Minimum wage is too high! It will destroy the struggling ESL industry here

It's amazing how many people defend tax breaks for the very rich but criticize mimimum wage laws... ON ECONOMIC GROUNDS!

Remember: savings is bad for the economy, spending is good.

The absurd idea that the 5-10% saved by the very rich would be more likely re-invested in the economy over the increased wages of low income earners is repeated ad naueam, contrary to fact.

Also, let me add, outsourcing has killed many of the better paying middle class jobs leaving the minimum wage jobs behind. 

Our better paying middle class English teaching jobs are being outsourced to online tutors in the Philippines. 

my wife read a naver article about Tada taxi drivers. apparently, they make at least 5m a month, and some make up to 8.5m a month. wonder how true it was

If it's true then every Korean cabbie will go to work there because generic cab companies pay peanuts. Are they all going there?

generic cab companies pay peanuts

Do they?

A while ago I heard Korean cabbies make 3 million a month.

Certainly cab fares have gone up.

Sometimes they ask for cash (because they want to do tax evasion) meaning they're under reporting their income.

I guess it varies depending on the person.

If it's true then every Korean cabbie will go to work there because generic cab companies pay peanuts. Are they all going there?

Not necessarily.  Lots of people see things like Tada and Lyft as fly-by-nights.  When they go bankrupt and close down, the drivers will have to back to their old situation and get screwed over by going to the bottom of the totem pole.

Our better paying middle class English teaching jobs are being outsourced to online tutors in the Philippines. 

A lot of parents still wanting native English not accented English.  Some will pay bargain prices, but a lot still want a native speaking accent. 

The issue isn't the real rich.  If the top rate kicked in at 3 or 4 million dollars in income, and it was just a little bit higher by 2 or 3 points in income tax.  But when we consider 100 or 200 thousand rich which it certainty hasn't been for a long time.  True those folks do have nice toys but they emulate the real rich and are often in debt to their eyeballs and work their ass off with too long of hours.  The top rate should kick in at 3 or 4 million dollars in income a year to tax the real rich.  But the rate shouldn't be so high you incentivize them leaving or moving away.  A small amount will take a bit more without making them relocate.  The key is to get the right balance.  The old rate in the US was 39% on incomes over 400,000.  It was cut to 35%.  Well, let all of Trump's tax cuts remain in place up until 4 million a year and raise the top rate back to the old 39%.  Keep at this level if some loopholes are closed or lower all rates after this a bit more if many loopholes closed.  If loopholes wide open raise top rate to 40 or 41%.  Overall, I do believe less regulation and taxes do create economic growth.  But deficits seem to follow because folks can't stomach any reduction in spending.  Revenue does grow, but not enough to fully 100% cover the gap.  As for Canada, charging much higher on 100 K a year, well investment is leaving the country and provinces are taking their cut too.  Don't even get me started on that.

Real economic growth would be accompanied by an increase in tax revenues, making cuts unnecessary. But when you first grow the deficit, even while the economy is expanding and while cutting support systems like the CDC by adding substantially to the defense budget.

Less regulation costs you more on the back end. You've got to clean up the mess you made, you've got to deal with all the people who got sick from the pollution (think of all the cancer in China), you've got lost productivity from people suffering from thinks like lead poisoning and more.

Tax cuts help the rich get richer. How are trump's corporate tax cuts helping the average American? Not much.

"Huge tax cuts, supported by AT&T, were meant to allow companies to hire more and pay better. But instead AT&T has cut 37,818 jobs in the US from when the Trump tax cut bill first went into effect in 2018 to the end of 2019, with more than 4,000 jobs cut in the last quarter of 2019, based on the company’s quarterly reports.

The company strongly supported the tax cut bill and promised workers a $1,000 bonus ahead of the bill’s passage amid claims of a hiring spree.

The bill, passed in December 2017, cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, saving AT&T an estimated $21bn initially, with an estimated $3bn in annual savings. Despite AT&T’s promises to invest these savings back into their workforce, the company has shed employees since the bill went into effect, while capital investments have declined. In 2018, AT&T’s capital investments declined to $21.25bn, and the company announced plans to reduce it further in 2020 to $20bn, while rolling out a three-year plan to spend $30bn on stock buybacks."

"Last week, the Federal Reserve reported that U.S. manufacturing was in a recession for all of 2019. This wasn't slow growth; the sector actually became smaller. The slowdown was relatively mild, with factory production shrinking by about 1.3 percent. But it was the worst performance since 2015, the year that Trump started his presidential campaign. Under Trump, the manufacturing economy has returned to the Obama era.

Manufacturers have a clear culprit in mind for the sector's poor performance. As The Washington Post notes in a report on the Federal Reserve data, the uncertainty and increased costs surrounding Trump's trade war, which was billed as a way of supporting American factory jobs, has instead wreaked havoc on an export-heavy sector that relies on the global flow of goods to operate. Trump's interventions were intended to prop up U.S. manufacturing. But they backfired, harming the people he claimed to help—who also happen to be some of the people who played a crucial part in his election.

