# 25 cents an hour



## stayingthegame (Mar 22, 2011)

this person claims than in a study that Americans will work for 25 cents an hour. :scratch you need to read the comments people have left!! news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110620/us_yblog_thelookout/some-americans-will-work-for-25-cents-an-hour-experiment-shows


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## Jimmy24 (Apr 20, 2011)

Tried the ip addr you put in. Can't get it to work...

Jimmy


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## Dixie (Sep 20, 2010)

It worked fine for me but you do have to use the whole sentence: news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110620/us_yblog_thelookout/some-americans-will-work-for-25-cents-an-hour-experiment-shows


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## Jimmy24 (Apr 20, 2011)

Dixie said:


> It worked fine for me but you do have to use the whole sentence: news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110620/us_yblog_thelookout/some-americans-will-work-for-25-cents-an-hour-experiment-shows


Yep got it on 3 rd try....

Jimmy


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## Davo45 (Apr 29, 2011)

I don't know who they were talking to, but it wasn't anybody I know.


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## PamsPride (Dec 21, 2010)

I swear that is about all people think teenagers are worth! My kids can bust their butts for an entire day and only get $5-$10! Or just lunch! The church sometimes thinks they are obligated to work for nothing...I mean 'volunteer'! 
(Disclaimer: I did not read the article.)


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## power (May 7, 2011)

I read the article. Wasn't much there to read.
I have worked for 25 cents an hour before. Got a raise and doubled my wages, a whole 50 cents an hour. Wasn't long before it doubled again.
A person will work for a lot less than many might think. That doesn't mean you have to make a career out of it. When you are hungry, no place to live, and no money you will take what you can get.
Not very many people ever get in that shape anymore with all of the govt. programs available.


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## TheAnt (Jun 7, 2011)

power said:


> I read the article. Wasn't much there to read.
> I have worked for 25 cents an hour before. Got a raise and doubled my wages, a whole 50 cents an hour. Wasn't long before it doubled again.
> A person will work for a lot less than many might think. That doesn't mean you have to make a career out of it. When you are hungry, no place to live, and no money you will take what you can get.
> Not very many people ever get in that shape anymore with all of the govt. programs available.


Definitely true. My first job was 1$ an hour working for my dad and his partner. Wasnt long before his partner appreciated the work I was doing and felt bad for paying me so little that he pitched in a dollar as well. The only reason I wouldnt work for 25¢ an hour is because I can find a job making more. If I had to I would work for whatever the pay was.


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## BillM (Dec 29, 2010)

*I dug ditches*

I dug ditches for 25 cents per hour.

I worked for a country club as a greens keepers asst.

I was fifteen years old it was 1964.

I was so good at digging ditches that I was given a ten cent raise an d put in charge of four other guys also working for 25 cents per hour.

They added nine new holes to the course and we dug the irrigation water line ditches between the greens and tee's.

To put things in perspective, 25 cents would buy a gallon of gasoline in 1964.

Me and my crew all played varsity football and we kept in condition by digging ditches while we were out of school for the summer.

Three hours work would pay for a date !

I paid for my first car with money I saved working that summer.

It would be illegal now so If I was fifteen now, I would just have to rely on mom and dad for my spending money and some union equipment opperator would dig the ditches we dug in 1964.


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

If need be I sure would, I’d work for whatever the prevailing wage was. That is how the job market is supposed to work, who is willing to do what job for what price, not having a set minimum wage to artificially inflate prices. Say there is a job today digging a ditch. The owner says he is willing to pay $0.25/hr to labor. No one applies for the job so he ups the wage to $0.50. No applicants so it is now a $0.75 job. He might get 2 folks applying but he needs 10 workers so he offers the job at $1.00. At that price he finds 10 workers willing to do the job, which makes it a $1.00/hr job. Take something like picking fruit. The manager NEEDS to have his fruit picked and must pay a wage that someone is willing to do the work for. If he offers $1.00/hr and no one applies his fruit rots and he makes no money. If there is an abundance of labor willing to do the job for $0.50/hr then it is a $0.50/hr job.

But how would I feed my family when I make $1.00/hr?!??? Well, prices fluctuate according to labor. And of course folks screwing with our monetary system and others making it more profitable to NOT work than to work but that is out of our control. Remember hearing about ‘the good old days’ when a loaf of bread costs $0.10, gas was $0.05/gallon or a new car was $400.00? That is because that is what the market bore. Folks made $2.00/day but the cost of living accommodated that and you could live a reasonable existence. When an outside force steps in and dictates that no one can make less than $5.00/hr that ditch is going to be way more expensive to dig. Whoever is going to use it must increase their price to pay for the extra labor and whoever the final consumer is, pays that cost.

