That totally makes up for the other 90% turning Austalian Suburbs into American style Gettos. They are a cunt of a race, filthy, unskilled, uneducated, untrainable criminals. The Australian Government gets paid to house these cunts at the cost of the taxpayer. I HIRE, I FIRE...
Okay... so what did the Democrats do to American Samoa? I'm a Samoan in New Zealand, and I hardly know anything that happens in American Samoa? Sorry for my ignorance...
WTF does Polamalu know about our meal ticket? We dont need money to eat. We are still strong with our cultures and we still fish, hunt, farm, figth, etc.. Se ua ma fua Samoa. If you do not know what is going on then please dont make it sound like you do. Yes you are Samoan but no, you dont know what its like to live in Samoa. And living in Samoa for two or three years is not enough to understand the way of life. Stop embarrassin MY homeland. Talk about the Samoans in Cali.Thats what you know
@sekefs684 ok as a true native samoan who live most of his life in samoa 9as i think you do). tell us how is it over there? how are the people? has any economic strife hit the island or is it quite prosperous now?
@MikeJustDidit - The people are fine. Economical "strifes" (if you please) are a product of the corruption by the leaders we put into office. I dont know if you are really trying to know or if you are just being sarcastic but, there is a lot of money that is given to AS by the US govt. and the people have yet to see it. We have been asking where the money was going for at least teh last 10 to 12 years...and counting. Corrupt leadership is to blame for american samoa's financial status..
@MikeJustDidit....really? ousted? c'mon man. LMAO! Where are you? Well, look at this way, there are three classes of people in AS. Those who have, those who suck those who haves asses, and then those who dont have. Go down and take a look at the gas prices. Why dont our leaders find some cheaper way instead of breaking us. Oh..and one of our leaders also said we need to raise his pay to that of Californias.get a fukkin life. Yeah these people belong in Hawaii and California. Fa soifua
@MikeJustDidit LBJ Hospital does not pay for our sick ones to leave for needed medical attention (thank goodness for Shriners) because they are IN DEBT! And talk of the money being spent on vacations have been proven to be facts..ie the Europe vacations for gov employees. You also ask "is the Island prosperous?". Well then little buddy let me explain something. If you want 22 inch rims and diamond all over your ears and such, then NO it is not prosperous (is that really how you measure
@MikeJustDidit being "propsperous". You are probably from California huh? See, in the islands, we have this thing that we wish to protect. Its called our CULTURE. Our culture does not need the material things that feed people who need to make millions in order to eat. Although we have incorporated money into it, we haven't sold out on ourselves. A person cannot learn how to climb a coconut tree from the stories of his uncles or whoever, he has to learn through experience. Leave the
@sekefs684 dude ur coming off as a defensive asshole. i am not from california. never been there. i grew up in the province of the philippines where i climbed coconut trees myself before i got into social media and work on the biggest online football community in washington d.c. .i believe in preserving history and culture myself. try to communicate without being a dick.
@MikeJustDidit im sorry bout that...I didnt mean to come off stupid on you. If you had explained that to me I woulda not said so much towards that end of the conversation. lol. I thought YOU were being sarcastic. Sorry. But yes my friend. Corruption has taken its toll. And yes, a lot of bad leaders and followers still remain. I have personally heard the director of health talk about how he doesn't know why he was chosen and loves the money.
Whether people want to blame the Republicans, Democrats, or "the government" is irrelevant. None of these forces caused the economic situation that the island, the country, or the world is in right now. It's the worst economic slump since the Great Depression and blaming everyone and everything in sight does not solve the problem, solutions, action, prevention, and mass effort will. Choosing a scapegoat is only creates more problems.
