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.”
...
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 ...
"When I was a papoose."
Beep-beep, LOL!
I bet we both remember the song!!
>>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.
But if minimum wage is hiked to $15/hour, those who’ve been paid $15/hour for years would not see a raise and would suddenly be classified only making minimum (no skill) wage.
Those earning “minumum wage” who come from across our southern border must be doing alright as they wire BILLIONS of dollars back home to Mexico every year.
So either they are not reporting their taxable income or they are getting financial assistance to offset what they are sending HOME or both.
Cars used to be $1 per pound.
Yeah, but back then a bag of peyote was what?, 5 beads? What is it now?, about 50? So, everything is relative.
Someone here would have hit it!
Note the colorful tribal birthing blouse
Lets see...circa 1970 I made 1.60 an hour working on many farms in South Jersey. Picking grapes,collecting eggs,planting onions,etc. I had to have my “working papers” to do so.
Yeah, but back then, you could buy a one-room teepee for what?, 10,000 beads? In a fairly nice prairie. Close to good hunting grounds and fishing streams.
And why is that Liz? One big reason: Taxes.
Yes & that one dollar is equivalent to $8.55 in 2019 which on a 40 hr week 52 week year yields 17,784, well below poverty level. Yesterday I posted the poverty level figures from 1960 converted to 2019$ basically unchanged.
As usual Pocahontas speaks with forked tongue or hasn’t managed to fact check before forming opinions, and crafting talking points. Not a living wage now, not a living wage then.
___________
Lord, that's amazing. You must have gotten that for around $1,900. You really were frugal. Did you rob a few stores too? Were you sneaking into Yankee Stadium? (just kidding)
____
I bought a USED black VW in '68 too. Man I loved that car, but the heater didn't work very well. I nearly froze to death driving to Northwestern U. one night in '69.
The problem is not with the hourly rate, idiot. It’s taxes and the obscenely high cost of living, thanks to you democrats.
Cause and effect? How does it work? Somehow, the liberals have managed to immunize or innoculate millions of people against the persuasive power of facts, logic, and reason. Common sense. They have no knowledge base of historical facts to draw upon. Remember when “educators” use to tell us rote memorization of facts and figures wasn’t necessary for stufents? Now you know why they did that. People are simply unable to process information in any meaningful way today, they can regurgitate emotional talking points approved by their betters in the fake news media and popular culture.
Leftists are extfemely good at plucking a kernel of truth or fact, but then they bury it in a pile BS and erroneous conclusions. That’s what happens of course when their premise is faulty to begin with. It is insidious and very difficult for the average person to understand the for es and techniques arrayed against them.
It is true that for many years a single wage earner could support a family. This was in fact before women in general had entered the workforce. So the problem as it were, is actually worse than she lets on. Nobody was buying a house on minimum wave.
While she may mean well, the fact of the matter is that it is the incessant meddling by government that causes these epic distortions in prices and taxation and a general decline in prosperity. Deficit spending, borrowing, taxation, offshoring of good paying jobs, insourcing of cheap labor, monetary inflation, artificially low interest rates, explosion of government “benefits”, endless foreign wars and entanglements, the list is endless, have cratered the economy over the years. Health care for just one example, was never “affordable”, but it was at least manageable. Medicaire and other programs put an end to that. Costs exploded after 1965.
College wasn’t for everyone, and it was expensive, but bright promising students, if they were accepted, could receive a world class education. At one time California state universities were free. The GI BILL paid the cost of the school tuition regardless of the cost, if you got accepted to Harvard, they’d pay it. Today it’s a flat rate of $800 a month, maybe enough to find a parking spot. Guess what happened after government started underwriting loans?
When a dollar was silver, $1.25 would translate to around $20 in today’s funny money. No legislation required, no mandates from the city council, no demonstrations and marches necessary.
The policies she and her cohorts have championed over the years are what has lead to this. Plenty of blame to go around with “Republicans” as well. It’s as if you’re working in your yard minding your own business, she comes up and breaks your leg with a maul, then hands you a crutch and says
“Aren’t you glad I came along?”
I’m familiar with that lifestyle, I grew up walking behind the plow and shot squirrels with a .22 rifle as a boy. The funny thing is people who lived that way didn’t worry much about a sudden ice storm because they were not dependent on electricity. We had electric power but when it went out we still had heat, we could still cook and we were inconvenienced, not endangered.
How did we get to the point that an entry level job is guaranteed to support a family of 3 or 4 with one earner? Idiots.
You nailed it! The subway was .15 cents and lunch was free at Morgan. I had zero bills and the only money I spent (aside from beer on the weekends) was for a daily coffee & roll.
Never a Yankee fan, except for enjoying Mantle & Maris. And please don't remind me of Maz :)
Squaw SpeakingBull is speaking with forked tongue. If she was working at 11, the company she worked for should be sued for child labor.
Sure do.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.