Welfare, Education, Jobs.....

[jammer]

Something was said in another thread about the employees of Walmart not HAVING to work there and it really irked me. Therefore I'm starting this thread to get a better understanding on how people view the above mentioned topics. The Walmart employees are grossly underpaid compared to the revenue that Walmart generates. How is it, that Walmart employees are living off welfare while working for one of the most profitable companies in the world? Is this largely due to a mis-allocation of funds? Why are the people who make the company operational the ones that struggle just to survive? I would wager that some people do in fact HAVE to work for a big chain like Wal-Mart because Wal-mart has managed to push a lot of Mom and Pop businesses out. When you have no formal education or experience then a place like Wal-Mart is where you end up.

This brings me to another soap box topic, universities are expensive. Plainly put, the average student graduates with 30k in student loans. Many of these same students can't find work in their fields and thus starts a scary cycle of repayment schedules and not being able to save or even get ahead. Despite that fact they did what they were SUPPOSED to do to help them have a better life.

When does it stop? If you don't have parents who will pay for your college, then you finance it. If you can't find a job that will pay you enough to pay back the financing, then what? I know people who had to take out so many student loans that they can barely afford to feed themselves. Why you ask....they could have never finished college otherwise.

This is a rant and one that might not make sense, but I'm trying really hard to understand why so many people work so hard to obtain "the dream" just to end up right back where they started, had they not gone to college...poverty level living.

 

[HoundedByHounds]

I'll join your rant with one of my own. It never ceases to bother me when people claim they have no money but eat out all the time, have a cell phone, computer AND internet access...cable TV and usually...at least one pair of authentic Crocs. LOL.

We have debt but we are not mired in it. I did not attend college and dh did...his JOB paid for the MBA ge got and his parents paid for the first round of college.

I have come to the belief that it's really not the man or the system so much as people's own inherent wish to do as little as possible and get as much as possible. That is not really a person thing either...it's an animal thing. Why walk over there to eat if there is food here? When the food runs out where you are standing...THEN you move...lol.

I dunno...no answers here....we just do what we can to instill a work ethic and regard for education, and concepts of fiscal responsibility, in our wee ones...

 

[~Jessie~]

How much should Walmart pay their employees? How much should someone making for scanning groceries or greeting people at the door? The thing is, most of the jobs that Walmart offers take little to no skills... thus, the reason for them to be so low paying. Walmart wouldn't be able to keep their prices low if they paid their employees $20/hour to do easy jobs.

I don't like Walmart, though... I try to avoid it as much as I can, unless it's late at night and I need something.

When I was in high school, I was a cashier at Publix (our grocery store chain down here. I started out making $6.25 an hour, and I didn't honestly expect more than that. I was scanning groceries, and putting food into bags.

And as for getting in debt with student loans for college and not being able to pay them back... well, that's the risk you take by going to college. It does suck that it's so expensive and I wish that it was cheaper than it is, but that's the price you pay for getting a higher education. It took me 7 months to find a fulltime job doing what I wanted after I graduated from college, and I still don't regret going to college. I think my degree was worth every penny.

 

[~Jessie~]

Also, it's not like people who end up working at Walmart and the like can't advance. If they work hard and do a good job they can be promoted to management and make more money for themselves.

 

[Pam111]

It depends where you are if you can get a job anywhere. I have a BS and JD and I can't even get hired at Wal-Mart.

And most people don't advance. If that were the case, the store would eventually be all managers, right? In very poor cities, you are lucky to even be able to get hired at a place like Wal-Mart at all and school is never an option for some people

 

[HoundedByHounds]

when my dh managed a Target he said the turnover was simply staggering. Very few people advanced because very few felt coming to work was a priority LOL.

 

[~Jessie~]

I've never met a friendly worker at our Walmart. They never say a word to you there. I've yet to have a cashier who has said anything.

 

[~Jessie~]

when my dh managed a Target he said the turnover was simply staggering. Very few people advanced because very few felt coming to work was a priority LOL.

LOL yeah, that's how it was at Publix. So many people would just not show up to work.

 

[HoundedByHounds]

I prefer that to the ones who want to talk to you...ENDLESSLY...usually while the people behind you give YOU dirty looks like you made them talk to ya LOL.

