I believe lack of skilled to fill skilled jobs, and the lack of entry level workers willing to take minimum wage jobs has forced the hands of employers to offer more in the competitive market to get employees. Its the law of supply and demand. The economy has always had boom and bust cycles so to say the former or current POTUS had more or less impact on this probably has very little to do with any of this.

On mingle you are censored for these things, but apparently if you are a black women tennis player that is also a mother you are a hero and a roll model for doing such a thing. No grown up should ever be praised for throwing a full fledged temper tantrum!

It may be far worse than I first thought. They just played a prescription medication, fast food, and swiffer throw away mop commercial when I got up to check the cats blood sugar level for her diabetes on my way to grab a soda out of the fridge! We probably are the laughing stock of the world, but oh well I'll get over it.

Surprised our game of football was not in there considering most of the world is into football that we call soccer and most find quite boring. Also our fascination with automobiles new and old and driving everywhere with no regards to energy consumption. For our homes to eating to consumer goods we are a very wasteful people. 8 oz ( not sure what that is in metric) used to be considered a normal serving, they started filling with ice so you would seem to be getting more but somehow it turned into the bigger the better, not only in drinks but also food. To make you think your getting more for your money even thou beverages are relatively cheap, high profit goods. We are also into junk food and snacking more than the rest of the world. McDonald's is what it is because of sweet bread, we even have Hawaiian bread and corn bread with honey as that is the palate that we have acquired over time. We have no Royal family. Its the United States of America so USA, US, or even America are just shortened versions. No doubt metric is an easier system, but its very complicated to change all that is out there and convert peoples thinking to relate, we do sneak things such as 2 liters of pop in there, think it will slowly change over time, just not all at once. Same with our calender, just what we are used to. It would make more sense to be on a 24 hour clock like military instead of am, pm too, but its what we do and most clocks are designed in just that way. We do vary from different regions in our diverse USA, but a lot of that also gives it its character be it seen as good or bad by others.

Clearly these thugs need some target practice if they are only killing 10% of the people they shoot. Finding the babies daddies is something the welfare system does, however easier said then done. The momma has to give up the name (if she even knows) and then a DNA test needs to be done to prove it. As far as $300 for insurance for a month I will need to know where to get this, it more like $600+ a month and that doesn't even take into account the deductible, copays, prescriptions, and the time off work to go to the doctor. If I had the whole day off collecting welfare I would have plenty of time to cook, babysit for cash, or sit around and do drugs all day. Surly there is something we can have these people doing.

Its always nice when people say they have "facts" on illegal and undocumented immigrants. How would anyone really know? Its like coming up with how many people use illegal drugs, how many illegally use drugs, and how many are addicted. We all live in a bubble of our own comfort zone and region, so everyone sees things thru a different view. As mentioned it was a study and said probably, the problem is so many people think this should be literal. I like to see what peoples options are more than I'm intrested in fact, to me the forums are for sharing point of views and if you don't like something move on, get over it, agree to disagree. Most things don't directly affect your life anyway. However if you are the parents of a college student who was killed by an illegal immigrant that had been working in that area for at least 4 years and the farm claimed to have no idea that it had illegals working there your point of view on the subject may be a little different than that of saving a few bucks because a bunch of Mexicans came over and put a new roof on your house and it was way cheaper than another company, or paying a little less at the grocery store because your vegetables were picked by undocumented workers. It all depends on where your bubble lies until someone comes in and bursts it.

Do people not remember wanting to send Justin Bebier back to Canada? Donald will soon have a great big wall
along they Canadian boarder as soon as he finishes his wall along the Mexican boarder, then after that I guess he will start building walls along all the coast lines too! Guess we will never have to worry about hurricanes after that! Unfortunately it not just the illegal aliens that are an issue. "Refugees" have been coming in for years along with others often brought here by church groups. Many of the Hmong people who started coming as early as the 70's still have not adjusted to life as Americans. The Somalian and Etheopean people are the rudest and most disrespectful people I have ever come across, and many if not most live off government money. At least a lot of the people from the middle east own their own businesses or Motel, and many from India are Doctors. The biggest threat from Canada is they will let anyone into their country and from there the sneak into the US. And that comment earlier about the Indians, or Native Americans, I thought we had that all figured out if they don't like the way things are going they can just go back to the Reservation!

Well he's dead now, not sure if that is what your prayers were for? But probably better off to be out of misery. As with most senator's I don't really agree with a lot of things they do, and his running mate for President was a big disgrace. As Donald says I prefer my hero's not to be captured. He was doomed until they found out his dad ranked high in the military, he broke down and gave up info before he was finally released. I do believe he had a lot of good intentions however I also believe we should start limiting politicians to two terms as they often become part of the problem instead of the solution as they develop Washington's way of life. Long story short it don't matter to me if he's dead or alive.