And while manufacturers did add jobs during the first two years of Trump's presidency, the largest share of those jobs weren't in the nation's old industrial heartland, but in the sunbelt and the West. In states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, manufacturing employment has fallen. "

Sooo many words, mate....

All we want are two:

Trump 2020

 

but tbh. that bitcoin price isn't going up at all so maybe I am wrong to hope for him to work his 'best genius' magic on putting the world in the worst crisis ever... but I'm still taking a loss at these prices.

Wonder if schools will lower wages when they open back up, if they open back up at all. Lots of schools are going to go bankrupt.

A lot of teaching will shift to online. Much of it to the Philippines perhaps. Might stay that way to some extent. A change could be underway.

A while ago I heard Korean cabbies make 3 million a month.

LI depending exclusively on anecdotes and random numbers yet again lol.

Why do you think 99% of Korean cabbies are old men past retirement age? Because the job pays peanuts, and these old dudes are desperate for any work because the Korean pension is a joke. If it paid better then you'd see younger people flock to it.

Maybe they can make 3 mill a month but that would probably be if they work like 100 hours a week. Koreans are used to long hours but these ajusshis were probably making over 4 mill a month and working more like 60-80 hours a week until they turned 45 and got laid off.

Why do so many taxi drivers insist on cash?

It's because they're underreporting their earnings for tax evasion purposes.

So - unlike bus drivers (who incidentally are getting 3 million a month) - it's hard to know what taxi drivers are pulling,

Certainly fares have been going up recently.

And it's not all old men driving these days.

Some younger folk are in the mix, too.

I have seen a few young dudes driving taxis and a few ajummas even but the vast majority are old dudes.

Don't.  Stop delaying the inevitable.  You will go to China and think you'll stay for 1 year.. then it becomes 4...  Why live in a communist shithole for 2500/month.  It's intimidating to go back to your home country and start fresh as a 25+ yr old with no experience.  Shit I know people that are 35+ that need to make the move but the longer you procrastinate, the more uphill of a battle it will become.  People are re-training and changing careers all the time even at 40 - 45.   Korea is cool for 1 year or 2 maximum.  Those of us staying longer, unless married and with a fool proof plan, are digging a hole deeper and deeper for a pittance and a moldy shoebox apartment.  This place is polluted and not all that charming anymore.  I'm out of here real soon and feeling a new lease on life.

Also do this experiment.  Make a tinder/bumble profile with your job as ESL teacher swipe every decent looking woman and see how many matches you get.  Now make the exact same profile but only change your job.  Not even some great job like doctor or engineer..  just some shit like accountant or whatever...  The ESL you will get hardly any matches bc women avoid people like that like the plague.  Any other job you'll get 3-5x the matches.  same face, same intro, hobbies..  but the job is everything.  point is esl is seen lower than street sweepers and you'll only get the bottom of the barrel of women here.  is that a life you want live fellas? gtfo now

OMG, I thought this was hyperbole, but it looks like it might be true:
___________________ ___________________ ___________________ _____________

The starting annual salary for a street sweeper job is about 45 million won to 50 million won in Namdong-gu

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/12/281_281154.html

OMG, I thought this was hyperbole, but it looks like it might be true:
___________________ ___________________ ___________________ _____________

The starting annual salary for a street sweeper job is about 45 million won to 50 million won in Namdong-gu

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/12/281_281154.html

It might be true, but it does defy common sense.  I wonder if this website might be more accurate:

https://www.salaryexpert.com/salary/job/street-sweeper-manual/south-korea#:~:text=Professionals%20should%20subscribe%20to%20ERI%27s%20Assessor%20Series.&text=The%20average%20street%20sweeper%20manual,average%20bonus%20of%20%E2%82%A9259%2C647.

I read about Gumi paying street sweepers 40 million a year to start also... but... now I’m thinking maybe these are higher paying government jobs with other street sweepers paid less?

OMG, I thought this was hyperbole, but it looks like it might be true:
___________________ ___________________ ___________________ _____________

The starting annual salary for a street sweeper job is about 45 million won to 50 million won in Namdong-gu

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/12/281_281154.html

Wow, that's sweet!

The starting annual salary for the job is about 45 million won ($38,900) to 50 million won in Namdong-gu when including allowance for overtime and holiday work and other benefits, and the retirement age for the job is 60.

“Street Sweeper Operators in America make an average salary of $61,876 per year or $30 per hour.”

Teaching in Korea pays less ... but ... is more fun and satisfying. The only problem is those doing it for a long time who also haven’t worked in their home country a long time will be in a dangerous position come retirement.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/557759/south-korea-average-annual-wage/

The purchasing power of Koreans went up by 44% from 2000 to 2019.

That’s quite the increase in wages! Koreans are getting richer.