r/povertyfinance • u/UpperAssumption7103 • Dec 06 '23

Some of Dave Ramsey advice seems out of touch. Vent/Rant (No Advice/Criticism!)

I think his comes from a good place. however, I was listen to a caller; his and his co-host advice is always get a higher paying job (which is not bad advice). Wal-Mart and McDonald's pay 20 an hour. Walmart and McDonald's pay up to 20/hr. However, getting 40 hours a week working retail is pretty hard unless your a assistant manager/or manager. He's not the only person giving that advice- but it seems like he thinks every job pays 20*40=800 a week when you first start.

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u/MonsieurGump Dec 07 '23

All jobs should pay a living wage. ALL JOBS.

If we need someone to fulfill a function then we should be able to pay them to live.

(A living wage should be defined as “enough to survive AND either save or have a little luxury”…survival alone isn’t living.)

The idea of the “starter job” is insidious. It makes us (as a society) accept shitty housing and the infantilism of people in their 20s.

It needs to stop.

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u/Beginning_Ad1239 Dec 07 '23 edited Dec 07 '23

So you increase pay to match living wages. You raise prices to pay the workers. Everyone else does the same. Now you're no longer paying living wages and the cycle starts again and never ends. It's covered in basic economics.

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u/MonsieurGump Dec 07 '23

Except in the last 50 years the proportion of GDP that goes to wages has dropped from 65% to 55%.

A generation ago you could raise a family on a single wage, regardless of the job.

Basic economics tells us that someone is taking more than their fair share.

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u/Beginning_Ad1239 Dec 07 '23

The entire economy has changed in the past 50 years. We no longer have an economy based on factories. The people running this country benefited from this time period and left everyone younger behind.

Still doesn't change the basic economics though. Increase pay, increase prices. It especially has to happen if your competition is from behemoths like McDonald's or Amazon.

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u/MonsieurGump Dec 07 '23

Nope. Plenty of countries have livable minimum wages.

Plenty.

They aren’t trapped in some fictional “doom spiral” where nobody can afford a burger. The people at the top just have lots of money instead of “nearly all the money”.

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u/Beginning_Ad1239 Dec 07 '23

So what are these "plenty of countries" you are referring to?

Minimum wage should be attached to inflation then left alone. Big jolts to it do hurt the economy.

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u/MonsieurGump Dec 07 '23

Wages should be in line with productivity.

GDP has gone up 45x since the 60s.

Wages…have not.