Black Friday insanity, irony and minimum wage careers

==tip hat wage

“I never meet a ragged boy in the street without feeling that i may owe him a salute, for I know not what possibilities may be buttoned up under his coat.”

James A. Garfield

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Ok.

 

 

I was going to spend a minute today to discuss what I think is irony but may instead simply be … well … America. So maybe let’s just file this under the “only in America” folder.

 

 

The initial irony thought came about as I watched video of people fighting each other over limited supply ‘sale items’ in walmarts & other stores in early doomed black friday wagemorning Black Friday madness … and on the tv in the gym right beside it was another person <aspiring leader> vehemently stating America cannot allow Syrian refugees in ‘for the security of the American people’ <I wonder if he was watching the scuffling sale shoppers when he said that> and on another gym tv screen there was footage of protesters in Chicago where a policeman shot & killed a young man who was threatening or not threatening <depending on your point of view> that policeman.

 

 

For some reason I felt like maybe the world had gone slightly crazy for a minute or two although somewhere n the back of my mind I kind of felt like there was some irony buried in slightly absurd aspects of a moment in America.

 

 

Here is what I do know thinking about all three tv screen messages appearing at the same time.

 

When we humans view individual moments as individual ‘opportunities’ <simply grappling with a specific topic & issue in an iron grip of making a point or wanting to do something> and not within a larger scope of what is important we lose sight of some really important things.

 

If I sat my leaders down and asked them to watch what I saw on all three TV screens I would ask them to maybe think about their own actions & their behavior.

And suggest that if they maybe started trying to get the citizens of their country’s heads on straight with regard to what was important and how to create change, and maybe how to instill a sense of integrity and pride in individual behavior, we could worry a little less about who desires to come to America because we would have a citizenry and officials of the citizenry which would be exhibiting the desired behavior t emulate <and find desirable to emulate>.

 

 

Which leads me to what I ended up wanting to really share today.

 

 

Our behavior and attitudes.

 

And I mean “our” as in the everyday citizenry.

 

And I mean maybe that we are losing our sense of integrity, dignity in all lives and respecting that everyone, EVERYONE, has dignity & pride … and deserves to be treated with dignity.

 

 

Where that thought started.

 

I was catching up on my news and saw that The Guardian has shared an opinion editorial written by a WalMart employee.

 

 

The article in and of itself was nothing we didn’t already know <she has to work holidays, gets paid $9 an hour and wants $15, cannot live without some min benefit wagegovernment support> and I will admit … I, a solutions guy, do not have any easy solutions for her or for anyone who has minimum wage careers.

 

 

However … I am very clear in my mind in that minimum wage or not … anyone who works a 40 hour week should be earning enough money to be able to live a reasonable life <FDR called these “living wages”>.

 

We bitch & moan about lazy people and here are people who have clearly stepped up to the plate and said “I am willing to work hard” and yet our system suggests “well, you didn’t invest in yourself enough” or “you need to work harder” or … well … pick out the wrong message you want to give someone who is working hard but doesn’t have any particular career skill and is possibly uneducated <which does NOT mean they are not smart>.

 

 

But the real point surrounds the whole idea of “minimum wage career.”

 

 

Apparently there are a shitload of people who think someone who actually has had to build a life around a minimum wage career … well … made a shitty career choice. Or maybe was too lazy to learn some additional skill. Or maybe just didn’t “apply themselves enough” to get an education. Or maybe just made shitty Life choices.

 

And because of all those things … well … they deserve what they are getting and should quit bitching.

 

 

Oh.

 

Quit bitching AND quit taking food stamps and any government support while they are at it.

 

 

I was fucking steaming after I read some of the comments below the article.

 

Steaming.

 

 

Let me share some of the comments that appeared under the article:

 

 

 

JEdgarHoover
11m ago

I think it is fine to want more money and to not work on holidays. But you chose a pretty shitty career path. Why would anyone pay a produce clerk anymore than that?

Why not improve your lot in life by making yourself more marketable? Also be thankful Walmart doesn’t replace you with Mexicans or robots.

 

 

 

 

bobthebuilder2016
2h ago

You work at Walmart. Your job requires no skill or ability. An hour of your time doing what Walmart expects of you is not worth more than the $9 or so you currently claim to make.