Another big blunder by the politicians in Washington. Do they even look at the misery they cause? One cannery to go and they will be looking for welfare. Where is the common sense? We need to get the idiots out of office in November. Wake up America.
lmfao liberal what did they do in 1929 when it crashed fuck all we came out of it. Now August 15 1971 the loss of the gold standard. so now are problem is the government has fucked up again. there make money with no value inflating the money supply and devaluing the devaluing the currency. it dose not matter to them fuck head in office. you pay for there gas there cars there house there kids university. plz look at the inflation for 1913 till today. and y is .05$ in 1913 worth a 1.00$ today???
fact is, minmum wage or not, the standard of living in the USA is becoming too high for these territories, and if you can't bring them up to that standard, as has been the case 9 out of 10 times, you gotta let them go, and find another way, which is either indepedence or uniting with their bros in west samoa.
are you on drugs like come on. The government should have no place in business or minimum wage they just fuck shit up. the need for workers and the need for goods should set the standard for minimum wage. The way the Americans live is off other countries. taking longs off Russia China Japan and most other first world countries. you don't lead the world we half to carry you along. look at your deficit, and who you owe that money too
the 1929 chrash or 2008 ones hapened because of lack of goverment intervetion, not because of too much of it.
goverment is NOT the problem, the fact is that the USA, in all it's wisdow, thinks that by giving us somoa a miminimum wage that works in the 48 will help them, and it's failed, because us samoa is not the 48, never gonna be, therefore, it needs to be where it belongs, and that is NOT with the usa, but united with it's westren brother.
imho, this is just move proff that american samoa should left the usa, and be united with it's indepedent neighbor, west samoa. It's the right and common sense thing to do.
Football players will not be effected, and we can work around any difficulties that occur.
hey, i could see those people were living well,notttttttttttttttt. tell ya what, why don't all you capitalists work a week for the wages they used to get from chicken of the sea. then asses if it's a fare wage.
honestly, you people who feel it was a fare wage make me sick. you all have serious moral issues, and i consider you devoid of anything good.
Raising the minimum wage is harmful govt involvement in the economy which does not help long-term lower wage workers. In the US, it only helps people just starting fast food jobs, while negating the raises experienced fast food workers have earned. It's killing Samoa here.
It's not the govt's business to decide what the lowest paying job should pay. The market should decide it. There should be no minimum wage, it should be competitively based like all other job's wages.
This appears to me to be a case of corporate greed, as Del Monte, Chicken of the Sea and others are using the cheapest labor they can find worldwide to make goods that even the people producing them can't afford. U.S. Samoa was under the protection of Jack Abramoff (remember him?) and Tom DeLay, who spent considerable amounts of time and cash protecting corporate interests in the N. Marianas.
are you kidding????....the canaries were paying those workers 2 dollars an hour...you dont think congress should step in to help???...yeah it sucks they lost one, but that shit is SLAVE LABOR
What a fucking puppet devastation to corporate interest modern day slave labor. Fuck them the UN should place a fine on corporations who do buisness like that. Where they take there buisnesses and leave to search for cheap labor.
As recently as 2007, cannery wages were at $3.26, will be $5.26 beginning 5/25/10, and will reach $7.25 by 2014. Originally, the Democrats intended to exempt American Samoa from minimum wage legislation, but Republicans objected because StarKist is owned by Del Monte, which is headquartered in Nancy Pelosi's congressional district. Despite legitimate reasons to exempt American Samoa, in the end it was added to the legislation. Source: Forbes online article, "Ravaged Samoa" dated 10.01.09.
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
are you kidding me, they had to be making under 2 dollars an hour. you should title this, when capitalism goes wrong. or you could title it ,why chicken of the sea sucks. how bout ,us goverment stops exploitation of samoans, so chicken of the 3rd moves on to greener pastures in some different 3rd world country.
2 dollars an hour is a lot more than most Asian people earn, and A LOT more than zero dollars an hour that the minimum wage law makes them earn currently.
So if your state of residence cut the minimum wage to $2 - $3 with no health benefits and a pension of $160 per month when you retire, would you be thankful and most importantly, could you survive off that?
But if they worked on the mainland, they'd earn $7.25 and the Del Monte executives earn millions. The cannery workers were making only $3.60 an hour.
I agree in that the territory needs to be less dependent on the tuna industry and it is a large part of the economy there, but Del Monte doesn't need to pull out of there. Why did Chicken of the Sea move to Georgia? It wasn't for the lower wages.
Thanks for your honesty. You may be content being exploited for gain, but maybe others aren't.
You don't see the bigger picture, wildpeach. If they were on the mainland, they'd earn nothing as well, since the tuna factories long ago left the country.
