What is your opinion on American "work culture" and working conditions?

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Historically speaking, minimum wage came about back in 1938 as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The original minimum wage established then was 25 cents per hour. That wound equate to a little less than $4 per hour today.
There is little evidence to show that the raising of minimum wage effects the solvency of any businesses. That is economic hyperbole to justify not paying a fair wage to workers.
Paying a decent minimum wage does allow people to make a living wage. At $15 per hour, a person would make $600 before taxes for a 40-hour work week.
 
Minimum wage should be set to a certain decent wage, and then automatically indexed to inflation like Social Security.

Companies that eliminate jobs by computers or other machines should have a tax penalty to help pay for benefits of low paid, underemployed or unemployed workers.
 
Kiosks. Sounds like a good place to find food poisoning. 🤔😶😝
My experience dealing with those who work at fast food places have been to see young men and young women who are working hard and who try to do everything they can to please me as a customer.
Now some of the folks I have encountered as fellow consumers have been loud, obnoxious and rude to those working.
Just a different perspective.
 
Its a zero-sum economy. More time off means a company needs more personnel to produce the same number of widgets or service (e.g accept calls in a call center or clean a certain number of hotel rooms) in which case each person makes less.

If, for example, 6,000 hours of work are needed in a year, that can be three people completing 2,000 hours/year each or four people completing 1,500 hours/year each. The 1,500 hour workers would make less money than the 2,000 hour workers
 
People are not widgets. A rested work force is a more productive work force.
A decent wage. Five to six weeks of vacation.
There are things that would make life better for the average worker.
The other side of things is that people with better wages tend to spend more. That means more things will be purchased. Increased sales.
A rising tide lifts all boats.
 
Americans are over-worked and for the most part are “slaves” to a culture that is obsessed with work, unfortunately by necessity in many cases. We should look to Europe for tips.
 
Of course people are not widgets. I’m using widget to describe a non-descript product, say a birdhouse. If it takes 10 hours to build one birdhouse, or one widget, and a company has sufficient demand to sell 600 / year at a given price, then the company needs 6,000 hours of labor/year.

That can be 3 people for 2,000 hours/year;
4 for 1,500/year;
6 for 1,000/year, etc.

The cost / hour is the same but the people working fewer hours make less money. That’s a choice individuals have to decide for themselves
 
exnihilo said:
I think most Americans would never trade their personal material wealth for more time off.
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Exactly. It’s not possible to demand more time off/more laid back workplace while at the same time expecting our current standard of living. As consumers we want service providers who work hard and companies who are open convenient hours so we can drive through our favorite fast food place at 2 am. This mentality requires workers who work these hours to meet our wants (not needs). We can’t have it both ways - if you insist on better working conditions, lower your expectations as a consumer.
 
Americans work too hard. We need to learn to take more time and enjoy life.
 
And there is often a lot of goofing off just to get your time in. I think many people could work less hours and get the same amount done.
 
Peeps said:
What percentage of our income do you believe we should pay to help those who are already given a totally free education, free housing, free food, free transportation pass, free health care, free childcare, free books and computer use (public library), and plenty of goodwill in the form of children’s clubs and activities, health fairs, JOB FAIRS!!!, etc. offered free by many churches, para-church organizations, and community organizations?!
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I really don’t think there are so many people who get all that free stuff…
 
There’s a lot more than that available to those in need.

I agree that the benefits don’t just fall from the sky into someone’s lap. People have to go through the proper channels to be able to receive these benefits, but a lot of churches and community organizations (e.g., a local Rescue Mission) act as clearinghouses to point people in the directions they need to go to receive aid that they are entitled to.

Between the U.S. federal government, state governments, local governments, and private organizations (including churches) and individuals, the poor have lots of options available to help them create better lives for themselves.

I have no objection any of this and believe that there are plenty of people who HAVE made use of the free aid available to them to survive, stay healthy, get a good education, and find a job that pays a living wage and provides benefits.

What I am objecting to is the idea that the U.S. doesn’t do anything to help its poor. This is absolutely not true! Everywhere in the U.S. you will find people who started out with less than nothing, and as they were helped by public and private aid, were able to achieve amazing things. In my workplace (a hospital), there are health care professionals who grew up in horrible circumstances–poverty, violent neighborhoods, domestic violence in their families, etc.–and they worked hard to get to a good place, a place where they have a good job, a home in a safe neighborhood (although no neighborhood in our city is totally safe), and hope for their children to achieve even better things.
 
