It makes it easier to run a society when you can get the poor people to fight amongst themselves rather than organize against the real problem.
Your opinions…
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11 comments
July 31, 2013 at 8:16 am
john zande
Oh poor Anne: “Money was so tight in college that we [Mitt and I] considered selling stock in our portfolios!” (Insert cackling laugh here).
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July 31, 2013 at 11:09 am
syrbal
My son and I were discussing how much of the wealth in America is actually controlled by fewer than a dozen people…and we were having one of those “interesting times” mornings WITHOUT that added bit of glee….and yet only this week, I saw a commenter on another blog arguing that “entitlement” does NOT include not being discriminated against. So, if you can’t get a job cause you are a minority, the white guy who gets it isn’t entitled according to this person…..the minority guy or woman NOT hired is merely discriminated against.
Yep…distraction in the ranks is the fifth column alright.
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August 1, 2013 at 3:06 am
bleatmop
I was just reading a post on Reddit/Changemyview where someone was posting that they didn’t think that fast food restaurant employees were entitled to a living wage.
Ya, you read that right. He openly acknowledged that they currently live behind the poverty line even if they work 80 plus hours a week, but somehow they don’t deserve to have a living wage because their work wasn’t important enough to him. He also stated that was lower middle class. With attitudes like that, it seems to me that the plutocracy has already won.
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August 4, 2013 at 11:59 am
The Arbourist
@Bleatmop
Perhaps this person’s opinion can be thought of as a testament to the power of the message the media tasks us with?
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August 4, 2013 at 12:06 pm
The Arbourist
@Srybal
It is amazing how ardently people will argue against their own interests. The culture we have certainly has done a good job at cloaking its’ dark side in a glossy show of faux-logic and ‘inevitability’.
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August 4, 2013 at 12:09 pm
syrbal
I always wonder if all that inevitability is born of self hatred and a pre-emptive strike mentality: a “we suck, get it over with” ideation like the constant end of the world predictions?
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August 4, 2013 at 12:16 pm
The Arbourist
@Syrbal
I would contend that the “we suck” mentality is one mode avoiding the difficult decisions and painful deliberations necessary for rationally changing the world. Yes, global warming sucks, but if we have just a little perspicacity we can mitigate our effects on the environment and soften some of the coming impacts.
Giving into the endtimes nonsense absolves people of the stewardship responsibility that we so desperately need to revive.
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August 4, 2013 at 12:19 pm
syrbal
That is what frightens me, that it seems the bulk of humanity DOES want to throw up its hands, despair, and sing”Swing Low Sweet Chariot”. Totally reneging on responsibility for themselves and TO future unfortunate generations.
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August 5, 2013 at 6:56 am
VR Kaine
Another opinion:
“A lot of the workers are living in poverty, you know, not being able to afford to put food on the table or take the train to work,” Fast Food Forward director Jonathan Westin told CBS New York. “The workers are striking over the fact that they can’t continue to maintain their families on the wages they’re being paid in the fast-food industry.”
Simple fact – these jobs are not meant to support families.
Robert Wilson, Jr., a 25-year-old McDonald’s employee in Chicago, told The Washington Post that he makes $8.60 an hour after seven years on the job. A previous walkout in April led to “small victories,” he said, including additional hours and slight raises.
Simple fact – These jobs are not meant to be stayed at for 7 years.
The truth is that these jobs are meant to be entry level low paid gigs that, in addition to paying money for baseball cards and skateboards, teach young people work ethic, job skills and interpersonal skills.
These jobs are MEANT to be worked for a year or 3 while in school and then left for greener pastures. These employees are being underpaid, they are overstaying.”
From Tarheel Red’s blog. http://tarheelred.com/2013/07/29/wherein-pino-is-fine-with-a-workers-strike/
I happen to agree. Who is it that can’t move into a supervisor or management position in a fast food chain? Mostly the person who doesn’t want or can’t handle the responsibility, I believe.
No dog in this fight for me, though. Fast food chains are drug dealers and health destroyers in my opinion so I wouldn’t care if the bulk of them went out of business (save for Baja Fresh!)
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August 5, 2013 at 11:52 am
The Arbourist
I would argue that well, most, cannot move into a supervisor or management position because those positions are less numerous that the drone level positions. One does not crew a McD’s with a full platoon of managers.
In some cases, yes. I would be concerned though if this idea was to be generalized to the entire working poor as then it would smack of blaming the poor for being lazy and irresponsible rather than looking at the entire of spectrum of reasons, both social and economic that tend to cause and perpetuate impoverished conditions.
Also, consider that management in fastfood/retail for the most part sucks. One of my friends, the manager of a pet store makes a dollar less an hour than my part-time weekend job (where I do most of my blogging). Compared to my professional salary I make almost 2.5x more than her on the lowest tier of the teaching grid.
One most also consider that retail jobs are not equal traditional blue collar jobs. Thus, I agree with what Pinto says on a couple levels bearing in mind that if there are no blue collar jobs available then one must work with what one has.
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August 12, 2013 at 7:27 pm
VR Kaine
“I would be concerned though if this idea was to be generalized to the entire working poor as then it would smack of blaming the poor for being lazy and irresponsible rather than looking at the entire of spectrum of reasons, both social and economic that tend to cause and perpetuate impoverished conditions.”
Most I’ve met who are truly burdened socially or economically have not seemed lazy or irresponsible, yet I’ve found most lazy and irresponsible people invite their own social and economic woes onto themselves as well.
On this issue I think we need to start with whether every adult job deserves a living wage or not, because the argument seems to be “yes” simply based upon the number of hours a person wants to work at it each week. I say “no” – competitive value of skills and traits has be factored in.
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