Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by BigThief

There is nothing embarrassing about an honest days work. Do you look down on the Wendy's workers when you get your 3rd double baconator of the day?

Never said there was!

Don't think i have ever had a double baconator in my life.

Originally Posted by BigThief

People use minimum wage jobs to further themselves and if they can do that while making closer to a living wage I'm all for that. Having a stagnant minimum wage since.. 2017? Is pretty gross. The fear mongering that happened back then was funny, no business closed due to it as far I can tell.

Thanks tips.
Minimum wage will never be a living wage over the long term, the minimun wage purchasing power will always erode over time.
Look up wage-push inflation

Originally Posted by BigThief

There is also people in our society who can't further themselves, for some they push themselves to get a high school education, to function day-to-day. A minimum wage that followed closer to inflation would assure they're less reliant on goverment programs to make ends meet.

Which is i why i said ABLE.

[BigThief]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

Thanks tips.
Minimum wage will never be a living wage over the long term, the minimun wage purchasing power will always erode over time.
Look up wage-push inflation.

There are an endless amount of reasons for inflation. Raising the minimum wage might be one, near the bottom, of a very long list. Inflation has exploded across this country in the last six years, minimum wage has remained totally and completely stagnant. So let's stop blaming the low level working class.

A living wage in Calgary is estimated to be close to $23-$24 bucks, I'm not even pushing for that. I do think this province could do with another hard push like we did in 2018 however, probably a harder push. For all the doom and gloom from the corporate world of Calgary I'm not sure we saw any business close due to it, or any significant rise of inflation. It was a lot of hot air for nothibg.

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by BigThief

There are an endless amount of reasons for inflation. Raising the minimum wage might be one, near the bottom, of a very long list. Inflation has exploded across this country in the last six years, minimum wage has remained totally and completely stagnant. So let's stop blaming the low level working class.

You really are number one at putting words in other peoples mouths. At no point did i ever ever ever say that raising the min wage has anything to do with the inflation that occured post pandemic.

My argument is that no matter how hard you try and make the min wage a living wage it would never work over the long term because of wage-push inflation.

wage-push inflation, occurs when higher wages increase production costs, which can lead to higher prices for goods and services. Over time, this can erode the purchasing power of the increased minimum wage, creating a cycle where the wage loses its intended value.

Originally Posted by BigThief

A living wage in Calgary is estimated to be close to $23-$24 bucks, I'm not even pushing for that. I do think this province could do with another hard push like we did in 2018 however, probably a harder push. For all the doom and gloom from the corporate world of Calgary I'm not sure we saw any business close due to it, or any significant rise of inflation. It was a lot of hot air for nothibg.

I don't think you could ever pinpoint a business closing down due to a min wage increase. But you will have a combination of job loses, price raises and hours potentially cut back. There will be some kind of reaction to it. If a business closes down and blames it on a min wage hike there was probably a list of other factors that led to it

[BigThief]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

You really are number one at putting words in other peoples mouths
My argument is that no matter how hard you try and make the min wage a living wage it would never work over the long term because of wage-push inflation.

Well if I'm number one, you're definitely a big ol' number two Mel, and I mean that genuinely.

I'm talking about raising the minimum wage, not bumping it ten dollars to what some estimate would be a living wage.

[Amethyst]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

Take care of me goverment !!!!!!!!!!!!!

What should be embarrassing is working a minimum wage job

What should be embarrassing is punching down.

I hope you're not supporting any businesses that pay minimum wage, because using people's labour while telling them they should be embarrassed for doing that work is pretty disgusting.

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by BigThief

Well if I'm number one, you're definitely a big ol' number two Mel, and I mean that genuinely.

I'm talking about raising the minimum wage, not bumping it ten dollars to what some estimate would be a living wage.

Thank pal! No shame losing to the best

Well it will be raised eventually but I wouldn't count on it anytime soon.

Craving a double baconator for some reason...

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by Amethyst

What should be embarrassing is punching down.

I hope you're not supporting any businesses that pay minimum wage, because using people's labour while telling them they should be embarrassed for doing that work is pretty disgusting.

Yes wishing people would try and better themselves than relying on the goverment how digusting. lol

Do you want them to just rely on the goverment to give them a big raise every 12 years?

[BigThief]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

Thank pal! No shame losing to the best

It was a poop joke, and you thanked me.

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by BigThief

It was a poop joke, and you thanked me.

Nothing wrong with a good poop joke!

