West Seattle Blog...

WSB Forum » Open Discussion

1. Jiggers
   Member Profile

   

   There are indicators pointing that we are heading to another double-dip recession here. Lack of real job growth and a weak housing market are just two reasons with many more.

   Posted 11 months ago #         

2. JoB
   Member Profile

   it's possible..
   especially if we join the apathy club and let the GOP roll right over us.

   Posted 11 months ago #         

3. bsmomma
   Member Profile

   

   I think the employers need to make there requirements a bit more reasonable. Who can survive on $9/hr less than 30hours a week? If you want to make $11/hr you have to have tons of experience AND college education.......and per the job postings...."If you don't meet these requirement, Do Not Apply" No Insurance. No retirement. It's very discouraging. People put in 100's a applications a month and are luck if they get a call back. I know that's not the whole problem but I think it's an ingredient........

   Posted 11 months ago #         

4. jamminj
   Member Profile

   so after 'historic cuts', this is the result??? And the GOP want more cuts? so according to Behner, dip in jobs equate to needing more cuts? no thanks if this is the result.

   http://tinyurl.com/3venzvm

   Posted 11 months ago #         

5. JoB
   Member Profile

   "Boner" doesn't have your best interests at heart..
   he still thinks there is more blood to be squeezed from this stone

   Posted 11 months ago #         

6. Cait
   Member Profile

   

   PREACH IT, bsmomma! I remember from my last job search that postings would require a college degree and 5+ years of experience for a $10 an hour job - who the HELL are they kidding?! Even worse were the ones with really stringent and specific criteria and don't feel the need to post how much you'll be making. Like you're supposed to be so thankful to be considered for a job that you just shouldn't care what the pay rate is. It was really really frustrating!

   Posted 11 months ago #         

7. Jiggers
   Member Profile

   

   Wait until we start defaulting on our national debt.

   Posted 11 months ago #         

8. Jiggers
   Member Profile

   

   Regurgitate what I predicted...New fresh news here..

   article,
   http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/23/7921158-investors-fear-governments-cant-stop-new-recession

   Posted 8 months ago #         

9. JoB
   Member Profile

   jiggers...

   you are just a bundle of joy
   i refuse to follow your link until the weekend is over

   the sun is shining
   it's a beautiful day

   go outside and watch the sunlight ripple across the bay :-)

   Posted 8 months ago #         

10. Bostonman
    Member Profile

    Jobs are out there, I just hired someone for $11 per hour. No college degree required. I am also trying to hire someone and paying $80 to 95k a year but alas college and xp required for that one.

    Believe it or not in my profession its hard to find qualified people right now.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

11. TDe
    Member Profile

    Hey Bostanman... what kind of job, experience and degree are you looking for? I know people who are seeking employement.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

12. Jiggers
    Member Profile

    

    $11 and hour is still below poverty level in this city.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

13. Jiggers
    Member Profile

    

    Protests on Wall Street being ignored by mainstream media.

    article,
    http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/145050/occupy-wall-street-protest-being-systematically-ignored-by-mainstream-media/

    Posted 8 months ago #         

14. Smitty
    Member Profile

    I think we should raise the minimum wage to $100/hour. That would solve everything.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

15. Jiggers
    Member Profile

    

    It should be that Smitty. Inflation of food prices is killing people alone. Eating everyday is a top priority. If you can't eat because you can't afford too, you die. It's simple as that.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

16. JoB
    Member Profile

    Smitty..

    did you know that according to the US Agricultural office.. the cost of raising a child has increased by 40% since 2000?

    Wages haven't.

    The working poor are becoming an increasingly larger portion of our society...
    and it's largest impact is on kids.

    I know the current minimum wage sounds high to anyone who can remember when bumping it to $3 was a big deal...
    but i could buy 3 gallons of gas for my dollar then too...

    The cost of gas is 10 times what it was then.. if we are lucky..
    The wages are less than 4 times what they were then.

    you do the math.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

17. Bostonman
    Member Profile

    So you think the minimum wage should be $100 because food prices are high? You guys are funny. What happens when that truck driver making $15 makes $200 and the people packing the food make $150 lol. Seriously, get a grip.

    TDe, Controller, Accounting degree, CPA 15 years experience. Preferably with sopme hedge fund management and law firm experience. That being said, I found a good candidate on Friday.

