If you don't recommend trucking then what?

How is it corporate greed if they raise prices to maintain the same profit margin as they had before being forced to give 25% raises across the board?

 

Thank you. It's about time someone else points that out!

Everybody screaming the false idea of "livable wage" has no idea or too lazy to think things completely through. First a "livable wage" is any wage you adjust your out going expenses to that of your incoming money. Another words. If you can't afford cable- get rid of it. You don't need it to live. Cell phone.....believe it or not, un needed to live, especially these over $1k toys everyone carries around and buys new every year just to get that extra megapixel camera that does nothing to bring in money. There are many ways to adjust things, but most people care more about what they want and not what they need. You need Shelter, Food, Water and clothing, will even give you transportation. Other than that the rest is fat that can be cut from the budget outgoing. That means also fast food can go off the budget, restaurants, extra alcohol, there are tons of things people don't look at and realize they are luxuries and not needs.

For every increase in pay you ask for across the board, that increase gets added to every part of what your increased wage has to purchase, lease, rent, make payments on or down right buy in cash, thus nullifying your increased wage. The only way you close the gap is get your outgoing and incoming correct. No more subscriptions you can't afford. No car loans for that $40k -$50K+ car your making payments on to look cool at the stop lights (especially these days. Everyone is staring at their phone not you), quit putting your gas and groceries on credit cards and FFS quit falling for the cash back scam on those cards. Yea yea yea. You'll pay it off in full at the end of the month so there is no interest- yea until you don't and now it's 26% interest instead of 27% because you got your "1% cash back" on your ending monthly balance. Also just created a cycle of "well I gotta put this on the card because I can't pay for X because I have to make payments on the same card".

All the posts in the thread for rates crashing should have thumped some of you hard headed folks square on the front slope. That whole thread is ripe with OO's not moving freight because the rates doesn't cover fuel. Well that means the freight would have to pay more. Then that expense has to come from some where. That would be the shipper and the producers. Then to cover that revenue loss - yup- price increase to the consumer because nobody- not even the government is in business to lose money.

 

Because the prices were already out of reach before the raise.

 

Most businesses don’t operate on a profit margin that is similar to oil companies. Prices being out of reach for some doesn’t mean the business will still be sustainable if they lower their prices. I gave an example earlier how a $10 raise for 10 employees results in an additional $200k in payroll. Are you suggesting that the business owner should just eat that $200k because if they didn’t it would be greed?

 

Not at all. I'm only suggesting that wages should match cost of living.

 

But not to get of track from the OP or this economic conversation I see they just put Bezos' 500 million dollar yacht out for sea trials..

 

Never can happen. It's a never ending catch 22. Cause and effect.

Unless you are a believer in such leadership schemes that tries to force those standards only to end up with a worse gap of the less than 1% of top government officials being at the top of the rest of a nation that is not even part of the government. In which case you can ask any of the immigrants both legal and illegal how that's been working out for them before they risked their lives to get here.

 

You cannot say min wage should be 25 and then say it should match the COL. COL is different everywhere.
I used to sit on the board for our local daycare center. Small town 1500 ppl.
We payed around 10$ per hour for help, this was 5 years ago. Yes we struggled for help but we couldn't afford to pay more. The place made little to no money. Every time we hired new ppl we would offer a little more money then we would have to raise the rates for childcare. It was a vicious cycle. We had 2 kids of our own in there and paid a ridiculous amount of money every year. A 25$ per hr min wage would have killed the place and no one in town would have chuld care

 

And most small businesses in small towns would be in the same boat

 

Guess I got off easy then. I paid $3k for the same thing. Thought it was a bit much, but I suddenly don't feel that way. But I'm still waiting for the power company to come and drop a new line from the road to the weather head. Been a month of waiting already