[genderhazard]

Originally Posted by Jumba

You are clearly not speaking from expierence. If you are able to do what you purpose above, return with evidence I shall take back the comment of expierence and bow to you as my superior.

First of all I'm not anyone's superior.

Second, what did I propose above? Getting a job at Wal-mart?, McDonalds? just getting a second minimum wage job? Or supporting a family on minimum wage. Minimum wage is not designed to support a family.

Marriage is hard, and then family is hard, work is hard, working 2 jobs is even harder and more over leaves without time to ones self. The poor deserve life sir, and I don't think you truly grasp the situation or what you purpose.

The poor have life, and in that life should they choose to get married, wonderful. But why is only one working? and why can that person only get a minimum wage job? Many think that such a job is beneath them, well pride goes before the fall I suppose. The argument here to make illegal aliens legal is because they do the work Americans won't do. That means there is not a shortage of jobs just people who won't do them.

Then despite two people living off a single minimum wage job, with no medical insurance, they decide to have a family.

Of course marriage is hard. It is also not to be entered into lightly. Having children is an even bigger commitment.

I hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--

all men are created equal -- they just don't end up that way.
pursuit of Happiness.-- Happiness is something that needs to be pursued. Not handed to you or a default position. You have to work at happiness.

I've say you are a single

I am currently single. Although I lived with a woman for three years who had four children,

Being single isn't all that easy either. My rent doesn't change based on the number of people in my apartment. My cable bill does not care weither one, five, or ten people are watching television. My electric bill does not change based on the number of occupants in the lit room.

and have no children

Well, I got her pregnant, However the pregnancy ended in a miscarrage. Shortly before she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

and are still dependant on someone.

I am dependant on no one. (unless you consider going to work dependant) so I'll say I'm self-sufficient.

I have worked since I was 15 1/2 when I could have a work permit and it was legal to do so, although I had worked winters shoveling driveways, and had a paper route before that.

I had a summer job as maintenance staff. which paid $5.00 when the minimum wage was $3.35(minor odd jobs trash, painting, raking, sweeping)I used the money I earned in the summer job to buy a $500 car --a 75 Chevy Malibu.

When school re-started, I got a job at Wendy's (Which was minimum wage).
I got a $.10 merrit raise which was not given to a co-worker and classmate who started the same day I did. Thus it was earned, not automatic. This raise was eliminated by the way when they increased the minimum wage in 1988 to $3.65.

I quit Wendy's when an associate manager, who had recently been promoted from crew. took a scoop of ice and dumped it down my shirt back as a joke five minutes before the end of my shift. (I did not much care for the guy when he was crew and now that he was associated manager he had a swelled head). When my shift was over I told him I quit, I drove home laundered my uniform, folded it, drove back presented it to him, in front of most of the crew that had seen him put the ice down my back.

The next day I was called by the store manager, he asked if he gave me a raise would I come back to work there, since I was a valuable employee. I told him that it was not a money issue and that I did not care to work under that manager. When I picked up my final check, I noticed the guy was in a crew uniform again.

Two weeks after I quit I had another job, which paid $7.00 per hour. Three months into that job, I moved out of the house ( I was 18) and into an appartment with a twenty something woman as a roommate(friend of a co-worker). Co-signed the lease 6 months into the lease she decides to move back in with her parents. Sticking me with the full rent for the remainder of the lease.

Three years after that I left that job and went to work for a competitor. As it was clear that I was being held back because of my education.

Oh, I forgot to mention that my alcoholic father and mother decided to tell me on my graduation day that they were getting a divorce and that my college money was going to pay laywers. Anyway...

After a year and a half I went from making $12.50 per hour to making 15.00 per hour and had recieved a promotion to a semi management position. Then the first Bush recession hit and the company I worked had it's main contract pulled. One month after that they were out of business.

So I was unemployeed for six months, why six months, I could say it was the economy stupid, but the truth was I was still being paid not to work. I just had to go on three interviews per week. I had done what I did for almost five years, and thought it might be worthwhile to look in another field. So I sent out job applications for various jobs.