Back in my previous life I have sold items for less than I paid for them simply because the market was not there anymore. I might have $100.00 into something but the market will only bear $75.00 so now it is a $75.00 item not a $100.00 item. Sure I could hold onto it and wait until the price meets my demands but I need to eat and keep warm (and pay my extortion… errr... I mean taxes). Same as when I had a wood shop. I might have 100 hours into something but the market will only bear $300.00 for the item, my labor was worth $3.00/hr NOT the $50.00/hr I THINK it is worth.

Unfortunately we have regressed from this model being feasible today. Wall Street artificially inflates prices on everything and they FEEL they are worth millions of dollars a year to do it. Every trade Wall Street makes increases the price of whatever higher as they take their cut. Someone buys 1 million bushels of corn for $10 each and offers it at $11 per bushel. No one buys but all the other traders who hold corn look and say ‘hrmm, mine is worth $11 too’. Suddenly all corn on the market is now selling for $11 a bushel because that is the set price! So they make 1 dollar per bushel on the trade and cereal goes up $0.25 a box at the stores. No real product was created, no jobs created (except for the Wall Street crook), no actual wealth created only an increase in the price of a consumer good. So think on that when you hear about bankers or traders salaries and bonuses, that money is what is driving the consumer prices we all pay. They never even saw or touched the corn; it was a computer screen transaction. Back in the day a farmer would set the price. He needs to get $10.00/bushel to break even so asks $11.00 so he can make a profit. Next year is a banner year, an abundance of corn and he can sell it for $8.00 and still make a profit. If a farmer down the road wants more per bushel he will have to wait until the first farmer sells all his corn then the market will meet his price or drop his price and become more efficient at growing corn or grow something else that no one in the area is growing and set your own price.

Don’t get me wrong on investing. Wall Street used to actually reflect the economy and worth of companies. If a company was doing well, their stock price went up, if they have a bad year the price (and dividends also) goes down. Look at what happened to silver in the 80’s I believe it was. Market manipulation!

Sorry for the ramble.


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## TheAnt (Jun 7, 2011)

No objections here to your rambling, you are right on the mark! It was as if you had been reading my mind! :congrat:


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## Davo45 (Apr 29, 2011)

If the dollar were worth anywhere close to a dollar like it was in the early 1960's I'd have worked for 25 cents per hour, but not today unless I were at home doing it. 25 cents per hour is more than nothing per hour, it's just that I know how to make more, so why would I work for less? 

I volunteer regularly with my church, lodge and other civic/charitable groups and don't expect to receive any pay for it, it's called volunteer work for a reason.


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## CulexPipiens (Nov 17, 2010)

Woody... you beat me to it. My reply pretty much echos yours.

Although to add... in the right(wrong?) situation, people will do almost anything. In a true collapse, I see people turning down jobs that pay money in favor of jobs that pay in tangible goods. Sure I can work all day and get $3 for my effors however if there isn't anything (food) to buy with those $3 it really doesn't matter how much I make. Now if instead you'll pay me a cup of rice per hour and my family needs to eat... which job would you take?


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## TrackerRat (Mar 24, 2011)

Its not the wages its the cost of living. 25 cents an hour today you will have better luck walking around looking for pop cans and change on the ground.


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

CulexPipiens said:


> Woody... you beat me to it. My reply pretty much echos yours.
> 
> Although to add... in the right(wrong?) situation, people will do almost anything. In a true collapse, I see people turning down jobs that pay money in favor of jobs that pay in tangible goods. Sure I can work all day and get $3 for my effors however if there isn't anything (food) to buy with those $3 it really doesn't matter how much I make. Now if instead you'll pay me a cup of rice per hour and my family needs to eat... which job would you take?


Not long ago, I read an article of where we're headed in the NWO directive..or where they want to take us..the idea is to create a world/global economy in which all employees are equal; however the model is China...they wish to take the economy to the position that if you don't want the job offered for $2 a day...there will be 2000 outside waiting to say yes.

This is what scares me-- as much as no vitamin c in my preps and getting scurvy.


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## stayingthegame (Mar 22, 2011)

when I started working, i would baby sit four kids make lunch or dinner and clean up for .50 hr. gas was only .25 cents a gallon. my first "real" job i got .95 hr. That was still three gallons of gas per hour of work. I could buy shrimp from the fisher man for .25 to .50 cents a pound. the worth of a dollar is much lower today than in the sixties and seventies. if gas is 3.75 a gallon then min wage should be at least 10.00 to 12.00 dollars an hour. If companies want to charge the prices they do, then wages need to reflect the same amounts, otherwise who can afford to buy from them?


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## BillS (May 30, 2011)

stayingthegame said:


> this person claims than in a study that Americans will work for 25 cents an hour. :scratch you need to read the comments people have left!! news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110620/us_yblog_thelookout/some-americans-will-work-for-25-cents-an-hour-experiment-shows


I doubt it. Recently I ran an ad on Craigslist. I wanted someone with a trailer to pick up some plywood for me at Home Depot. It would be about 15 miles round trip. I offered to pay $20 but got no takers.


