We have to draw the line somewhere. It is not reasonable to say “anyone can steal anything from anyone if they look homeless”.
Obviously everyone’s situation is unique and I won’t judge the individual until I know all the context, but I’m not gonna turn a blind eye to someone stealing luxury items from a small business.
We draw the line at wages that actually provide people enough to live a life worth living. Minimum wage in 1956 earned 60 ounces of gold a year in 1968 it was raised to $1.60/hr or 95 ounce of gold a year/ $250,000 today this was the 8th time minimum wage was increased since minimum wage was legislated by the fair labor standards act of 1938. Meanwhile today federal minimum wage has not been adjusted in 15 going on 16 years. This is the longest its gone without adjustment in the 86 years of minimum wage. The current inflation statistics regurgitated by wall street the imf and world bank are based on consumer price index which does not take into account the devaluation of currency due to the increase in circulating currency supply. Nixon ended the gold standard jn 1971 and by 1981 the usa had printed its first one trillion dollars. For the first 172 years after the us instituted a national standard currency the price of gold only increased 80% from $19 to $35 but since then its increased 7500% to $2650 meanwhile minimum wage has only increased 450-1300% and corporate executive pay has ballooned 3300%-16,500% so minimum wage value has actually decreased by 84-93% these corporations are literally robbing us all. 2/3 of working people are living paycheck to paycheck with no emergency savings. A majority of Millennials and gen z are on track to never own a home or be able to retire. They will have to work until they are too sick to be able to with the hope that social security still exists in 30-50 years. Retailers already increase prices to account for shrink and they take out massive insurance policies that reimburse them for shrink so the idea that this hurts big box businesses is just ridiculous propaganda
Wages converted to oz of gold is a completely meaningless metric. Gold has no bearing whatsoever on the ability to purchase things and fluctuates way more than actual money.
Completely untrue. Gold has been considered an inflation proof asset since the dawn of investment banking. Unlike cpi its price is directly tied to the amount of currency in circulation here are 2 articles highlighting my points
https://www.reuters.com/plus/beyond-cpi-gold-as-a-strategic-inflation-hedge
But go ahead and believe whatever the wall street military and prison industry profiteers tell you, they are masters of fraud, deception and propaganda.
Just to piggyback off your comment, I got wondering how much minimum wage is worth in ounces of gold these days. $15, which is higher than the federal minimum, yields 15 dollars per hour *40 hours a week *52 work weeks in a year makes $31,200 gross income. The current price of gold is $2637/oz, rounded to the nearest whole dollar, according to a quick Google search that brings up daily updates websites (today’s date is 12/21/2024). To get how many ounces of gold a $15/hr minimum wage would get, gross wages and full work weeks, we would divide the yearly income of $31,200 by the price per oz of gold of $2637. 31200/2637 is 11.8 rounded to the nearest tenth. So, $15/hr minimum wage workers are effectively making anywhere from 1/6th to 1/9th of what their 1956 and 1968 compatriots were making. Wow.
Yeah i have those numbers on hand too. The minimum wage in California for select fast food workers is just over 15 ounces which is just barely more than the first established minimum wage after the FLSA was implemented of $.25/hr so minimum wage today earns between 6-15 ounces so that’s 7-14% of what it earned in 1968-1971 and I’ve also done the math to know that it cost more to purchase and maintain a slave before the end of the civil war than minimum wage workers are currently payed in the usa.
You didn’t answer my question at all. What is the line for what is acceptable to steal?
Are you saying that until there is a fair minimum wage anyone can steal anything and feel no guilt or shame? That it’s all okay, ethically and morally, because of the minimum wage?
That’s bonkers, if that’s what you’re saying. But honestly your entire rant didn’t address my question of when theft is okay and when it isn’t
People are being robbed at every opportunity in society. Wage theft is theft its just legal because bureaucratic paperwork deems it acceptable. The amount of wealth distribution in the last 75 years has shifted from the bottom 80% owning 90% of thr wealth to the top 10 percent owning 85% of the wealth today.
Its not bonkers at all. Youre just saying bexause billionaires use militarized police and bureaucratic processes to rob the proletariat its acceptable whereas people who are desperate overworked and underpaid by design because the system has created this environment by design to benefit the owning class, taking what little they need to survive and removing a tiny amount of profit from businesses that earn hundreds of billions annually is unacceptable?they dint even loose profit because they are insured against shrink and have shrink built into their price walmart made $143 BILLION in 2022 and was crying about 3 billion in shrink while a large portion of its labor force is sk under payed they qualify for food stamps. Its a joke.does boot flavored gum really taste that good?
Now i don’t condone stealing from small mom And pop businesses. Unless they are equally shitty to their workers as box stores are then fuck them too but a small family owned business that has 5 or 10 employees and treats them well should not be a target of this reappropriating action
