As a college kid I had one of those jobs during the off season. I was in school and I was running, I needed the cash. I did learn while I was working my crappy fast food throw away job that there were people there that did that full time and honestly, those people could not have done much more than that.
Their intellect, their drive, and their lifestyle would never allow them to do more than simple menial jobs.
Your alternative for someone with no money nor income nor realistic prospects for a job with a higher salary would be....?
Nobodysslave wrote:
Why so many people agree to work in minimum wage?
Usually you hear the argument “they have no choise, it’s either that or unemployment”. But sometimes it’s better not to sell your time at such cheapness. You’re time is more than minimum wage. Sometimes it’s better to be a free poor man, than a slave poor man who sells all his day and barley makes it. They do have a choice. The employer needs you more than you need him. Without you he’ss useless.
I am hoping that English is your second language.
Debs wrote:
Your alternative for someone with no money nor income nor realistic prospects for a job with a higher salary would be....?
See, this is what I’m talking about-
Fixed brain people who think that certain jobs should have certain salaries. Could you explain to me please why a man who sits in an office and does nothing (a bank manager) should get 1000 times more than people who do real things like cleaning like caregiving, like nursing, like building etc...
You know why? Not because of any logic or truth, just because this happen to be public opinion at the moment. Time to demand more to yourself
Society is like a pyramid. Even if everybody was very smart, you would still need people to be waiters, janitors, etc. The real question should be, if we're all Americans, like a big family, why do we choose to let the lower classes (yes, there are classes, don't kid yourselves) be treated like crap? For all the gains in productivity, why do the lower classes have to work back breaking jobs and put in many hours in order to get by? While at the same time, their safety nets and avenues for improving are taken away from them?
You aren't offering any alternative for my hypothetical job seeker. One of my favorite all time articles on this was called something like "On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs" and it makes the same point you do and of which I am in agreement, i.e., that people who do REAL work, such as the ones you mention, get paid crap and usually don't get much respect while people whose jobs involved tremendous amounts of bullshitting are often rolling in dough. If a bank teller misses work without telling anyone that's going to happen it creates a real problem for the bank's function but if the bank president did the same thing the bank would almost always function normally.
But none of this does anything to change the situation of say, a single parent with only a high school diploma who needs a job and is only offerred jobs that pay minimum wage or something close to it. Assume you're in this person's position. What would you do?