy an xbox?

Whatever. Kids have all kinds of good uses for extra cash.

 

You just answered your own question.

 

That completely ignores the point. Paperboys where once a thing. Bag over shoulder, biking down the sidewalk. This isnt a debate. Those kids became my dad and my uncles. The guys who learned work ethic and how to budget what little they made. Those guys on those bikes raised us and taught many of us the same values. My first gig wasn't a paper route, (i cleaned up job sites for my dad and uncles fence business) but it taught me and my cousins (one that now owns the business) the same principles and I sure as heck didnt need to make a livable wage doing it.

 

I dont remember when paper boys were a thing, but werent they like 10 years old?

 

My first gig was a day laborer - did that a couple of summers when I was in school. Unskilled labor through a temp agency. $6/hr wasn't bad at the time, minimum wage had just risen to $4.25. That summer taught me two things.

First lesson was to work hard and stay in school so you DON'T have to do physical labor.

The second was one of the most valuable lessons I had anywhere. One of my assignments was to a small business owner who employed about 8 of us for most of a summer. He taught me more about managing a team that anything else I've learned since. His motto was: "A happy worker is a productive worker." He bought the crew lunch daily. On Friday, he'd hand you $50 in cash and tell you to take your girlfriend out and enjoy your weekend. Brought in some of your own tools? - tool bonus. Drove some of the crew from one jobsite to the next?: gas bonus. He knew that on a $500k project, a few hundred a week to take care of his temp workers had a fantastic ROI. Everybody loved him, everybody showed up on time, everybody busted their ass for him. Today I manage a team of software engineers, and I still think back on the lessons this guy taught me.

 

Well there is that pesky little problem of needing to be able to afford to live somewhere after you sell. There’s nearly a 100% chance that if you sell your home for $250,000 below market value, you’ll end up homeless.

 

oooo.. more about the unraveling of the world if people are paid a living wage. Told ya’ll.

 

So why not go all the way and return to the newsies? Let's have homeless kids hawk papers too. The fact is that the paperboy thing has literally nothing to do with multi-national businesses, who mostly hire adults. Working at McDonald's is not the paperboy of our time.