Wage Crisis
The American working underclass has been under extreme tension for some time. Now with politicians not inclined to increase the minimum wage and food stamps stretched thin, the social ramification could be disastrous. The recession is not over for most American citizens. Most Americans have basically seen their salaries hibernate or go down since 2008. In fact, American average income of a full time male worker today is lower than it was 40 years ago.
Close to half of the working Americans can't save for an emergency or their own retirement. 50% of the people in U.S. live in financial uncertainty. It might be unbelievable, but New Jersey is the third richest state in the richest country on this planet, yet one it's likely to work full time there and in the same time live in financial difficulty. The prevailing story's been Obamacare and the debt ceiling, but more permanent story is the struggle to make ends meet. The middle class in the US is disappearing as wages go in reverse and secure jobs with good pay and benefits vanish.
If you think these problems are applicable only to New Jersey, think again. Across the country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, there are more and more working people who are living in grinding poverty. America's regular working people have no sick leave, no holiday leave, no health care benefits in a society where medical aid is extremely expensive. It's morally scandalous that in a country as affluent as the U.S. they have such low, incredibly low, minimum wages.
I think we should let the market determine the wage what you earn ,when someone produces he or she should be awarded more then the person that is not productive. When you make an employer raise the wages across the board he or she would raise their prices and when you go to buy something naturally you will pay more. And that sets a domino effect which on the end ALWAYS hurts the low income worker. Just look back in history ,average workers used to save before . Now when something happens and they stay out of work for two weeks they starve . Well that’s my opinion.it’s not as simple as it sounds that by raising the minimum wage across the board helps the bottom line workers.
Wonder what ever happened to the single mother who wanted to be a nurse or the family of five working for walmart living in a single room. 5 years have passed really hope things changed for the better.
Less government > less power to the fortune 500 > things would even out.
@TheDanishViking "In the US the public sector is starved" LMAO. The public sector has Never been larger. They are skimming all the dough. If the govt welfare dept was fired, along with some large do nothing agencies, they could hand out a very nice middle class "gift wage" to a huge portion of those in need.
When progressive policies (both RepubliCon and DemocRat) send jobs overseas. When the Fed Reserve hand Trillions in your future tax obligations to the banks who just inflate the financial markets and double down on derivative swaps rather than making loans to biz to get things rolling (as was the claim by ohbummer all the while knowing full well what the score was and giving them your money anyway just as Bush did) what did you expect?
By the way Trillions being spent by the public sector is WAY out of balance, breaking the scale on the side of govt.
Govt IS the problem, always has been. If there were NO govt. there would be gold coming out our ears.
Who makes it legal to print money making yours worth less? Who regulates small biz out of biz so the big corps have little competition? And you call that Capitalism? Ignorant again. That is Corrupt govt and Corporatism. Capitalism is a natural economic system not a political or govt system.
If you don't like a big corporation in Socialist utopia Europe, go try to compete with them. Socialism(and all forms of Collectivism) always was and always will be about getting rid of the competition so the big boys profit. That is why the big boys are pushing it here.
And y'all are falling for it, just like the Euro unthinkers. Your govt is ripping you off and helping their corporate cronies do the same, and you blame it on Capitalism like good little govt(socialism) indoctrinated minions, because they said so. Brilliant.
And YES anyone and everyone can start their own business whether it is mowing lawns, selling apples and cigarettes on the street corner... OOps! Can't have you competing with big grocery outlets, you need a Permit in Socialist utopia. You have to drive to inconvenient places in order to find a roadside fruit stand where the govt is so small they don't concern themselves with such permits. Have no dough and want to build a shack to keep out of the cold and rain? Nope need a permit, follow building codes, and engineers stamp on your plans.
How does the Eurozone like being invaded by cheap labor that would rather leach than work? Whilst those working at the big boy's factories get to pay for it? Which they are raping their daughters and bashing their sons, Nice eh?
Read the quotes from Rockefeller about the complicit media to his plans and get back to me.
I am a $7.25 an hour employee. Few understand the challenge of this until they walk in our shoes. God have mercy on our country.....which sent our jobs overseas to take advantage of cheap labor workers in other countries. The US is devastated ........I dont know if we can or will return to where we used to be......
Why weren't those stupi* owners with the dog that attach her put to pay the bills for the hospital? They should work all their lives if they have to, until they pay each cent, plus pay her all their lives because they destroyed her leg.
To all the dog owners: keep your dog close to you! Just because it never bit you, doesn't mean it won't bite another person.
One person is killed by a dog attach every 2 weeks. Yes, when I was walking with the dog, even though was the best dog I ever knew, I would always keep her out of the way when people would walk by. Don't behave like eveybody has to like your dog.
Thank you Congress and the Obama Administration. All of which have turned this nation into them making money off of war and fake murders like (Sandy Hook-Do you research), and the rest of us poor pawns.
