Raise the effing wages

I think I might turn down a job because my unemployment is more than minimum wage after taxes and travel expenses. And stfu if you're going to criticize me for being unlawfully terminated by my former employer and don't have a reference I can trust for the past 5 years of employment. This is a systemic problem. The system has failed the working class.

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Raising the wages

Sep 9, 2021 at 5:48pm

Would not make you a less angry person. Being a less angry person would make you a less angry person. EI might be good for you until you get that issue solved. Work is where you disconnect your personal problems. Other workers don't need new worker anger and trash talk. They're co-workers. Not friends, counsellors or baby sitters.

While on EI

Sep 9, 2021 at 5:57pm

Have you upgraded yourself/taken courses (financed by the schools and/or with gov't aid) so as to make more money than minimum wage?
Seeing as you're quite content with EI- my educated guess is you haven't.

The death of a city.

Sep 9, 2021 at 9:53pm

The cost of living is ridiculous in Vancouver. I made $64.000 last year and I can't afford to buy a house. I have no idea how this city can retain any working class people within its boarders? Say goodbye to the working class and the creative, artistic types who help give the city some character other than just having the bland middle class and the wealthy.

36 8Rating: +28

Ugh

Sep 10, 2021 at 9:12am

@WhileonEI, it's easy to criticize the path you've never had to walk. I busted my ass, spent all my 20s and 30s working myself to death after 5 years of school (and slipped in two more of grad school while I was also working), and the outcome is yes, I make just about six figures now, but my student loans are so off the hook that they take more than half my income, so I'm still hustling to eat in the last days before I get paid, and that'll be the case for a decade before I'm out from under school debt (and yes, I also hustled and got all the scholarships and bursaries possible while at school and had straight As). There is no "great leveler", there is no equality of opportunity, Our economic system is fucked, and our wages and educational models right along with it. Stop acting like individuals can "solve" these problems by themselves - they can't. That's the nature of systemic problems. Only collective action can address them.

25 7Rating: +18

@while

Sep 10, 2021 at 10:08am

Your "educated" guess?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

11 6Rating: +5

@while on EI

Sep 10, 2021 at 2:37pm

If only it was that easy! Unfortunately it no longer is that simple. The wages in this province are ridiculously out of proportion to our cost of living. Why would anyone choose to work at a job that pays them less than what they get on EI, particularly when going to work entails additional costs for clothing and transportation? Not to mention that you’re not entitled to EI as long as you’re attending school. If you’re able to attend classes they assume that you’re also available to work. These types of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” remarks simply illustrate that the commenters are totally out of touch with the present reality. It truly is a systemic problem and until the will is there to remove all of the tax breaks for the uber-wealthy, it’s only going to get worse as the gap between the haves and the have-nots continues to expand.

21 7Rating: +14

@the death of a city

Sep 10, 2021 at 7:57pm

Well said! I'm in a similar spot as you. Gave up on owning my own home a long time ago. I used to be married, and even with the combined income (and no kids) we still couldn't afford it. That's part of the reason she left, but I won't get into that...

This is a problem that isn't just isolated to Vancouver. It's actually just a symptom of a greater problem that plagues our western society. Will we find a solution? Do we actually care? Time will tell...

17 4Rating: +13

@Ugh

Sep 10, 2021 at 10:25pm

" I busted my ass, spent all my 20s and 30s working myself to death after 5 years of school...I make just about six figures now, but my student loans are so off the hook that they take more than half my income, so I'm still hustling to eat in the last days before I get paid, and that'll be the case for a decade before I'm out from under school debt"
Fact: $100k a year in BC with Fed, BC and CPP will be a 25% tax rate, so $75k a year net.
Spending around $40k a year on student debt for next decade- $400k- even after spending "20's and 30's" working your ass off.

Doesn't compute.

9 6Rating: +3

@ @while on EI

Sep 10, 2021 at 10:30pm

Excuses.
I worked while going to school part time plus got a little funding from EI and this was very recently. It was hard but I made it.
People like you would rather sit around and let other people work hard pay your way...that is the real problem

Suck it up

Sep 11, 2021 at 12:54am

We went on strike and forced the hand that feeds us into giving us more. Sometimes people got hurt but at least we struggled forward.

9 3Rating: +6

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