General Chat (Non-Music-Related)

Just as an aside not directed at anyone...
Our NY republican state senator... The same one that voted the NY SAFE ACT in... (made it illegal to own an AR15 with any "UGLY" features, and did nothing to make anyone "SAFER"...)

Just voted in the woman's equality act. It sounds really wonderful up front and everyone agrees woman should be revered. However it is in effect a perfect example of government interference under a socialist ideal.

1. It calls for the government to decide if a woman is being payed equally.
2. It calls for all small business to pay for a woman's life choices. (maternity leave, and raising a family).
3. It strengthens all sexual harassment laws in the work place. HOW?
4. This is a big one. It empowers the government to provide taxpayer dollars to support ANY LEGAL action a woman brings against any employer of any size.

This is just another example of socialism at work. Inspired by the government that wants to protect the citizens.

The flip side of this is that any small business would be potentially opening the door to financial destruction by simply hiring a woman. I guess we will have to pass some more big government laws to mediate the law, and then we will need more laws to mediate those. It's out of control. Can't make this stuff up.

sadly we live in a world where you can't count on people ( and biz) doing the right thing.

alcohol and cigarettes WOULD be sold to ten yr olds.....so the gov't had to step in and say "no".

idiots WILL drive their cars thru a school zone at 70 mph...so the gov't had to step in and say "no".

businesses WOULD dump their chemical waste into our lakes and streams....so the gov't had to step in and say "no".

(none of the above are "socialism")

yet for some goofy reason you expect businesses to do right by women WITHOUT the gov't stepping in????


guess what.....women are NOT paid the same money for the same work. (look it up)
so sadly, the gov't has to step in. (or are you OK w that inequity?)

sexual harrassment? same deal...it'd be great if women didn't have to deal w that. but they do. and unless you believe that's OK and should just be accepted.....why would you balk at something that might reduce incidents, or punish the perps engaging in it? (or are you OK w sexual harassment in the workplace?)

maternity leave? are you kidding? pretty much every developed nation in the world offers that up and their businesses aren't on the brink of "financial destruction", going bankrupt, or filing chapter 11. `(look it up)


glenny, we get it...you hate any and everything gubment. any and every gov't law you see as "socialism" (you really should look up the word sometime).....but, if you want to live in a world w/o govt intervention i suggest you find yourself a nice deserted island somewhere.

it'd be great if we lived in a world where you could expect everyone to do the right thing on their own w/o laws, regs, and gov't intervention.....but that's pure foolishness.

Nobody has pointed out what actually happens when the minimum wage is raised to a level inconsistent with a normal cost of living increase, which has been done for many years and already has been shown to have a detrimental affect on employment rates.

OK so you raise minimum wage. The boss has to ask two questions.

1. Are you worth it?
2. How do I pay for it?

In general, history shows us the minimum wage employee is usually a kid just out of high school getting a start, and in many cases, does not know - yet - how to make himself worth keeping. Most fast food workers are not around for more than a few months. Talking to the fast food managers I've known, and having been in that business for a while, it's usually for the same reasons. Unreliable, habitually late or absent, bad work habits or work ethic. After losing 3 or 4 jobs they eventually figure it out and move on to better jobs by actually keeping one for a while.

In other cases it's an older person willing to take a lower paying job to supplement retirement or just doesn't have to have a big paycheck to get by, those usually already know how to be worthwhile employees and keep their jobs a long time. Like the guy here who sacks groceries, he's been there at least 5 years and I doubt he started at much more than minimum wage, although I haven't asked him. But if hew didn't do a good job he would be long gone.

So how does the business owner cover the increase in salaries? In the food service industry the profit margin is very low, not often higher than 5% or so, often less. I can't find the article now, but I didn't know this until a few months ago when I read a very good article about the potential affects of the $15 minimum wage.

So if you double their salary costs, food service businesses have a problem. They can cover that cost in a couple of ways but the options are pretty limited.

Raise prices - Customers won't like that and will probably look elsewhere.
Cut hours - Employees won't like that and will probably end up actually making less.
Lay off employees - Same as above. But they will be making a lot less...
They can look into automation, as McD's seems to be doing.
Or they can close the doors.

Tipping has already declined in Seattle and their minimum wage only went up $1.50 as of April. Food servers are not happy. I saw one restaurant owner interviewed a while back who owned several franchises in the area, he closed them all and went into different business ventures in other areas. I forget how many people in Seattle are now unemployed as a result but it was quite a few, not the dozen or so if one outlet closed.

That said, I'd like to see an increase in minimum wage, but it should be a sensible one, not a huge increase that will hurt both business and employees. And consumers, since a number of restaurants around Seattle have closed this year. The area lost more jobs that any time since 2009, somewhere over 1000.

But he people pushing a huge wage hike are not looking at reality. Very few people are actually trying to make a decent living and raise a family on minimum wage. The fast majority of them are high school kids who seem to think all they have to do is be there and get a paycheck. One fast food franchise owner I did computer work for in Louisiana complained constantly about not being able to trust or keep the kids working for him, his employee turnover averaged 3 months. The only people I saw stay there longer than that was his wife, assistant manager, and one girl who actually did a good job. He treated her like gold...

The rest were goof offs, late constantly, did sloppy work, basically had no work ethic. That's why they were still working minimum wage jobs. The few who did do well didn't stay at minimum wage long. I know that from experience. I never stayed at minimum wage more than 3 months. Often I got a raise much sooner. But I was in the great minority, and saw a lot of people fired long before they got close to a raise.

It will eventually reach equilibrium and level off, but it will take quite a while if government policy keeps forcing unsustainable wage increases. Until then, expect to see a lot more automation and a lot more unemployed kids. Most employers will lay them off before they will pay them twice what they are worth, and most kids just starting out don't realize the only way they can keep that higher paycheck is to make sure they are worth it.

That was a very good attempt at an extremely weak argument. 35 hundred people die from drowning... Let's ban swimming. Ten thousand Americans die from falls on stairs... Let's ban stairs... 35 thousand Americans still die in car accidents... Let's ban cars.

Now do you want to tell me what is so civilized about making ANY ONE ELSE PAY FOR SOME ONE ELSES LIFE DECISIONS? I feel you should pay for my flying lessons... We should pass a LAW!

Oh well...

ok, I am going to take this on a slightly different angle, if this idea is off-topic please dis-regard, but you right wingers are basically saying $15.00 an hour is overpaying these people at fast food joints having to put up with many disgusting working conditions..can we look at the Mariah Careys and the One Direction, and Bieber and other performers with real decent working conditions, (real hard work singing and playing a musical instrument) and say they are overpaid at multi-million dollar salaries a year each?.. shouldn't we pay them 15 dollars an hour too?..don't you think ?

Yeah jimmy this is all a direct fallout from greedy professional politicians at all levels as much as greedy CEOs.

This is the liberal politics that are destroying the poor folks and forcing them to ask for a bigger and bigger government to GIVE THEM MORE. This is a wonderful Christian thought, to help everyone. Except we are not GOD and we can not pull money out of hidden places. See that 19 trillion in national debt... Straight forward, what is your plan to pay that? I guess it will be true trickle down economics... We let it trickle down to the next generation.