Catholic Charities USA seeks minimum-wage hike

[Dandelion_Wine]

Everyone in the U.S. has the same basic opportunity to succeed; … if the are willing to work hard and take those low paying jobs,then they have the means to pay for their education.

Anyone can find a way to afford the needed improvements and find a better job. … What are you talking about? Who doesn’t have a chance at a good job and the ability to work their way up?

Maybe the 2 of you should spend some time in a soup kitchen lecturing the people there how lazy they are and that they should get motivated so society can stop supporting them.

If someone is staying in the same minimum wage job, or working serial minimum wage jobs, there is something wrong with them.

WOW!

 

[estesbob]

Maybe the 2 of you should spend some time in a soup kitchen lecturing the people there how lazy they are and that they should get motivated so society can stop supporting them.

WOW!

Perhaps you should join Chicago in lecturing those who actually provide jobs as to how lazy they are and how bad it is for them to reap the rewards of their employees work.

I am curious-how many people do you employ?

 

[system]

So the proper policy to support the “many” (most of whom are starting at the beginning on their way to better things and will be living in poverty 2 years or less) is to raise the wage for all.

To hell with those who are prevented from starting at the beginning because we can afford to ship the fruits formerly of their labor in from China now.

Thats why, though your heart is in the right place, your policy is doing more damage than good.

Interesting. On my way into the local market where the folks get minimum wage, I passed a car marked “Temp Nurses” or “Travelling Nurses” and underneath said: “Starting salary $55 to $65 per hour”

Now, I know it’s

• highly paid skill
• and it’s a hard job
• takes some education
• every country in the world has a nursing shortage
• life is not fair

I know all that. My sister is in that field and makes even more, and so does a friend of mine.

I’m just surprised no one has brought up the huge discrepencies in pay that are obvious everywhere.

I’m just surprised at the number of people who ignore that part of chatechism of the Catholic church when it comes to the worker being worthy of his hire.

Are we capitalists first and Catholics last?

 

[Kendy]

That’s insane!

Imagine all the people who want a career working 2 hours a day testing the solitaire game for Microsoft. By your logic we have to respect the intrinsic dignity of this career path.

You don’t get a family wage for that. No one will pay for that.

These arguments leave out the fact that economics determines the allocation of scarce resources using prices. Putting a fake high price on a resource results in no one paying for that resource.

Who pays their babysitter $7.50 an hour? What if I want my career to be babysitting one kid at a time? How long do you think my customer list will be?

I once babysat for $10/hr.

 

[Kendy]

Sometimes, I want to rename this website the Republican Answers Forum.

 

[Dandelion_Wine]

Perhaps you should join Chicago in lecturing those who actually provide jobs as to how lazy they are and how bad it is for them to reap the rewards of their employees work.

That’s funny estesbob, I don’t recall making any statements nor implying anything about employers

 

[rlg94086]

I’m just surprised at the number of people who ignore that part of chatechism of the Catholic church when it comes to the worker being worthy of his hire.

Are we capitalists first and Catholics last?

I didn’t ignore it…I posted it at #32 Please feel free to comment.

 

[fix]

I’m just surprised at the number of people who ignore that part of chatechism of the Catholic church when it comes to the worker being worthy of his hire.

Are we capitalists first and Catholics last?

The problem here is very much like the death penalty issue. It seems many want to impose a standard on all Catholics that the Church Herself does not impose.

Social teaching would seem to describe how we ought to act, but it does not prescribe what we must do in absolutely every single instance in exact technical detail.

As example, we know direct abortion is always wrong, but where can I find rejecting the newest proposal for minimum wage is intrinsically evil?

 

[rlg94086]

Maybe the 2 of you should spend some time in a soup kitchen lecturing the people there how lazy they are and that they should get motivated so society can stop supporting them.

WOW!

I do spend time helping in my community…though not enough. It is our call as Catholics to help the poor. It is also our call as Catholics (not the government) to pay a just wage, if we are employers. A “just wage” varies by location and on the job itself.

Regarding my “something wrong with them” comment, you are correct to be shocked - it was a poor choice of words. However, common sense and experience tell me that if you are working minimum wage jobs without advancement, you either have literacy issues (can be fixed), anger-management issues (very problematic), or other problems. We can help people who have these problems, but its not the employers fault.

 

[system]

I didn’t ignore it…I posted it at #32 Please feel free to comment.

Ah, you were the one who posted that. Thank you!

 

[Holly3278]

I would guess that most people who want a wage hike don’t understand simple economics. The wages go up, cost to the employer goes up then prices to the consumer goes up. It is not sound economics to increase the wage.

Then what can be done to reduce poverty?

 

[estesbob]

Then what can be done to reduce poverty?

Education. The largest contributor to povery is the failed Public School system

 

[vern_humphrey]

Education. The largest contributor to povery is the failed Public School system

Amen!!

Even if it helped, increasing the minimum wage would not teach an illiterate worker to read and write. It would not help a math-impaired carpeneter to learn the ins and outs of his trade and move up the ladder.

I move we stop interpreting “social justice” as “sitting on our butts and pointing the finger at** other** people, demanding they pay for everything” and reinterpret it as “getting off our Catholic butts and doing something to help the poor.”

The one thing we are famous for doing is setting up and running good schools. It was Catholic schools that pulled the poor, shanty Irish out of the gutters and made them prosperous. It was Catholic schools that welcomed wave after wave of immiogrants and made them successful. It was Catholic schools that inspired (or rather frightened) Horace Mann to institute Public Schools (for fear that Catholics would infect Protestant children.)

Now, let’s expand our existing Catholic schools, instead of closing them. Let’s open new Catholic schools in the poorest neighborhoods. And let’s finance it ourselves, out of our own pockets.

 

[hoser]

I would guess that most people who want a wage hike don’t understand simple economics. The wages go up, cost to the employer goes up then prices to the consumer goes up. It is not sound economics to increase the wage.

You are right. This is an area where Catholics are just wrong about things. There are not very many people who are actually earning minimum wage and a large percentage of those who are are teenagers in their first jobs. It does not, like you say make economic sense to do this.

 

[rlg94086]

You are right. This is an area where Catholics are just wrong about things. There are not very many people who are actually earning minimum wage and a large percentage of those who are are teenagers in their first jobs. It does not, like you say make economic sense to do this.

Please! ***Some ***Catholics… We are not a monolithic group.

 

[Kendy]

Education. The largest contributor to povery is the failed Public School system

Seriously, there has been poverty from the beginning of time and now, you want to blame it on the public school system. C’mon. Be serious!

 

[jman507]

But when a person IS working to support a family of 4, he ought to be able. I’d disagree that the people who do low paying (whether it be minimum or slightly beyond that) jobs don’t need to earn a living wage. Many do.

We use to be able to give extra pay to those who supported a family, but that got threw out with the attempts to make equal pay for equal work.

 

[estesbob]

Seriously, there has been poverty from the beginning of time and now, you want to blame it on the public school system. C’mon. Be serious!

Gee-if poverty has been here snce the beginning of time why should we raise the minimum wage in an attempt to eliminate it.?

Will a minimum wage increase help a worker escape poverty who can’t read or write of do basic math(but probably knows a whole lot about how homexuals are discriminated against and abortion is a fundamental human right.

 

[hoser]

Are we capitalists first and Catholics last?

There is no reason why both cannot be in union with one another. Being Catholic does not mean that we should surrender our lives to the federal government. President Reagan said it best. Government is not a solution to our problem, government IS the problem.

 

[Nurse_Joy]

I once babysat for $10/hr.

Once

Wow. Thanks for proving the point.