I think the volunteerism in schools could work if the unions would let it happen. This same sort of thing could be done through out the government. When my son was first born I was dirt poor and I was on welfare for about 2 years. It was terrible to get money when I had not earned it. I asked them if they would let me volunteer there cleaning the office or doing something to help make up for the money and medical help they gave me but they said no they could not do that. So I ended up volunteering as a secretary for a small business and got some skills under my belt and eventually got off welfare.
But let’s say there was a program that when people came in needing welfare they instead said ok, we will pay you the min wage (and that works out to be more than a welfare check) you show up at the welfare office to answer phones, or clean the office or clean DMV or the post office or sort mail at the post office or answer phones at the county clerks office or file papers exc.. You get the idea.
The person getting the welfare is getting actual experience to help them get out of the welfare trap, the government hires fewer employees because they have many people doing the job and gaining experience and the person doing it feels a whole lot better about their self because they are earning what they are getting.
The minimum wage is another story. I do not approve of our high min. wage for a number of reasons. Not sure how it is where you are at but here they have made it illegal for kids to pick fruit here. When I was a kid in the summer I would make extra money picking beans, strawberries and peas. Now only illegals and old people do it and kids have no real way to make money till they are 16 and then its in fast food where the managers don’t want to hire them because why should they want to pay 8 something an hour for an inexperienced person to have to train and they can only work certain hours and not use the fryers. So basically kids don’t have very many choices for where they can work.
Also, I remember when the min wage went up the first time in my adult life. I was at min wage there and was pretty excited about the wage going up. I was on a very tight budget so I knew the price of just about everything in the store I shopped at. When min wage went up so did the price of hamburger, veggies, fruit … everything. It ended up costing me more than my new wage to buy the same stuff I had been buying, in short I was worse off.
The second time the min wage went up I was just above min wage and the increase put me back at min wage. My boss could not afford to pay the new min wage for all the people plus up my wage so again I was at min wage and again the price of everything went up again and I was worse off again.
Now I make a little over 14 dollars an hour. I have been with the school district for 20 years and our min wage goes up approximately 50 cents a year, so I figure in the next 6 to 8 years I will be back at min wage and I won’t be able to afford to go to McDonalds because if you are paying people that much money to make fast food the cost of those items are going to have to increase too.
I think there has to be some kind of rule about a min wage because some would do slave labor if they could but there should be exemptions like fast food because kids need to be able to work and they are not supporting a family they just need extra spending money and a chance to learn skills and understand how the real world works but everyone in the United States that works does not need to raise a family so the min wage should not be thought of as an income you can support a family on.
