President Obama calls for the minimum wage to be set at $9 dollars an hour. What moron beside this president thinks you can raise a family on $9 an hour?

I see that rocker is also stuck back in the 1950s or 1960s when "minimum-wage" earnings were what youngsters like myself made when I worked my way through college via $1.25 an-hour part-time jobs. NOWAAYS, thanks to runaway greed, about 55% of adults work at one or more minimum-wage jobs ... Of course, I have doubts that retros like Stiff and rocker EVER worked for minimum-wages - not when they probably received a "start-up" bequest from "daddy" or "mommy" to get into business ... Remember when Romney advised unemployed young people to "borrow money from their parents" and go into business? Good grief!

Stiffy is blowing hard today, but it all "boils" down to the fact that this delusional soul still hasn't figured out why Mitt Romney and the "Ayn Randians" lost the last election ... "It's the economy, stupid!" ... Amid all the whining and name-calling, the Stiff and his playmates STILL fail to tell us what "benefits" that supply-side (aka "trickle-down") economics has produced for middle-class or lower income workers in the USA! Corporate profits and productivity have been on an upward spiral since 1981, but wages have remained stagnant ... Of course, it stands to reason that "Zombieman" (aka "Working Stiff") would prefer "Voodoo Economics" over common-sense!

I read through the jobs bill that Fred mentions and it looks like 60% of the cost goes to things other than job creation. Also, a big portion is said to protect union jobs which is a swell idea but you should except jobs bill to create jobs for the most part. Maybe Reid and the president should stop campaigning and put together a bill that was 100% funded for job creation and cut the pork. That way it would pass. It time to lead , not campaign.

I see someone just got out of their KKK /John Birch Society meetings !

Good moaning y'all! I see the forces for good are out rockin the comment boards. Good job!

oneill - in case you didn't know the minimum wage is meant to be a "training" wage with the idea being a person moves UP the ladder into better wages. In the world of wages not everyone gets a trophy. You actually have to work for it and prove yourself.

The market should determine the rate. Not morons like obama and the dumbokrats in congress.

WORKINGSTIFF, unfortunately there are many that make a pretty good living out of telling and convincing others how victimized they are and that someone owes them. i see where J.J. Jr. and his wife have come clean about their evil ways. maybe the Rev. J.J. senior will take a note from that playbook and come clean. i doubt it. the money right now is too good and the media will cover his backside. quick question..... who has the better do? Rev. Al Sharpton or The Honorable Don King. i am voting King all the way.

fred i enjoy sheldon from "The Big Bang" theory as well. i still find your business model of an individual or group that invest and build their company for the sole purpose to support the general populace, all the while being subject to said employees infinite determination and subsequent control of the amount of profit and compensation in which they are entitled to earn. it certainly sounds a bit like a government welfare program in which you, at this time, in your life may be well versed. quite possibly you would entertain taking your taxpayer subsidies along with any investments you may have accrued and start an enterprise right there in marietta. it would be a great study of your business model. oh and by the way, please consult your employees before taking any compensation...you do not wish to appear greedy.

good morning moderation. i obviously meant armycorp. thanks for the alert. i hope that armycorp understands the mistake was not intentional. it must have been a brain and finger miscommunication.

Thank you,Fred

Also Sticky, does your short-term memory go back further than January, 2009? If so, you might recall the Bush-era failed "trickle-down" policies that led to the collapse of the American economy since September, 2008 ... "Barry" has done a pretty good job trying to fix what Bush and Cheney created by starting two unfunded wars and installing unfunded tax breaks for their wealthy friends. Of course, the fixing process has been slow. Wanna know why? Because the Ayn Rand wingnuts in Congress have held every jobs bill that has been proposed hostage in their push to make the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy permanent. Duh! Stick - Is there a big bubble over your neighborhood in Dayton that prevents you from viewing the rest of the world?

perpetuate some kind of "master race" at the expense of all others. Oh, now I remember! They were the FASCIST governments in Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy that promoted these views (which were admired, I believe, by novelist Ayn Rand). Tell the Stiff when he shows up! I don't think that his limited education in history covered that information!

