10 stupid ways to talk down to minimum wage workers

[alp227]

Seriously. Even the comments section of the NEW YORK TIMES Facebook page has been over-run by smug Ayn Rand capitalist drones. These are 10 bullshit ideas that dominate the comments section:

The "minimum wage is for teenagers" myth

Fast food jobs are for highschool kids who can afford to live on 7.25/hr. Go to school, learn a trade, make a living.

"Lift yourself up by your own bootstraps and quit whining"

Go get an education and EARN more money for yourself! The feeling of entitlement is so ridiculous!

Your wage depends on your skills

So what about jobs that require training and specific skillsets that pay $14.99 per hour? Wages are driven by demand for skills. "I don't have the skills or credentials of those who currently make $15 an hour in their jobs, but I want what they're making, even though my qualifications are nowhere near theirs."

You can be a manager

FIFTEEN DOLLARS AN HOUR?!?!?!?!?! That's insane, 10/hr, MAYBE, but 15?! Get over yourselves. Fast food is not meant to be a life long job, its a starter job...if you want to work with those companies past the entry level position, work up to management and EARN your money.

What about MY more-skilled job?

If you want to make $15 an hour, get some education, work your way up the ladder, try different jobs until you have the experience and education to warrant that kind of pay. That's what most people who are making that or more have done. Screw you who think they should be paid $15 or more an hour working at McDonalds or Taco Bell, a job that anyone can do because it requires virtually no education or experience. Jobs like that were not meant to be life long careers. They were for teenagers starting out in the workforce or for people wanting a part time job to supplement their income. I'm sorry if you got stuck in a job like that in order to take care of your family because of a layoff or a divorce or whatever. Keep looking, keep applying for better jobs. That's what I've been doing. You can't just sit there in an unskilled job crying about the pay and demanding a "living wage".

Let me ask you this. If fast food and other unskilled labor jobs like that start getting $15 an hour, what does that make my current pay worth given that I have a college education and many years of experience in a field that requires a higher education, often certifications on top of that, and a lot of experience? Answer: It makes my current pay worth nothing. If someone working the counter at Burger King deserves $15 an hour then I should be making $100+ an hour. Shut the hell up and get back to work.

It's your fault

Sorry. But unskilled labor doesn't get to make what someone with a degree makes. I know people who didn't finish high school that complain because they can't get a job. It's about choices. Make crappy ones and you will end up in a dead end. And SERIOUSLY? $15 AN HOUR??? I work in a professional office and don't make that. Demanding a rate of pay that you don't deserve is just another example of the idiocy in this country. Everybody wants something for nothing.

Strike and you lose

What none of these strikers realize is that if they do get the pay raised to $15 an hour they will then be competing with people with greater skills and experience who will now be attracted to those jobs. The original strikers will be left with no jobs...

Why don't you just co-habit?

Minimum wage isn't intended to be a wage to live on your own in a nice house. It is to give you enough to live in a shared housing situation. Four people on minimum wage could easily afford a 3-4 bedroom house and live relatively comfortably while they work on improving their position in life to earn more money. Those that choose to stay in this situation have no right to complain, they just want more for doing no more. And those that can't mentally handle more than a fast food job, they most likely shouldn't be living on their own anyway. Another point: if we raise minimum wage to such a high amount, it will only make the companies raise their prices. This will cause a chain reaction and make everyone's dollar less valuable. Ultimately everyone will be in the same situation or worse.

The illegals will take your job

$15/hour for a bunch of lazy imbeciles who can't remember to put a napkin and straw in your bag. Yea ok. Keep protesting. You will lose your jobs to illegals who will work for two rice cakes an hour.

I was successful. Why not you?

I started my own landscape/lawncare with an old 4 door saturn and tools out of my parents garage. These people need to take responsability, and their parents and schools do too! If that dont work, goto church and figure something out. But blaming soda-jerk stands for soda-jerk wages is wrong.

I wish I had the time to make this into a bingo card. But seriously, it's sad how so many modern people spit on the hands that feed them.

[onehandle]

1. 11) You're lucky to have a job. Many of your co-workers have been replaced by robots.

Amazon and it's bricks and mortar version Walmart, are spearheading practical, semi-autonomous robot workers.

Their investment will make this technology cheap.