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View Full Version : Socialist Dem Ocasio-Cortez laments coffee shop's closure -- over wage hikes that she supports



Teh One Who Knocks
08-22-2018, 10:36 AM
By Lukas Mikelionis | Fox News


https://i.imgur.com/lwNm79h.jpg

New York Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez portrays herself as "a normal, working person," but one of her positions may have helped 150 people lose their jobs.

After enduring mockery for declaring Sunday that a walk in a national park was an example of democratic socialism, Ocasio-Cortez lamented Monday the shutting down of an iconic New York coffee shop that closed mostly due to a higher minimum wage – which Ocasio-Cortez supported.

“The restaurant I used to work at is closing its doors. I swung by today to say hi one last time, and kid around with friends like old times,” the congressional candidate reminisced on Twitter. “I’m a normal, working person who chose to run for office, because I believe we can have a better future.”
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The Coffee Shop in Union Square, which became especially famous after regularly appearing on HBO’s “Sex and the City,” will close down this fall after nearly 28 years in business. Co-owner and President Charles Milite announced the decision to shut the doors to its 150 employees last month.

But unlike what Ocasio-Cortez wants you to believe about the closing down, it wasn’t the result of greedy capitalists trying to squeeze the workers, but rather government regulations that forced the company to go bust.

“The times have changed in our industry,” Milite told the New York Post last month. “The rents are very high and now the minimum wage is going up and we have a huge number of employees.”

Ocasio-Cortez, who rose to prominence after defeating top Democrat Joe Crowley in the party’s primary election in June, has campaigned on the issue of minimum wage, arguing for a $15 federal minimum wage, up from $7.25, insisting that it won’t have any negative consequences for businesses.

During her appearance on “The Daily Show” with Trevor Noah, Ocasio-Cortez was pressed whether her suggestion of $15 minimum wage wouldn’t tank the economy. She cited the example of Seattle, which voted four years ago to gradually increase the hourly minimum to $15 over several years.

Yet Seattle is a troubling case, as research from the University of Washington's School of Public Policy and Governance found that the higher minimum wage led to significant job declines and actually left the poorest worst off in the city, the Washington Post reported.

The study estimated that low-wage jobs in the city dropped by 9 percent since 2016 and “hourly wages in such jobs increased by around 3 percent.” As a result, the study said, the city’s average worker lost $125 a month thanks to the minimum wage hike.

PorkChopSandwiches
08-22-2018, 04:45 PM
If you like your job you can keep your job

Teh One Who Knocks
08-22-2018, 05:16 PM
Most servers would rather make the lower minimum wage that they give plus tips than a flat wage of $15/hour. If you're a good server, you can average much more than $15/hour. And I've said it before, minimum wage is NOT meant to live on, it's meant for kids and part time workers, not someone trying to raise a family. If you want to make good money, then be useful. Either get an education in a REAL field (not art history or gender studies FFS) or learn a skilled trade. If someone pressing buttons at the cash register at McD's is worth $15/hour, then what are people that actually have skills worth? It's not a sustainable model at all.

Look at these wages you can make in the trades:

https://i.imgur.com/wa02fRN.png
https://i.imgur.com/VFF4GIa.png
https://i.imgur.com/b3M8XJT.png

And some of those are probably low if you are good at your job.

PorkChopSandwiches
08-22-2018, 07:30 PM
I couldn't live off any of those rates

Teh One Who Knocks
08-22-2018, 07:37 PM
I couldn't live off any of those rates

:slap:

DemonGeminiX
08-22-2018, 07:37 PM
Master Electrician: $2000/month is only $24K a year. That's not really that great.

Teh One Who Knocks
08-22-2018, 07:38 PM
Master Electrician: $2000/month is only $24K a year. That's not really that great.

That's on the low end, the high end on that scale is almost $8000/month

DemonGeminiX
08-22-2018, 07:42 PM
Close to six figures isn't bad at all. So, if I'm reading that right, only one dude reported as a Master Electrician and he gets paid diddly squat? Maybe he sucks and needs to find a new career.

Teh One Who Knocks
08-22-2018, 07:43 PM
Close to six figures isn't bad at all. So, if I'm reading that right, only one dude reported as a Master Electrician and he gets paid diddly squat? Maybe he sucks and needs to find a new career.

Either that or he's still an apprentice to a real master electrician.

Teh One Who Knocks
08-22-2018, 07:44 PM
And that chart is only from indeed.com so it's a rather small sampling of salaries. Most trade jobs star really well and most will also offer on the job training, hence the lower wages in some of the categories.

KevinD
08-23-2018, 12:09 AM
I make more an hour than any listed. Of course I've been in my career for 25 years. Started off in 93 at $9.00/hr iirc. I have no electrical license, thus I can't legally do residential/ commercial work. But I do have an AS in electrical engineering which is wh as t got my foot in the door.

Godfather
08-23-2018, 02:44 AM
Master Electrician: $2000/month is only $24K a year. That's not really that great.

What's confusing is that that's less than the posted hourly rate for an electrician at $33/hr which is over $65k/year :lol: