You're Not Supposed to be Able to Live on Minimum Wage!

If you are counting on a minimum wage job as a means to have a life-you probably didn't pay attention as you were growing up.  I just finished reading an article online that there is a movement to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.  Other than obamacare, I cannot think of anything that will kill hiring any faster.
If you are being paid minimum wage, no offense to your job skills, but you are not all that valuable to the work market.  You can be replaced with another person who walks in off of the street, pretty quickly.  Minimum wage jobs are supposed to give you job skills that you will build on and increase your worth to the competitive market place.  They are not supposed to be a life style.
The very first job that I had paid $3.50 an hour. I answered phones and waited tables in a pizza place.  I lasted a little over a year in that job, and the biggest thing that I learned was that I wanted to finish my education so that I could make more money.  I had ambition- I knew that a McJob was never going to fill my needs in the long term.  I was motivated to improve myself and get a better job. I learned a lot about what it would take to get and keep a better job, especially in a stress filled situation.  It has served me well.  If I were still working in a minimum wage job, I believe I would be tempted to shoot myself.
Do you realize what the cost of things will become if the workers were required to be paid $10.10 an hour?  Goodbye one dollar burgers, everything would double or triple in price.
Of course, the real motivation behind raising the minimum wage to such an unsustainable amount has nothing to do with giving people with zero job skills a better life, because it wouldn't do that.  They would be in the same boat- the cost of everything would increase. Food, shelter, fuel, clothing, it would all go up.  That is, it would go up even higher than it already has thanks to B.O.'s tidy little depression.
But the dirtiest secret behind this sudden "desire" to make the minimum wage a living wage has nothing to do with concern for people with few job skills.
The real reason behind this sudden desire to tank the economy even more, raise the minimum wage is one great big giant reach around for the unions.  You see, they base their wage demands on an extrapolation of the minimum wage.  That is to say, if minimum wage is three dollars, than their workers get three times the minimum wage, or nine dollars an hour.  See the payola?  This is just one more attempt by B.O. and his cronies to keep thanking the unions that he screwed over with obamacare.  Don't fall for it.  Even if you are stuck in a minimum wage starter job- don't fall for it.  Do you want to pay seven dollars for a gallon of milk?  You would be better off getting an education- and not majoring in romance languages- but a REAL education.  Then you can support yourself and your family, maybe even pay it forward.  Think about it, you'll thank me later.

This is a Newspaper??

There is a local "newspaper" in the town I live in.  It owns several small town papers in this area.  It is to news what B.O. is to leadership.  Technically, it is what is described as, in reality-not so much.  The views of the owner are screamed from every page that trumpets b.o.'s successes (few that they are) and decries every mean, awful, Republican for taking the food from babies' mouths.
Some years back this town had a strike at one of the foundries.  In 1999, they couldn't make it on an hourly wage of around $15.00 plus insurance and other benefits.  They wanted more salary, plus they wanted the foundry to pay more of their insurance premiums.  The foundry said no.  The union voted and went on strike. These people who had been making $15.00 -$19.00 an hour were immediately eligible for food stamps and a host of other benefits.  I guess it was hard to save anything away when you are bringing home $680.00 a week before over time.  So, long story shorter- the union voted to strike and the newspaper (whose son worked at the foundry) backed them up one hundred percent.  Stories of unsafe practices were printed.  Horror stories from workers who didn't feel safe emerged.  The "newspaper" printed every one of them, every day for weeks.
Then, one day, a driver was delivering something to this foundry.  He had no dog in the fight, so to speak.  He was simply trying to earn his living by doing what he was paid to do.  The striking workers hauled him from his truck and beat him so severely that he almost died.  He lost the sight of one eye and all of it was because he was doing his job, and some jerks thought that he shouldn't be able to earn a living if they didn't want to earn one.  Two people went to jail, not that you would have known from the local "news" paper.  The foundry in question closed its doors and relocated to another facility. Three hundred people went from making $15.00 to $19.00 dollars an hour to making $10.00 at the new facility. Go union.  The paper made not a peep about the causes, only lamented the end of the foundry.  What did they think would happen?
Fast forward to this week: I got an email from someone who had received a mailing from a car dealership.  The mailing said that this person was guaranteed to win a prize for coming in to discuss the vehicles that were for sale.  The prizes were 10k, a couple of ipod minis, $350, a gift card, or $150.  Every one won the gift card.
When this person went to the web site relating to this gift card, what they found was a scam.  ShoppingCardStore.com is the provider of the "prize" that all of these people won.  It is filled with third rate merchandise, and the kicker is- when you have completed you shopping spree- you are on the hook for the shipping charges.  Of course, these shipping charges can't be paid with the shopping card-they must be paid with a debit or credit card. Can you see the scam yet?
So- the person who contacted me had called this car dealership to complain.  The dealership basically blew them off.  First, the story was that the promotion came to try and drive in more used cars.  Then the story evolved to perhaps the person in charge didn't do enough due diligence.  Finally, the dealership offered a car detail and an oil change (retail value: $12.00) to make it all go away.  This person politely declined.
When a letter to the editor was submitted, the local paper said that they couldn't print it because it mentioned the local business by name (who just so happens to bill thousands of dollars in advertising with the paper) and suggested they try the BBB.
So in irritation- I was sent an email.  I did thirty minutes of investigation and found out more in that half an hour than the newspaper was willing to try and find.  They won't have to worry about a Pulitzer Prize, that's for sure.  So the point of this (believe it or not) is to be very careful when you are reading your local small town paper.  It's not just what they print- it's also what they leave out.  Think about it, you'll thank me later.

