Working people are the welfare queens now.
Posted by: Donna
Since reading the comments at azcentral is my new favorite hobby, of course I’ve run across a few that have me pondering at length. This exchange is from Wednesday:
Arizona97: Voting to hike the minimum wage may make you feel good, but it hurts people like teenagers just trying to make a little spending money.
Me: The majority of people making minimum wage are over 21 and supporting themselves and families. Go to a typical fast food restaurant at lunch time on a school day and you are not being waited on by a teenager.
Arizona97: I made minimum wage once, I now make more then minimum wage, the government did not make my employers pay me more. I think minimum wage laws are fine but they need to allow for entry level jobs. I don’t want your heart strings making it difficult for people to get an entry level job and for business owners that rely on them. If someone is working a mininum wage job for years and trying to support a family we shouldn’t punish everyone else because this person can’t help themselves.
Wait a minute. Isn’t a person who is working, even if for minimum wage, working? This person isn’t on welfare. How did we get to the point where people in service jobs are viewed as losers who don’t deserve a modicum of dignity and a living wage? Over the years, I’ve encountered a lot of people who vote Republican because of their fervent belief that 95% of government spending goes to lazy welfare recipients but now it seems this has has morphed into a disdain for all people who can’t make enough to sustain a middle class lifestyle, no matter how hard they work. I sense that this vile attitude is especially pronounced in places like Arizona with a high unskilled immigrant population and a large wealth disparity. The irony is that the less people make, the more likely they are to rely on things like food stamps and Medicaid. Which makes people like Arizona97 hate them even more and vote for Republicans who will cut their meager benefits. This will supposedly “motivate” them to improve their lot. Meanwhile, the plutocrats who tug so poignantly at Arizona97′s heartstrings with their bullhockey about teenage workers and the poor small business owners will continue to drive down everyone’s wages and help themselves to what’s left of the wealth of the middle class.
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The normal LTTE’s are bad enough, but the comments. Eeeeeek!
Don’t care to join the AZ Repub choir?
“Cut taxes,cut taxes, cut taxes!”
Which cuts spending on education. Which means students aren’t as well educated. Which means lower paying jobs. Which means less spending. Which means less sales tax . Brilliant strategy! Taxes are cut.
This is basically a resurgence of what was the norm back at the turn of the last century. Social Darwinism is back baby!
The working poor should pay higher taxes than the wealthy too. This will motivate them to become rich.
I made minimum wage once, I now make more then minimum wage, the government did not make my employers pay me more.
This is a horrible run-on sentence connected by not one, but two comma splices. We also see the word ‘then’ used rather than the word, ‘than.’
There are other examples as well of the fact that apparently the commenter has already suffered from the effects of tax cuts on schools and developed a weak writing style as a result.