Target, Which Cut Workers' Hours and Doubled Workloads, Shows the Folly in

[StudentMI]

Rotten? It’s a model for the entire world.

No, Catholic social teaching is a model for the entire world.

And since you asked, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Basque region with it’s Mondragon Corporation, the Emilia-Romangno region.

 

[Sarcelle]

Those who can get a better education can get higher paying jobs.

The price of education both university education or vocational education is getting higher and higher.

It’s like there is a paywall between the worker and higher paying jobs and being able to get to being in the middle class or staying in the middle class.

 

[Elias]

Funny enough, the cost of education didn’t used to be so high. Before the government was giving Federal loans to anyone that wanted it, the cost of University wasn’t really that bad. Nowadays anyone can get a college education thanks to government loans. The universities know this very well and they jack up their prices on purpose by hiring useless administrators and creating useless degrees.

 

[Sarcelle]

The US has its strong points and it’s weak points.

You do have a point on this country being a plutocracy where huge corporations demolish smaller businesses. This US is no longer a free market.

Sure we should as Americans appreciate our country but we do it no favors when we turn a blind eye to what is wrong with it. Let’s face it in some aspects other countries are better than us.

 

[StudentMI]

Thank you. That was my point all along.

 

[ZMystiCat]

I guess within the next five years those calling for $15 will also be demanding regulations to protect established workers along with the $15.

Anyways, from the article:

Wages, however, are not arbitrary. They are closely linked to productivity

Does that even really apply to unskilled labor like what many employees at Target are filling? Sure, it might help you keep a job, but we’re not talking about a highly productive engineer who the company keeps paying more to avoid losing. We’re talking about a person stocking shelves who could easily be replaced by the next person. At the very least, when I worked retail, it was pretty obvious that productivity meant nothing beyond how likely you were to get fired, and even then I had a couple coworkers who’d go have sex on the clock and still somehow keep their jobs.

Further, none of these jobs are really for people trying to support families. They’ve become that but that’s not their purpose, any more than burger flippers in McDonalds are.

Frankly, that has more to do with our culture than with these jobs intrinsically not being for those wanting to live and support a family.

gas is about $2.35/gallon

Well, not in California. (I just moved from California and had forgotten that gas isn’t $4+ per gallon everywhere. I still bought a hybrid, though.)

Because that’s what corporations are supposed to do - increase their bottom line.

“It’s not personal, it’s just business.” - The Godfather (variations of this appear a few times throughout the film, actually)

 

[Crocus]

It reminds me of Amazon boasting about raising the starting wage to $15 and then snatched away monthly bonuses and stock options. Corporations are happy to shine the golden virtue lantern on themselves while quietly retaining or increasing their bottom line.

I can’t really fault corporations for bringing in more money, but when too little is returned to the workers who are partners in helping them accomplish that, I think it’s irresponsible. Even more irresponsible, ineffective tax laws that fail where they could mitigate the injustice. (Catholic social justice rules.)

 

[ProVobis]

Coca Cola but point taken.

 

[blackforest]

Because that’s what corporations are supposed to do - increase their bottom line.

There’s nothing wrong with making money as long as it’s done ethically. If you’re Catholic, that would include providing just wages.

 

[otjm]

As for the jobs not supporting families, you are correct. That’s why people often have 2 or 3 jobs. Sadly those are the only ones that tend to be available. Too bad our nation doesn’t support Catholic social teaching.

Given the repeated comments by employers that they have job openings but cannot find qualified workers, I would challenge that broad statement.

People who have minimal skills are going to find minimal skill jobs. ?since fast food restaurants are often a target of the SJWs, I am going to run some numbers.

 

[StudentMI]

Let the working man and the employer make free agreements, and in particular let them agree freely as to the wages; nevertheless, there underlies a dictate of natural justice more imperious and ancient than any bargain between man and man, namely, that wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner. If through necessity or fear of a worse evil the workman accept harder conditions because an employer or contractor will afford him no better, he is made the victim of force and injustice. In these and similar questions, however - such as, for example, the hours of labor in different trades, the sanitary precautions to be observed in factories and workshops, etc. - in order to supersede undue interference on the part of the State, especially as circumstances, times, and localities differ so widely, it is advisable that recourse be had to societies or boards such as We shall mention presently, or to some other mode of safeguarding the interests of the wage-earners; the State being appealed to, should circumstances require, for its sanction and protection.

http://www.vatican.va/content/leo-x...nts/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html

 

[otjm]

Here are the national averages for a McDonalds:

