It's more that they are out of touch, IMHO. They have absolutely no concept of how far $7.50/hr goes so they just say their employees need to budget better.
Perhaps if senior executives received minimum wage paychecks for two months (and no bonuses), they might gain some empathy.
You can't gain empathy when something is temporary. Most of the stress of being poor comes of worry about how to handle long term problems / the fact that life has no point except slaving away. That cannot be replicated without genuinely taking everything away from a person.
I disagree, if reading books can increase empathy [0], then I'd expect any activity that forced you to experience the way another person lives would do the same.
They need a show like undercover bosses, but instead the CEO must live on 7.50 for an entire year, and work as their own employee they have 0 access to savings, they cannot use credit either, and they are given 1 suitcase of clothes, a cellphone, laptop, and some feature comforts for their tiny apartment like a 32 inch tv.
>You can't gain empathy when something is temporary. Most of the stress of being poor comes of worry about how to handle long term problems
This was a really insightful comment. I had never thought about it that articulately, but yeah if you are only dealing with stress temporarily, you can't even comprehend what it's like to deal with that FOREVER. It's just an impossible concept to grasp for someone who has that level of a safety net.
The goal is not to impose hardship on them, but instead remind them for two months out of the year just how little minimum wage actually is. Most of them could probably blow that $500 paycheck on a single trip to the grocery store.
Perhaps if senior executives received minimum wage paychecks for two months (and no bonuses), they might gain some empathy.