[MRCboicgy]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

Take care of me goverment !!!!!!!!!!!!!

What should be embarrassing is working a minimum wage job

How about taking some time away from these threads for a bit after this post. Thx.

[Harry Lime]

I've never wished for somebody to fall on hard times, and have to start over, before. It could really happen to anybody. And then a 'real people' style Christmas special made of a year of their life, where they learn special lessons.

But here we are.

[Amethyst]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

Yes wishing people would try and better themselves than relying on the goverment how digusting. lol

Laughing at people and telling them they should be embarrassed about their jobs isn't how I wish someone well.

Shaming people is not an effective way to motivate them to follow your wishes.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

All of them. We have the lowest minimum wage in the country GGG.



What does that have to do with the value you are receiving for your labour?

The comment made was that the UCP are ensuring that we remain a great province to work in. So even by your metric of strictly comparing it to cost of living they have failed at that because in 2019 we had the highest minimum wage AND a lower cost of living compared to other provinces.

While there are definitely great jobs here, when you compare what lower paid workers receive here and the protections they have with the other provinces there isn’t a whole lot “great” to brag about regarding working in Alberta these days.

The value of your labour is the goods and services it can buy where you reside. To not compare minimum wage and cost of living ignores what moneys function is. To exchange the product of your labour for the products of someone else’s labour.

I wasn’t really interested in the UCP comment. I just thought it was an interesting thought exercise to evaluate where is the best place to be working for minimum wage. I think the best metric would be the % delta between living wage and minimum wage but that doesn’t factor in benefits from the government.

The bigger issue is that Alberta hasn’t passed auto updating minimum wages like B.C. Ontario and a few of the maritimes. It ends debate on the problem.

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by Amethyst

Laughing at people and telling them they should be embarrassed about their jobs isn't how I wish someone well.

Shaming people is not an effective way to motivate them to follow your wishes.

That isn't what i said.
You'd be suprise what motivates people.

[D as in David]

Let's reduce our provincial politicians' compensation to minimum wage so they are motivated to better themselves. Win/win.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

Take care of me goverment !!!!!!!!!!!!!

What should be embarrassing is working a minimum wage job

Originally Posted by Amethyst

Laughing at people and telling them they should be embarrassed about their jobs isn't how I wish someone well.



Shaming people is not an effective way to motivate them to follow your wishes.

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

That isn't what i said.

You'd be suprise what motivates people.

That was exactly what you said! You forgot what you said mere hours ago?

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by GGG

The value of your labour is the goods and services it can buy where you reside. To not compare minimum wage and cost of living ignores what moneys function is. To exchange the product of your labour for the products of someone else’s labour.

Yeah, I thought that was kind of an odd thing to say. A minimum wage is deemed to be insufficient on the very basis of the cost of living in that region in which said minimum wage is legislated. If everything today still cost what it did circa 1990, we wouldn't be having the conversation.

While $15 CAD/hour is not a hell of a lot here, to someone living in Mexico where the monthly gross living wage is 13,177 MXN or $905 CAD, a full-timer earning $15/hour is at nearly triple a living wage -- of course, Mexico's actual minimum wage is just shy of $20 CAD a day. The concept of a "living wage" itself is completely meaningless if you don't consider cost of living necessary in its calculation.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by GGG

The value of your labour is the goods and services it can buy where you reside. To not compare minimum wage and cost of living ignores what moneys function is. To exchange the product of your labour for the products of someone else’s labour.

I wasn’t really interested in the UCP comment. I just thought it was an interesting thought exercise to evaluate where is the best place to be working for minimum wage. I think the best metric would be the % delta between living wage and minimum wage but that doesn’t factor in benefits from the government.

The bigger issue is that Alberta hasn’t passed auto updating minimum wages like B.C. Ontario and a few of the maritimes. It ends debate on the problem.

Let’s keep the debate going shall we?

Can you explain why you believe that by not increasing the minimum wage the standard of living for workers earning minimum in this province hasn’t taken a bigger hit when compared to the other provinces that have increased their minimum wage?

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

Nope but they set it....

I would not want to have the goverment set my wage every 15 years lol.

Are you equally opposed to government intervention when it benefits employers?

[GGG]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

Let’s keep the debate going shall we?

Can you explain why you believe that by not increasing the minimum wage the standard of living for workers earning minimum in this province hasn’t taken a bigger hit when compared to the other provinces that have increased their minimum wage?

I think you are trying to have a different conversation than I am.