So out of touch

If people are working, why isn't their pay enough to lift them out of poverty?

Especially if minimum wage is payed for fewer than 40 hours, and the employer doesn't provide health insurance.

That ends my minute of thinking for the day.

a good wage.

I guess I should have explained but I assumed (I know, I know) that people would understand it, coming from Smiley.

I never watch American TV anymore except the snippets that Colbert & Stewart make jokes about.

From Wiki:

Tavis Smiley... is a talk show host, author, liberal political commentator, entrepreneur, advocate and philanthropist. /snip

Smiley was then offered a chance to host a radio talk show on National Public Radio. He served as host of The Tavis Smiley Show on NPR until December 2004 when he announced that he would be leaving his NPR show, citing the network's inability to reach a more diverse audience.[38] Smiley launched a weekly version of his radio program The Tavis Smiley Show on April 29, 2005, distributed by NPR rival Public Radio International. On October 1, 2010, Tavis Smiley turned the second hour of his PRI program into Smiley & West co-hosted by his longtime collaborator Dr. Cornel West. Smiley also hosts Tavis Smiley, a late night talk show televised on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network and produced in association with WNET in New York. /snip

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavis_Smiley

/Users/ibookg3owner/Desktop/Tavis_Smiley.jpg

Context is everything.

That is why it is important to give as much clarity in threads as possible.

My mistake.

A wage that can afford someone to raise a family

But we've lost our way as a nation over these last many years.

More and more workers are finding themselves poorer and poorer every year.

For a better America, people who work should never be poor.

filthy rich, and therefore is communist.

If every company had to pay a legitimate living wage, then how would these CEO's and other big-wings be able to afford their luxury yachts, mega-mansions, European luxury cars, etc?

You wouldn't want them to have to dip into their savings and "investments", would you?

It's all about me, me, me with these working poor types.

for housing, utilities, a savings account, and a 2 or 3 week vacation with the family every year. Why is anyone who is toiling for any company poor? Aren't we supposed to be the Greatest Nation? What Nation in their right mind, unless they are dictating asshole countries, would want to look to the United States and its "democracy" as a model to follow when our model works you until you die for what? What are we working for?.. To choose between food and electricity this month?

That's the biggest question I always come back to... What are we working so hard for? Are we actually producing any worthwhile betterment to humanity? Are we actually creating anything pertinent? What are we working crappy jobs that pay shit, for? That question and the actuality of living life toiling away, struggling to pay to afford to live, is why so many people are depressed and/ or use drugs to numb the reality of the fact that most of us are working for and towards nothing and that Dreams are unattainable and that the jobs we are working, for the most part, are mind-numbingly dull and that you will be working one of these types of jobs until you probably die.. since the politicians are destroying any vestige of a safety net at the end of our lives. Retire? WTF is that?

My real hope lies in the world awakening... Occupy is a great force, and I hope Spring comes back with a vengeance. I'm ready to... I think many are ready to as well.

Smiley is a tireless crusader for societal justice (as is West) and while his phraseology has lost something without the context, he basically means that if you have a job it should be paying you a decent wage - enough to NOT be poor!

He's been a huge supporter of the Occupy movements and is no friend to the corporate raiding of our civil society.

painted the wrong picture!

G%dD@^^!), but there are some dense people on this board as of late. But maybe that is a good sign. It means that the CPPOOABWTIWOTH* crowd is abandoning the Repubs.




*[font size = 1]Can't pour piss out of a boot with the instructions written on the heel.

Why did you not include context? Why haven't you updated your post to include the context provided in the comments?

statement was supportive of American workers.

If I'd been posting it elsewhere, I may have been more explanatory, but I had faith in DUers to understand what he means.

And, sorry I'm not on your timeline, but I was away from my computer for a while. Sheesh - it's like I'm back in school getting chastised by Mother Superior.

But folks in the thread were coming to the wrong conclusions and then I got all DU-ey.


I gotta spend time elsewhere.

times.

I love the "all DU-ey"!

There should have been more details provided.

Recently, liberal commentators, journalists, activists, actors, etc. have been ridiculed and attacked on this very forum, including Dr. Cornel West. It was a profound statement by Tavis Smiley and I agree with him completely but without context, it could have easily been misinterpreted.

Fortunately, there were several posts after mine that provided explanation. Thanks for editing the OP and my apologies for causing you frustration.

Sigh!

and understood) the confusion I tried to clarify.

And I never gave a thought about him being dissed here -- I'm shocked (and didn't know) that Cornel West had been criticized. Wow -- scary!

A living wage should be instituted.

open to discussion. What we need is the minimum wage to be set at a higher standard. On the other hand if companies do not want to pay more then they should support a universal health care program and free education and things like that. What companies have never understood is that these programs have always helped to keep wages lower. The rethugs have now convinced them that government cost too much. We shall see.

How could anyone possibly be against a living wage?

when is enough money enough? MORE PROFIT SHARING!!!

we need a CEO law to reduce their obcene pay.

want you to think that was his message.

Smiley nailed it (sadly)