    Its not a below poverty level wage, its $23k a year for a high school degree and no experience required. Perfect job for a student looking for a little money on the side.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

18. Jiggers
    Member Profile

    

    Bostonman...I guess you didn't see my sarcasm, but if you aren't earning at least $15 an hour today, you should be able to get foodstamps to help make ends meet.... and be able to eat. No shame in eating.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

19. Bostonman
    Member Profile

    Sorry, a little too early for sarcasm for me.

    Honestly, the most I have been out of work in the last 20 years was 5 months a few years back. Other than that I have never been out of work other than vacation. I don't even know what the wage cutoff is to be able to get food stamps. I don't disagree with you though on that front. I think $15 an hour should qualify for food stamps. I think Food stamps and other benefits can phase out as you increase salaries which most don't. Its usually a cuttoff where once you cross a cap you don't get the benefit anymore.

    As an example, I pay $1300 a month for health insurance for my family. If I made $20k less a year I could get it through the state for $20 per person, a difference of about $1200 a month. That $1200 a month is about $15k a year. So, you can see that even though I make that $20k more I truly only get $5k of it because I could qualify for the state insurance.

    Now, I don't sit around and complain about it because I have way to much to be fortunate for and the good in my life far exceeds the bad. The point still stands though that there are barriers in place that make people not want to make more money. Those barriers suck.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

20. redblack
    Member Profile

    

    bostonman: i think a lot of people - including me! - would take umbrage with your implication that people want to stay poor because there's too much free government money to be had. and that they like the income cutoff for government assistance right where it is.

    because there are rotten people in our society, to be sure. but i think the vast majority of the recipients of government assistance would rather be elsewhere.

    hey, by the way, when the economy fattens up again, learning a building trade through a union is also a good entry-level job that will eventually pay from $40 - $60k per year, with benefits, at full employment. no college required. just a driver's license and a high-school degree or GED equivalent.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

21. Bostonman
    Member Profile

    I agree, little known secret. I went to Lynn Vocational Technical Institute in Lynn Mass and was a licensed electrician before I went back to college at night.

    It took me about 10 years of working as an accountant to get back to what I made as an electrician. That being said, out of the 60 or so people who graduated in my electrical class only 5 went on to be electricians. So, while you can learn a trade it doesn't mean you will make money at it.

    I don't think anyone wants to be poor as you put it. My statement is still true that government assistance is a behavior modifier in a negative way. If I go over that amount and lose benefits its like taking a pay cut.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

22. kootchman
    Member Profile

    As long as we have the long tail of citizens who believe that a dollar taken is returned at less than 40 cents on the dollar, and of that... over a third is on the national credit card.. we will get poorer and poorer. Your dollar of benefits cost someone in the private sector two dollars (or more) in taxes...Funny how people are screaming over the rash of tickets on this blog... it's revenue enhancement. That minimum wage raise? Who really benefitted? Prices raised means sales taxes get raised too. Inflation is an old government trick to raise revenues. Anyone underwater get notice that their property taxes have been lowered to reflect a 30% reduction in the value of their property? No? It's simple math .. Luna Cafe.. two cheeseburgers, small milkshake.. $23. So who got hurt? Well, instead of multiple trips with 8 kids in tow after a soccer or volleybal game... and the proverbial 20% tip... it's maybe once a month... and to avoid the $5 tip.. take it to go. One kid in tow only..mine. Unemployment for two years? Oh the liberals cry and cry it is soo needed. OK.. but I bet you $100 that if every extension of unemployment meant you showed up with a reflective vest, ready to pick up trash for 8 hours along the side of the road, or were put invasive blackberry bush removal on state,county, city land those claims would drop in a second. If $12 per hour is poverty in Seattle... who the heck do you think makes iving in this city so expensive. Like the new Mayors bill... forced sick leave pay? Say good-bye to any small start-ups.... a low capital, low skill, labor intensive start-up is dead...economic justice? Those small LSLP companies will move..furthering the stress of low mobility poor..Sure the owner of Plum Market championed the cause...if he was located in White Center..? Capitol Hill verses WS... those are the battle lines. There is a reason they are called "entry" level jobs..you aren't supposed to make a career of super sizing. Maybe 5% of that work force will manage a chain of stores..great if that is your calling.. or a landscape business has only the intent to support a small family...great..work and look for a better job, or take a low skill job while you go back to school. No one emlploying you at minimum wage expects you to stay and retire on a defined benefits plan... Hey buddy.. McGinn.. how about a school system where the graduates aren't stocking shelves or fipping burgers at age 35 with three kids? Or a UW system who has to draw on students who have just posted the lowest scores in 40 years on the SAT..and only 23% can read at a proficiency level that would justify their attendance at a four year state public college? Now that is social justice. .. maybe Seattle really wants you out of here... they don't want a low to middle income constituency...? The mayor is as much a buffoon as the current president, a gadfly. Said it before..will say it again... look to Trenton NJ.... that's our future. But gosh... we have a super duper billion dollar tunnel to nowhere coming.... and new floating concrete bridges ... hope they don't use Chinese cement to avoid the environmental laws against heavy metal air pollution that our three Seattle cement plants have to follow.... hmm?

