[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ItalyRules', ' ')There is no one in Italy being paid as low a wage as the US minimum wage. Italy pays a living wage.

Italy is a good example of how collective bargaining raises wages for everyone, not just the sector they are bargaining for.

[EnergyUnlimited]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ItalyRules', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'Y')ou are calling $250 weekly pay to be unfair and you consider workers earning this to be poor.

So look for example on Indian standards of pay where blue collar worker is earning $ 20 per week.

[Cog]

It may have escaped Italy supporters but your country is on the edge of bankruptcy. So much for those sustainable living wages.

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ItalyRules', ' ')This problem is easily solved. Double the miminum wage and provide basic healthcare.
Show a little compassion for God's sake. $500.00 a week take home pay for 40 hrs/wk and the ability to go get a prescription when you need one, is not a lot to ask.

Reduce executive pay to reasonable levels and you won't even take a hit on your profits.

[Serial_Worrier]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dorlomin', '[')url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/07/gig-radiohead-massive-attack-occupy-london-free-album]Radiohead and Massive Attack to release a live gig on pay what you want in support of Occupy.[/url]

[Serial_Worrier]

Define "living wage". Does it mean affording a luxury condo, iPhone and fully paid up car?

[Pretorian]

Living wage is whatever amount of money that is needed to buy 40-60 g of protein, same amounts of fat and twice as much of starch or sugar , a vitamin pill and 1.5-2.5 liters of water.

[AgentR11]

P... that's just cruel, (4x40) + (9*40) + (4*80) = 840. Water looked ok though.
Seriously, you need to add some more fat and starch. I recommend adding a ration cup of 100g of peanut butter / day to your living wage. Brings their caloric intake up another 600, plus add a slice of bread, and it should get them to a round 1500. This will insure better working performance in mythe peanut fields. (lol jk)

The term "living wage" is actually kinda hard to define in the US since at low income levels a lot of the cost of labor that should show up in wages and paid by the worker, are actually shifted to society in general via taxes and government subsidy for health, food, and shelter. In addition, I think our model of *how* these folks should attempt to live is broken for a resource constrained world. We tell them/ourselves that living with a lot of roomates outside ma/pa/baby1/baby2 is somehow wrong; when in point of fact, living in a more communal setting with multiple low wage earners paying a single rent (NOT company mandated housing, THAT is evil in general) can make a lot of sense and provide a fairly pleasant lifestyle.

A lot of things need to change in the US before one can have a rational discussion about living wages, valuation of work, etc. Like or not, the changes are being forced even as we type by the weight of economics; Americans like to resist reality though, so expect plenty of suffering before we get there.

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR11', ' ')We tell them/ourselves that living with a lot of roomates outside ma/pa/baby1/baby2 is somehow wrong; when in point of fact, living in a more communal setting with multiple low wage earners paying a single rent (NOT company mandated housing, THAT is evil in general) can make a lot of sense and provide a fairly pleasant lifestyle.

[AgentR11]

Unfortunately, companies have a catastrophically bad habit of charging much higher than market rates, and making it impractical for employees to reside anywhere other than in employer owned/related housing.

I like cheap, but HONESTLY cheap tactics. Coercive... not so much.

[Plantagenet]

dup post

[Bruce_S]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Serial_Worrier', 'D')efine "living wage". Does it mean affording a luxury condo, iPhone and fully paid up car?

[Plantagenet]

I'm in SF for a science conference, and my hotel is right across the street from OCCUPY SAN FRANCISCO. There were about 100 tents in a little park---nice folks for the most part.

Last night the police busted the camp. About 2 in the morning they swept the park, tool all the camping gear, and flushed the Occupiers out of the park. Over 50 folks were arrested.

When I came back from the conference this afternoon I was suddenly walking by squads of police in riot gear. Dozens of other cops were on motorcycles, and dozens more on dirt bikes. Overhead was not one, but TWO police helicopters, buzzing like angry hornets and shining their bright spotlights down on the park. There was a flock of TV news trucks with coiffered anchors and anchorettes doing live "on the scene" broadcasts from the scene of the action.

They were waiting for Occupy San Francisco to come back. The police were going to arrest anyone who tried to get back in the park. The survivors of the Occupy Camp were re-assembling over on the sidewalk in front of the SF Federal Reserve Bank Building. I went down to chat with some of the Occupiers and then hung out to listen as they discussed what to do next. Folks told their stories about being arrested and beaten and run over by cops on motorcycles. Many of them were very hoarse from screaming at the police all night.

They werent' sure what to do next----but they didn't have any quit in them---even some of the demonstrators who had been beaten pretty badly while being arrested seemed ready to keep protesting.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ItalyRules', '
') There is no one in Italy being paid as low a wage as the US minimum wage.

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')taly has no minimum wage law, and some workers in Italy are forced to slave for only 80 cents an hour.

[EnergyUnlimited]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')taly has no minimum wage law, and some workers in Italy are forced to slave for only 80 cents an hour.

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')taly has no minimum wage law, and some workers in Italy are forced to slave for only 80 cents an hour.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', '
')
Which is exactly why Italy is unionized to the max.

[Serial_Worrier]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergyUnlimited', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rangerone314', 'W')hen my permaculture preps are all done and I have the majority of annual beds planted, and solar panels & water purification/cachement installed within 10 years, I will care less about inflation.

[Cid_Yama]

A living wage is food to eat, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, a way to get back and forth to work, antibiotics when you need them, and enough health care that you don't die or lose limbs needlessly.

Very simple, if you are not trying to obfuscate the issue.

Pre-civil war south they actually took care of their slaves as they were assets.

Modern corporations discovered they are interchangable, like cogs, so there is no need to preserve them. There are always more to take their place.

Is that the world we want to live in?

I think not.