Chicken of the Sea didn't 'move' to Georgia. They just opened a plant there to expand. Don't try to conflate Atlantic tuna with Pacific tuna. You can't economically transport one to the other location, unless they're already canned, of course.
I realize there isn't any tuna industries left here on the mainland, I was using the geography as an example. Don't be so obtuse.
I do see the bigger picture, just not from your particular side. In my opinion, keeping an entire island under the poverty level only to ensure maximum profits for a corporation just doesn't sit well with me. I understand that the tuna industry (along with the gov't) are their primary industries, but I don't buy this is all the Samoans could do.
To me, it appears that this island was kept isolated (they just recently got fiber-optic lines laid to connect them with the rest of the world, technologicaly speaking) and the residents kept in this ine of work specifically for the expressed purpose of being a ready-made workforce for the benefit of the major corporations who expolited the island's resources for their own gains.
But you must understand that the minimum wage law only INCREASED the poverty. I agree that they should be able to make more money. But we now have proof that the government cannot make that happen simply by passing a law.
Good intentions by government, as usual, lead to bad results. This scenario is not atypical.
No, the reliance on one industry to power their economy lead to the poverty, IMHO.
I agree this isn't a typical situation and that not all gov't intervention leads to positive results, just look at the welfare system and how it's affected some communities in America for a good example of that...
Looks like the pull out has set Samoa on the same course.
@blogegog omg, you really brought up china,a dictatorship. do some research on the country, then move there. then try to speak your mind. your ass would be in prison so fast you'd be begging for that chicken of the sea job,lmao,moron.
Way to misdirect a discussion on the negative side of government intrusion into the workplace, jj! Sadly, it won't work. We're still talking about the damage minimum wage laws can do.
@jjcrocks43 Democrats just killed an island for political clout and you somehow blame capitalism? The invisible hand of the market will always win over socialism and centralized government control of economies. I know Democrats like the back of my hand and they will just turn American Samoa into a welfare state...
@culebranegro The population of American Samoa is ~60,000. The minimum wage law had a negative effect on these 60,000, but it also helped out the other tens of millions on the mainland.
You can make anything look bad if you nitpick. Republicans would've been fine with killing whoever's not a rich individual or a corporation on the mainland, never mind a tiny island.
@PrUnEJuIcEtHeThIrD You say it has 'helped' out millions but you ignore the ridiculously high levels of unemployment for many in that wage-group. In some cases far exceed 50%. Why don't we just raise the min wage to $100/hr ? How can we say that some small town in Kansas should have the same min wage as some major metropolitan area? Min wage HURTS those at or near the min wage far more than it helps them.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Don't forget that.
@PrUnEJuIcEtHeThIrD Most people would not want to work for $.01/hr and therefore the market would set the wage--not some politicians. Businesses would be able to give their hard-working & experienced people a raise b/c they no longer have to pay some 16yr old (who has never had a job & that lives with their parents) $8/hr. Own a business that actually employs these people & when you have to lay ppl off with families b/c gov't forces you to give a 60% raise to teenagers then come talk to me.
@DavidRTarrant If your business is going to go bankrupt b/c you're paying slightly more than 6-7 dollars an hour (whatever the min. wage is) then there is already something wrong with your business. If you give it no regulation, the minimum wage obviously keeps going down. A company would make you work for free if it could.
"Market sets the wage." Do you know what a truly free market economy results in? Read up on US Steel, JP Morgan, and Standard Oil. Singular monopolies. Ironic, isn't it?
@PrUnEJuIcEtHeThIrD Wow you obviously have no business experience--at least employing people. Chicken of the Sea closed their plant & began making tuna in a state-of-the-art plant that required very little labor. Think about it. Jacking up the min wage gives our businesses more incentives to invest in technology so we DON'T HAVE TO EMPLOY PEOPLE. Or one of the other moves you can do--since you are so obsessed w/ business models--is begin to outsource as much as possible to avoid bankruptcy.
@DavidRTarrant Samoa's obviously a special case, and it's pathetic that you use an outlier like that as your catch-all example. This should be obvious just by contrast of living conditions compared to the mainland. For the rest of actual American citizens, unless your business is used to hiring illegals, you're not going to be investing in high-tech technology to counter a small increase in the minimum wage. Yes, there's a downside to everything. What do you want, a cookie?
