Farmars, as most of us should know, is privately owned by some Remuera Schmucks. Of course, in light of falling house prices and increasing rates, how dare they cream their profits to line their pockets to get them through – never mind the staff.

Whats needed is a system whereby company profits (after outgoings) should be returned back to the staff, and the company is required to raise capital via the sharemarket, private investors etc.
Simplest terms.

It’s easy to see why Aussie has a min wage of almost $18 an hour as their companies all get money from the sharemarket to grow. A bit of an upside to compulsory superannuation, which KS is going some way to rectify…

If we as society believe that the minimum wage should increase, then society should justly deal with the reprucussions and consequences of such a decision. I have no problem with subsidising businesses upon raising the minimum wage, but we cannot use businesses just because they are an easy means to pay for higher wages.

I think SP put it nicely in his subtext of infuseds rant at 1.04. and in answer to your question of where the fundamental flaw is obvious, I dont think it is to righties.

There seems to be this line of argument from the righties that we could all become rich by, as comments above suggest: Upskill, get a better job. But there is a huge flaw in that its simply not practical or realistic, as mentioned partly by Tane. The reality is that we cant all be CEO’s and I see that as the inherent flaw in the current capitalist structure.

Take for example a friend of mine from school. His mother was a nurse but an unregistered one, she had to support 2 teenage boys on her own. My mother who has worked in nursing and health her entire life always suggested to her that she train to be a registered nurse and thus increase her pay – it seemed obvious to an outsider that thats what you’d do.

The trouble was is that it simply wasnt financially viable for her to lose current pay to study to become a registered nurse. How the hell could she risk forgoing: Mortgage payments, food, bills etc.

Now its all very well for someone like me in a position of privilege to scoff and say: Oh well she should just find a way! Upskill! Get a better job! or my favourite: Shes the result of Supply and Demand, fair is fair!

But instead, I take issue with the fact that people get trapped in to that sort of work cycle, and I’d rather help finding a solution. I’d like to think some others out there can stop and consider the many variables that shape us as who we are, but it appears they don’t. case point: whale/DPF blogs , the list goes on.

Go the Farmers workers, I hope they turned some heads today!

Which is a big part of the reason they’re paid what they are.

Artificial pay increase, yeah that will do a lot for the country.

I think I can comment on this to, working at Burger King in 2000 getting 7.70 an hour, then factory working, I got 19.00 an hour, then I quit, studied, got a diploma in software engineering and started my own business.

Now I’m on roughly 55k and I increase my pay every year.

People have the choice. Very simple.

[you're fundamentally misunderstanding the issue, it's not about the individuals, we need these roles in our economy, the question is how we treat the people who do them. Like Tane, says "who's going to work at Farmers when we've upskilled all the Farmers workers into new jobs? And how are we going to pay them? You see the problem with your argument." SP]

It’s Christmas time, and the needles on the tree
A skinny Santa is bringing something to me
His voice is overwhelming, but his speech is slurred
And I only understand every other word

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezerLW5jPwI&feature=related

Quality customer service is a skill. One that many people cannot master.

Lets hope Slippery John can do something about it aye?

Also, love the phrase “meaningless wage increases.” Try telling someone on $12 an hour a decent pay rise is “meaningless”.

NZ has it the right way around on housing assistance, whereas parts of the US (for example) have rent controls that specify maximum rates of rent increase (below inflation) to ensure a mixture of socio-economic strata co-exist within a given city or suburb. This, of course, gives landlords the incentive to never renovate or improve, and try to force out tenants in various other ways. I can’t understand why the entity that wants the diversity (society, through its government) doesn’t pay for it through rental supplements rather than forcing the burden onto single individuals. Totally not cool. NZ sees the light on the housing issue but employs opposite logic on minimum wages.

I might head on down, it has been a long time since I have been able to chuck eggs at a trade unionist.

[Tane: Unite's Supersizemypay, the EPMU's FairShare, the NDU's Progressive campaign, the Nurses' pay campaign... I could go on. Try to do a bit of research before you mouth off. Also, feel free to go and hurl eggs at low wage workers asking for a better deal - just be sure to wear your National Party rosette.]