There are companies willing to pay you much more if you have skills – why don’t you have any? Some industries will pay you while they train you to gain a valuable skill – vending machine repair, welding are two prime examples.

A Walmart type job (fast food, grocery store as well) are not meant to be careers – unless you are seeking a management job. They are meant to give you experience for bigger and better jobs.

 

 

 

Michael Dennehy
29m ago

Any chance you could or could have increased your educational achievement and so gotten yourself a better paying job? That’s kind of how it works out here in the world. As for your awful hours, welcome to the service industry.

 

 

 

 

david42
49m ago

Got a list from the local “Giving Tree”; I can’t afford 95% of the items for myself that the “poor” people are demanding I donate for xmas.

 

 

Angry man 001

Me steaming …

 

 

 

It is almost like people believe everyone should have a college education or be highly skilled at something or … well … they are worthless or have wasted their Life.

 

 

It is almost like people don’t believe there are inner city situations in which 99% of the kids , and even adults, cannot … no matter how hard they work and do the right things … can fight thru a system & society which seems almost rigged to keep them in a bad situation. And when that 1% DOES fight their way out <usually with the help of let’s say 5 others who have decided helping at least one get out at the expense of them ever getting out> the high & mighty people start pontificating about ‘see … if you do work hard enough and do the right things everyone has a chance .’

 

 

shut up ohShut the fuck up.

 

Just, please, shut the fuck up.

 

 

 

We can shout it from the top of the mountains when 99% get the opportunities and not just the 1%. 1% is a failure.

It is a failure of the system.

And worse? It is a failure of the mind.

 

We high falutin’ “better than them unskilled minimum wage folk” use the random ‘ones’ who end up being successful as the excuse to ignore the bigger issues.

 

 

And maybe even worse than that?

 

We use those ‘ones’ to justify our high & mighty belief that a lot of life as a minimum wage career person is one they chose and one they deserve because of their choices <and have to live with it or they have to triple their efforts to be able to get out of the hole that they are in>.

 

 

Please … PLEASE … no one chooses to be poor.

 

 

It would be easy to simply say that not everyone is born with the kind of mind that excels in the education system but let’s just say that not everyone is born with the same opportunity to be a skilled higher wage earner.

 

Many people take work where they can find it.

 

Many people simply have fewer choices based on their situations and circumstances.

 

 

These are human beings like you & I. We may have better lives but we are not better people simply because we have that.

 

recognizing real people define judge

These people, these people who have minimum wage careers, deserve as much respect as some CEO who runs their business into the ground because of bad decisions and still gets paid a million dollars a year.

 

 

We need to show some fucking respect for people who work hard and do the best they can.

 

 

Do I show respect for the idiots fighting over the limited time sale items on Black Friday? No.

 

 

But I do show respect for the employee standing there selling the item , who frankly cannot afford buying what they are selling, who helps the shouting horde of disrespectful customers because that employee cannot afford to lose their job and does what it takes to do their job.

 

Do I show respect for the minimum wage career earner who is showing up every day and paying their bills and bringing up families as best they can? Absofrickinlutely.

 

 

Do I look at a minimum wage earn and think maybe … just maybe … I owe them a salute … not what they could have been <under different circumstances> but rather for I know not what possibilities may be ‘buttoned up under their coat’?

Yes. I surely do.

 

 

===

“I never meet a ragged boy in the street without feeling that i may owe him a salute, for I know not what possibilities may be buttoned up under his coat.”

===

 

 

Let’s be clear.

 

 

Being wealthy or even simply having enough wealth to live slightly comfortably, does not make you worth more than an unskilled minimum wage career earner.

living wages

 

And, yes, an ‘unskilled minimum wage job’ is not always a ‘stepping stone for people aspiring to something else’ but sometimes represents a career.

A full time job.

A way of being an earner for a family household.

These are their “living wages.”

 

And to suggest that these people “should be better if they only applied themselves better” diminishes who and what a lot of these people are.

 

 

Oh.

 

And what message does it send to some child about their parent who loves them, shows them love every day and does whatever they can to permit their child to have something better than they do? What a crappy message we holier than thou career people who earn more than a minimum wage are sending.

 

 

We need to be better.

Much much better than this.

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Written by Bruce