I am working 70 or so hours a week, 17 of it unpaid. I make less than $12 per hour.

My boss refers to the wait staff as "wait-trash" to customers as "assholes"

Yet she runs a hospitality business making multi million dollars of revenue each year. Her and her husband eat for free at the restaurant for about $35,000 of sales every year, frequently are drunk at work and have 3 houses for the two of them.

They have 3 cars, each at least 50k.

I have seen time cards doctored to avoid paying all hours worked (or OT)

I have seen tips stolen as "punishment" for making errors.

One time an employee took a piece of prime rib out of the trash to give to his dog, and the boss had him arrested for theft. Luckily the judge threw the case out.

They tried to spit the company into 3 units to avoid paying sick time (state nixxed that, lol)

We have one person quit on average every 5-6 days.

This is the kind of greed that is a problem in the US

Because the cost of living is higher than the wages

Old joke:
So You Wanna Take The Day Off?
So you want a day off? Let's take a look at what you are asking for!

There are 365 days this year.
There are 52 weeks per year in which you already have 2 days off per week, leaving 261 days available for work.
Since you spend 16 hours each day away from work, you have used up 170 days, leaving only 91 days available.
You spend 30 minutes each day on coffee break. That accounts for 23 days each year, leaving only 68 days available.
With a one hour lunch period each day, you have used up another 46 days, leaving only 22 days available for work.
You normally spend 2 days per year on sick leave. This leaves you only 20 days available for work.
We are off for 5 holidays per year, so your available working time is down to 15 days.
We generously give you 14 days vacation per year which leaves only one day available for work and I'll be damned if you're going to take that day off!

Because we are stupid enough to allow it. Look who we vote for, we put people into positions of power that have no morals, have no interest in the rights of the worker, do not care about our health, and do what they can to get rich. What else would one expect.

And yet the bosses are still profiting.

Why do we think that supervising other people doing the actual work that is the reason for a business existing is worth several times the compensation earned by the people being supervised? Employees in the US are several times more productive than they were 50 years ago, yet the wages they earn today get them less than what those workers back then could buy with their wages. The CEOs that funnel more of the company's profits into their own pockets then blames their "lazy, unproductive" workers for the inability to pay them a living wage. While they are pulling down more than 100 times the average worker's income, sometimes even 500 times that.

Why do we accept a lower standard of living in other nations as an acceptable means for boosting our own? The US Dept. of State actively worked to help Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, Levis, and Dockers to prevent Haiti from increasing their minimum wage above $0.22/hour back in the oughts. The President of Levi Strauss currently pulls in over $10.5 million a year, and there's at least 5 other executives there making millions in pay. Why do we accept corporations treating people like this? Of course, those same executives then hold these cheap foreign workers over the heads of their US-based employees to spur them on to accepting more and more inhumane conditions here.

Our nation needs to become socialist. It is fine to reward great effort and work but it should not cost other people suffering. No one needs a 10k square foot home or luxury cars at the cost of others starving.

Those are great questions for which there are only crummy answers.

I dunno,but in Japan"Company Men",are so connected to their work,more than a few have died there.

(((( hugs ))))

This is the way the system has been set up. We are told and led to believe that this leads us to being free. Most people do not have the understanding to put this together and see what is wrong with this. We also have no real idea about what to do about it. To some extent we are like the people of North Korea. We are given a story, see its flaws, and believe it is the only possible solution. Revolution is the first idea that comes to mind but without a plan that will get us to a better place, it will only get people killed.

100 % correct Blindbird..wealth distribution in the states is insane..I watched a documentary with Robert Reich about the hugely diminishing middle class..and that 1%..that are truly living the dream at the expense of everyone else's well being.

Because they're forced to.

I have no idea, I work in a place where I am fully able to contribute, discuss, make policy and do what needs to get done for the business to be successful. Took a long time to find this place. I enjoy what i do, have the tools to do it, and am appreciated. Just so you can see what i do. [overbayhouseworks.com] the job Carrie's with it respect from the community.

I posted earlier, but there is another reason. Perhaps you are one of the few who both like what you do, like where you do it. I have the luxury to work in a high end cabinet shop, the shop has existed for about fourty years, a great owner who appreciates his workers and pays what he can. This is a depressed area, it is also a destination. Many people are moving into the area to retire. Why I originally came here, though I work as much as I can. I would like to do this until I leave the Earth as this is what I do,who I am. Another benefit for me is the morning trip to work which is over the Young's Bay Bridge, about a mile stretch over the bay. I usually see Great Blue Heron, an Eagle, perhaps an Osprey, always many waterfoul.

I agree that we shouldn't attach so much importance to economic success. We should leave people the room to develop themselves artistically, musically, poetically, without necessarily forcing them to be so busy.

It's basically about wealth redistribution. Why does Apple need so many billions in cash reserves? What do all these billionaires do with their wealth? Why do all these bankers need payouts of so many millions every year? Surely all that money can be used better.

When are we truly going to solve wealth inequality? We all come into this world as squalling babes, and we can't take anything with you when we eventually die, how about making sure that you get something approaching equal opportunities.

There are a HILARIOUS number of jobs where people are spending 40 hours or better in an office, doing work they could do in 20 or less. When I first started train dispatching (think air traffic control for trains and the rails. Everyone talks to me to get out there) I enjoyed the intensity of operations.

One day I had to do something minor at the dispatch center, so I called a friend in sales to see if he wanted to meet for lunch. I found his desk in a sea of empty cubes as everyone was either at lunch or at the company gym, trading gossip I guess. I'll never forget his feet were on his desk. A huge NO NO in my office. Managers would, and still freak if you are not busy. Believe me, there is something to do! Plus he was on the internet reading news on MSN's page. That's an employment violation where I work and you can be terminated for being on the internet or having your phone on! We walk down to his friends cube... Same exact posture and website! Both were waiting for calls from railroad customers they had left messages with.

I was more than a little stunned. My safety related job at the RR is "Go go go aaarrrgh go faster!" My desk, or territory even splits from 10am to 6pm because of the workload. And yet these two guys appear to do very little but sit in an office for 40 hours weekly to satisfy some madate of a 40 hour work week. Seems companies try to keep the number of employees that are actually involved with production etc cut down to minimum numbers, train crews and train dispatchers in my companies case, while people sitting in offices are often watching the clock waiting to leave because they've been done for a few hours.

Trying to make ends meet I would think.

Our nation needs to become socialist. It is fine to reward great effort and work but it should not cost other people suffering. No one needs a 10k square foot home or luxury cars at the cost of others starving.

It might be as simple as wages that don't support their livelihood and a penchant for being too materialistic and buying when one can't afford things. Many times purchases are not really needed. I have observed that people in Europe are quite happy with a lot less, fewer clothes, fewer appliances, smaller homes etc.

Required to maintain desired lifestyle