This is a known issue that economists like Robert Reich have been yelling about since the 90's. Around the mid 70's productivity gains and wages became decoupled for the first time in American history. Wage stagnation is very real and it’s the driver of the income inequality the millennials we’re bitching about in…

While I think American workers should stop telling each other they make “too much” and start telling employers we all make too little. This suburban Boomer judgemental bullshit has been helping to drive the class wedges deeper for decades.

Why should someone who decides that serving others food is enough for them be penalized by making less than they can live on? Someone has to do it, there is a demand for someone to do it, why should we arbitrarily label some jobs as inferior and not deserving of pay they can live on?

wait lol I forgot how the senate works

Physical labor cant be done by everyone, and most people avoid it if given the opportunity. Its not valued highly because the people doing it are usually the most disenfranchised in society (not always undocumented) who have the least amount of power over their condition.

Who cares if they make almost as much as you? Does it hurt your ego? I went to school and got an advanced degree and don’t care one bit if someone flipping burgers makes close to what I make. What I make is sufficient for my needs and my work is a hell of a lot less demanding than working fast food, construction,…

you’re wrong.

Washington resident here. Got a source? Because (anecdotally, I admit), I don’t see that happening. The places that are closing were already not doing well, probably because the employees weren’t paid enough to give a shit and raising wages put them over because they never budgeted for wages or raises properly.

That’s pretty much what my two other paragraphs note. If we’re focusing purely on the improvements in the product then it would stand to reason that income growth or the lack thereof is ultimately the issue here. But other than UAW contracts, income growth isn’t really the purview of the auto industry. But as Mr Wes…

Good luck finding a Dealer with a bunch of base Sparks, Fiestas, or Sentras. Yeah, they all start at around 12.5K but finding a new one under 13.5 or 14K is few and far between. And to be honest, since most Americans are keeping their cars longer than ever (avg car on the road is about 12yrs old), it makes sense that…

I ride a motorcycle to work. I get eyeballs from people as I slip through traffic on my death trap as they wait in line for the next living room to move out of the way (seriously: comfy leather seats, LCD TV, Premium surround sound, air conditioning- is it a car or a family room?). If everyone had smaller cars,…

Those “powerless states” as you call them are not an issue in this context, not at all. California doesn’t have excess influence over states, it has powerful - you can call it excess if you like, that’s a matter of perspective - influence over the manufacturers.

This really is the worst argument. Before Tesla was around, nobody was making electric cars because “consumers don’t want them.” Consumers often have to be told what they want.

1st Gear: I’ve done this math a myriad ways and it’s always the same outcome: the average cost of living, in general, has far exceeded average income growth over the past 60 years. I have the bill of sale from my parents’ new car purchased in 1956. I also have old tax statements. Their personal data lines up with…

Also, Scott Pruitt is an a-hole.

Los Angeles Civic Center, 1948

I didn’t realize James May was on kinja

Because they had tail pipe emissions regulations before the clean air act. Also because LA was a smog filled hellscape and now it is just a smug filled hellscape 

The Dacia Sandero.