[speechlesstx]

Expand your data to 30 years and get a bigger picture of the wage trends.

Dude, nice try at dodging the fact that under Obamanomics the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Even more ironic than that is that you guys honestly believe more regulations, mandates and an ever expanding government is going to alter that balance.

[smoothy]

[talaniman]

Dude, nice try at dodging the fact that under Obamanomics the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Even more ironic than that is that you guys honestly believe more regulations, mandates and an ever expanding government is going to alter that balance.

Why do you dodge the fact that wages have been stagnant for 30 years? Why is this just about the black guy and NOT about the white guys before him?

Doesn't matter even though that's racist, but nonetheless, corporation have done well but have not trickled a damn thing for 30 years.

[NeedKarma]

Smoothy - that doesn't even make sense. LOL!

[smoothy]

Why do you dodge the fact that wages have been stagnant for 30 years?

Who's wages? Not my wages. Not anyone's wages I know.

Welfare cheacks aren't wages paid for breeding and occupying space.

Instead of the "poor" blaming business owners for 'keepin them down" why don't they get off their butts and start their own businesses...

Or is it they are simply too dumb and lack any marketible skills to be able to do something of value to another human?

[talaniman]

Well you run in the circles that 99% of us will never see, and we already know what a snob you are. Lovable, but a pure non empathetic snob nonetheless. Stuck up to put it simply.

[smoothy]

I've got no empathy for the lazy... if they want something better... they need to work for it and earn it. If they are waiting for it to be handed to them... they have a really long wait.

Sorry.. I got were I have with a lot of hard work... and not one bit of help most of the whiners have available to them.

I grew up poor... and my parents had made great strides to rise over the real poverty they grew up in...

I'm no BIll Gates and never will be... but I'm comfortable middle class in the somewhat well off county I live in.

I have empathy for people born with Downs Syndrom and ceribal palsy... they aren't responsible for their condition... and nothing they can do will change it.

[talaniman]

Working poor people who get up and go to work everyday are not part of those lazy people are they? And how much has your wages gone up and why? Promotions, COLA? Public, private or government sector?

[speechlesstx]

Why do you dodge the fact that wages have been stagnant for 30 years? Why is this just about the black guy and NOT about the white guys before him?

Doesn't matter even though that's racist, but nonetheless, corporation have done well but have not trickled a damn thing for 30 years.

Damn Tal, how in the hell did you manage to turn this into a racial thing? Oh I get it, when I said "poor" that was a dog whistle right? So repeating one of the most popular liberal memes of all time it becomes racist? Man, you guys have some awfully confusing (and extremely fluid) rules, liberalism is like Calvinball.

FYI, you cannot use the disparity between CEO pay and the average worker and or minimum wage rates to prove wages have been "stagnant" for thirty years. Wages don't remain stagnant for most people, they move on, get a better job. I worked for minimum wage once, in 1976. At sixteen and still in high school the boss wasn't going to start me at managerial rates. You cannot pay someone your magical "living wage" to start their career dropping fries in a basket and dunking them in oil or the "value menu" would start at $9.95.

You need to get a clue (or just stop spreading the myth), the vast majority of workers don't go to work at McDonald's for minimum wage and stay at that rate for the rest of their life.

[smoothy]

Working poor people who get up and go to work everyday are not part of those lazy people are they? And how much has your wages gone up and why? Promotions, COLA?

Are they too lazy to find a better job... or just itoo stupid to be able to get one that's better and higher paying?

Your value as an employee is based on your skill and value you have to the employer.

If you can be replaced by a trained monkey... or someone off the street within hours... then you don't have much value.

My first job out of college only paid $16k a year... I had maxed out on student loans that were 8.5% interest (yes Federally guaranteed ones)... I managed to live on that and pay off my debts (took 10 years to pay off that student loan)... and I moved on to better and better jobs all the while increasing my skill set with each job. And with it my pay and value to the next employer.

[talaniman]

Maybe neither lazy, or stupid. Just stuck. As you said, it took you years of hard work to show progress. Me too. Seems like every time I wanted a dollar more I had to take a test to qualify. That's a lot of sitting at a desk juggling homework and the need to eat, and feed a family. Wasn't easy, or cheap.

We have lost millions of those types of jobs now though, and service and retail work aren't exactly a road map to success for the average guy. Better than nothing, but wholly inadequate in today's world. School?? I am all for it, but those costs have gone up higher than the ability to pay for it. I've watched younger people work their butts off for a chance at hope and dreams of better.

But a tight job market in a transitional period from major manufacturing, to the service industry is one helluva national adjustment.

[smoothy]

Its always easier and less stressful to stay in the job you have.. the one you know... than to look for and find something a little better. However unless you expand your knowledge base... odds of advancement will be limited.

And yes.. that is why many of these people never go beyond what they do.

It's their job to seek out opportunities... not some "Rich" person to do it for them.

Their future really is in their own hands... the key is how hard are they willing to work towards it.

No its never easy... you get what you put into it.