Net Sales $2,700,000
Food costs -$810,000
Paper costs -$108,000
Gross Profit $1,782,000
Controllable Expenses:
Payroll $540,000
Manager Payroll -$108,000
Payroll Taxes -$54,000
Advertising -$108,000
Promotions -$13,7500
Outside Services -$27,000
Linen -$5400
Operating Supplies -&27,000
Maintenance & Repair -$40,500
Utilities -$81,000
Cash over/short -$2,700
Miscellaneous -$13,500
Profit after Controllables $761,400
Non-Controllable costs:
Rent and Fees: -$391,500
Legal & Acctng -$8,100
Insurance -$54,000
Taxes & License -$27,000
Misc. Income & Expns -$2,700
Depreciation & Amort. -$94,500
Interest Expense -$27,000
Net nonproduct -$2,700
Total Operating Income $153,900

The payroll, non management of $540,000, assuming all are working at minimum wage of $9.50 an hour, and assuming all employees are full time (2,080 hour per year) works out to a bit over 27 employees. 540k/$9.5 = 56,842 hours of work paid. Divide that by full time hours (2080 per year) =27 employees.

Assuming wages are sent to $15.00/hour - which is a much discussed “minimum” takes the gross payroll (and not counting additional employer paid Social Security) to $842,000. The additional salary cost of $302,400 has only one source of being paid - from the owner. And if the owner is making an average net of $153,900, that leaves a net loss in the business of $148,500.

The only place that the $302,400 additional costs can be made up is in increasing the price of what is ordered. Again, this is national averages; an 11.2% increase would likely not cover it, as there is going to be a loss in revenue of people being priced out of the market, or alternatively, ordering lower priced items.

One local hamburger chain was unionized in a couple of stores; the disagreements between management and the union seem to be continuing.

 

[Peeps]

Too bad our nation doesn’t support Catholic social teaching.

Too bad more people don’t choose to work harder in FREE public school from 1st grade through 12th grade even if they do come from less-than-perfect homes.

Too bad people choose to make fun of “smart” kids who work hard in and out of school instead of adapting the good habits of these “brainiacs.”

Too bad kids don’t choose to learn how to take the initiative and help themselves.

Too bad people don’t choose to wait to have sex and babies until they are mature, finished with their education, and employed.

Too bad people don’t choose to take care of their health by choosing not to smoke, drink alcohol irresponsibly (or in some cases where alcoholism seems to be hereditary, to drink any alcohol) or take drugs, or to overeat and be inactive and eventually develop Type II Diabetes, or to practice terrible sleep hygiene and develop all the various negative effects of this bad habit. Too bad much of our “free” health care in the U.S. goes to people who have chosen to be unhealthy and will continue to make unhealthy choices even after millions have been spent on helping them to survive their own destructive lifestyles.

Too bad inner city kids cannot choose, but must join gangs and carry guns to survive in their neighborhoods. But on the other hand, too bad that their mothers (or fathers or grandmothers or whoever the “adult” is in the child’s life) choose to remain in those neighborhoods instead of fleeing and moving as far west as possible, out to small towns in places like North Dakota and Wyoming, where street gangs have little or no power.

Too bad people choose to get on the bad side of the law when they are young.

Too bad kids can’t choose to grow up with a mother and a father and an extended family including grandparents and aunts and uncles.

Too bad that parents choose to ignore their children, especially when they ignore the need to get their children to a doctor from the very beginning of their lives and to screen for various health issues that will inevitably lead to difficulties in paying attention and learning.

Too bad people don’t choose to get seriously involved with a church and stay committed to religion not only while growing up, but when they become older teenagers and young adults.

Too bad that many of the above choices seem to be generational, passed down in families for several generations making it inevitable that the children and children’s children will end up destitute.

Too bad when charity is “toxic,” actually helping people to continue to be poor rather than helping them to choose to break OUT of poverty and despair.

 

[Sarcelle]

True

Besides to whom would the corporations sell goods and services to if we the consumers are either broke and/or unemployed?

 

[Sarcelle]

In short, are you calling these people the undeserving poor?

We’ve all made mistakes but I think we should deal with others the way God deals with us, with mercy and grace.

Wisdom is the ability to discern if our charity really helps or hinders others.

I think this is what Catholic social teaching means to say.

 

[Peeps]

In short, are you calling these people the undeserving poor?

They are not “undeserving.” I think they are living the lifestyle that they chose for themselves and for their children.

There are simply too many stories of people who were born into poverty, racism, inner city danger, criminal families, disease and poor health, etc.–who managed to pull themselves OUT of those circumstances by making a series of good choices starting when they were very very young.