I'm the first to say that the system in the US is failing miserably. For the best info on this, read or watch anything by Robert Reich. One thing I would note, however, is that in many cases, such as the majority of those interviewed in this film, having a child (or 3), when not financially prepared, is just asking for chronic impoverishment. I feel nearly zero sympathy for the couple and three children - one still in a crib - in this film. Such people knowingly increase their financial stress, and the public has to pick up the bill. I make six figures and wouldn't have a child, given the brutal nature of the current financial situation in this country. If ya lose your job and have no savings - substantial savings - you and your family are going to be in the proverbial poor house, if not on the street. I have few to blame other than myself if I were to go have a child and another child...and another child. Please stop reproducing!!!!!
People here have to work they cannot live off the benefit system like they can in th UK.There is no free rent and weekly allowance.When people have to go to work to live you have a much better society and economy.There are programs for the old,pregnant and children.
So many Slaves of the Federal Reserve.
I like how her daughter just "came along". hehe. To add proper context Journeyman, you must ask the proper questions. That matters in a world where opportunities are less frequent. The channel 4 Brit docs, which this is very much like, are typically lame. Either they placate to the unfortunate or they embellish the "ignorant American". Another Schlock "documentary". I'll put this next to my Theroux docs.
Yup, the American myth.
What a load of lies. Socialist propaganda poorly presented as fact.
Super little documentary, of course many economists including Stiglitz who is on tape here have been urging a rise in the minimum wage for several years ... to no avail.
when enough people go through this we can end the use of money in the world
We're on a trajectory that's basically going to collapse on itself. The gap between rich and poor will continue to grow regardless. Why prolong the collapse by increasing the minimum wage? Think about it. If 99% of the population can't afford say an iphone and only the 1% can, then Apple will collapse. Apple cannot sustain itself on these limited sales. It's not like the 1% are going to go out and purchase 10,000 iphones each a year to keep Apple in business. The same will happen all across the board. There's this myth that our current system must be sustained when that's not true at all. The only people that want the Status Quo are those that have accumulated mass wealth. The human race will move on with or without this system.
this documentary is false and misleading, the entire united states is governed by the fair labor act including people who work for tips. the fair labor law requires that persons who work for tips will earn at least minimum wage, meaning that an employer can pay an employee 2.50 an hour however if the employee does not make at least minimum wage after factoring in their tips the employer must then make up the difference. do some research before you mislead the people in the future.
See the thing is with the girl she choose a bad degree. High Schools should educate teens on what degrees will make them a decent amount of money. getting paid 28k a year is no way to live, but what most people forget is that companies will pay for your knowledge if your job does not require much knowledge then odds are your going to have a bad time making a lot of money.
Its sad that we condemn people that doesn't have a good college degree.
What i suspected , unfortunately, i would not encorage my children to go to America. Holiday , yes, work and live , no.
I can tell from the abstract that this is just going to be a simplistic emotional appeal to raise the minimum wage, when every honest economist can show you that poverty is aggravated by a minimum wage which prices the vast majority of 1.) black youth out of the job market, 2.) prevents the employment of anyone with a criminal record, 3.) eliminates the opportunity for any illiterate person, high school dropout, or unfortunate with a sub-85 I.Q. from getting hired. Black youth unemployment was lower than white youth unemployment in the 50s and 60s, because the Minimum Wage was so outstripped by inflation to be of no effect. Because of the Minimum Wage, marginally productive white and black youth have no choice but to turn to athletics or crime, which of course has exploded over the same period.
Consider this emotional and alarmist formulation: "In fact, American average income of a full time male worker today is lower than it was 40 years ago." Forty years ago was 1973, the very peak of the post war economic boom. Everyone was rich then or stoned. LBJ wanted "guns and butter" and legalized a Great Society. Then along came Jimmy Carter, malaise, stagflation, the loss of the Panama Canal, the rise of Islamicist terror at the US Embassy in Teheran and then Beirut.
If you won't allow someone to take a job at "whatever he can get," you just keep him out of work. You are not compassionate at all.
all over the world including communist china the rich are looting the poor. the walstreet bankers are the example. this is the beginning of the decline of America, the rich establishment does not even know it
Why do people think education is a free easy rout to high wages?
Find jobs that are skilled, (Trade skills for example) start at the bottom making nothing as a helper, use your eyes/ears and work hard to master the trade. A high level of skill will give you value that cost more the minimum wages.
Education is free if the job you have teaches you skills.
There is no explanation here of where its all gone. Multiple trillions are in tax-free tax haven bank accounts of the 1%. The 1% are doing fantastic, thank you and they are buying off Congress to ensure our nation remains in dire poverty to further enrich themselves. This global economic crisis was intentional and continues to exponentially benefit the 1%. Show the billionaires.
I am struggling in retirement, it just does'nt last the entire month so I use credit cards to tide my way for food and necessities. It is a no win situation growing old in this G.D. country!
We are always reminded that this country or that country (including the USA) are suffering from huge debt. Well I have a burning question: Why is it no one talks about the people/organizations who we/they owe money to? Who are they? Based on the size of debt all over the world, someone is worth a lot of money!