@PrUnEJuIcEtHeThIrD If you support a high min wage, are you okay with companies laying off those that have full-time, decent paying jobs (in the $50/yr range) so that they can comply with a gov't mandate to give someone who has never worked a day in their life, a raise?? Also, get over this 'living wage' BS. The minimum wage is NOT for people to raise a family of 4 on--never was. Also, can you explain the 'fairness' of the disprop. high unemployment rate for those w/ min wage skills, etc??
@DavidRTarrant First you say that those who are employed at the minimum wage should be looking for a new job b/c it's not gonna satisfy basic need, and then you say that they have decent paying jobs and it's a pity if they get laid off. Make up your mind. Also, let's stop pretending the US minimum wage is even that high. A slew of Western European countries have far higher ones. Even Canada. It's just a reality that Americans expect above-average salaries, even when it comes to the bottom end.
1) Monopolies don't exist in free markets thats an economic fallacy.
2) The government has no role in setting wages. It is a form of price control that leads to shortages. In this case, more unemployment. Look at places with no minimum wage laws like hong kong and singapore. 2% unemployment.
The factory sea of the chicken is being relocated to the state of georgia where all the work will be done by machines. Because human workers are just to epencive.
So tecnacly there outsourcing to the United States.
Exploitation? They got paid for their work. The US government put a price floor on labor, so the employers bought less labor. The way you'd have us do things would involve paying an artificially inflated price for goods and services. Do they not teach economics anymore?
That totally makes up for the other 90% turning Austalian Suburbs into American style Gettos. They are a cunt of a race, filthy, unskilled, uneducated, untrainable criminals. The Australian Government gets paid to house these cunts at the cost of the taxpayer. I HIRE, I FIRE...
gonefishin1977 4 days ago
@tizzle684 sole u fob ass nigga ....haha kaka mai kokogu . au le fea gangztah oi... lol choooohoooo fawk dat nigga tizzle684
Us0253 7 months ago
fuck samoans haha! wuss poppin uce!
Us0253 8 months ago
@Us0253 fuck u asshole u aint shut the fuck up
tizzle684 7 months ago
Samoans kick ass
RussiaTodayBrainWash 9 months ago
Comment removed
DavidRTarrant 1 year ago
This is bull crap. Give them back their way of live period.. Troy is a hell of a guy. GOOO STEEELERS STAIRWAY to 7
clearancequeenie 1 year ago
check out this fool sekefs684-- i asked some simple questions and he turned into a savage internet monster.
MikeJustDidit 1 year ago
@MikeJustDidit uhhhh...i said i was sorry
sekefs684 1 year ago
Okay... so what did the Democrats do to American Samoa? I'm a Samoan in New Zealand, and I hardly know anything that happens in American Samoa? Sorry for my ignorance...
blUdz18 1 year ago
WTF does Polamalu know about our meal ticket? We dont need money to eat. We are still strong with our cultures and we still fish, hunt, farm, figth, etc.. Se ua ma fua Samoa. If you do not know what is going on then please dont make it sound like you do. Yes you are Samoan but no, you dont know what its like to live in Samoa. And living in Samoa for two or three years is not enough to understand the way of life. Stop embarrassin MY homeland. Talk about the Samoans in Cali.Thats what you know
sekefs684 1 year ago
@sekefs684 ok as a true native samoan who live most of his life in samoa 9as i think you do). tell us how is it over there? how are the people? has any economic strife hit the island or is it quite prosperous now?
MikeJustDidit 1 year ago
@MikeJustDidit - The people are fine. Economical "strifes" (if you please) are a product of the corruption by the leaders we put into office. I dont know if you are really trying to know or if you are just being sarcastic but, there is a lot of money that is given to AS by the US govt. and the people have yet to see it. We have been asking where the money was going for at least teh last 10 to 12 years...and counting. Corrupt leadership is to blame for american samoa's financial status..
sekefs684 1 year ago
@sekefs684 im trying to know. are the same corrupt leaders still there or have they been ousted?