But What About Chicago, Mr. Obama?

In his latest diversion, race-baiting, show of utter incompetence, B.O. has said that the jury has spoken, accept the verdict.  In the next breath, he is threatening to use his favorite chained dog, the Department of Justice to try George Zimmerman on federal charges.  What an awesome waste of tax payer funds.
Since he is clearly so worried about the deaths of minorities, when can we expect him or his minions to do something about the spiking death rates in his adopted hometown of Chicago?
Since overruling the second amendment and making lawful gun ownership a crime there- the rates for violent crimes has skyrocketed! Who would have ever foreseen that criminals would take advantage of unarmed citizens?? It's simply crazy, I know.
So now that B.O.'s right hand man Rahm Emmanuel is calling the shots in Chicago -is that a preview of what our number one vacation taker would like to see for the rest of the nation? I think that it is. While B.O. is vacationing in Martha's Vineyard (again) this week- at least one hundred people will be shot in Chicago.
If Obama is so worried about the violence that was caused by one wannabe gang banger getting himself shot- why hasn't he done anything about Chicago?  Why hasn't he done anything about the overwhelming black on black violence that plagues inner cities?  Why hasn't he done anything about the growing unemployment for blacks? Why hasn't he lowered instead of raised the amount of black people living below the poverty level?
When will B.O. step in front of a camera and condemn the three blacks that were beating a white person?  When will he condemn the black youth that shot a toddler in the face?  For that matter, when will B.O. start being concerned with all Americans and not just the ones who vote in blocks?
Blacks. whites, browns, plaids are all sinking lower because of Barrak Hussein Soetoro Obama.  He is not a good leader, he is not a good executive.  He takes a vacation pretty well, he passes off blame to others pretty well, other than that, I haven't really seen his strong suits.  Chicago and even more so Detroit are the future of the United States of America if we don't stop his socialist agenda.  Vote his agenda and his minions out.  You'll thank me later.

www.ShoppingCardStore.com is a Big Fat Scam

A friend of mine-who is normally very sensible when it comes to money- falls for every in mail pitch that he receives.  He fills out the paper work for publisher's clearing house, he enters contests all the time.  He recently received one from a local Car Dealership-Ben Davis.
The pitch from Ben Davis was that you automatically won something.  It was either $10,000 in cash, a couple of ipods, a gift card, or $150 in cash.  Everyone won the gift card for $300.00 worth of merchandise. Here is the problem:  the gift card is from some low rent crappy business called ShoppingCardStore.com.  There was a time when they were called the GiftCardStore.com but they had to stop using that name when the complaints started pouring in.  Here is how the scam works:  You receive this card as a "prize" and then you go to their web site.
That is dangerous in and of itself, when I accessed the website my firewall had to remove a virus attempt.  So be warned.  Next, you are directed to their site where yo may choose from several items, all of them of Fingerhut quality.
Next, you will be hit with a handling charge-that you cannot use this "gift card" to pay.  Have you spotted the scam yet?
In addition, there is a $5.00 processing fee.  So you may well end up paying $90.00 for a bunch of free crappy stuff that you could have easily purchased at any dollar store.
Avoid VCard if you can at all.  You may also want to avoid www.ShoppingCardStore.com as well.  They are not a legitimate, fair or honest company.  You'll thank me later.


I received a comment by someone who had been scammed by ShoppingCardStore.com    The first thing you want to do is contact your bank and tell them it was fraudulent.  They can stop payment on the money that you sent to these scammers. It may take a few weeks, but you should get your money back.  I hope that helps.