 

[jammer]

I believe Wal-Mart should pay their employees enough to live without having to look to the Govt for help. Is it a hard job? No. Is Wal-Mart suffering? No. Would they suffer if they paid their employees a little more? No.

 

[HoundedByHounds]

I have no problem with the idea of a living wage. I don't know if it will ever become an across the board reality tho.

 

[~Jessie~]

What do you consider a "living wage?"

 

[Lilavati]

There's definately some truth in both sides to the story. People who are well-off (or at least comfortable), and have always been so, often have no concept of just how HARD it can be to survive, find a job, go to school, etc. This was impressed upon me, coming from a well-off family, when I went through a phase of being really, really poor. I could not impress upon my mother the concept of "no money" as in "no money, none, at all, not sure how to pay for groceries, not a cent, no money whatsoever." She literallly couldn't understand. She's been through phases in her life when she was not rich, but never one in which she was really POOR. Likewise, people often don't understand that a college degree, even a professional degree, doesn't mean that jobs fall into your lap . . . indeed, it can make sure you CAN'T get a job. One of my problems when I was "poor" was that I couldn't find any job that would take me . . . I had no experience, but was overeducated for jobs that required no experience.

The counter is that you will often have no chance of doing anything but scanning groceries unless you go to college, because the assumption is that if you didn't go to college you are a worthless slacker. Never mind you can't afford it and don't have a use for it. The result is a generation saddled with debts that they can't pay and an education they neither needed or wanted. And this even effects graduate degrees. I keep urging people NOT to go to law school unless they can get into and do well in the top 10-top 20 schools, unless they honestly have a calling. Because law school is a ticket to deep debt, and outside of the tier where I work, ever crappier pay. The same is true of many other advanced degrees.

It can be very rough to have one of those jobs . . . and very hard to escape. On the other hand, the idea that you "need" a cell phone, cable, etc . . . often leads to people not saving money to build opportunities for themselves. On the other hand to that, health care, rent, etc, can make it impossible to afford anything. I could blather on, but I'm not making much sense.


I don't know. Its not a simple answer with a pat solution, which is where BOTH political parties get it wrong. Sound bites don't solve real life, complex problems. The Republicians are often off in their own little world, with no concept of how rough it can be, and, bluntly, contempt for those who have it rough. The Democrats spend much of their time whining on the behalf of the poor, without demanding that people take a role in solving their own problems. Both parties are wrong.

 

[Pam111]

One of my problems when I was "poor" was that I couldn't find any job that would take me . . . I had no experience, but was overeducated for jobs that required no experience.

Exactly, I was dead serious when I said that I can't get a job at Wal-Mart (or Target or Petsmart or anything at all). All I want is a part-time job while I am in school but because of my extensive education and the fact that my last 2 jobs were "professional" jobs at law offices, I cannot get hired anywhere. I can't work at a law job right now because none of them are part time, weekend or evening jobs. I want to save some money, pay off some loans and credit cards, and I just can't. I'm not above working at Wal-Mart or a gas station but they won't even give me an interview

I'm also in the position where after 9 years of school (after I am done with the MSW in 2 years), I will be looking at making around 30,000. Yes, that was my choice and my fault since I should have just gone into something like the medical field where I'd make more money, but really, it is kind of sad.

Oh yeah, another thing, I actually qualify for Medicaid right now and probably WIC and probably even food stamps, yet I graduated law school and undergrad Summa Cum Laude. Education doesn't always equal having money

 

[Sweet72947]

For people who can't afford school, there are many scholarships available. Its not hard to apply for them, you just need to do a little research. I could never get one though, my parents make too much money. Many universities (especially community colleges - but the scholarships don't have to be used there) keep huge books of scholarships in their financial aid or counseling offices. All you need to do is walk in and ask.

I feel ya about not being able to get a job anywhere. My job is ending at GMU and I've been trying to look for somewhere to hire me so that I can make money, any money! But no dice. I applied at Wegmans, they didn't want me. *sniff*

 

[Jules]

The system does suck. I never expected to live and actually go to college here, and neither did my parents. I never saved one dime for college my whole life. But then again, I was raised on the concept that you can buy what you can pay for, pretty much. So I am going to school little by little, I try to find jobs with tuition assistance (even a part-time job at UPS) and I work my way there. I will not get out of school being $30k or more in debt. I just couldn't do it.