MikeJustDidit 1 year ago
@MikeJustDidit....really? ousted? c'mon man. LMAO! Where are you? Well, look at this way, there are three classes of people in AS. Those who have, those who suck those who haves asses, and then those who dont have. Go down and take a look at the gas prices. Why dont our leaders find some cheaper way instead of breaking us. Oh..and one of our leaders also said we need to raise his pay to that of Californias.get a fukkin life. Yeah these people belong in Hawaii and California. Fa soifua
sekefs684 1 year ago
@MikeJustDidit LBJ Hospital does not pay for our sick ones to leave for needed medical attention (thank goodness for Shriners) because they are IN DEBT! And talk of the money being spent on vacations have been proven to be facts..ie the Europe vacations for gov employees. You also ask "is the Island prosperous?". Well then little buddy let me explain something. If you want 22 inch rims and diamond all over your ears and such, then NO it is not prosperous (is that really how you measure
sekefs684 1 year ago
@MikeJustDidit being "propsperous". You are probably from California huh? See, in the islands, we have this thing that we wish to protect. Its called our CULTURE. Our culture does not need the material things that feed people who need to make millions in order to eat. Although we have incorporated money into it, we haven't sold out on ourselves. A person cannot learn how to climb a coconut tree from the stories of his uncles or whoever, he has to learn through experience. Leave the
sekefs684 1 year ago
@sekefs684 dude ur coming off as a defensive asshole. i am not from california. never been there. i grew up in the province of the philippines where i climbed coconut trees myself before i got into social media and work on the biggest online football community in washington d.c. .i believe in preserving history and culture myself. try to communicate without being a dick.
MikeJustDidit 1 year ago
@MikeJustDidit im sorry bout that...I didnt mean to come off stupid on you. If you had explained that to me I woulda not said so much towards that end of the conversation. lol. I thought YOU were being sarcastic. Sorry. But yes my friend. Corruption has taken its toll. And yes, a lot of bad leaders and followers still remain. I have personally heard the director of health talk about how he doesn't know why he was chosen and loves the money.
sekefs684 1 year ago
@sekefs684 i appreciate that. Fa'afetai tele
MikeJustDidit 1 year ago
Whether people want to blame the Republicans, Democrats, or "the government" is irrelevant. None of these forces caused the economic situation that the island, the country, or the world is in right now. It's the worst economic slump since the Great Depression and blaming everyone and everything in sight does not solve the problem, solutions, action, prevention, and mass effort will. Choosing a scapegoat is only creates more problems.
baygrl518 1 year ago
FUCK ALL THE REPUBLICANS -- Polamalu could wreck those faggots
Hunkola 1 year ago
Democrats need to put on their helmets and line-up against the Samoans
Spyhunter81 1 year ago
Ron Paul 2012
Basic economics should be a civic duty
RunLiberty 1 year ago
Another big blunder by the politicians in Washington. Do they even look at the misery they cause? One cannery to go and they will be looking for welfare. Where is the common sense? We need to get the idiots out of office in November. Wake up America.
marwoo1944 1 year ago
if the goverment wasnt so crooked we wouldnt have this problem..
Shoowoop05 1 year ago
lmfao liberal what did they do in 1929 when it crashed fuck all we came out of it. Now August 15 1971 the loss of the gold standard. so now are problem is the government has fucked up again. there make money with no value inflating the money supply and devaluing the devaluing the currency. it dose not matter to them fuck head in office. you pay for there gas there cars there house there kids university. plz look at the inflation for 1913 till today. and y is .05$ in 1913 worth a 1.00$ today???
ikeones 2 years ago
fact is, minmum wage or not, the standard of living in the USA is becoming too high for these territories, and if you can't bring them up to that standard, as has been the case 9 out of 10 times, you gotta let them go, and find another way, which is either indepedence or uniting with their bros in west samoa.
