volvoxvsmarla

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volvoxvsmarla ,

It sucks giving up a sure thing and the comfort zone though

Very much. It's also kind of a privilege to be able to do that. Often this requires mobility - which you don't have if your spouse is also working (could not find a job in the same place) or if you have kids (school, friends etc). I think in the USA it is very common to constantly move, but here people usually avoid moving too often. Taking a risk when it's not just you on the line is also a bit harder.

Louisiana lawmakers vote to remove lunch breaks for child workers, cut unemployment benefits ( www.nola.com )

A Louisiana House committee voted Thursday to repeal a law requiring employers to give child workers lunch breaks and to cut unemployment benefits — part of a push by Republicans to remove constraints on employers and reduce aid for injured and unemployed workers....

volvoxvsmarla ,

My naive European ass thought it talked about people working with children... and I got ultra mad about that. How do they dare to make a kindergarten teacher go without a break ? That's insane!

Then... Jfc. I'm not sure I should have read the comments to find out.

volvoxvsmarla ,

Let all full time jobs pay good enough. Want skilled labor? Better give incentive to take that responsibility, or we will all work high school level jobs.

Having worked in “high end” jobs and “high school labor” - a lot of incentive will already be that you don’t break your back. Being able to sit. Being able to take coffee breaks and chats in the kitchen. I’d take my husband’s programming job over my jobs as a high end fashion salesperson or a lab technician every time, even if I made more in my jobs than he does.

I think also a lot of people have an innate desire to learn and move forward. Given the opportunity, my guess would be that a lot of people would decide to get further education. Also responsibility. Some people enjoy having a lot of responsibility, lead teams, etc. Imagine if just the people who actually wanted to do this for the sake of it became team leads or managers, not because they wanted to make more money in that position.

At the end of the day, everyone should be paid because they put time of their day doing something they wouldn’t do for free. I don’t care whether you’re a lawyer or making sandwiches. If both have worked 8 hours today, both should go home with a nice wage that they can live off.

volvoxvsmarla ,

Spoilers: I live in Germany, not the US.

Is minimum wage being rent for a 2br/1ba actually the goal? Why?

I would argue, if you are single, then minimum wage should be enough so that you could afford to live close to where you work in a 1 bedroom apartment. And live comfortably - so that by the end of the month, you don’t have to count the change in your pocket. So that you can afford a healthy diet. Some socialising activities. Putting back something for the future.

If you have a kid, it should be enough to afford a two bedroom apartment, whilst you and your kid live comfortably. If you are a couple, one income should still be enough to afford that. If you have x kids, it should be enough to afford an x+1 bedroom apartment.

Why? Because no matter what you work, whether you are in service or fast food or in finance, you still put a significant amount of your daily time doing something you would not do for the sake of it. If you work full time (however this might be defined), no matter what you do, you contribute these hours to society, and this makes you deserving of a life worth living. And especially your kids. Your kids are kids and they have no control in what you work and what family they are born into. But they absolutely deserve to live a livable life. We all do. No matter what we do.

And we cannot all be finance attorneys. I’m not even going to start with the obvious aspects like necessary service work, nurses and other essential workers being underpaid, inequality and inequity, chances etc. I’ll just ask this - if a person is really simply not smart enough, if they don’t have what it takes to be successful, be it low IQ or mental problems or lack of qualities or whatever - are they not deserving of a life worth living? Why are we even debating this? Should you not be paid proportionally to the time you put in rather than to how much luck you had in Life Lottery?

I mean, I’m not necessarily an advocate of big apartments, let alone houses. I don’t really get the idea of every kid needing a room of their own. But as for now, this seems what society deems appropriate (here, you get problems with CPS if brother and sister of a certain age share a bedroom). Therefore, this should be made available - for everyone to the degree that is necessary and appropriate. (I also think sharing an apartment when you are single is a great thing actually, ecologically and socially - but that’s not the majority’s opinion so nevermind.) This seems to only work if we decouple the idea of income from daily necessities and expenses such as housing and food, but maybe others have better ideas.

It seems grotesque and absurd that a society would allow the question of whether or not to have kids - or how many kids to have - to become an economic one. Like, even for the most greedy capitalist assholes, what exactly is the plan when cheap labor cannot afford to have kids that will then provide cheap labor?

More of a sidenote:

I assume the idea is to be able to support a family and the sad logic that it often comes out “cheaper” to have one parent work and one stay at home rather than try to afford daycare.

It is a sad logic only in the fact that you cannot choose. Where I live it is definitely not cheaper to stay at home. Being able to truly choose whether you want to work or raise your kid yourself (up to a certain age) or a combination of whatever percentage would be freedom. Being financially obliged to do either is shit.

