Posted on 02/19/2019 3:37:42 AM PST by RoosterRedux
Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren claimed on Saturday that when she was a child, a family of three could live on minimum wage. “Back when I was a kid, a minimum-wage job could support a family of three,” she tweeted. “Today, a full-time minimum-wage job in America won’t keep a mama and a baby out of poverty.”
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No one disputes that today’s minimum wage would not provide sustainable income for a family of two, much less three. Warren’s initial claim — that “a minimum-wage job could support a family of three” when she was a child — only holds true in part.
Warren was born in 1949. In 1960, she would have been 11 years old. The minimum wage at that time was $1. Assuming a 40-hour work week, the annual pay would have been $2080. The poverty line in 1960, for a family of three, was $2322 annually.
In 1965, when Warren was 16 years old, the minimum wage had risen to $1.25. Again assuming a 40-hour work week, the annual pay would have been $2600. The poverty line in 1965 for the same size family was $2514, making Warren’s claim just barely possible at that time. (RELATED: Liz Cheney Refuses To Attack Trump, Calls Warren A Laughingstock Instead)
But possible or not, Warren ignores two very important factors with regard to minimum wage.
First, who actually earns it. Fewer than three percent of Americans earn minimum wage as of 2017 — and the majority of them are young. Workers under 25 only make up about 20 percent of all hourly paid workers, but they account for close to half of those who are paid minimum wage. Minimum wage earners also tend to be primarily part-time (fewer than 35 hours per week)...
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
The money I made was primarily entertainment money. No one was raising a family off minimum wage.
She's so damn stupid if I were an Indian I'd sue her for giving me a bad name...
LOL, isn’t that the truth!
“Note my high-ish cheekbones, parted hair, and vaguely ruddy complexion!”
Just heartbreaking.
Yep, and ZILCH re: size of govt, in general...when the FAMILY man was able to bring enough bacon home to 1) buy a house 2) have a car 3) save for college/retirement 4) stay-home mom (raise\educate the children) 5) HAVE 2.5 children 6) take a vacation....the list goes on and on.
Nobody dare ask ‘Smokin’ Buffalo Chips’ if she’d take down govt to its ‘old size’
I would have thought she was too busy playing cowboys and indians when she was a child.
I remember those days... As a 14 1/2 year old bagboy in 1966, I made 85 cents an hour. Tips were fair. We all knew who the 50 cent tippers were...and scrambled to bag their groceries.
No way I could’ve lived off those meagre earnings though. Warren’s a fruitcake.
She doesn’t take inflation and other factor,into account, either.
When my dad was a kid, in WWI, many guys worked (perhaps with a shovel) for a dollar a day. But for that dollar, you could buy a whole pig. That would feed a family pretty well. No mandatory federal income tax then, either.
“She remember the days, sittin’ on the porch with her family...”
Teepees have porches? I must’ve come from the wrong side of the bear tracks. All we had was a nasty old piece of buffalo hide to wipe our feet on before entering our teepee. Heaven help you if momma caught you entering without wiping. We were poor, but we were proud.
Admittedly on the obscure side, my reply#17 was a modified quote from “The Jerk” about being a poor black child.
Age is not her friend
in 1966, I made 85 cents an hour....
I graduated High School in ‘66 and remember working for $.99/ hour back in NY. I could buy 3 gallons of gas with that wage at about $.32/gallon.
Now,in Texas the minimum wage is $7.25/ hour and it can buy 3 gallons of gas at $2.42/gallon
With the future minimum wage at $15/hour what do you think will be the approximate cost of gas in the future. No fair saying that the cars will run on solar.
I earned $70 a week working on Wall St @ at Morgan Guarantee & Trust in 1966. I took home $55 dollars of that and managed to save $20 a week. I bought a new VW in ‘68 for cash. I voted for Nixon. The “Hard Hat riot”, where NYC construction works sent dozens of dirtbags to the hospital, had yet to happen. Life was good and America was great.
I remember Nash Ramblers for sale new approx. $1800
1970 I made $1.35/hour and got time and a half over 40 hours which I usually hit around Wednesday afternoon working at a dairy. I didn’t have much time off because the work was 7 days and no days when the cows weren’t working. I spent the majority of my money on a Mustang since I was living at home. A lottery number of 30 changed all that in 1972.
I see the progression. Scary.
In 1950, my grandmother had one bill a month... the electric bill and it was around $3 a month. She had a garden, which she canned corn, greenbeans, tomatoes, fruit, made jelly from the fruit also, had fresh veggies and fruit all summer, potatoes that kept all winter, chicken she raised, so her food bill was minimum.
I don’t know about Warren and 1960+ but it was possible to live unbelievably cheap, compared to today... if you lived off the land.. I doubt Warren ever lived a frugal life. If you raised all your food, the grocery bill would be very low and there weren’t any other bills except the electic and however you heated your house.. coal, oil, gas.
Oops...missed that. Steve Martin = very funny guy.
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