How Much Fast Food Workers Earn In Every State

That is a fun comparison. My town also had a hospital, plus numerous doctor's offices and quick clinics. Medical care is actually readily available in most American cities and towns. The difference is that the individual being treated is expected to pay for whatever care they need, it isn't paid for by taxes. I've heard that misconception from some of my colleagues here. The way Americans argue about medical care it makes it sound like it isn't readily available. It is about as available as what I've seen in Europe. There are about as many hospitals and doctors, and they are actually almost as close by. Some remote areas my only have a doctor's office, or may be a half-hour drive from a hospital, but overall it is about the same.

The healthcare argument in the US is about who should pay for care, not about the existence of that care.

Still, I'm liking my life in Europe. I've traveled all over the area, seeing many different countries and sights most of my friends will never see. I'm loving the laid back lifestyle and how convenient it is to bike and run. I enjoy the numerous festivals and markets, going to them very regularly. I actually seem to travel a lot more than my local colleagues and neighbors - I've seen more places in a couple years here than some have seen in their lifetimes. Having everything so close makes it really easy to see all kinds of places and do a lot of traveling. Purchasing things may be more expensive, but I can usually get around that by ordering things from the US or simply by not paying VAT. Between that savings and the reduced taxes I pay, I find that my very average American pay ends up leaving me far better off than many locals here.

It is a different lifestyle and environment, and I will enjoy it for as long as I get to stay here. Eventually I'll move back, but this will be fun while it lasts.

Anyway, I think I've let us derail this thread long enough. I've enjoyed chatting about this with you, but we probably should get back to the topic. Thanks for the great dialogue.

 

Keep on thinkin that I guess.

Not exactly sure how you figure to measure the change in utility value of a minimum wage worker when the investor in question is supposedly the federal government. He was talking about welfare, not some sort of increased return from the employer's obligation to pay a higher wage...

 

the gov only decided the min you can pay someone for an hours work... if you as a employer only want to pay the min, that is between you and your employees

 

The minimum wage is always zero. Liberals in the government fool themselves into thinking that by raising minimum wage they somehow affect value for everyone. It's easy to do when you don't care about results and you do care about optics, perception, and feelings.

It's exactly like tweeting #bringbackourgirls to feel like you're helping Islamic sex slaves. It costs nothing to you and you can say you did something. The reality is that you did nothing and it had zero impact on whether girls were raped.

The same goes for the minimum wage. At best it costs you nothing and you can say you did something. At worst, you're a union worker just arguing for a raise in your own upper middle class wage. In reality, the bottom stay at the bottom, the top stay at the top, and no buying power changes at all.

In all of New England there's less than 40k people making the Federal minimum wage or less. That's out of about 15 million people. You're going to tell me that all of these people are head of household for families of 4 and somehow you're going to raise them out of poverty with an increase in the minimum wage? Who buys this nonsense?

In all of America there's only 8 states with no minimum or lower minimum wages. Do you know why there's only 40k people in New England? It's because the state minimums are already significantly higher than the Federal minimum, and those people have been exempted from the state regulation. Exempted people aren't affected by minimum wage increases. Ship crew, for example are exempted. Why would they take such terrible pay? Well, because they get 6 month contracts, room and board free, and a ton of hours. You might not want to do it. Some people call it modern slavery. Others are happy to work for a year because at the end they've got a good sized down payment on a house, and they got to see half of the globe.

I am so sick of liberals trying to tell others how life should be. Not every person lives in the neat little ideological boxes you create for them. I don't want to live in your fantasy world. I'm not the only one. Stop trying to force it on us through the power of the Federal government.