[Fudd]

(1) The employer is paying less-than-market rates, and will soon find that his best employees are leaving for greener pastures. Unfortunately, the 'greener pastures' do not exist; it is very difficult to move to another city, and wages tend to be similar no matter where you move.

This tells me that your employer is paying market rates for the services you provide.

It is simply not possible to just uproot if your employer tells you he can't pay you more than X.

Why not? In the last two centuries, a lot of people uprooted themselves for an uncertain future in this country. A lot of people still do, legally and illegally.

(2) The work done by the employees is not highly valued by the market, and the employer cannot afford to pay higher-than-market wages. I have many skills that are in high demand, most importantly a brain.

"Demand" and "value" can be two different beasts. "Demand" may exist when there is high turnover in a company. If my burger flippers quit every 3 months, I will have a lot of "demand" for new employees. However, I will not pay these employees more than what I think they're worth.

I've met very very few 'lazy' poor people. Most of them work their butts off and can't ever get ahead. Our courier works three jobs, sleeps a couple hours a night, just to support his ex-wife and their two kids. I know, that's just one guy, right...

I know people like that, too. But then again, I doubt either one of us hang out in the 'lazy poor' crowd. Wasn't there a recent post on FR about poor people and their big-screen TV's?

How many people on here would actually hire a poor person to do... anything? Or would you go out and hire the GQ-looking guy with the schnazzy care and the professionally-edited resume?

I don't think the Mexican day laborers would make the cover of GQ. Nor would migrant farm workers. Yet they still come here and work.

Quite frankly, the government sticks its nose in because nobody else will.

The government sticks its nose in because people in government profit, professionally, from being busybodies, and the People let them do it.

[hybrid]

Why not? In the last two centuries, a lot of people uprooted themselves for an uncertain future in this country. A lot of people still do, legally and illegally.

True enough; if you are willing to live in the fields or in your car; if you are willing to live with 10 other people; if you are capable of saving up deposits, finding an apartment that accepts your credit (if you have any) and hoping that the area you chose has a good job market, which, if you are poor, is hard to find out ahead of time. Uncertain is puting it mildly.

"Demand" and "value" can be two different beasts. "Demand" may exist when there is high turnover in a company. If my burger flippers quit every 3 months, I will have a lot of "demand" for new employees. However, I will not pay these employees more than what I think they're worth.

I'm not talking about flipping burgers. I am essentially an executive assistant. I make around 15/hr BEFORE anything gets taken out. I can work any office machine and learn programs quickly. I cannot find a job that will pay me more than what I am currently earning; most offer me far, far less. These are positions I see open long-term, over and over again. They refuse to raise their wages, yet cannot understand why people hate the job. Yet it will be filled, for six or eight months, over and over again. This is happening in jobs all over SoCal. This is not even taking into account the fact that I refuse to do any advertising work anymore. I have a degree. I was a Marketing Coordinator. And I refuse to do crap work for overpaid idiot executives (and they were) when they consistantly claimed they couldn't raise our wages, yet would waste money on the most outrageous 'projects' for the co. Which often involved half the execs flying to damn shows, staying at the nicest hotels, and us covering their asses time and again.

The government sticks its nose in because people in government profit, professionally, from being busybodies, and the People let them do it.

That sounds like a nice line, however, except for the higher echelons (those actually running the boards and such), I don't see a whole lot of government employees 'profiting' from poor people.