Let's look at the numbers...

According to the Department of Labor, in 1999 10.1 million people hourly workers made between $5.15 and $6.14 and hour.

69% of those workers were adults (20 and over)
60% women
45% full-time
33% were partents of children under 18

The current minimum wage is 5.15 hr.

So for those 45% who work full time, before taxes they would make a grand:

$41.20 a day
$206 a week
$10,712 a year

My that's lavish.

Now, let's say that we lived in Los Angeles...

You need shelter. Go find an appartment, if you could one in a an area where you didn't get robbed, killed, raped, whatever in LA for:

$500 a month = $6000 a year

You gots to have food, so you eat light, say $50 a week = $2,600

You have to drive your car into the dynamic wealth producing areas, cause you sure as heck can't live there...say $20 a week on gas...that comes to $1040.

Ok, we're already at $9640 of your before taxes $10,712.

You don't have a computer (too expensive, so you can't learn new skills easily), you have no uplifting entertainment (too expensive, so you watch Springer on the TV...that learns ya real well), you don't go to school (too expensive and too little time after working 40 hours a week...and your second job cause you had to pay for new tires on you car that blew out on the road), I hope you have car insurance in California, very bad if you don't...

Meanwhile the dynamic wealth producing Americans, who have to have someone's back to break to do the labor are what, yachting?

You bet the minimum wage is a point against the Republicrats, they should be fighting for a Living Wage.

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Oh, fiddle faddle, everyone knows that our mutants have flippers. Oops, I've said too much.....
~C. Montgomery Burns

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"Do you know how much YOU'RE worth??.....2.5 million Woolongs. THAT'S your bounty. I SAID you were small fry..." --Spike Spiegel

In short, it could perhaps be the ultimate demonstration of Dubya's raw stupidity caught on videotape. It was so bloody funny my English teacher taped it and showed it to our class.

My vote would be with Gore. Bush is a conservative whose decisions are driven by ideology and special interests groups alone. On the other hand, Gore, stick up ass and all, does have a brain and does exercise it in making his decisions.

And he can open his eyes when he speaks, which is a plus.

What you may mistakenly think about Bush's lack of intelligence is your problem. His ideas work. Gore's don't. And Gore lies about it, on top of that.

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"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."
- George Bernard Shaw

"Gee, I guess we should just want people to work for free. That way the owner gets to keep everything! Yeah!!"

Well, this is going to consign this thread to the fires of... oh, you know, that forum below this one? But frankly, I don't care. It was on its way there, anyway, and I will not stand for someone twisting my words, especially when it's based on nothing more than liberal lies told when trying to demonize the Republican party.

*ahem*

I never said this. I never said anything like this. I never even remotely indicated that I might believe this, at least not in the eyes of any rational person. If you think I or ANYONE else believes this, Jay, then you are a complete imbecile.

"...it's all far game ladies and gentlefolk. And you can thank the Clinton haters for it."

Again, you are a blithering imbecile, Jay. The only thing that conservatives have conserned themselves with in this campaign are the things that matter: character and issues. What Gore may or may not have done in the past is irrelevant, short of criminal activity, or anything that calls his stance on issues or his character into question. It's you liberals that want to dig up every little thing that someone may have done. I challenge you to give me ONE example. Just ONE.

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"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."
- George Bernard Shaw

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Creator of Project Phoenix
[email protected]

I'm sorry, but he's an idiot. Need we bring up Dubya's SAT scores?
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"...I was just up in Canada, Toronto actually. You know, they really hate you guys [Americans] up there? The funny thing is, they think you hate them back, when in fact, you just couldn't be bothered to care. Now in Ireland, it's a different story. At least we had the common decency to wait until the English invaded before we started hating them. I guess the Canadians are hating you in advance..."
-Irish Comic Ed Byrne on Canada-US relations

Is it? I mean, sure, it's useful to know, but I wouldn't say it's a key issue until Canada does something to bring itself to attention.

"I'm sorry, but he's an idiot. Need we bring up Dubya's SAT scores?"

IIRC, they weren't spectacular, but certainly above average. Then again, mine were higher. Should I be a presidential candidate too?

In the meantime, I think this is Flameboard material.

Think hard now...real hard...like both hamsters working at the same time kinda hard...I attack your argument with sarcasm. Not a twisted Omega word in my whole post. I checked. No " " (that's quotes in case you weren't sure....not a single

quote:

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Quote

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neither. So there is no need to go all 'you've offended my southern honor' here. When I qoute you, you'll sure know about it.

Go out and call your dogs names as you're kicking them for being too liberal. Or, if it makes you feel better, throw your hampster at the wall cause it wears a 'Gore In 2000' button...but keep that name calling sort of crap to your petty little self.

You, you....conservative!!

Now, some of the crap you said that I will put quotes around.

quote:

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The vast majority of these jobs are held by people who are either just entering the work force, or people looking for a little extra cash.

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So, the Labor Department was just fibbing when it said that 60% of people working for below $6.15 were "adults." And I just imagine that the 67 year old guy working at the local drive through window, passing out burgers is doing it for "a little extra cash." One can only push cat food so far in a diet these days.

Meaningless eh? I want to call you a self-absorbed little son of something, but heeding my own admonishment above, I'll just say I want to.

Numbers certainly do mean something. They mean something to me, cause I have to pay rent, buy food, and do all those other things to live. For people who make minimum wage, it's not about if I can buy a second house in San Diego next year...or if the wife needs a second car to go with the Sport Ute...it's about whether my kid gets a new pair of shoes cause the other ones are worn out...or if I take myself to the doctor cause I've been caughing for 2 weeks and Burger Hut doesn't have insurance to go with those fries.

These numbers aren't meaningless for all those people you seem to want to live in a cardboard box on Los Angeles street. For every person driving a sport ute on L.A. there are numbers of people who wash the car (to keep the dainty executive fingers clean) and who wash the utensils in the back of the Southern Cusine Wraps place who make minimum wage.

You seem to think that there is an entrepreneur behind every tree...well that's all well and good, but tell me Sweet Cheeks, who's going to do your back breaking labor for you...wash your dishes when it 100 outside or dig your ditches in the sun??? Whoever it is sure as heck had better get a bigger share of the take than $5.15 an hour.

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"And as we all know, a mesolytic quantumvector resonator is commonly
used to polarize isogravitic plasma-flux manifolds."