KangaKucha 2 years ago
are you on drugs like come on. The government should have no place in business or minimum wage they just fuck shit up. the need for workers and the need for goods should set the standard for minimum wage. The way the Americans live is off other countries. taking longs off Russia China Japan and most other first world countries. you don't lead the world we half to carry you along. look at your deficit, and who you owe that money too
ikeones 2 years ago
the 1929 chrash or 2008 ones hapened because of lack of goverment intervetion, not because of too much of it.
goverment is NOT the problem, the fact is that the USA, in all it's wisdow, thinks that by giving us somoa a miminimum wage that works in the 48 will help them, and it's failed, because us samoa is not the 48, never gonna be, therefore, it needs to be where it belongs, and that is NOT with the usa, but united with it's westren brother.
its common sense. u should b 4 somoa unity!
KangaKucha 2 years ago
imho, this is just move proff that american samoa should left the usa, and be united with it's indepedent neighbor, west samoa. It's the right and common sense thing to do.
Football players will not be effected, and we can work around any difficulties that occur.
KangaKucha 2 years ago
hey, i could see those people were living well,notttttttttttttttt. tell ya what, why don't all you capitalists work a week for the wages they used to get from chicken of the sea. then asses if it's a fare wage.
honestly, you people who feel it was a fare wage make me sick. you all have serious moral issues, and i consider you devoid of anything good.
jjcrocks43 2 years ago
Raising the minimum wage is harmful govt involvement in the economy which does not help long-term lower wage workers. In the US, it only helps people just starting fast food jobs, while negating the raises experienced fast food workers have earned. It's killing Samoa here.
It's not the govt's business to decide what the lowest paying job should pay. The market should decide it. There should be no minimum wage, it should be competitively based like all other job's wages.
RuflessRecords 2 years ago
This appears to me to be a case of corporate greed, as Del Monte, Chicken of the Sea and others are using the cheapest labor they can find worldwide to make goods that even the people producing them can't afford. U.S. Samoa was under the protection of Jack Abramoff (remember him?) and Tom DeLay, who spent considerable amounts of time and cash protecting corporate interests in the N. Marianas.
wildpeachatl737 2 years ago
are you kidding????....the canaries were paying those workers 2 dollars an hour...you dont think congress should step in to help???...yeah it sucks they lost one, but that shit is SLAVE LABOR
zbjordan23 2 years ago
thats right, I forgot not having a job is better than a job that doesnt pay well.
gordy212121 2 years ago
What a fucking puppet devastation to corporate interest modern day slave labor. Fuck them the UN should place a fine on corporations who do buisness like that. Where they take there buisnesses and leave to search for cheap labor.
EmeterioBetances 2 years ago
As recently as 2007, cannery wages were at $3.26, will be $5.26 beginning 5/25/10, and will reach $7.25 by 2014. Originally, the Democrats intended to exempt American Samoa from minimum wage legislation, but Republicans objected because StarKist is owned by Del Monte, which is headquartered in Nancy Pelosi's congressional district. Despite legitimate reasons to exempt American Samoa, in the end it was added to the legislation. Source: Forbes online article, "Ravaged Samoa" dated 10.01.09.
M0N1ER 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
are you kidding me, they had to be making under 2 dollars an hour. you should title this, when capitalism goes wrong. or you could title it ,why chicken of the sea sucks. how bout ,us goverment stops exploitation of samoans, so chicken of the 3rd moves on to greener pastures in some different 3rd world country.
jjcrocks43 2 years ago
2 dollars an hour is a lot more than most Asian people earn, and A LOT more than zero dollars an hour that the minimum wage law makes them earn currently.
blogegog 2 years ago 18
So if your state of residence cut the minimum wage to $2 - $3 with no health benefits and a pension of $160 per month when you retire, would you be thankful and most importantly, could you survive off that?
wildpeachatl737 2 years ago
First off, they were getting $5.11/hr ($10,629/yr). they now receive $0/hr. I could live a lot longer on $10k a year than I could on zero.
The vast majority of the people on the planet earn less than $10k a year (average pay in China is only ~$8k last time I checked).
So yes, while I would not like to earn so little, I'd be much happier than if I earned nothing at all, wildpeach.
blogegog 2 years ago
But if they worked on the mainland, they'd earn $7.25 and the Del Monte executives earn millions. The cannery workers were making only $3.60 an hour.
