Just talking with a friend, I learned that to see a Lakers basketball game, you can shell out $2300 for a courtside seat. What a nice way to waste a month’s salary for someone on minimum wage?
$8.25 X 40 hours/week X 4 weeks = $1320 / month (before taxes!)
OK, a nice way to waste two month’s wage for someone working 40 hours a week, in what is probably a physically demanding job! How can there be any debate about minimum wage being too high when that kind of disparity of reality exists within North America? Are we much more classist than people admit?
@hotmail.com
![[EFC Blue Ribbon - Free Speech Online]](http://www.efc.ca/images/efcfreet.gif)
KC | 21-Mar-08 at 9:53 am | Permalink
You’re using the fact that a minimum wage earner can’t afford NBA courtside seats as proof of massive inequality in North America?
Saskboy | 21-Mar-08 at 9:56 am | Permalink
It’s just one of many ways. It also highlights how ridiculous sports events are for pricing as well.
What would be your example?
Jaybird | 21-Mar-08 at 10:13 am | Permalink
for only pennies a day, you can help a minimum wage employee get a ferrari. Adopt your minimum wage employee now.
Kevin S | 21-Mar-08 at 11:12 am | Permalink
Gee John, I have been self employed for 8 years, and sometimes I am lucky enough to make minimum wage. In fact my employees, when I can afford them always make more money than I do. Yet I put in the long hours, go without holidays, and miss time with my family. Am I supposed to be feeling sorry for someone here?
Zhu | 21-Mar-08 at 12:01 pm | Permalink
Sport is a bit crazy in North America… but talking of disparities, I’m even more shocked in France. 3/4 of the country is currently struggling to make ends meet while rich people are always richer. Even the former middle-class now shops at discount stores… which wasn’t the case a few years ago. It’s just weird. I see the country change and not for the best.
I was so brainwashed about N. America being extremely rich or extremely poor that I don’t pay as much attention there. I did work minimum wage and couldn’t save anything but just being by myself I could make it. It wouldn’t work for a family for sure. But considering the housing market, people working minimum wage in France can’t even think of renting anything…
ashley | 21-Mar-08 at 12:29 pm | Permalink
Saskboy, the answer to your question is YES, we are more classist than we admit. The responses here are proof of that.
Saskboy | 21-Mar-08 at 1:04 pm | Permalink
Jaybird, I’m not really sure what your parody is demonstrating?
==
Kevin, it must be difficult to admit that your wage is below the poverty line, or are you saying it’s not really something that you find holds you back in Canada? Do you find the long hours (to compensate for low hourly wage, or simply because you love the work?) prevent you from participating in a lot of activities you’d want yourself or your family to try?
I don’t think we should “feel sorry” for people who work all day [and then some] and get less pay than what can be spent in 3 hours at a common sporting event. I think we should question why that is both the state of sports on our continent, and the state of wage structure.
==
Zhu, with rent approaching $1000/month for family sized units in Regina, obviously a single parent is not going to be able to survive even if they work a 40 hour week on minimum wage. It’s not hard to see why there is “child” poverty in Canada. It’s too bad to hear the trend is likely growing in France as well. It makes me wonder where our wealth is going.
Zhu | 21-Mar-08 at 5:41 pm | Permalink
Well, I’m truly wondering for France. One square meter in Paris is sold for as much as 6000 eur. I mean, that’s an expensive square meter, isn’t it?! And I’m not talking of a flat in front of the Eiffel Tower… just a regular place downtown Paris. Okay, I know it’s Paris. But other cities are like that too now.
I live in Ottawa where life is relatively cheap and even though I’m by no mean rich, we both work and don’t have kids so I don’t see poverty that much. I do in France. Makes me sad.
Kevin S | 21-Mar-08 at 8:38 pm | Permalink
No John, what I am saying is I don’t feel sorry for anyone making minimum wage in this province. If they worked for me at minimum wage then they would truly make more than I do. So why should I feel sorry for them.
lance | 21-Mar-08 at 9:52 pm | Permalink
Silly argument.
A condo in downtown Victoria is too high-priced for a mininum wager to afford, therefore minimum wage is to low.
_That’s_ the equivalent.
Know what? Some people can afford things, others can’t.
Society has determined the price of a sporting event is higher than a minimum wager has decided to put into their value. C’est la vie. We’ve always had beggars.
Cheers,
lance
Saskboy | 22-Mar-08 at 10:34 am | Permalink
I think there’s a difference between feeling pity for someone who doesn’t make a lot of money, and noticing an inequality in our system that should be corrected.
“Some people can afford things, others can’t.
Society has determined the price of a sporting event is higher than a minimum wager has decided to put into their value.”
Well, I see that as a problem, because it undervalues many people who work very hard, and overvalues some pretty lazy butts. It lets some people coast if they come from or sneak into a higher class of wage earning, and gives no legal or repeatable method for minimum wage earners to move up through hard work. If they go to school to get training, they end up with massive student loans, and at $8.25/h it’s not like they have the ability to save enough for school beforehand to avoid loans.
Anyway, a lot of this inequality is from limited resources going to massive amounts of people, and supply and demand kicks in to set prices very high; And on the flip side, wages very low when there are a lot of workers to choose from. I can see it being difficult for even a rich person to get a courtside seat if it didn’t cost more than $1000, or it probably wouldn’t be that high if there wasn’t the demand. I just find it sad that society apparently values sitting under an NBAer’s flop sweat more than someone toiling in a thankless but necessary job for 40+ hours a week.
Who else agrees that it seems unfair that someone who works hard in a full time job, doesn’t have the money (let alone disposable income) to partake in an event how apparently hundreds of others could routinely? Admitting to that doesn’t mean you’re being set up as some communism sympathizer, or want to tear down capitalism, it just means that you see room for improvement somehow.
