Today, I was discussing the way America is headed and how the federal minimum wage wasn't enough to make a complete living. I work minimum wage, and even though I don't pay as high of a rent as someone living on their own, I spend at least $150 a month on just rent alone. I work part time now at $8.00, but originally started at $7.25. I get about 20 hours of work a week, while I spend the rest of the time studying for classes. I get paid every two weeks. If we do some calculations, and calculated for an entire month, I would be making $640 a month. Minus $150 from that, I have $490. I refill my gas every 3 to 4 weeks, and to fill up my entire tank, it costs roughly $35-40. I will be giving the benefit of the doubt and go with the lowest number, at $455 left after just gas and rent. I also pay for my own food, and help out my parents whenever I can. Just for myself alone, I pay about $30 for two weeks, and that's on an [i]unhealthy[/i] diet. I have been planning on going healthy, but that would double, if not triple, my food cost. Let's just use double my wage for food, since I have been buying a lot of stuff organic or from local farmers. So, minus $60, and I have $395. Let's not forget school supplies. Now, that colleges are pretty much transitioning from paper to electronic, I have to pay for my own ink, and that's another $160, since I don't live at the college. $235. For paper? Let's just go with the brandless 50 pack, so about $10. $225 left for me to spend on myself. You can see where this is going when it comes to me paying for school tuition and for actual supplies at the beginning of the semester. I can handle the middle parts of the semester, but I end up in the red more often than not in the beginning of the semester, and at the end of the semester, when I have to pay my dues. Why does this happen? Because I'm working a little bit above minimum wage, and I am semi-independent and I'm also a college student. To bring it back to the main topic at hand, I got into a debate with one of the students in the college, who claims to be a staunch conservative. We got into a debate about whether or not the minimum wage increasing to $10 by 2016 was a good idea. He told me no, because people who are working minimum wage will take advantage of the system. I replied back, stating that I was a minimum wage worker, and that the standard of living is much different from let's say 2000. I would agree with him if this was 2000 and the minimum wage was $10/hour. However, at $7.25/hour, along with food prices rising, gas prices rising, rent rising, and the overall standard of living rising, while the minimum wage has remained stagnant for 7 years, people who are working at minimum wage would not be able to afford even living in an apartment by themselves. I'm lucky enough for my parents to allow me to live with them while paying a modest amount of money for rent, but I feel for people who are living with others that they do not know, or living by themselves. I did that while I was in Hawaii, and came short of rent quite a few times. Overall, while we did have differing views about the minimum wage cap increasing, it did not escalate to shitflinging, namecalling, or basing someone's intelligence on their political party. This is how a debate [i]should[/i] be, not what some people in this Off-Topic claim a debate is. What I don't understand is why people use political parties as a form of insult. That isn't a strong insult, and in my opinion, it isn't even an insult. It's just a cop-out for someone if they can't figure out a counter opinion. (Basically, it's namecalling without any grounds to, it's immature) The reason why I don't "debate" with people on video game forums? Just look at other political threads in the Off-Topic and you'll see how quick it gets derailed, and sometimes the thread is derailed by the OP itself. Why do you think people resort to namecalling in online debates when people in real life can debate about a certain subject without resorting to petty insults? Is it that hard to talk about differing opinions online without slinging mud around?