On 8/6/2013 2:52 AM, scott wrote:
>>> A long time ago you could only buy local, between then and now (when
>>> there was plenty of choice) everyone has voted with their wallets that
>>> they would rather buy the cheaper non-local mass-produced items. Large
>>> corporations are simply providing us with what we want. If they thought
>>> everyone wanted local items (and were happy to pay a premium), they'd
>>> sell local items.
>>>
>> No, they won't.
>
> They would if there was more profit in it for them. There isn't because
> people aren't willing to pay the extra.
>
No, as I said, in the US, its not "unwilling", its "unable", most of the 
time.

I mean, we literally have morons who work in my store, complaining that 
"poor people on food stamps are 'allowed' to buy luxury goods, like TVs, 
but keeping a few bucks a month", for an entire damn year, just to be 
able to afford one. They actually think, "They need to get a better job 
like mine, somewhere, and stop using food stamps." And, they are saying 
this to someone who a) thought they management had changes his job title 
3 years ago, and just got screwed over by the company, is still making 
minimum wage, is averaging 32 hours a week, doesn't pay for his own 
food, electricity, etc., due to living with other people, who can 
actually afford them, and **knows** that, if I ever had to rent my own 
place, before I even paid the first months rent, I would ***have to*** 
got to the nearest agency, and sign up for assistance, to make ends 
meet. Oh, and these same people **know** that the jobs in town divide up 
like this, more or less:

5% walmart - minimum wage
5% k-mart - minimum wage
5% sterilite (a cheap plastics company) - slightly over minimum, but 
they require 10 hour days, staggered, so as not to pay overtime (5 days 
one week, then 3 the next, so they don't actually pay you more than if 
it was 10 '8 hour' days.
10% small businesses - almost all minimum wage, and less than 30 hours a 
week.
70% restaurants - require to pay minimum wage **only** if wages (at 
$3.50 an hour) + tips is "lower" than the minimum would be, and then.. 
nearly all of them "pool" the tips, and divide them among all of the 
staff, including management.
10% general "other" jobs - some of which "may" pay more than minimum.
5% The assholes that own all of it.

This is in a state where "minimum" is *now*, as of a few months ago, 
$7.80/hr, and the average cost, per month, to live here is, in fact 
(this is two parents, with one kid):

Monthly Housing 		$723
Monthly Food 			$514
Monthly Taxes			$251
Monthly Healthcare		$280
Monthly Childcare		$499
Monthly Transportation		$468
Monthly Other Necessities	$297
==============================
Total: $3,032, or 388.7 hours a month, or 97 hours a week.
In one of the "higher cost" places in the state, it is: $3,521, or 451.5 
hours a month, or 113 work hours a week.

They state legislature thought that raising it from $7.65 would be a 
"huge" improvement... But, no matter how you look at it, it means 
someone has two jobs, if they can find even one 40 hour job in the first 
place, but.. the average job is 15-20 hours, 30, if you are lucky, so.. 
even then, in some place like the city I live in, which those numbers 
come from, one of them is working a single, 30 hour job, and the other 
is working "two" 30 hours jobs, or both of them are working, on the 
worst case, two 15 hour jobs, and "still" coming up 7 hours short, in 
either case, of paying the bills, never mind saving any money after.

None of this would be "quite" so bad, if you could find a 40 hour job 
any place, like at all, but giving someone 40 hours means actually 
providing them with "legally mandated" things, which "includes" 
insurance, better pay, actual raises, etc. All that stuff that "might" 
result in someone saving money, instead of blowing it all on silly 
things like utility bills.

The level of completely delusional thinking among people that should 
know better here, and outright denial of how bad it is, not to mention 
why, is.. beyond belief, in a lot of cases. Some parts of the country, 
the "cost of living" isn't any lower, the minimum is, and its all the 
same, "I am sorry, we can't give you more hours this week, but.. we an 
hire two new people, and give each of them 15 hours.", BS.

And, as I said before.. there are people that are, progressively, 
arguing that there shouldn't be a minimum at all, and, might have, if 
there was a Republican in office, actually eliminated the federal 
minimum, or, at least lowered it, followed by some of the more insane, 
and delusional, state legislatures.

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