Some Americans Willing to Work for 25 cents/Hour

[Douger]

Just a point to show how low it really is.



"In a weeks-long experiment, we posted simple, hourlong jobs (listening to audio recordings and counting instances of a specific keyword) and continually lowered our offer until we found the absolute bottom price that multiple people would accept, and then complete the task."

Yes, they did the job.

Would, not did. Could just be poor writing of course, but still leaves it ambiguous.

 

[Zoooma]

please show me the words of 1 single Republican who wants to take away Food Stamps. Just 1 is all I'm askin' for. Who is actively trying to make that a reality?

You went there? Okay:
-Rand Paul (Budget plan made large cuts therein)
-Paul Ryan (budget plan made large cuts therein)
-Newt Gingrich [ Gingrich Urges GOP to Go After Food Stamps - Newsweek ]
To name only a few.

Still not answering the question. Yes, Gingrich is a Repub but he's not currently in Congress. Also in the link, there's no quote. Where's the quote? Show me the words. Give me a quote! As far as Rand Paul and Paul Ryan -- budget cuts to Food Stamps is not about eliminating the program.

So I hope no one actively lives their life believing that the Republicans want to cut Food Stamps. That's not true. (If a few in fact actually do and have said so, their minority voices does not mean "Republicans want to cut Food Stamps." A few morons does not define the whole.)

 

[Zoooma]

So? Still doesn't explain why anyone would work for $.25 an hour.

I have this feeling that's there's disconnect between some commenters and people in desperation who want to work but simply cannot find a job.

Explanation -- is having 2 dollars in your pocket better than having no money at all?

(Yes.)

Is two dollars important when you don't have a morsel of food to eat?

(Yes.)

 

[craigerNY]

That's subjective opinion. What if you don't find a job? Some have spent months looking for a job. Would at least some of their time have been better spent earning 2 dollars a day? Or absolutely not? Maybe your time isn't worth 2 dollars a day but then again you might not be in a state of desperation like many Americans are.

Is two bucks really "lousy" when you have no food to eat? I'd think those 2 bucks would be quite valuable to me.

I didn't say forego making two bucks I said it can be made in less than eight hours pretty much anywhere. Make your two bucks in short time and spend the rest of your time looking for a job. At least in my scenario you have two bucks and the possibility of getting a job. In your case you forego looking for a job for two bucks.

That would be roughly 75 cans (assuming 80cent to the pound - good estimate I think, but I do not currently know what the rate is).
That is a lot of cans, when you get down to it. But then again, I don't know where you live...

Five cents a can, two bucks equals 40 cans. There are guys here that haul shooping carts full of bags of cans. They go from recycle bin to recycle bin and get quite a haul in short order. It doesn't take much wits or resources to make more than two bucks a day.

That's just stupid. I'd accredit those $.25 responders to guys making fun of the poll and then the pollers latching onto it for their latest bit of poverty inappropriate content.

You can do just about anything in the US and make 10 times that.

Pretty much what I am getting at.

 

[Skaloop]

Would, not did. Could just be poor writing of course, but still leaves it ambiguous.

The would applies to the acceptance of the pay, not the doing of the task.

 

[Zoooma]

I didn't say forego making two bucks I said it can be made in less than eight hours pretty much anywhere. Make your two bucks in short time and spend the rest of your time looking for a job. At least in my scenario you have two bucks and the possibility of getting a job. In your case you forego looking for a job for two bucks.

I certainly would not say two bucks "can be made in less than eight hours pretty much anywhere." Maybe where you live but not pretty much everywhere. I know I can't where I live. If collecting cans is your only method in mind to make those two bucks, I highly doubt many people know they can even do that. It's probably not common knowledge. Plus there are factors involved that make this a definite non-possibility for some people anyway.

And also, if a person is only using the internet for job searching, or if they've already hit up (put in resumes) everywhere in their area, they quite possibly do have the spare time during the day. Ya don't gotta search the internet for a job from 9 to 5. And how many gallons of gas you gonna use putting in your resume once a week (or more often than that) to the same businesses over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over?

Job searching for a lot of people often eventually comes to a point where you simply can longer spend 5 or 6 or 7 days a week from 9-5 looking . . . because you've done all you can do.

 

[Ringo84]

Oh? And what can $2 buy nowadays? A can of soda and a candy bar?

"They're desperate...they'll take the .25 cents an hour we give them and like it!"
Ringo

 

[DaisyDay]

Really this is just the natural conclusion of a free market system. It's supply and demand when people are treated as goods and supply is too high. Maybe they'll be luckier next life, but for now I guess they just get to starve.

No, they don't starve. This isn't 18th century America - we have welfare nowadays (for five years, any way).

 

[SithDoughnut]

Well, at least us Europeans have the sense to demand something that we can at least have a chance at surviving on as a wage. Our demands (I'm including minimum wage laws under this) are the only real things stopping companies from doing this, after all.

It's sad, really, that there are people so desperate that they would work for such a low wage. This poll really shows that we need to do something about the desperation, not take advantage of it.

 

[blueapplepaste]

It's amazing how so many people seem to want to turn America into a 3rd world country. But hey, so long as the rich get richer and corporations have record profits, who cares? We all benefit!!

