Raises

Hmm, I'm still not sure you understand. It's not about reducing how much you're buying, it's about you buying more things at a lower cost. The costs of things have gone up more than just due to inflation. This is why your wage feels less adequate than it should, because money is worth less than it should be worth. Personally you should try to get more money for yourself, but that is merely a personal ambition. The ultimate solution for you and everyone is to raise the value of money. You get that done by lowering the cost of things. You lower the cost of things by lowering taxes, raising the number of consumers, as well as making trade more profitable over all. You raise the number of consumers by raising the number of people who have jobs. You raise the number of jobs the same way you increase GDP, by making it more profitable for businesses to operate in your country rather than anywhere else. You make trade more profitable by reducing the risk of failure, outweighing the risks by making success more profitable overall. Of course, businesses just got a major tax cut if you live in the US, so it might be time to ask for a raise anyways. Also perhaps I misunderstood that maybe you are just saying that you're worth more due to your experience and skills, and not just because you need more.

Lol 10 cents..I worked at a place where my raise was 25 cents. It seems that was pretty high, everyone else had about 10 or 15. I agree with you and raises should be given out to the hardest workers/those who have put in time, for some reason that's not always the case :/ You working at a warehouse? Also good luck on getting that raise!

If all you ever do is increase the wages to match the increasing cost of living, then you diminish the value of your own currency in respect to all the other currencies in the world. You also make everyone's savings worth less, whether they be large businesses or little ole' grandma.

Nothing I've said has been anything about changing your lifestyle. I'm talking about making your $ worth more, instead of getting more $. It's not about being thrifty or buying cheap things, it's about making everything cheaper, it's about making the expensive things that you want to be cheaper. It isn't about finding deals, it's about literally making products cheaper. For everyone. Even if you don't find a deal. The only lifestyle change you could possibly think I'd be talking about is one in which because everything you were buying before is cheap, you can afford to buy more of it or more other things. You don't have to sacrifice anything to make this happen. You don't have to change your life to make this happen. And this is THE solution to the problem. Simply getting a raise just because you want one is the exact opposite of solving the problem, it's building onto the problem even more.

You deserving a raise is your opinion, isn't it? You can call yourself a hard worker or competent, but I haven't seen it myself. Even if you are a hard worker, what's to say that your company can afford to hand out raises? Maybe there are much better workers in the company that are more worth giving raises to? And even if everything you say is true, why come complain to us about it? Why make a "serious discussion" about it? Did you come willing to debate whether or not you're worth a pay raise, or did you come to complain and force your opinion on others? And the next time you have the opportunity to vote on something, maybe learn something about what you can vote for, and converse with anyone who might be voting too, to try and make your work environment more ideal. The biggest tools you have to change the world are conversation, and your vote.