15 Dollars an Hour

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Bob all well said.The middle class worker in this country has lost pace with everthing cost wise over the last 30 years.All the while CEO's pay has risen a 1000% over the floor worker.All capitolism has become is greed.Use to be a day when so called trickle down worked because the owners of large corperations looked at the long range and understood if you pay your workers a good livable wage they would buy there product.They took less profit and kept workers here in the good Ol USA.My wife who is 56 years old has been a Medical supervisor for 25 years and worked her way up the ladder the old fashion way with good work ethic.She was making around 70K a year and had 15 years with the hospital she was with.Well last year they walked in and she and 173 others were given notice,all the while the CEO of the hospital took his 900K salary and gave himself a 400K bonus for saving the hospital costs.She took 8 months to find a job as a receptionist for a small medical firm at 13,00 a hr.Only job she could find as she was told her age and what she use to make were problems.She is pulling down what I made 31 years ago in the Utility industry as a Tech.Like you I am retired and went to look for some work to stay busy and all I could find was a 11.00 a hr pay job at Home Depot.Would of been a 40 mile round trip to work.Hell I make more with my pension pay.As far as the dumb kids thing and our future is in there hands I know a lot of smart driven kids in our area who would like a bright future but they see there parents working two jobs and falling behind trying to keep a house and food on there plate.It can be fixed as the country has seen worse times years ago and my hope is some of these smart driven kids will help do it.I'll get off my soap box now.You guys can go back to your doom and gloom talk

Edgeman I agree with a lot of what you say especially the part about corporate execs. The part about both parents working and falling behind trying to keep a house going can be true also. But , more often than not a lot of those parents smoke and drink. They have three or four kids and can't afford one and are paying 20% interest on $15,000 in credit card debt. They make the minimum payment each month and will end up paying $30,000 interest on the $15,000. I'm not buying the poor me. If anything the poor and oppressed have more opportunities than I do. I wasnt born with a silver spoon. I worked for what I have just like my dad did. I married a good woman that worked hard also and we raised two great kids that had household chores and jobs when they got into college. My son worked three jobs and made the deans list every semester. Both kids graduated with no student loans. We come from middle class families. Nobody gave us anything. We worked for it. Everybody has their hand out now. I'm tired of other people throwing in the towel and jumping on the entitlement train. I've successfully run my family business for the last 27 years. When things got tough after 9/11 we worked more hours and cut our pay. Our employees never missed a check. There are choices that can help you through life. Most people aren't willing to lower their standards choosing instead to shift their burden to others. I'm tired of carrying others burdens. The load is just too heavy.