As the screenshot said, enough to pay for rent, bills and groceries. That’s is, enough to not be homeless, starving or unable to afford healthcare.
Comment on Something something far-left
ryannathans@aussie.zone 4 days ago
Sure but we must ask how much should you be able to afford in this position?
rockerface@lemm.ee 4 days ago
doingthestuff@lemy.lol 4 days ago
I know a lot of people around here aren’t a fan of cars, but minimum wage workers need to be able to afford one. And even used cars have gotten crazy expensive. Even if you can find a cheap used shit box it’ll need expensive repairs quickly.
I know there are places where this isn’t true, but where I live, if you don’t have a car, you can’t get to work, the grocery store, or anywhere really. If you try to ride a bike, you will die. If you try to ride an escooter you’ll get ticketed for riding it in the driving lane, and even if it were legal it wouldn’t be an option in the winter when they don’t even clear the whole road of snow and ice. People go homeless before they give up having a car.
rockerface@lemm.ee 4 days ago
Needing cars is caused by the same capitalist system that produces jobs below livable wage, so I totally get it. But if we were able to push for better salaries and working conditions, surely we’d also be able to push for better urban planning and public transport.
doingthestuff@lemy.lol 4 days ago
It’s already been built wrong, and redoing those places will take decades and will cost trillions. They have been adding little token projects here or there, but our zoning still doesn’t even require sidewalks or bike lanes for new construction. So honestly we’re generations from it at the pace we’re moving. We could pay living wages now though.
SabinStargem@lemmy.today 4 days ago
I think that if a new style of government is created, free transport and fuel should be an universal right. The government just lends a basic small car for free to people. Once that person buys a fancier car, the rental is returned to the government to be loaned out to someone else in need. Bus passes and passenger rail is free.
This greases the wheel of economy, along with easing pressure on people.
doingthestuff@lemy.lol 4 days ago
Okay. How close are we to that? How about giving a huge bump to minimum wage and tying increases to inflation, now? Even the Dems aren’t running on this.
ryannathans@aussie.zone 4 days ago
Renting what though? How many bedrooms?
MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 4 days ago
Uh. One? Then if two people had basic jobs…Maybe two?
Maybe someone is able to claw their way above minimum wage and the other can quit entirely, whatever.
Nobody’s demanding McMansions for McDoubles. They just want the concept of a job to be more than an endless void that arbitrarily takes exponentially more than it gives.
Working two jobs and being one major illness or injury away from losing it all is a sick insult to humanity, for all it has achieved up to this point.
ryannathans@aussie.zone 4 days ago
Do you guys not have salary continuance and disability insurance by default through your retirement accounts? Over here by default if we hurt ourselves at work we get workers comp and outside of work we have salary continuance insurance (unless you’ve unsubscribed). If it’s bad enough you get a lump sum from total disability insurance
CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 days ago
I’m sick of talking about a “living wage”. I want a thriving wage.
faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 4 days ago
— Rose Schneiderman, 1912.
MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 4 days ago
Wow, such a powerful quote.
It touches on something I’m worried about in our time: How we’ve started to monetize hobbies as “hustles” and watch other people enjoy them in our place because we’re too busy to do them ourselves.
It feels like enjoying “the sun and music and art” is now the job of an entertainer, who the audience lives vicariously through, whether it’s all these shows about celebrities who get to travel, or so simple as streamers getting to sit down and play games…