What prevents people making minimum wage from improving their situation?

Question

What is stopping them from finding a different job making more money? What is stopping them from getting grants and student loans to go back to school?

Answer 1

The Democrat party is largely responsible for stifling their growth and keeping them on the level of cripples and dependents.

Answer 2

There could be lots of reasons. When a person makes minimum wage usually they need to work several jobs. Housing is so expensive, never mind the bills associated with keeping an apartment. Sometimes you need to get more education to move up, but how when you need to work alot to survive. Having a car is also a big expense, it could break and needs constant maintenance. Don't forget insurance, I live in Massachusetts and we all need insurance to register a car. You also need to buy food, because you need to eat. Add up all this and consider the time spent at work, and it's very difficult to move up. Some people don't do well in school. It's too bad there are no factory jobs for some of these people, they would make more money at a job like that and not need so much education. I believe it's probably going to get worse.

Answer 3

The average cost of a 2 bedroom apartment in New Jersey is 1,200 a month. Housing costs should not be more than 30% of your income. In order to afford housing a worker making the current minimum wage would have to work at least 119 hours a week just for rent or make 21.21 per hour. A great majority of people making minimum wage cannot afford to look for a new job because they are too busy trying to keep a roof over their heads and feed their families. Throw in the cost of childcare, food and utilities it becomes much more difficult. Not to mention the lack of health care benefits. Affordable housing and the ability to earn a living wage should be attainable for all. These people are not lazy, they are honest, hard working people who are just trying to survive. It is unacceptable that families should have to choose between rent or having enough to sustain basic human needs.

Answer 4

If they have a family, it is a great sacrifice to work a full time job, and go to school full time if you have children in the home to raise. So, this may be what is stopping many people. And it is a great sacrifice to go to school and live off of student loans. For some it may be the fear of the unknown, they really don't know how to go about getting to the available resources. For some people it is very easy to look forward at the pay off of the original sacrifice necessary to complete a college education. For others they may need some encouragement from someone who has the knowledge of what is available. God bless****

Answer 5

Because sometimes people get caught up in living paycheck to paycheck. They may have over-due bills, high mortgage and other obsticals.

Not to mention it is very hard for a minimum wage worker to get any assistance from the Government.

Sometimes they make too much money for things like Food Stamps and Families First, but not enough money to survive on.

Also, if they live paycheck to paycheck, and can't get time off to look for another job, how do you think they can even get another job? They can't just quit and go out looking.

Answer 6

because people that work minimum wage jobs usually work more than one job to try to make ends meet. They do this probably because they have a family to support, so they don't go back to school because they can't afford to take the time off work to get educated. With out education, very few people can get ahead in life, so they are stuck in a cycle and it is hard to get out. Either that, or they are lazy, and ignorant, and don't care about anything, and rather be a "victim" of the system, and whine and complain that they don't get an opportunity in life, when they don't even bother to try to help themselves

Answer 7

greed is what keeps people from improving their situation.the
minimum wage law should be changed to the standard wage
law and the hourly wage should start at $12.00 an hour with cost of living increases and affordable health and dental care.ceos
and politicians can give themselves wage increases but the common people all over the world support all the people with
power who hold the upper hand.i myself dont like the bastards
living off my back and controlling my exsistence.theres more of
us than them and they damm well better realize it before they
start a worldwide revolution.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE - RIGHT ON

Answer 8

What is stopping them from getting grants and student loans to go back to school?

Maybe children to support and families to feed. I will agree with you there are probably a lot that could get loans and what have you and improve their lot BUT if you're living paycheck to paycheck and don't have anything WHO is going to give you a loan. Obviously most of these folks were not great students to begin with or they would have gotten grants to begin with.

Answer 9

Most of the time people who are low income are in a financial rut. Grants and loans are not widely publicized. 'Help' is not openly offered, so I doubt many people are even aware that they can rise up from their situations. And sometimes, sadly....some are just too lazy. Sad, isn't it? But, there are those who are intimidated by change which is hard for others to understand.

Answer 10

There are not allot of opportunities. The Bush administration cut way back on the amount of student loans the the government gives out. That move there leaves allot of students left behind.

Answer 11

Here is an excellent site that provides information on why some people stay poor. It explains all the theories, not just the bleeding heart ones. "Why are some people unable to earn a living."
http://eesc.orst.edu/agcomwebfile/edmat/html/em/em8743/part2/whyaresomepeople.html
Here's a site that shows where the money can go when you have a very limited budget.
http://www.usccb.org/cchd/povertyusa/tour.htm