Quote:
Originally Posted by GirlySports
The bigger question is why is the poverty line in Calgary $17? That's $35,000? per year fulltime? Why is Calgary so expensive? We're not Manhattan. Are we just killing ourselves?
When we were kids, minimum wage jobs were never intended to be a career. It was for teenagers, like us, to get work experience and then move on to a career, both blue and white collar.. So what happened? Did Calgary grow too fast? More people than jobs? Is the top pushing everyone down?
|
Perhaps you were a bit naive and didn't know about the people struggling to make ends meet, requiring on social services and donations? More and more companies taking advantage of workers by paying them the absolute legal minimum? It's not a secret that more and more people are making minimum wage, doubling over the last 20 years in Canada.
It doesn't really matter. The point is that at minimum wage isn't enough for most people to get out of poverty, and people in poverty come with their own costs to society (so even if someone wants to be heartless and doesn't care about the individuals, there's still merit in trying to end poverty). Poverty comes with higher healthcare concerns, more social services required, and no real ability to get out of the cycle when higher-wage jobs require post-secondary schooling or training that those in poverty can't afford or have time for. It's not a surprise that the biggest influence on success is how successful your parents are.
I also think people have a difference of what UBI means. If you're talking about only non-workers, or lowest 10% getting it, you're missing the universal part in my opinion. It's just a wealth redistribution as far as I'm concerned, and I'm happy with that. If people think someone should remain poor because their parents were poor, I question their integrity, and yet we know that's the case 99% of time with the current set up.