"Cindy Hamilton" > wrote in message
.. .
> In article >,
> Ophelia > wrote:
>>
>>Oh dear We have a National Minimum wage law set in law
>>
>>https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates
>
> We have one too; it's $7.25/hour. However, companies like WalMart
> will hire twice as many people at 20 hours per week, so that they
> don't have to pay benefits (for example, paid time off, health insurance,
> retirement fund) to these part-time employees.
>
> We can account for the differences in cost of living and exchange rate
> by using the Big Mac index:
> http://www.economist.com/blogs/graph.../daily-chart-3
>
> It costs $2.50 to $2.99 in the U.S., so it takes about 24 minutes
> to earn a Big Mac at the federal minimum wage. The average in
> England (only data I could find) is 2.89 (sorry, no pound symbol
> here). Minimum wage appears to be 6.31 for adults. It appears to
> take 27 minutes to earn a Big Mac in England.
>
> At first glance, the U.S. minimum wage worker appears better off.
> House is very difficult here, though, since we have nothing
> like council houses/flats. And, of course, the American workers
> will have to pay for all of their own medical expenses.
> So the minimum wage worker might be better off in England.
>
> Sorry I couldn't find anything for Scotland with a quick google.
>
> Cindy Hamilton

I think taxes are higher in the UK but I don't know. They also seem to
tolerate squatters. Or they used to. I had a friend who was offered a job
in Italy some years ago. Long story short, it turned out there was no job.
His neighbor was in love with a woman and had a child by her. She moved to
Italy. He wanted to go there to be with her but sadly she had no interest
in him. He also did not want to go there alone so concocted this story to
get my friend to go along. At their going away party, the neighbor got
drunk and tearfully confessed to me that there were no jobs! I think the
guy was mentally ill. I did try to tell my friend this but he pooh poohed
the notion and told me not to worry about it.

They actually managed to survive in Italy for a little while, mainly through
my friend getting bits of work here and there. He had worked in
restaurants, designed his own fashions and did some runway modeling over the
years. He did have the right build for it and was attractive but was also a
big klutz so he never would have been able to make modeling a career. He
was more like one of those people they would call at the last minute. Like.
Uh oh. So and so is sick or didn't show up. Who can we get? Well, we used
Doug that one time. We'll call him!

Their main difficulty in Italy was that they didn't speak the language so
they traveled around as finances would allow and finally wound up in England
where they were able to squat in some house until they had saved up enough
money (working under the table) to get back home. They weren't even gone
for a year. Not sure exactly how long they were out of the country for. My
friend was so embarrassed by the whole thing that he said he did not come
straight back here, but instead moved in with his grandparents for a few
weeks and then into a motel room, subsisting mainly on lettuce and carrots.

I know that sort of thing does go on here but I believe it is a lot harder
to do. We did have squatters living in an abandoned school across the
street from us and they were in the midst of a legal battle to remove them.
My friend said that nobody bothered them at all when they were squatting.

What we do have here (in Seattle) is tent city. I used to think that the
majority of the people who lived there had some sort of problem that made
them not want to conform to society and I know that some are that way. But
recently, I discovered that a whole lot of young adults that I had heard of
(but did not know personally) had to move there.

They are all around the age of 25 and had been employed for years, mainly in
the fast food or retail industry. They never achieved getting full time
hours. Their parents kicked them out of the house as soon as they graduated
from high school. Many came from a foreign country and came from a large
family, poor and living in a small apartment. They were kicked out with
just the clothes on their backs.

At various points in time they got together in larger or smaller groups and
rented a house or apartment together but for some reason never managed to be
able to stay in any one place for very long. From the stories I had heard,
none were particularly responsible and did some typical guy things like not
picking up after themselves and not seeming to care if something happened
where they were living, like a hole getting put in a wall or a cat peeing on
the rug. Did not sound too good. But they blithered about like this for a
few years, finally winding up in tent city.

Now I am going to sound like some old fuddy duddy but... Stuff like this
does seem like a problem with the younger generation. Many of these young
adults were raised by two parents who worked, put them in day care or other
activities and didn't do a heck of a lot of parenting. These young adults
seem to have no meaning to their lives. They merely exist. It's sad.