Every generation is put down by the generation before them. Remember them long hair hippy people who are never going to work and against anything the government does, or them people who listened to that devil worshiping rock n roll? So who do you think raised these Millennials to be who they are? People say that everyone should be treated equal as they cry that they are a victim so they should get special treatment. Maybe we should have used physical punishment on the Millennials instead of giving them time outs and lying to them that life is so easy. If people think the Millennials are needy and lazy What is going to happen with the next generation? The generation Z is just coming to age and the have never lived without cell phones and computers. Soon enough everything you do from shopping to driving will all be taken care of by computers anyway, so the need to directly deal with this generation should be very limited, even at family functions they are too busy on their phones to interact with anyone.

How often and why have you been Googling " mom pimps daughter out for drugs"? I'm sure the state would offer them treatment and Betty Ford/ Hazelden would make a killing out of filtering those people in and out of their facilities on yet more of the tax payers dollars.

The real issue becomes the fact that anybody can have and raise a child no matter how they chose to live their life. Its no longer that a guys penis has to be inserted into a woman's vagina to have kids. They are now being bought and sold and started in test tubes. We now interfere with nature at many levels in the way children are born, and raised. I'm not going to judge that no transgender people should be raising children any more than I think there are plenty of other people that are not fit to raise children, but often it's the children that pay the price when the parents are not fit. Throughout time we mess with nature more and more and along the way some mistakes will be made, but in the end it all seems to work out somehow.

So let's try getting this straight. Are people saying that if you have a desk job and push papers, or are responsible to make important decisions that is not really working? Only people that do things as being physical are truly working? So the President and people in congress and the senate don't actually work? While that is probably a bad example for the amount they get done, but the use of the brain is a physical action and with out paper pushers many people doing physical labor wouldn't have anything to do, or they wouldn't get paid for it. If someone buys a lottery ticket and wins big we understand they took the risk and deserve the reward, its part of the game. Anyone making money has risk and reward and people who get "rich" have gambled their money and built a network of people that have trust in them in order to build their wealth, they have done "work" to put these structures in place.
As far as everyone putting some effort into "working". If someone is 100% physically disabled they still have the function of their brain to do many different things. Someone with mental disabilities is still able to perform some physical activities, so why not have them do so? Its physical and mentally better for them to do so, unfortunately it usually cost more
for everyone else evolved than this actually produces, in other words its often just cheaper and easier to pay them to do nothing at all

Check out binits profile, apparently someone has cleaned him out and now we have a fresh start to this topic!

I would rather take a direct hit then suffer a long painful death from the radiation.

Where I come from we have a saying "If you can't speak the language get the F out of our country"

The education is a complicated thing that has to do with being part of the civilization and the government hopes to produce tax paying citizens to keep things going. That is also the reason for the child tax credit, with out getting new tax payers the system falls apart. Its in hopes that most people will pay for their education and retirement during their working years, some will not due to death or disability,but the rest are expected to put some effort in making an attempt to better things. Those who don't work or live in poverty are more likely to have a child that goes thru life living in poverty. So as many of the middle class and rich have cut the number of children they have many of the poor have remained having larger number of children and so the cycle adds to the number in need while reducing the numbers paying to help. The government seems to think printing more money is the answer to everything. It may actually be cheaper to give the needy $1000 a month like the Hillary plan than to try to create jobs and babysit those who do not want to work. I've always said its hard to get anything done when your holding somebody's hand all day, I have experienced those who don't show up for work, screw things up and it takes longer to fix it then if you would have done it yourself, or constantly need to be reminded what they are doing and how it is done. I usually say you can fire half the people and double your production. Go to a fast food place and it seems like the more people working the longer it takes to get your food when you know a few qualified people could get it right out to you.

Juveniles are provided food and shelter by their parents, gaurdians, OR THE GOVERNMENT. But as far as their education that is most often paid for by taxes, not sure how many parents are truly bearing that $12,000 a year for each of the children they have in school.
Guaranteeing people have a job does not guarantee they do the work or do a good job at it.
You gave a number of $20,000 a year. Working a 40 hour week or about 2000 hours a year at $10 an hour is $20k a year. Anyone is able to do that at a McDonalds, and I do mean anyone who is willing to show up (on time) and do what they are told. The problem is expecting things for nothing and not respecting others.

I'm pretty sure threatening the local pitcher at a football game was not going to affect the out come of a football game.

In case you hadn't noticed Harmony that quote was not by you and a little off the topic fof the original post so my response was toward that quote not the main topic. Now in regards to. making people work sounds a bit like slavery or communism so we should be clear that those who chose to work can get a job, and those who chose not to work get nothing. Wait, isn't that kind of how things should work even without government intervention? They already have programs to help handicap people get work where the employers put a small wage in and the government kicks in the rest. The problem is many of the people flat out do not want to work, or like Igor says are mentally or.physically unable to preform many jobs.
As far as the years people work (full time) is on average 18 to 65 or 47 years of their life. Those who go to college may be shorter, and some people certainly work more than that. But in order to be supported as a juvinile and a senior you rely on others and in return you are expected to support others during your working years. That's how take and give is supposed to work, but some just take and never give and it throws the whole system out of balance.

Now if we could just get some more people to "build bridges" and "JUST GET OVER IT" we would be a lot better off.