 

[Billnew]

Well, at least us Europeans have the sense to demand something that we can at least have a chance at surviving on as a wage. Our demands (I'm including minimum wage laws under this) are the only real things stopping companies from doing this, after all.

It's sad, really, that there are people so desperate that they would work for such a low wage. This poll really shows that we need to do something about the desperation, not take advantage of it.

We have minimum wage, that is why the people never worked for .25cents an hour, even if they would have taken it.

Kind of disproves the illegals argument doesn't it?

"They only do the jobs Americans don't want."
We have people that would work for a quarter an hour, how much would an illegal work for?

I will remind people, US minimum wage is exempt for certain small employers, I don't know if there is a bare minimum even for small employers. (I know Dairy queen pays less then min wage, because each store has less then 10 employees.)

 

[Zoooma]

Oh? And what can $2 buy nowadays? A can of soda and a candy bar?

You should learn that $2 can feed a person for a week. It won't be much, it won't be fruits & veggies healthy, but it would be sustenance. No one's gonna die eating that little.

I haven't bought bread in a long time but the cheapest loaf in the store probably costs under 2 bucks. And so would about 7-8 things of ramen noodles. I have lived that way before, off 2 dollars a week. Like I said, it's not much, but it can sustain a person.

When having a kitchen without any food in it, $2 in one week can be a life saver.

 

[wanderingone]

of course people are willing to work for less than the minimum wage, not to mention other protections. That's why we formed unions.. so people wouldn't do themselves in.

 

[wanderingone]

When having a kitchen without any food in it, $2 in one week can be a life saver.

Having a kitchen is a luxury many of those who are forced to live on wages like this will never know.

The fact that people subsist doesn't mean they SHOULD especially in a world of PLENTY. Those with the luxuries often got there on the backs of those for whom the basics are luxury.

 

[Ringo84]

You should learn that $2 can feed a person for a week. It won't be much, it won't be fruits & veggies healthy, but it would be sustenance. No one's gonna die eating that little.

I haven't bought bread in a long time but the cheapest loaf in the store probably costs under 2 bucks. And so would about 7-8 things of ramen noodles. I have lived that way before, off 2 dollars a week. Like I said, it's not much, but it can sustain a person.

When having a kitchen without any food in it, $2 in one week can be a life saver.

No...it won't be much of anything. $2 doesn't buy that much nowadays.

There may indeed be problems with minimum wage. But paying people .25 cents an hour and expecting them to sustain themselves on that is not the solution.
Ringo

 

[Zoooma]

Having a kitchen is a luxury many of those who are forced to live on wages like this will never know.

The fact that people subsist doesn't mean they SHOULD especially in a world of PLENTY. Those with the luxuries often got there on the backs of those for whom the basics are luxury.

Oh brother. People subsist in America with very little while a few blocks over some people have enough and a few blocks over some people have more than they need. That's what this country is about. Some people I am sorry about them not having much but others get no pity because no one's keeping them down. And if you're somehow suggesting the wealthy be made to give to the poor, you need to find a thread on the matter or start a new one.

P.S. I have 0 dollars in the bank. I have an income of 0 dollars a week. Right now the way I see it, you have plenty compared to me. How you gonna help me since I shouldn't have to subsist the way I do?

Nevermind. You can PM with your offer of assistance because this thread's about people being willing to make 25¢ an hour in their times of desperate unemployment.

 

[Ringo84]

"Just a soda and a candy bar? You really don't realize that $2 can feed a person for a week?"

No...I don't "realize" that because I doubt that it's true. Two dollars is nothing. And even if it can sustain a person for a week, it's not a good reason to slash pay.
Ringo

 

[lux et lex]

$2 can feed a person for a week? What, 20 packs of Ramen?

 

[Blayz]

P.S. I have 0 dollars in the bank. I have an income of 0 dollars a week.

I'd like to know more. Would you be willing to elaborate on your circumstances? I'll go first if it helps

I am currently in Singapore, after tax equilibration but before cost of living consideration I roughly earn the USD equivalent of 220K/yr. I have 3 degrees mostly in biology which is the field in which I work, and in 20 years have had 9 jobs on 4 continents, have never been unemployed even for a day, and always had more "money in the bank" in each successive year. I am also vaguely left of center politically.

I'd really like to understand how someone who believes in the free market, in people being responsible for themselves, can be 38 with 0 dollars down and 0 incoming.


To the OP, my reading of it says that they offered "hour long jobs" I am wondering if it is not that the people involved were earning 25c/hr, but instead 25c in total for a 1 hour job?

 

[USincognito]

I think the flaw in the study is found in the description of jobs being dicussed:

"NEWSWEEK turned to Mechanical Turk, an online marketplace for freelance work operated by Amazon.com. In a weeks-long experiment, we posted simple, hourlong jobs (listening to audio recordings and counting instances of a specific keyword) and continually lowered our offer until we found the absolute bottom price that multiple people would accept, and then complete the task."

For individuals in some countries, they might see these as a sole source of income, whereas for the American they might see them as part time work or a way to get paid for something they'd normally do for relaxation or enjoyment.