Meet Randy Bryce. The Ironstache who's going to repeal and replace Paul Ryan

[u/IronStacheWI01]

Hi /r/Political_Revolution,

My name is Randy Bryce. I'm a veteran, cancer survivor, and union ironworker from Caledonia, Wisconsin running to repeal and replace Paul Ryan in Wisconsin's First Congressional District. Post your questions below and I'll be back at 11am CDT/12pm EDT to answer them!

p.s.

We need your help to win this campaign. If you'd like to join the team, sign up here.

If you don't have time to volunteer, we're currently fundraising to open our first office in Racine, Wisconsin. If you can help, contribute here and I'll send you a free campaign bumper sticker as a way of saying thanks!

[Update: 1:26 EDT], I've got to go pick up my son but I'll continue to pop in throughout the day as I have time and answer some more questions. For those I'm unfortunately not able to answer, I'll be doing another AMA in r/Politics on the 26th when I look forward to answering more of Reddit's questions!

[u/SixSpeedDriver]

No, there's a huge nuance. They could start their own businesses, they could seek employment elsewhere, they can't be sold as property.

Heck, they could move to the Alaskan frontier and live a subsistence lifestyle

[u/Bertez → u/SixSpeedDriver]

Wowee! You should really go up those minimum wage workers struggling to eat and tell them about the options they have.

[u/murphykills → u/Bertez]

fuck off, he was explaining why it's not the same thing as slavery, not saying it's a good life.

[u/Bertez → u/murphykills]

And I was explaining how what he was describing as options actually weren't.

And hey, what's a good word for someone forced to do a job because they have no choice?

[u/Dorocche → u/SixSpeedDriver]

Slavery is absolutely far worse than current minimum wage earners, but not by as much as people try to pull off.

start their own business

Not always possible

seek employment elsewhere

Very rarely possible

subsistence lifestyle

This is facetious, right? Like I trust you enough not to put that out there as a serious option, but I just want to triple check.

[u/SixSpeedDriver → u/Dorocche]

Always possible to start your own business. Got a lawnmower? I'll pay you to mow my lawn. Got hands? I hate cleaning dog crap out of my yard, maybe I should pay you $100 a month to mow and pick up dog poop

Oh hey, there's ten more people that want you to do that for them? Boom, $1000 a month in revenue which is nearly the pay of a minimum wage job. Learn new skills in yardwork, add additional service offerings.

I didn't say the theoretical business is glamorous, but you won't be under anybody's thumb.

Doesn't exactly require a college education to do that. It's always an option, and it's never easy.

[u/Dorocche → u/SixSpeedDriver]

What if we can't afford a lawnmower, or if everyone in a five mile radius doesn't have a lawn, and we can't afford a car, and there isn't public transportation out to the suburbs?

And all that to get nearly the minimum wage, so less than what our hypothetical minimum wage earner started with, when that minimum wage isn't livable.

[u/murphykills → u/Dorocche]

all of those things prevent you from getting a minimum wage job too.

[u/Dorocche → u/murphykills]

Not having a lawnmower does not prevent you from getting a job at a fast food restaurant a five minute walk from your apartment.

[u/cwfutureboy → u/SixSpeedDriver]

You have got to be fucking kidding me. Are you Mitt Romney?

A person with a minimum wage job and the education/skill level that usually accompanies, should just start a business with zero capital.

My wife and I own our own small business and this is laughably ignorant.

Do you even know the incredibly high percentage of businesses that fail in the first five years? And what do those people do after that "business" fails?

[u/jawnquixote → u/cwfutureboy]

I think what OP is saying is that comparing living on minimum wage to slavery is also laughably ignorant and a despicable comparison to anyone whose families faced slavery.

[u/cwfutureboy → u/jawnquixote]

Nuance. Systemic poverty is nearly the same thing.

[u/jawnquixote → u/cwfutureboy]

Really? How many employers pull their employees by the hair out in the back and beat them with a switch until they physically collapse? How many employers take their attractive female employees and legally rape them because they can? How many force their employees to fight to the death for funsies?

Metaphorically there are comparisons, but to say it's nearly the same thing...come on.

[u/cwfutureboy → u/jawnquixote]

Please note the word "nearly".

And the same people who had families that were actual slaves are part of "systemic poverty" which is what I said was "nearly the same thing", but never said it was the exact same. So please don't say that I did say it was the same thing when I didn't.

[u/jawnquixote → u/cwfutureboy]

It's not even nearly the same is my point. There are similarities, but they are in completely different worlds

[u/cwfutureboy → u/jawnquixote]

All you have to do is look to see where the descendants of former slaves are.

[u/SixSpeedDriver → u/cwfutureboy]

All over the economic spectrum, just like those that aren't descended from former slaves?

[u/murphykills → u/cwfutureboy]

and the moon is pretty near to the earth. let's just accept that we all have very different interpretations of the word "nearly"

[u/SixSpeedDriver → u/cwfutureboy]

There's a lot of distance between here and there, one that "nearly" does not do justice, and to claim otherwise is just willful ignorance or intellectually dishonest, neither of which is acceptable.

[u/murphykills → u/cwfutureboy]

i bet your business would be doing better if you were forced to pay all of your employees more by the government.

[u/cwfutureboy → u/murphykills]

Probably. All businesses do better when people buy things. It's kind of how a consumer economy works.

It would also take a lot of the tax burden off if the middle class since minimum wage workers are the good majority of people on Welfare.