@Sticky - What part of the real world don't you live in? Yes, when you and I were starting out, most minimum-wage jobs were held by youngsters starting out. When I worked my way through college in the 1960, I had several jobs that paid $1.25 an hour. However, in the "greed-is-good" society that your Republican friends have promoted since the 1980s, more and more older Americans have minimum-wage jobs. Some work at two or more part-time jobs to make ends meet ... Some people I know who work at low-paying jobs have college degrees ... Of course, in the "Atlas Shrugged" world inhabited by idiots like Paul Ryan and Ted Cruze, these folks are "lazy bums" who "don't apply themselves" that should not be allowed to have families or raise children. Hmmm! I seem to remember another political group that wanted to decide who should have kids and who shouldn't. That political entity thrived on slave-labor, exterminated minorities and the poor, and wanted to

Freddie, what part of "minimum wage=entry-level worker don't you get? Granted, in the economy your buddy Barry has us mired in, with near 8% unemployment, minimum wage jobs are at times the only ones available to those seeking work.

The bottom line is, if you don't have skills to get higher paid jobs than those that involve asking "do you want fries with that", maybe you should wait to get married and have dependents.

Entry level jobs are supposed to be those that high school/college kids get to supplement their income while attending school, not a career for a father or mother trying to maintain a household. Or for retired people to get to supplement their retirement income. Jobs paying minimum wage were never planned to support a family.

Those fast food jobs out in North Dakota pay a lot more than minimum wage. Then again, everything increases in dollar value when a boom hits an area. They're begging for workers out there!

lts -armybrat ?

@Stiffy - Bazinga!

In keeping with the Constitutional mandate to "promote the general welfare", it is sometimes necessary to restrict the abilities of some corrupt or greedy business entities to pollute air and water that all citizens use, or to prevent them from cheating their customers and treating their employees like crap by denying them living wages and fair benefits ... "To secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." But the Stiff wouldn't know that, because Ayn Rand didn't mention it in "Atlas Shrugged"!

@Stiffy - Is your outfit related to the "Glenn Beck Institute for the Proliferation of Paleolithic Paranoia"?

point has to do with training. Yes, many low-income workers are untrained. THAT is why the President and other "progressive" leaders have been plugging spending more on training programs (i.e. vocational schools or private, business-sponsored training programs) that increase workers' abilities to earn living wages, AND increase customer-satisfaction and profits for small-businesses ... For example, in dealing with a bank or other local business, which do YOU prefer - talking with an actual customer-service person from your local business, OR trying to deal with some anonymous, automated voice eminating from Mumbai or Karachi?

I'll have to admit that Stickhauler (of all people) makes a valid point. While companies like McDonald's and Wal-Mart have (enen during recessionary times) been making record profits, they still might want to lay people off or cut hours to keep from paying their workers an extra $1.50 an-hour. Franchise-holders are a nervious lot, and fear that ANY change will take a bite of their precious "bottom-lines". IOW, they are greedy! Here's the catch! If they cut employees (i.e. cut the number of cashiers at stores like K-Mart), many customers (including me) simply go shopping elsewhere, and, after a time, these outfits stop doing business. Some companies (i.e. COSCO) realize that they need to treat employees right to keep their cutomers satisfied. Some (i.e. Wal-Mart) want to keep stiffing their workers - sorry, I mean "associates" - and, in the process, their customers. After their precious profits diminish, they might notice the error of their ways ... Another valid po

BTW - I watched the Presidnt's SOTU speech in its entirety (which the Stiff probably didn't) and I saw NO call for authoritarian measures. In fact he said that this is a diverse (I know the Stiff hates that word) society with many opinions. Unlike Senators McCain and Graham and the NeoCons who gave us the Iraq War, Obama did NOT call for America to unilaterally invade or attack Iran or Syria. The President said that "Gabby Giffords" and "the families of Newtown deserve a vote" on gun-law-reforms. Duh! Does the Stiff have anything against "voting"! It seems that what I and most rational Americans call "democracy", the Stiff regards as "fascism"! If the Stiffer wants to see "fascism" defined, all he needs to do is re-read some of his own posts, or merely look into a mirror!