    Posted 8 months ago #         

23. kootchman
    Member Profile

    bty redblack...not to burst your bubble... but 60Kin Seattle? You can't raise a 2 child family on 60K. No way.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

24. waterworld
    Member Profile

    

    Bostonman: What is this state health insurance plan that has $20/month premiums? It's not the Basic Health Plan (which has a waiting list anyway), and it's not the High Risk Pool, and it's not the Washington Health Program. None of these have plans with premiums anywhere near $20 a month. I'm curious, mostly, so please fill me in, if you don't mind.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

25. Bostonman
    Member Profile

    I wish I had the answer. My wife did the research when I made under the cap. Before we got married though I remember seeing the bill for her daughter and it was $20 a month. Maybe it was $20 for kids and more for adults, I don't know.

    I have never used any state or federal assistance plan other than when I was on unemployment for 5 months. So, I am hardly an expert on them.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

26. dobro
    Member Profile

    

    There is no WA state health plan with 20 dollar per month premiums that anyone with a steady income could qualify for. You are mistaken. That means your "example" of how gov't programs work is false.

    That's how a lot of anti-gov't screeds find their way into discussions. They need to be called what they are-falsehoods. Falsehoods when told with malicious intent are lies. I don't think you have that kind of intent which is why I label it a mistake in this case.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

27. JoB
    Member Profile

    kootch..

    too convoluted for me today
    besides i already know your bottom line
    lower taxes and deregulate and let them eat cake

    the only thing
    that's what we have been doing
    and it isn't working

    could it be that the basic premise was wrong because it started with the wrong assumptions?

    Posted 8 months ago #         

28. Bostonman
    Member Profile

    I just checked, I will need to check with my wife to see what she came up with. It could be the $20 was before we were married and she was a student working full time single with a child. I truly don't know. Looking at the numbers with a family of 5 you would need to be below $50k a year to qualify. So the short answer is I don't know where she came up with her numbers. I do know she understands the benefits very well since she has used them all when she was a single parent.

    Oh well I guess. Short of me losing my job I won't be able to qualify anyways. I would be more excited for the National plan if it had another option for my family to get insurance other than just requiring me to get it. I would have liked a single payer policy in it with more cost regulations. As it is I will just be stuck paying $1300 a month for the family. Thank goodness my wife will be going back to work sometime late next year.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

29. kootchman
    Member Profile

    And I know yours

    Tax others more
    Impose the most government intrusions
    ignore the math

    Problem is this... we just had three years of "government" trying to get business right... we will have 9.6 per cent unemployment by election day... the smart ones aren't in government... trying to outfox a fox when you are a turkey is hard. Especially hard if you never held a private sector job.. and then got the reins for a 14.6 trillion dollar economy... it's like working the griddle for McDonalds on Tuesday and getting promoted to CEO on Weds. God help us all if his healthcare plant actually goes through... job one for the new Prez and Congress.. repeal it .. quick. If it has any of the outcomes he and his socialist minions tried the first two years.. we are sunk. If I was young..and healthy... I would go for basic basic health coverage and maybe a high deductible catastrophic.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

30. redblack
    Member Profile

    

    kootch: "government intrusions." bah. asking business to play by a set of rules is government intrusion now, is it? i suppose when you play football or baseball you just change whatever rules you think infringe on your enjoyment of the game, huh?

