Howard Stern Show’ Quizzes Obama Supporters in Harlem on Candidate Policies

[Bronko]

Originally Posted by Nebe

Rather than focus on the negatives, lets focus on the positives.

What is a fair living wage in this country ? Id say its $15 to $20 an hour if your single. If the bulk of the lower class were making that kind of money, this country would be back on track again.

I have no idea what minimum wage is these days, but I figure its under $10 an hour...

What I am saying is that the cost of living has skyrocketed and personal income has stagnated. As a result, people are defaulting on their mortgages and credit card debt.. To solve this, people have to earn more money.. its the only solution.

Positives?

Where does this money come from?

Lets run some numbers under your economic package:

(hypo) I am a small busness owner. I have 15 employees (uneducated, unskilled) who make your minimum wage of $10 an hour. They work 8 hours a week 50 weeks a year:

15 employees x $10= $150 per hour
$150 x 8 hours a day= $1,200 per day
$1,200 x 5 days a week = $6,000 per week
$6000 x 50 weeks a year (2 week vacation)= $300,000 year (payroll)

(And this doesn't even include the health insurance that the employer also pays into, which is a whole other argument)

Under your plan since the lower class needs more money, I just double everybody's salary by $10 to $20 an hour and double my payroll up to $600,000? That's how we solve this? We run the small business owner out of business on the spot, in doing so we eradicate the 15 jobs that these people had. Now they go on unemployment, welfare,WIC and begin to suck off the public teat?

I really don't know how to say this... but we do not get this country back on track by stuffing the pockets of the lower class. That is a panacea fraught with it's own set of problems.

[Slipknot]

Right on Bronko but I think most Americans don't get it (or atleast the ones in the Obama camp)and are so dumbed down that your point is not entering anyones' brain cells. Our own elected officials can't see the common sense of your statement
sad really if the country goes down that road

If I spoil my kids and keep giving and giving, they will have no incentive to go work or do good in school, it's the same with the Government bailing out anyone that needs it



Congress better do a better job of seeing the future or we will need a revolution

[justplugit]

Originally Posted by Slipknot

Our own elected officials can't see the common sense of your statement

No common sense is the big part of the problem.
They're so busy thinking they're so smart and above everybody else,they wouldn't know common sense if they fell over it.

They have outsmarted themselves.

Ya gotta live within your means no matter what, and so does the government.
People didn't and the government won't, now it's time to pay the piper.

Obama wanting to spend another 3 trillion on top of the debt we're in is insane.

[Rockfishroger]

No surprise here

[Joe]

The lady who cleans my house can barely speak english - I asked her how many houses she cleans and said "25, some every week, and some every other week, and three businesses" She's pulling down a conservative 75K...It's hard work, but it beats sewing shirts in Guatemala.

[Colombianrico]

That's a LOT of work to catch up on. To even come near getting rid of American debt, every American Citizen, and I mean EVERY MAN, WOMAN, CHILD, BABY, SENIOR must pay $30,000. I believe this was an outcome set by my "parents," well not literally since they weren't born here, but I think you get my point. The issue of "living beyond our means" is far more complicated than just that. You should be cautious when you describe complications with simple phrases as such. Simple phrases like "work harder = make more" or "class warefare," or "Americans are lazy."

Our educational system is failing, and it is failing miserably. A faltering educational system inandofitself is a wash of money. If American citizens do not have a reliable educational system, they will present with situations that cost money from EVERYONE. Educational level is both directly and indirectly related to:

Crime, poverty, health disparities and chronic disease, drug abuse, drug misuse, drug use in general, political involvement, political awareness, environmental awareness, utilization of resources to further socioeconomic progression, and much more....

Failures of these cost society a TON of money. Proof? The United States has the highest child poverty rate in the developed world.

And that's just the problem of education. Don't forget the problems of our reliance on fossil fuels has polluted our environment. This alone has also affected the health of today's youth. In fact, their lifespan are expected to be shorter!

We can not even provide proper nutrition to all of our citizens. The flaws of our old legislation alone has cost us sooooo much money, and most don't even realize it.

I agree with you that Americans live far beyond their means, I don't doubt that at all. But there are variety of larger factors that really come into play.

I'm just trying to get rid of the stereotype that Americans are arrogant and lazy. Besides working harder and making more money, there should be more. Even if we caught up on our own debt, our society has been set up to consistently waste money instead of utilizing it properly and efficiently.

If you want to blame a poor job market on illegal immigrants, then you should be blaming America in the first place for exploiting their home countries to an inhumane extent that they have no other choice but to seek work HERE. It all kinda goes back to our structural flaws.

Progressive thinking, social tolerance, volunteering, distribution of quality education, provision of health care to prevent unneccesary health care costs....pretty much restoration of everything that's failing, I feel like that's what we need (and more) in addition to just working harder and spending less.