If you stay at home with a baby or a toddler, you are putting less burden on an overloaded childcare system, and you are raising future adults to be healthy, happy, and, from an economic perspective, functioning. You are not exactly having a lot of free time. It is enjoyable and fullfilling but not for everyone (which is why outsourcing a part of it if you don’t want to do it 100% is great). You got to be able to handle tantrums and lose your autonomy and perform understimulating activities a lot. Being a stay at home parent, at least for little kids, is not easy. Hell you can’t even take a pee break unless they allow it (and when they allow it). You don’t have holidays or weekends or nights off. I can’t believe this kind of care work is still not financially compensated. And I can’t believe that people who want to do that, who want to have kids and stay at home with them and raise them for their first years, just have to pass on all of this because of money.

volvoxvsmarla ,

Ok this took a turn. I was fearing you would go another direction. I mean, I don’t think we need to turn to literal cannibalism or start spending money on sending people to be dipped in Venus’s atmosphere, but I strongly believe that there needs to be a very low cap on how much money an individual can legally hold. And disowning is a necessary step.

I honestly would have no problem with my paycheck going to taxes like 90%. As long as this means I am provided with groceries, housing, necessities, transportation, healthcare and retirement. And as long as everyone else is provided the same. Imagine being like a child again, having pocket money that you can spend on whatever gadgets serve your interest, instead of having to save it for worse times or spend it on necessities.

I also believe that people would still pursue higher education and leading positions even if they would be paid more or less the same as a fast food job. It is just a much more comfortable life, I’ve been there and I’ve been there. Working as a cashier for 8 hours is exhausting. Waiting is exhausting. Sitting at your desk doing excel stuff for a meaningless project, talking to colleagues and taking endless coffee breaks is not exhausting. The strive would still exist, simply because no one wants to have a broken back by 35. And people like the sense of responsibility, of meaning and power and leadership, they like to learn and develop. At least most do.

volvoxvsmarla ,

I think you need to finish reading the comment you’re quoting because I think you two might actually get along

volvoxvsmarla ,

It’s come up in my dating life.

Please tell me that’s a joke

volvoxvsmarla ,

Wow. Just wow. Well I guess you dodged a bullet there. (Unless she’s your girlfriend now, then I take that back and I’m sure she has amazing qualities nevermind the phone fascism!)

Honestly I thought the green texts refers to those 4chan green texts

volvoxvsmarla ,

Ok, but - and please don’t think I mean this in an offensive way, I am asking this in the most naive way - isn’t that your whole job? I get that it is annoying, but you don’t waste 30 hours, you just work 30 hours. Hours that you get paid for and hours that you would use to do the same job/try to hire for another position otherwise. Of course you could get more done (i.e. more people hired) in a unit of time, but at the end of the day that’s not your problem really, is it? You did everything correctly. You still get your hours paid.

volvoxvsmarla ,

Ok, but - and please don’t think I mean this in an offensive way, I am asking this in the most naive way - isn’t that your whole job? I get that it is annoying, but you don’t waste 30 hours, you just work 30 hours. Hours that you get paid for and hours that you would use to do the same job/try to hire for another position otherwise. Of course you could get more done (i.e. more people hired) in a unit of time, but at the end of the day that’s not your problem really, is it? You did everything correctly. You still get your hours paid.

volvoxvsmarla ,

You mentioned 20 wasted interview, therefore my wording. Admittedly I read over the part that it isn’t your only responsibility. I can imagine how frustrating it is! Even if this is all you do all day.

But still, you get paid for this. (I once had a well paid bullshit job and understand how draining it is to focus on ridiculous tasks that seem to go nowhere, you got my full sympathy here.) You go home at 5 pm and your day is done. Your paycheck arrives.

We as candidates don’t get paid. We put hours and hours into interviews and applications. It seems in IT it is common to just click on direct apply on linkedin. How I envy this! My husband just clicks on 100 applications and gets like 4-5 invites at least.

I work in the biomedical field/research (in Europe) and let me tell you, no one will even remotely consider me for an interview if I have the audacity to not send an application letter that is specifically tailored to the position. So, for every single job I am applying to I am spending at least two hours (if I am in a run and do a lot of copy pasting, let’s be real here, I often needed almost a whole day) to finish up the application alone. If I get an interview I have to take a vacation day to go interview. Maybe have a trial day if it is a lab based job (which of course is not paid). I have to do the reading on the company, what they do etc. I wrote a fucking application letter detailing how I identify with the companies values and how I have experience in this and that technique.

Then I come in and they haven’t even read my CV so far. They ask me basically no questions. They tell me info about their company that is on their webpage that I can recite. I ask them some questions. They seem to like me a lot. Then I go home. Then they ghost me. I don’t know if it is because I lack a PhD or because I am overqualified because I have an MSc. Or because they see a girl with a wedding ring on her finger in her late 20s and assume I will get pregnant soon. The ones that turn me down at least write a copy pasted email saying they chose another candidate. Vague and no details on what set us apart.

For all of this, for all the typing and reading and travelling and interviewing and trial days I am spending money and time. Time I do not get a salary. Time that is wasted and that I do not get paid for.

It is better in science jobs (there they seem to do very anal reading of everything, which I appreciate and I always get an offer) but corporate businesses are hell.

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