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## power (May 7, 2011)

BillS said:


> I doubt it. Recently I ran an ad on Craigslist. I wanted someone with a trailer to pick up some plywood for me at Home Depot. It would be about 15 miles round trip. I offered to pay $20 but got no takers.


You were limiting your offer to work.
Not all people have a trailer so those who didn't have one couldn't apply for the job.
Some people work during the hours Home Depot would be open.
Even though the trip is only 15 miles roundtrip you would have to figure in the time it would take to get the job done. Figure in the fuel cost.


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## TechAdmin (Oct 1, 2008)

A few of those countries have over done social programs, so what will you take to work if you can do nothing and get more?

We have the freedom to fail, it means, among other things we are industrious and willing.


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## BillS (May 30, 2011)

power said:


> You were limiting your offer to work.
> Not all people have a trailer so those who didn't have one couldn't apply for the job.
> Some people work during the hours Home Depot would be open.
> Even though the trip is only 15 miles roundtrip you would have to figure in the time it would take to get the job done. Figure in the fuel cost.


Even if the gas was $5 and it took two hours it's still $7.50 an hour for two hours.


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## power (May 7, 2011)

BillS said:


> Even if the gas was $5 and it took two hours it's still $7.50 an hour for two hours.


But you are limiting your hiring to only those who own a trailer and vehicle to tow it. Those are the ones who can usually demand a better pay. Lower pay is for those with no trailer, vehicle.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

stayingthegame said:


> if gas is 3.75 a gallon then min wage should be at least 10.00 to 12.00 dollars an hour. If companies want to charge the prices they do, then wages need to reflect the same amounts, otherwise who can afford to buy from them?


I'll leave the negotiation of what people pay for goods or services to the parties involved & the govt & everyone else should keep their noses out of it. Supply & demand will balance things out. Thanks to the unemployment rate, the supply of labor is higher than the demand so our wages will reflect that. For a lot of years, wages were high, folks were making really good money & unemployment was low. The price of goods is going up because of govt manipulating the currency & devaluing the currency. More govt involvement is never the answer.


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## Clarice (Aug 19, 2010)

Who knows what we would consider a good wage if our children were hungry.


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## CulexPipiens (Nov 17, 2010)

BillS said:


> I doubt it. Recently I ran an ad on Craigslist. I wanted someone with a trailer to pick up some plywood for me at Home Depot. It would be about 15 miles round trip. I offered to pay $20 but got no takers.


Just rent the Home Depot truck. Around here it's about $20 for 75 mintues and then $10 for each additional hour. I picked it up one afternoon and kept it for quite awhile. Total bill was $52 and I got a bunch of different "truck required" errands done that day. Worst case they also have a day rate that I think is $60 for the whole day.


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## Jimmy24 (Apr 20, 2011)

Mom tells a story of when she was a kid in OK/TX. Her family and my grandmother's sisters family all moved together from OK to El Paso. My grandfather and his BIL had been making $1 a day between the two of them. dawn to dusk days in OK....dust bowl/depression days...they felt lucky to get that...but when they moved to El Paso they got a raise to $2 a day for each of them and only 10 hr days!!! 

Mom says her mom and sister talked about what they would do with all the extra money!!!!

My dad's dad worked as a mechanic and traded labor for food...

We are spoiled IMO.....


Jimmy


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## power (May 7, 2011)

Jimmy24 said:


> Mom tells a story of when she was a kid in OK/TX. Her family and my grandmother's sisters family all moved together from OK to El Paso. My grandfather and his BIL had been making $1 a day between the two of them. dawn to dusk days in OK....dust bowl/depression days...they felt lucky to get that...but when they moved to El Paso they got a raise to $2 a day for each of them and only 10 hr days!!!
> 
> Mom says her mom and sister talked about what they would do with all the extra money!!!!
> 
> ...


You are right. To buy what that $2/day would buy back then you would need to make $48,000 a year now, at least. Back then we didn't live on credit cards. Back then not many people went into debt to impress their neighbors. Back then people paid their bills.


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## TheAnt (Jun 7, 2011)

tsrwivey said:


> I'll leave the negotiation of what people pay for goods or services to the parties involved & the govt & everyone else should keep their noses out of it. Supply & demand will balance things out. Thanks to the unemployment rate, the supply of labor is higher than the demand so our wages will reflect that. For a lot of years, wages were high, folks were making really good money & unemployment was low. The price of goods is going up because of govt manipulating the currency & devaluing the currency. More govt involvement is never the answer.


All too true... if you rely on the government you are going to get yourself and everyone else screwed. Let nature take its course -- supply and demand!


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