I agree in that the territory needs to be less dependent on the tuna industry and it is a large part of the economy there, but Del Monte doesn't need to pull out of there. Why did Chicken of the Sea move to Georgia? It wasn't for the lower wages.
Thanks for your honesty. You may be content being exploited for gain, but maybe others aren't.
wildpeachatl737 2 years ago
You don't see the bigger picture, wildpeach. If they were on the mainland, they'd earn nothing as well, since the tuna factories long ago left the country.
Chicken of the Sea didn't 'move' to Georgia. They just opened a plant there to expand. Don't try to conflate Atlantic tuna with Pacific tuna. You can't economically transport one to the other location, unless they're already canned, of course.
blogegog 2 years ago
I realize there isn't any tuna industries left here on the mainland, I was using the geography as an example. Don't be so obtuse.
I do see the bigger picture, just not from your particular side. In my opinion, keeping an entire island under the poverty level only to ensure maximum profits for a corporation just doesn't sit well with me. I understand that the tuna industry (along with the gov't) are their primary industries, but I don't buy this is all the Samoans could do.
wildpeachatl737 2 years ago
To me, it appears that this island was kept isolated (they just recently got fiber-optic lines laid to connect them with the rest of the world, technologicaly speaking) and the residents kept in this ine of work specifically for the expressed purpose of being a ready-made workforce for the benefit of the major corporations who expolited the island's resources for their own gains.
wildpeachatl737 2 years ago
But you must understand that the minimum wage law only INCREASED the poverty. I agree that they should be able to make more money. But we now have proof that the government cannot make that happen simply by passing a law.
Good intentions by government, as usual, lead to bad results. This scenario is not atypical.
blogegog 2 years ago
No, the reliance on one industry to power their economy lead to the poverty, IMHO.
I agree this isn't a typical situation and that not all gov't intervention leads to positive results, just look at the welfare system and how it's affected some communities in America for a good example of that...
Looks like the pull out has set Samoa on the same course.
wildpeachatl737 2 years ago
@blogegog omg, you really brought up china,a dictatorship. do some research on the country, then move there. then try to speak your mind. your ass would be in prison so fast you'd be begging for that chicken of the sea job,lmao,moron.
jjcrocks43 2 years ago
Way to misdirect a discussion on the negative side of government intrusion into the workplace, jj! Sadly, it won't work. We're still talking about the damage minimum wage laws can do.
blogegog 2 years ago
you're talking about minimum wage , i'm talking about human decency, and exploitation.
also, you brought up china as a comparison, which just blows me away.
i don't want socialism, but i would like for people who work hard to be able to buy their kid a friken football helmet.
did you ever think for one second that all jobs have value, or that all people are significant.
nah, i guess not. you'd rather have them live in a hut in some 3rd world country fighting off the rodents.
jjcrocks43 2 years ago
Well, we agree that all jobs have value, jj. And the wage law mandated on Samoa just removed a few thousand of those valuable jobs.
I can't believe that you are supporting a law that leaves so many people destitute.
blogegog 2 years ago
@blogegog stop smoking crack, you thought process will work better.
jjcrocks43 2 years ago
@jjcrocks43
That's really rude.
jmelkis 2 years ago
socalism isn't bad when it's democract and mixed with capitalism.
KangaKucha 2 years ago
@blogegog who was making $5.11/hr? The cannery workers? Not in American Samoa buddy.
sekefs684 1 year ago
@jjcrocks43 Democrats just killed an island for political clout and you somehow blame capitalism? The invisible hand of the market will always win over socialism and centralized government control of economies. I know Democrats like the back of my hand and they will just turn American Samoa into a welfare state...
culebranegro 2 years ago 23
@culebranegro The population of American Samoa is ~60,000. The minimum wage law had a negative effect on these 60,000, but it also helped out the other tens of millions on the mainland.
You can make anything look bad if you nitpick. Republicans would've been fine with killing whoever's not a rich individual or a corporation on the mainland, never mind a tiny island.
PrUnEJuIcEtHeThIrD 1 year ago
@PrUnEJuIcEtHeThIrD You say it has 'helped' out millions but you ignore the ridiculously high levels of unemployment for many in that wage-group. In some cases far exceed 50%. Why don't we just raise the min wage to $100/hr ? How can we say that some small town in Kansas should have the same min wage as some major metropolitan area? Min wage HURTS those at or near the min wage far more than it helps them.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Don't forget that.