Often their decision to make these good choices started when a caring adult from church, school, a club, a local charity (not a government “check”), or the neighborhood taught the very young child the value of making good healthy productive choices, and not only taught, but INSPIRED The child to make those choices and encouraged the child to stick with their good choices no matter what.

The stories are everywhere–children born in the worst of circumstances who grew up and became intellectual giants, wealthy, successful, famous! There are even more stories of people like my parents who were born during the Great Depression into impoverished families who, in spite of their circumstances, made good decisions about school, work ethic, sex and marriage, involvement with social activities (e.g., neither of my parents drank alcohol), health, etc.

Their good choices resulted a in long and fairly happy marriage, a good home (not a mansion by any means), good health (until my mother was stricken with rheumatoid arthritis in her 50s–she believed it came from a virus from a tick bite when she was young), two children who did well in school and have lived prosperous (not wealthy!) lives, early retirement and almost three decades of enjoying hobbies and activities that they loved. When my father died, he owned several dozen rental properties, which he rented out to people who needed a little help–he charged incredibly cheap rents in exchange for 'sweat equity"–painting the house or apartment, mowing the lawn, planting shrubs and flowers, etc.) He was known throughout the area for his generosity.

If my parents could do it in spite of all the disadvantages that they were born into, others can do it, too.

 

[StudentMI]

1. The need to resolve the structural causes of poverty cannot be delayed, not only for the pragmatic reason of its urgency for the good order of society, but because society needs to be cured of a sickness which is weakening and frustrating it, and which can only lead to new crises. Welfare projects, which meet certain urgent needs, should be considered merely temporary responses. As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems. Inequality is the root of social ills.
2. The dignity of each human person and the pursuit of the common good are concerns which ought to shape all economic policies. At times, however, they seem to be a mere addendum imported from without in order to fill out a political discourse lacking in perspectives or plans for true and integral development. How many words prove irksome to this system! It is irksome when the question of ethics is raised, when global solidarity is invoked, when the distribution of goods is mentioned, when reference in made to protecting labour and defending the dignity of the powerless, when allusion is made to a God who demands a commitment to justice. At other times these issues are exploited by a rhetoric which cheapens them. Casual indifference in the face of such questions empties our lives and our words of all meaning. Business is a vocation, and a noble vocation, provided that those engaged in it see themselves challenged by a greater meaning in life; this will enable them truly to serve the common good by striving to increase the goods of this world and to make them more accessible to all.
3. We can no longer trust in the unseen forces and the invisible hand of the market. Growth in justice requires more than economic growth, while presupposing such growth: it requires decisions, programmes, mechanisms and processes specifically geared to a better distribution of income, the creation of sources of employment and an integral promotion of the poor which goes beyond a simple welfare mentality. I am far from proposing an irresponsible populism, but the economy can no longer turn to remedies that are a new poison, such as attempting to increase profits by reducing the work force and thereby adding to the ranks of the excluded.

http://www.vatican.va/content/franc...sortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html

 

[StudentMI]

Furthermore, in the Church’s teaching, ownership has never been understood in a way that could constitute grounds for social conflict in labour. As mentioned above, property is acquired first of all through work in order that it may serve work. This concerns in a special way ownership of the means of production. Isolating these means as a separate property in order to set it up in the form of “capital” in opposition to “labour”-and even to practise exploitation of labour-is contrary to the very nature of these means and their possession. They cannot be possessed against labour, they cannot even be possessed for possession’s sake, because the only legitimate title to their possession- whether in the form of private ownerhip or in the form of public or collective ownership-is that they should serve labour, and thus, by serving labour, that they should make possible the achievement of the first principle of this order, namely, the universal destination of goods and the right to common use of them. From this point of view, therefore, in consideration of human labour and of common access to the goods meant for man, one cannot exclude the socialization, in suitable conditions, of certain means of production. In the course of the decades since the publication of the Encyclical Rerum Novarum, the Church’s teaching has always recalled all these principles, going back to the arguments formulated in a much older tradition, for example, the well-known arguments of the Summa Theologiae of Saint Thomas Aquinas.

http://www.vatican.va/content/john-...s/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091981_laborem-exercens.html

 

[Sarcelle]

You mean pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.

I am by no means dismissing individual agency but sometimes we need to help and educate people so they can make good choices in life.

Mentoring young people is a good start.

There is nothing wrong with needing help sometimes.

 

[StudentMI]

Very well put. Individual agency is great but as Pope Francis says there are structural causes as well. Proposing everyone follow a one size fits all approach doesn’t solve any issues.