11-13-2015, 02:18 PM
(11-13-2015, 02:06 PM)EatonFan Wrote: This is true. If you think you are worth more, then show those skills and prove you are worth more. If your current job does not allow you to support yourself -- look for another one that will. Gaining skills will never hurt anyone.
Beyond this the real problem is how government structures its benefits. The incentive is to stay in a certain income range (an income box).
If you take government benefits into account (and treated them as compensation) I'd bet wages have risen in the last 25 years instead of being flat.
What are some of these benefits?
Earned income credit
Additional child tax credit
Daycare
HUD housing
Utility subsidies
'Free' YMCA memberships
Food stamps
Cash assistance
Medicaid
Student Aid
There's more.
The problem with every one of those programs is that in order to get them you must keep your income low -- IN the box. Both parties support these programs, but for different reasons.
So what about the people in the brackets that don't benefit from these things? Not a single thing on that list am I privy to, I work a full time skilled job as a supervisor, my wife works a full time job, and we cannot afford to start a family. We aren't sitting on our laurels, I'm going back to school, she's going for a doctoral program, but in all honesty we aren't even sitting here with high aspirations, just enough to be comfortable with having a family.
Of course, there is a lot more at play here for my situation, but the fact is that someone in a role like mine 40 years ago could support a family. I know this to be true because I have met the folks working this type of job 40 years ago. One of them is a current employee of mine. Yes, I am her supervisor. So it's all well and good to say "improve yourself", but taking that route is just ignoring the fact that while you can always do things to make yourself more valuable, the people that make those decisions are seeing less value in things than they used to.