DavidRTarrant 1 year ago
@DavidRTarrant You take any extreme hypothetical situation you want, but it has no bearing on your argument.
By reverse logic, OK, why don't we lower the minimum wage to 1 cent an hour? I'm sure employers would be willing to hire everybody.
PrUnEJuIcEtHeThIrD 1 year ago
@PrUnEJuIcEtHeThIrD Most people would not want to work for $.01/hr and therefore the market would set the wage--not some politicians. Businesses would be able to give their hard-working & experienced people a raise b/c they no longer have to pay some 16yr old (who has never had a job & that lives with their parents) $8/hr. Own a business that actually employs these people & when you have to lay ppl off with families b/c gov't forces you to give a 60% raise to teenagers then come talk to me.
DavidRTarrant 1 year ago
@DavidRTarrant If your business is going to go bankrupt b/c you're paying slightly more than 6-7 dollars an hour (whatever the min. wage is) then there is already something wrong with your business. If you give it no regulation, the minimum wage obviously keeps going down. A company would make you work for free if it could.
"Market sets the wage." Do you know what a truly free market economy results in? Read up on US Steel, JP Morgan, and Standard Oil. Singular monopolies. Ironic, isn't it?
PrUnEJuIcEtHeThIrD 1 year ago
@PrUnEJuIcEtHeThIrD Wow you obviously have no business experience--at least employing people. Chicken of the Sea closed their plant & began making tuna in a state-of-the-art plant that required very little labor. Think about it. Jacking up the min wage gives our businesses more incentives to invest in technology so we DON'T HAVE TO EMPLOY PEOPLE. Or one of the other moves you can do--since you are so obsessed w/ business models--is begin to outsource as much as possible to avoid bankruptcy.
DavidRTarrant 1 year ago
@DavidRTarrant Samoa's obviously a special case, and it's pathetic that you use an outlier like that as your catch-all example. This should be obvious just by contrast of living conditions compared to the mainland. For the rest of actual American citizens, unless your business is used to hiring illegals, you're not going to be investing in high-tech technology to counter a small increase in the minimum wage. Yes, there's a downside to everything. What do you want, a cookie?
PrUnEJuIcEtHeThIrD 1 year ago
@PrUnEJuIcEtHeThIrD If you support a high min wage, are you okay with companies laying off those that have full-time, decent paying jobs (in the $50/yr range) so that they can comply with a gov't mandate to give someone who has never worked a day in their life, a raise?? Also, get over this 'living wage' BS. The minimum wage is NOT for people to raise a family of 4 on--never was. Also, can you explain the 'fairness' of the disprop. high unemployment rate for those w/ min wage skills, etc??
DavidRTarrant 1 year ago
@DavidRTarrant First you say that those who are employed at the minimum wage should be looking for a new job b/c it's not gonna satisfy basic need, and then you say that they have decent paying jobs and it's a pity if they get laid off. Make up your mind. Also, let's stop pretending the US minimum wage is even that high. A slew of Western European countries have far higher ones. Even Canada. It's just a reality that Americans expect above-average salaries, even when it comes to the bottom end.
PrUnEJuIcEtHeThIrD 1 year ago
@PrUnEJuIcEtHeThIrD
1) Monopolies don't exist in free markets thats an economic fallacy.
2) The government has no role in setting wages. It is a form of price control that leads to shortages. In this case, more unemployment. Look at places with no minimum wage laws like hong kong and singapore. 2% unemployment.
TimeWarp66 4 months ago
Comment removed
simontimon2 2 years ago
The factory sea of the chicken is being relocated to the state of georgia where all the work will be done by machines. Because human workers are just to epencive.
So tecnacly there outsourcing to the United States.
simontimon2 2 years ago
Exploitation? They got paid for their work. The US government put a price floor on labor, so the employers bought less labor. The way you'd have us do things would involve paying an artificially inflated price for goods and services. Do they not teach economics anymore?
JAKECUB100 2 years ago
see, one size does not fit all....
adaismeus1 2 years ago