One was for a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines. This is where I was a victim of sexual descrimination. The ad said I had to be less than 5'9" in shoes which I am. Now you need to know that my middle name is "Alison" which was my grandfather's name, and he didn't like it all that much either. So as part of unemployment, I sent a resume with my proper name. No response for two weeks but I saw the add again realized that "in shoes" meant "in heels" so without saying it they were looking for a stewardess. So I submitted the exact same resume except I change my first name to my first initial and included my middle name.

The next day, I got a call saying that they would like Alison to come in for a interview. I arrived at the interview, with my birth certificate, to proof I did not lie on the resume if asked. You could see they were uncomfortable with the fact that I was a guy. There was a group audition, myself and three women. They had us read the anouncements, talked about the uniforms, which were clearly gender specific, and how several of the "girls" pooled money for different appartments in different citys since you didn't always end up where you started, which I thought was a good job perk.

Needless to say I didn't get the job.

I did however get a job selling encyclopedia's, which was strictly commission based. (I did not sell a single one.) so I recieved no pay, and had the expense of driving to everyone elses house to try and sell them encyclopedias in a down economy, with about the only thing they had going for them was that they were so up to date that they even had that Bill Clinton was the President.

Out of unemployment, I then got a job in the same field that I had worked at before. Started at $12.00 when I left 15 years later I was making $21.00 But I had to move for the job in their Connecticut office.

In the late 90's I was given a four month assignment in Virginia that lasted two years. In that time they stopped doing what I did in the connecticut office, mostly because I was in Virginia, and when the job was over I had a choice of being let go or returning to the New Hampshire office. (there is another story in there but this will be TLDR anyway)

Now in late 2001, I met the woman I would spend five years with. I was on assignment on a several month job in Washington DC, This was a massive job hundreds of workers, she was one of them. On this job several of the workers were pairing up off hours for sex, Although she spoke very little english, and I spoke very little spanish, she made it very clear to me that she wanted to have sex. I figured what the hell, why not. So for about a month we dated, When the job ended. I was returning to the Boston Area, she to New York. I told her that I didn't think a long distance relation ship would work but I would give it a shot.

About three months into the long distance relationship, about when was going to call if off, I got her pregnant. One month after that she lost the baby, one month after that the lump was confirmed to be breast cancer, and she had to have a masectomy. So we stayed together because what kind of Jackass would I be if I dumped her then.

Because of the operation she was unable to work, most of the medical was paid by her insurance, which she had because she worked in a union. But it does not pay the rent or the car payment.

Now, here is what I did for a girlfriend. I had her car traded in for a car I put in my name. (she owed $7,000) more than the trade in value. So she could still have transportation to do what she needed to do, because they were going to repo her car. I moved out of my apartment and slept in my car and office through the winter months during the week and drove to New York on weekends, taking all the overtime I could, working double shifts so that she and her four children could stay in their apartment. The eldest son was old enough to work but was a lazy lay-about intrested in Yu-gi-Oh. I'll admit that it urks me that I slept in my car so that he could sleep in a bed (til noon) and still give me attitude about cleaning up the apartment.

I'd rather pay nothing and stomach a sour nurse and terrible food while I sit on the ward bed.

I'd rather you do what you need to to take care of business, rather than lay about saying I'm being to hard a taskmaster.

Last year I left my old job of 15 years and took another position that will result in me loosing about $20,000 from last year, mostly in overtime. I typically averaged 700 hours of overtime. (Work year is 2080 hours) the Year Katrinia hit. I had 2080 hours on August 1. While I may have had one employer, I have worked two jobs for several years.

At my new Job I typically work 10-12 hour days and at least 3 out of 4 Saturdays. but being Salary I don't see any more money than if I was working 5 eight hour days. Why do I do it. It is work that needs to be done. Some of it is the nature of a small business, some of it is a learning curve, Some of it is pride in the work I put out, so if it takes me a couple more hours to get something to where I think it should be rather than good enough I do it.

so what expierence am I clearly not speaking from?

I have had a minimum wage job,
I have taken a job for less money,
I have been unemployeed through no fault of my own,
I have supported a family through a medical crisis.
I have worked 16 hour days to make ends meet.

I have had medical insurance for over twenty years, and been to the doctor three times, (Two of which weren't covered by insurance anyway).