Peeps said:
I have no objection any of this and believe that there are plenty of people who HAVE made use of the free aid available to them to survive, stay healthy, get a good education, and find a job that pays a living wage and provides benefits.
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Oh, I’m with you 100%, believe me.

I just don’t think that there’s quite as much “free stuff” available as people think. There certainly isn’t where I live (NYC).
 
That depends whether the efficiency gains from increased morale, loyalty, etc outweigh the additional costs of providing extra benefits.
 
From what I have seen, most employees work extremely hard for the success of their company, but much of the time their company is mismanaged by people on positions above them.
What happens. Production falls. Jobs at the bottom are cut. Upper management still receives a raise.
 
He has a point, where is it the little guy that has to be punished for the excesses of the rich and wealthy. Or, why do workers get the short end of the stick if its management that are messing things up?

You have innocent people doing what they can, and it’s still not enough.

I know it sounds like I’m being incendiary (and perhaps I am) and how do you respond to this @Peeps and @CradleCath0lic, what do you have to say in response to situations where the average Joe gets the short end of the stick, kind and good people that are doing what they can but they still can’t make the cut. I would like to see your responses.
 
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That’s interesting.

In my hospital, a few years back when times were hard (Affordable Care Act, State of Illinois not reimbursing hospitals for medicare patients, etc.), our upper management and Vice-Presidents all took a CUT in pay (5%), while all of us “grunts” received a 1% raise.

Our upper management salaries top off at around 150K, which I don’t consider to be especially high. Even in our city, that’s not “upper crust” wages, and in big cities, it would be considered “middle class.”

Lucky me?
 
It is a huge stretch to say that “management is messing things up.” Managers who mess things up end up getting fired. There is no one at greater risk of getting canned than managers, who are easily replaceable.

I’m sure that there are companies where things are as you describe–huge salaries for the upper management, and misery for the little guys.

But most of the companies in most of the cities in the United States are well-run by decent people, many of whom started their company when they were young and not very well–heeled. These people treat their employees as valued commodities, and give them the best salary and benefits that they can because they realize that without their employees, they cannot produce a product or service.

You ask me how I respond to situations where the average Joe gets the short end of the stick, kind and good people that are doing what they can but they still can’t make the cut.

A lot of people make decisions when they are young, even as young as 12-13 years old, that set the course of their lives.

Once schooling is off track for any reason (gang activity, pregnancy, criminal activities, drugs or other addictions, domestic violence in their family, illness, parental job loss, etc.) that pretty much determines that the person will end up never quite making it, at least when it comes to employment and salary.

Sometimes through no fault of their own, even a good, hard-working kid gets in trouble because something happens in their family. Illness, addiction, financial ruin, natural disaster, a criminal attack, etc. This kind of thing endangers a kid’s chances of getting somewhere,

I think that sometimes, people who just don’t seem to have any success would do better if they were willing to move to a part of the U.S. with better opportunities (and weather!) But people don’t want to leave their hometowns and loved ones.

So to summarize–if people trace their lives back and are honest, they will see WHY they ended up where they are. It’s not the fault of "the “wealthy managers.” It’s a consequence of decisions made early in life and circumstances that occurred while they were growing up.

So what can these people do?

Anyone can change the course of their lives by seeking the help of a counselor, good friend, teacher, pastor, or mentor and making good decisions. It’s hard, but I’ve seen people do it.

I think that finding a good mentor is essential. It’s really hard for someone to change their life without help. A church should be a good place to find a caring mentor. This person should be able to help the person be brutally honest and face their inadequacies, but also help them to overcome their inadequacies.

And while they’re working on their lives, in the U.S., there are lots of “free” aids available, and they should take advantage of everything until they are able to make it on their own.
 
It is rare that upper management folk get fired.
Usually assists get thrown under the bus.
 
Oh–one more thing–anyone who wants to do better in life simply has to stop the blame game!

It’s not “rich guys” or “the wealthy” or "Big Pharma’ or “Republicans” or “Democrats” or "people of a different color, race, religion, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, or “that mean coach back in middle school” or “my music teacher who ruined my audition by making me play Chopin instead of Beethoven”, or “my spouse,” or “my kids” or “my parents” or “my church” or “Da Bears” or ANYONE!

It’s not necessarily even the fault of the luckless person!

It’s just the way things are.

And what we have to do is deal with the way things are.

Blaming others or circumstances is just one more way that people keep themselves down instead of rising up.
 
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