I consider myself a social liberal, to the dismay of my
family and ancestors. However, even my
bleeding heart is disgusted at the thought of fast food workers making $15 an
hour for pulling a basket out of hot oil when the bell rings.
I understand everyone wants to make a living wage and I am
socialist enough to feel that our well to do should be taxed so that we can
temporarily subsidize those that cannot make enough money to feed their
families. However, the operative word here is "temporarily".
Look, from day one fast food work has been for teenagers.
They needed date money or car money, or for a housewife to make an extra few
buck for the kid's college fund. But like social security, no one ever expected
a person to make a career out of Chicken McNuggets.
So now these workers have united and are demanding the
outrageous sum of $15 an hour. FIFTEEN dollars an hour! I dare you to find an
college grad in a first time administrative position to be making that much. It's
insane!
NPR was covering this issue today and the interviewer was
grousing at the president of some fast food corporation association who made a
very good point. The NPR interviewer, in an obvious attempt to vilify this man sneered
"don't you think a person has the right to make a living wage?" The
corporate guy (and the gods of the Liberal forgive me) made a great point. he
said "We do not pay wages based on a person's needs, we base them on the
work being done." Wow. I was impressed. He was dead on as far as I am
concerned. And for those of you ready to
shoot me already, I think it works the other way too. I think, if you get paid
based on the work being done, than teachers, firemen, child welfare agents, all
these people need huge raises to equal the work they do.
But how did we get to this point? Did the economy become
so permanently bad that people have to sling hash to pay the rent? At the risk
of making a lot of enemies here, I am going to say that these people are not
lacking opportunity (at least a good many of them, I cannot say 100%) they are
lacking initiative. It is much easier to work fast food and collect government sublimities
than it is to go back to school . Don't tell me some people cannot do that.
Where there is a will there is a way, or a government program. You can always
share rides, share babysitting, have room mates, but no one wants to do the
hard stuff anymore.
When I was in my
20s I shared a house with 4 other people, a tiny house, shared a ride to a
crappy job, but eventually I got a better place, a reliable (but not great) car
and managed the shop I was in, and I am no workaholic, I am not even remotely
exceptional in any way when it comes to the work force. This is not a
walked-a-mile-in-the-snow-to-school sob story, this is to illustrate that if my
dumb ass can do it anyone can. Since
when did the land of opportunity become the land of pay me what I wish for? The
spokesperson on this NPR show for these workers who are suing was inarticulate,
had an urban accent so thick I could hardly understand her, and gave no
solutions, took no responsibility, just kept talking about how she was entitled
to $15 an hour because she worked for a major corporation. I am sad to say that
her manner of speaking is not uncommon among fast food employees and having
worked in the human resources department I can tell you without a doubt that woman's
biggest obstacle to $15 is not her boss it is her lack of a basic education in
speaking properly. Unfair? Probably. True? Absolutely. Life is not a cake walk
friends. This is something she can fix, and relatively easily. When I say this
people tell me these uneducated people cannot find the resources to get free
GED help or classes that teach you to dress and to interview and speak properly.
I am sorry but if they can work the system to get food and money subsidies they
can figure out where to get these classes.(In many states you are offered these
options regularly when you get your subsidies so you do not even have to look
for them).
Go ahead and hate me. Call me all the horrible names you
can think of, but just keep this in mind. Should a person be paid based on what
they need or for the difficulty of the job they are doing? How do you think
McDonald's makes all this profit? They were smart. They automated and dumbed- down
the cooking and serving process so efficiently that anyone can do the job and
therefore they do not have to pay a lot since only minimal skill and brains are
required.
Okay so let us say you are stuck in fast food. Why not
become the best employee there? Be the best at customer service, put together a
hamburger the fastest and most beautifully. Make every order correct. Make the
boss look at you and say "hmmm, this one is different". Perhaps you
can make manager (a job with a difficulty level worthy of $15 an hour) or give
you better hours so you can go to school. My basic point here is that once
again I see people wanting something for nothing, or more for minimum. If you
are trying and need a leg up, here, have a leg, it's on me. If you have a plan,
a goal, or a handicap, I see this and I want my tax money to help you in any
way to help yourself. But if you expect to live making hot ham and swiss
burgers the rest of your days, forget it.
Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to
fish, feed him for a lifetime, or something like that.
So please, before you condemn me, put your PC hat on the
shelf and think logically, both from the perspective of our economy (are you
ready to pay five dollars for a 6 piece McNugget box?) and the individual. I do
not think just giving them a raise like that is helping the person in the long
run, which does not help their kids, their neighborhoods and, lets trickle UP
for a change, our economy.
Now I need a Big Mac, all this talk is making me hungry.
