Hey, when I started working for a plumbing outfit in New York in the 1960s, I started working in the shop at 25 cents and hour, learning the tools, materials, etc. After one month I was put on a truck as a helper and earned, as I remember about 75 cents an hour, before a year had passed, I was earning about eight dollars an hour and had learned a trade which eventually helped me start my own business. I would have been a fool to work as a fast food server if I planned to earn a reasonable wage and improve my station in life. However, if I were a high school drop-out today, working as a fast food server and showing up each day and doing my chores, would at least show I could be counted on and lead to higher paid employment elsewhere.
Working at a fast food joint gives the employee an opportunity to establish minimum marketable skills, and for that, those employed as such ought to thank their lucky stars for the opportunity, which can lead to an improved station in life.
JWK
The liberty to succeed or fail at one’s own hand is a socialist’s nightmare and not the American Dream
That’s what I was thinking. I heard a story about someone who took more than a decade to pay their student debt. Had they known this, they could have helped themselves with a job at Sonic.
Humorous aside: if only they’d known they could work for EPA and get out of doing their job for 18 years (while still getting paid) by claiming to be a CIA spy. That’s one even Wally never attempted!
It has nothing to do with having “distain” for people in service jobs. It has to do with economics and unskilled labor vs skilled labor and the market value connected to each. Is the cooks labor not more valuable than the server serving the food? What is the investment a cook has shouldered in learning the trade? Should the cook not recoup his/her investment? Is the same investment shouldered by a server serving the food cooked by the cook?
To assert every forty-hour a week job deserves financial compensation sufficient to meet the employee’s personal expenses is to pretend there is no connection between skilled and unskilled labor and profit and gain needed to sustain a business.
JWK
The liberty to succeed or fail at one’s own hand is a socialist’s nightmare and not the American Dream
You think people work in the service industry because they want too?
no one is like iv dreamed my whole life to work at a waitress at a ■■■■■■ chain store.
Company says they are NOT cutting wages. This is all unhinged overreaction.
*No wage rates at any level decreased as a result of this transition and Carhops may continue to receive tips above their hourly wages. Additionally, with the ownership change, employees may now have their paycheck direct deposited and general managers are now eligible for a new bonus program, among other benefits."
Actually, they can quit because there are plenty of higher paying minimum wage jobs. If there was no minimum wage, its likely that these employees wouldnt have as much alternative to go to. Minimum wage laws are the only thing that gives low skilled workers leverage. Otherwise, there’d be a lot of sonics. Hell, you might just get paid with “experience” currency
To pretend that the highest ideal in society to live by is the commoditization of workers in order to protect margins, then what a sad ideal to hold as the highest.
