McDonalds: "What, my peon, you don't work two full time jobs?"

[mongers]

Out in Alberta it seems every single fast food place is stuffed full of Fillipino guest workers.

Maybe there paid so little, they can't afford to eat elsewhere.

[Razgovory]

Oh please. Fast food jobs are temporary jobs for students.

If the economy is all fucked up and people cannot get better jobs, blame it on the Obama Administration that failed to recover the economy, not the fast food industry who had always operated at the lowest pay rate.

That used to be true. Traditionally, fast-food jobs were for students.

Of course, by the same token, if you go back far enough, traditionally army jobs were for otherwise unemployable reprobates - or, as the Duke of Wellington so eloquently put it, "scum of the earth". 

That gives me an idea.  We could draft them in the army, course we wouldn't have to pay soldiers so much, so Siege'll take a pay cut.

[Barrister]

Out in Alberta it seems every single fast food place is stuffed full of Fillipino guest workers.

Maybe there paid so little, they can't afford to eat elsewhere.

Nope, all the guys with no skills get oilpatch jobs, so they import people to work minimum wage jobs.

[Agelastus]

In fairness to Brown many of his tax credits were meant to be like the EITC - redistribution for workers. You'll remember in the first year or so of New Labour lots of lefties cried blue murder about the government cutting benefits for single mothers. Many of the tax credits were introduced at that time and were targeted especially at single mothers. And it worked. Employment for single parents shot up during their time in office (with the accompanying reduction in child poverty).

Sheilbh, do you know any chartered accountants?

'cause if you do they'll (probably) tell you that Gordon Brown's complicated tax credit systems were largely unneccessary. Mechanisms were already in place in the tax system that could have been tweaked to get exactly the same effect at minimum cost and with minimum complication. Gordon Brown introduced the tax credit system in exactly the messy and complicated way he did precisely so it could be (repeatedly) trumpeted as a Labour triumph; it's one of the more shameful examples of politics triumphing over common sense in our system, of change for the sake of change.

[Although I'll have to go into details tomorrow - it's been too many years since this was pointed out to me by the Accountant in my family; said accountant also being a single parent.]

[Sheilbh]

The only ones I know are newly qualified, so I'm not sure they'd know anything.

There may have been simpler option and I've no doubt that it's over-complicated, but that's a side effect that I think can be remedied.

The goal was to reduce the benefits available and make work pay more through these tax credits, especially for single parents. That was achieved - the employment rate increased by 15% from under half to over 60%. That isn't politics triumphing over common sense. It's still probably cheaper than having families living on benefits, it's certainly economically better for everyone else and I think it's a large part in ending the stigmatisation of single parents that existed in the 90s.

No doubt, now that's done, there'll be ways to refine it to make it more cost-effective and simpler.

[CountDeMoney]

Food stamps recipients have doubled in the past 10 years, but even during the boom years (2003-07) they increased by 25%.

Meh, won't have to worry about that as much anymore come Friday.

The 2009 Recovery Act's temporary boost to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits is scheduled to end on November 1, 2013, resulting in a benefit cut for every SNAP household.  For families of three, the cut will be $29 a month — a total of $319 for November 2013

Get a better paying job, suckers.

[Admiral Yi]

So, the number of recipients is going to decrease by $29 a month come November first?

[CountDeMoney]

The less food stamps there are, a happier America we will be.

[Ideologue]

If we're talking thinner, it's possible.

[Valmy]

Out in Alberta it seems every single fast food place is stuffed full of Fillipino guest workers.

That makes sense in an economy with a labor shortage.

[sbr]

If we're talking thinner, it's possible.

[frunk]

Apparently there's a constitutional ballot initiative in New Jersey to tie the minimum wage to the CPI.  Besides the stupidity of putting something like this into the state constitution, I'm wondering if they are picking the wrong index to tie the minimum wage to.

How about if it was tied to per capita GDP?  It wouldn't have to be a one to one formula.  Say a doubling in per capita GDP would increase the minimum wage by 50%.  During a recession the minimum wage would actually go down, opening up employment opportunities (and hopefully pulling out of the recession quicker).

[Admiral Yi]

CPI would probably have less negative effects then per capita income.

[DGuller]

That reminds me, I honestly have no idea how to vote on that one. 

[garbon]

That reminds me, I honestly have no idea how to vote on that one. 

That also reminds me that I need to finish reading up on my propositions.