    those "intrusions" were implemented because wall street blew a trillion-dollar hole in the economy - which they demanded taxpayers fill in - and the insurance industry is sucking up 1/6 of our GDP. some of those rules were enacted with what you would call extreme prejudice, i'm sure; liberals don't think they went nearly far enough.

    but you expect us to let them have the keys to the henhouse again? maybe loosen those boards a little more? screw that. i prefer we get a higher fence for the coop, motion-activated flood lights, and an armed full-time security guard.

    regarding obama's qualifications, how are they any worse than the current crop of millionaires we have in congress, or those running for the GOP nomination? you know, the millionaires who are voting on raising taxes on millionaires? we expect businessmen elected to office to regulate business? when business has a legal obligation to turn profits for shareholders? wow.

    <jesus quintana>hah! laughable, man!</jesus quintana>

    it is in business's best interest to slash workers' wages and benefits and lower their own taxes and outlays, ain't it?

    well, my friend, some of us see through that crap. business should get the hell out of government. and our government should in no way, shape, or form craft economic policies based on what business wants.

    we should base those policies on what is best for the country as a whole. and, as evinced by events of the past four years, business's interests are in direct conflict with the governing of a nation.

    and no, i'm not talking about small-business employers. i'm talking about the "people" who have a vested interest in hedge funds and offshore banking.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

31. JoB
    Member Profile

    Kootch...

    you couldn't be more wrong about my positions

    tax others more? heck no...
    it would be novel to see those who rake in millions taxed at the same effective rate that i pay.

    impose more government intrusions?... no
    I don't think the government has any place in my bedroom or deciding my medical issues or deciding that someone who happens to be related to me by blood or marriage has precedence over someone who actually knows what i want in end of life situations.

    I do think the federal government can and should create a safe hiway system including bridges that don't require a hail mary when you drive across them.
    I think the federal government can and should protect our national resources.. just the basics, like air and water and public vegetation...
    i think the federal government can and should regulate air traffic safety...

    I remember when we had the best transportation system in the world, the best medical system in the world and the cleanest air and water of any industrialized nation.
    Federal regulations created a lot of common good.

    ignore the math? No, i don't think so.
    In fact, i have been looking at the math very closely.
    Unlike you, i challenge the common assumptions that the "math" you refer to are based on.

    I want the federal government to spend my money in the most cost effective way possible...
    and i don't think subsidizing international corporations is the answer.

    Look at the math? Isn't it high time you looked at the math?
    You want to balance the budget by taking away the safety net for citizens when they need it most while leaving military profiteering, corporate subsidies and a tax system that rewards greed and you think i should look at the math.
    My way will balance the budget a whole lot faster...

    and btw.. provide essential services a whole lot cheaper.

    get a grip Kootch.
    democrats are not the parody that republican pundits make of them to sell john q on voting against his best interests.

    Posted 8 months ago #         

32. JoB
    Member Profile

    Bostonman..

    You hit the nail on the head..

    "I would be more excited for the National plan if it had another option for my family to get insurance other than just requiring me to get it. I would have liked a single payer policy in it with more cost regulations"

    the only thing wrong with the health care plan is that it didn't go far enough.

    it did contain the abuses of insurance companies against their insured... but it did not provide the kind of cost regulation that would make insurance more affordable.

    the insurance company cheered when it was passed:(

    Posted 8 months ago #         

33. redblack
    Member Profile

    

    kootch: i'll bet there are lots of people who are raising (small) families on $60,000 per year or less in seattle. i'll bet that some of them are business owners.

    if you add a spouse/partner who works - even part time - it's quite doable. you could probably afford modest property if you're frugal and have a decent down payment.

    and the government still provides assistance if you need it. a bank, however, is going to be pretty stingy and demanding when they see that ledger.

    think about it, though: if you're making $60k, you're netting $800-$900 per week. you could afford rent with one paycheck, depending on your circumstances (living alone, living with roommates, number of people in the household, married or not, dependents, etc.)

    if you enter an apprenticeship early, and you're making $40k per year - with benefits - while you're young, you're on easy street, even in seattle... provided you don't let your bad habits get the best of you. :)

    Posted 8 months ago #         

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.