Saskatchewan Politics - What’s the Debate? Minimum Wage Just Isn’t Enough | Saskapedia | 22-Mar-08 at 12:20 pm | Permalink
[...] What’s the Debate? Minimum Wage Just Isn’t Enough March 21st, 2008 Just talking with a friend, I learned that to see a Lakers basketball game, you can shell out $2300 for a courtside seat. What a nice way to waste a month’s salary for someone on minimum wage? $8.25 X 40 hours/week X 4 weeks = $1320 / month (before taxes!) OK, a nice way to waste two month’s wage for someone working 40 hours a week, in what is probably a physically demanding job! How can there be any debate about minimum wa Read More… [...]
Louise | 22-Mar-08 at 4:46 pm | Permalink
Saskboy, if I’m reading Kevin correctly, he is an entrepreneur, which means he has invested enormous amounts of his own time, money and effort into making his business succeed, and when his take home pay is calculated there isn’t much there. That, contrary to your stereotypical image of “the rich capitalist”, such self-sacrifice is fairly typical of people starting out in business. I wonder if you could supply a list of self-sacrifices similar to those made by the striving entrepreneur those on minimum wage have made to get them where they are. I would submit that many of them are in the predicament they find themselves due to a series of stupid decisions made in their lives. And contracy to the leftie meme, a great many successful business people started out with only a good idea and the will to see it implemented. This notion that all people with wealth were born with a silver spoon in their mouths is just so much clap trap. Tired. Worn out. Retro. You university professors are lieing to you.
Saskboy | 22-Mar-08 at 5:51 pm | Permalink
Louise, as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t have university professors. And while there are self made millionaires, a great many more people are born into the wealth class that can simply afford $2300 Lakers tickets, without having to work an $8.25 job in their life.
John Murney | 22-Mar-08 at 9:04 pm | Permalink
If someone wants to earn more than the minimum wage, they should get more fancy-booklearning.
huffb1 | 22-Mar-08 at 10:43 pm | Permalink
yeah Thats true John. You need Education to get more then minimum wage.
Kevin S | 23-Mar-08 at 10:34 am | Permalink
I could do a lot of fishing for the price of a Lakers game.
Louise | 23-Mar-08 at 11:07 am | Permalink
Precisely, John. And yes, what the heck is wrong with buying a ticket to a Lakers game. Not my cup of tea, but I’d be very pleased to spend that kind of cash on something that I would like, if I had it. If other people can’t afford it, tough. This kind of ridiculous jealousy is just plane childish. All societies, other than hardcore socialist/commie ones reward entrepreneural risk takers and people who excel at one thing or another, such as sports. And good for them. This puritanical streak of yours, Saskboy, does nothing but discourage and suppress the very qualities that produce excellence.
Besides that, did it ever occur to you that raising the minimum wage means that some employers either go out of business and their employees lose their jobs, or they have to raise the price of their product or service in order to meet payroll. Either way, the employees loose since they too are consumers of products and services that subsequently will cost them more. Like John said, people who whine about not making enough to pay the rent, or whatever, need to get back into school and get themselves some skills that demand a decent wage. Governments should be pouring money into expanding programs that help them do that like daycare and such and tuition rebates for those that preform well, but rewarding folks who cannot command a decent wage by simply raising it is asinine.
BdgBill | 23-Mar-08 at 4:32 pm | Permalink
What’s your point?
Are we supposed to feel bad for the wage slaves?
I’m sorry, but if you screwed up your life to the point that you are an adult working for minimum wage, you probably have much bigger problems then not being able to afford basketball tickets.
Are the people who can afford these tickets supposed to feel guilty?
Take a person who managed to not make any babies in high school. Who may have worked one of these crappy minimum wage jobs him/herself to put themselves through college. This person is suppoed to deny himself a luxury he can afford because there are people in the world who cannot afford it?
Saskboy | 23-Mar-08 at 4:36 pm | Permalink
“What’s your point?
Are we supposed to feel bad for the wage slaves?”
My point more than any else, was to have people ask those questions. I’m not so much passing judgment on people who don’t feel a twinge of guilt, I’m asking people to think about why they don’t/do feel guilt. And if they think that it’s just to deny someone a courtside seat at a Lakers game if they work hard for 40h/week, every day, and without taking holidays even.
Louise | 23-Mar-08 at 6:52 pm | Permalink
“..to have people ask those questions.”
LOL!! And to get all huffy when we don’t say “Oh dear me. What a revelation!!! What an injustice!!!!!!!”
Nice try.
Saskboy | 24-Mar-08 at 2:57 pm | Permalink
Just because I want people to ask themselves those questions and to justify their answers and feelings, doesn’t mean I’ll agree with their response.
Sarah | 24-Mar-08 at 6:15 pm | Permalink
http://www.ccsd.ca/factsheets/fs_ncwpl01.htm
According to the above website, the poverty line for a single, employable individual living in Saskatchewan in 2001 was $16,167. Now, the cost of living has gone up considerably, not to mention housing. At $8.25 an hour, if you worked 40 hours a week for 52 weeks in the year, you would make $17,160. And remember- that’s for a single, employable individual. That doesn’t account for sick days, children, vacation time (who wants to work Christmas day?), and all of the other wonderful things life throws at a person.
’nuff said.
Sarah | 24-Mar-08 at 6:21 pm | Permalink
Just to clarify my position- I definitely think that we reap what we sow…if we are well-educated, it is likely that we will be making more than minimum wage. And I think people should be rewarded for their years of training, whether it is formal didactic learning or hands-on experience. But I also acknowledge that bad things happen to good people- companies go bankrupt, people get laid off, injuries occur…the list goes on and on. I just think it is interesting how they set a “minimum” wage that is barely above the poverty line…