My rant is over.

 

[ACooper]

I'll join your rant with one of my own. It never ceases to bother me when people claim they have no money but eat out all the time, have a cell phone, computer AND internet access...cable TV and usually...at least one pair of authentic Crocs. LOL.

We have debt but we are not mired in it. I did not attend college and dh did...his JOB paid for the MBA ge got and his parents paid for the first round of college.

I have come to the belief that it's really not the man or the system so much as people's own inherent wish to do as little as possible and get as much as possible. That is not really a person thing either...it's an animal thing. Why walk over there to eat if there is food here? When the food runs out where you are standing...THEN you move...lol.

I dunno...no answers here....we just do what we can to instill a work ethic and regard for education, and concepts of fiscal responsibility, in our wee ones...

OMG! I can totally join this rant! LOL......

We have friends, the man works a REALLY good paying job, the wife works TWO good paying jobs, one part time and one on commission. ON TOP OF THAT, her sister won the big lotto drawing a few years back (I mean BIG) and set it up where each of her family members get a HUGE check every year (our friends included since that is her sister)

They have 3 children.

They CONSTANTLY have bill collectors calling them, they have had things repossessed, have had to go to court a couple times over non payment.

HOW does that happen? It just blows my mind over the obvious wastefulness! They don't live in a mansion or anything..........they have a house smaller than ours!!

It makes me wonder if they are being blackmailed by someone or something, ROFL..........I mean, how big do cell phone bills have to be to cause THAT kind of spending?

The system does suck. I never expected to live and actually go to college here, and neither did my parents. I never saved one dime for college my whole life. But then again, I was raised on the concept that you can buy what you can pay for, pretty much. So I am going to school little by little, I try to find jobs with tuition assistance (even a part-time job at UPS) and I work my way there. I will not get out of school being $30k or more in debt. I just couldn't do it.

My rant is over.

Yep, there is ALWAYS a way if you are motivated

We live within our means and save up for things we want. There are all kinds of things I (and the kids) would LOVE to have, places we would like to go, but being as debt free as possible is priority number one to us.

 

[sparks19]

I believe Wal-Mart should pay their employees enough to live without having to look to the Govt for help. Is it a hard job? No. Is Wal-Mart suffering? No. Would they suffer if they paid their employees a little more? No.

but that is subjective. How much does it take to LIVE? All you HAVE to pay is rent, food and taxes. but how many of those who are on welfare while working at Walmart have cable, internet, etc etc? I worked an $8 an hour job and lived in a $1000 a month apartment. I was able to have cable and internet because my dad moved into the extra room after he sold his house and paid half the rent... but if he hadn't I wouldn't have been able to have all the extras.

I think that's the problem with welfare... they just hand out a check for the recipients to do as they please with. They should send a rent check directly to the apartment complex or mortgage company to pay their rent... issue a check for the utilities (heat, electricity, water) written out to the actual companies and NOT the recipient. and then they can get food stamps. Cars, cable, internet etc etc can be paid with any money they EARN at Walmart.

Walmart isn't the only place that pays minimum wage. There are LOTS of places that pay minimum wage and they shouldn't HAVE to pay more. I will never understand how anyone thinks that raising minimum wage will help anyone. All that will happen then is the companies will raise their prices to pay for the extra cost. Increase minimum wage... increase prices.

 

[Pam111]

Getting actual cash assistance is not at all common--at least in neither state I have lived in. Food stamps, Medicaid, sometimes subsidized housing, daycare assistance are pretty much what people qualify for. To qualify for Medicaid here you can only make 700 dollars a month. I don't know if most people have a real sense of the poverty level it takes to get on welfare

 

[sparks19]

Getting actual cash assistance is not at all common--at least in neither state I have lived in. Food stamps, Medicaid, sometimes subsidized housing, daycare assistance are pretty much what people qualify for. To qualify for Medicaid here you can only make 700 dollars a month. I don't know if most people have a real sense of the poverty level it takes to get on welfare

I don't know... back home a friend of mine had two children and was on welfare (she's not on it anymore). She got a CHECK every month for $2000