I worked a pizza (among others) job through high school and college.
I've been overworked at many professional technical jobs in different roles before.
I'm paid a great deal more now, and yet I was never more tired or worn out or found it hard to study than when I worked the ovens at the pizza place.
I often work with people who have never worked such jobs. They're upset that they're 'overworked' and spend their time in the fancy break room with all the perks. Many I suspect have no clue.
>I often work with people who have never worked such jobs. They're upset that they're 'overworked' and spend their time in the fancy break room with all the perks. Many I suspect have no clue.
Not that it's a realistic idea but damn if everyone had experiencing working in the demanding, underpaid, crappy jobs in the service industry, we might be more empathetic and better off as a whole.
Having worked several years in both retail and waiting/busing tables (full-time, not just as a part-time college job), I have a great deal of empathy for folks stuck in these minimum wage jobs.
That said, if I could get a retail job that paid what I make as a dev, I’d definitely consider it. Retail was grueling, but at the same time much less psychological pressure, and much less mentally exhausting.
I always say I’m not going to let my next dev job take over my life, and maintain work/life balance, and things always start out well. But inevitably, pressure builds, I cave, and things get bad again. I realize that I share the blame for this situation, but at the same time, this situation seems to be more common than not among software devs.
I never faced this kind of pressure in retail jobs. Work was grueling and at time abusive, but when the work day was over, I was 100% able to relax and forget about work. I struggle to do that with a software job.
But at the same time, my compensation is considerably higher than most other jobs. So I’m both grateful for my job and yet still wish there were another way. Like a part-time software development job, which seem to be unusually rare.
I worked as a welder in a shipyard for a couple of years after the .com crash.
No complaints, I actually enjoyed the work, but it was exhausting in a way that no office job can compare.
The experience also makes me want to throttle folks who have never lifted anything heavier than a pen as I hear them whine about utter trivial things.
I don't, because it is considered rude to throttle one's co-workers.
There is no bigger lie than hard work = prosperity. It is literally the exact opposite. Think of the hardest shittiest jobs and they are almost always the least paying. The richer you get the less hard work is, until you're able to reach the pinnacle of doing absolutely nothing but managing your money and taking advantage of discounted cap gains taxes. I grew up rich with every opportunity and never had one of these jobs, but it's clear as day.
To get more money you have to pry it from people's hands. You have to have something they can't resist not paying you for. That's it.
The suffering of low minimum wage is supposed to "encourage" people to move up the value chain, as the conservative doctrine goes, but it just doesn't work when all your time and energy is spent surviving.
My first job was working in a supermarket, on the register and collecting the trolleys. You got a break roughly 90-120 minutes. You REALLY miss one / notice when you're running late.
Now I work in an office. It's nothing to go 4-6 hours without stopping. But of course I can stop and pop out for a coffee or a snack, or lunch whenever I want.
$4 extra an hour would change this woman's life (and a lot of other people like her). $4 extra an hour.. I don't think I'd notice it.
Many of us are SO SO fortunate, we can't even begin to imagine how good we have it.
When I was 14 I worked as a busboy at a BBQ place. For like 2 weeks, before they found out I was underaged and fired me. I was never so exhausted in my entire life, before or after. And I was a strong swimmer when I started that job, and was quite fit.
I worked at gas stations after that, before college, and while it was tiring, nothing at the same level.
I can totally imagine a pizza job would be draining.
working in heat, whether from ovens/fryer, engines, or something else is so incredibly draining that its hard for people to understand unless they've done it.
At the end of the day you just want a room temperature shower and a cold drink, the mental capacity isn't really there for much else.
I think this is the biggest problem America has as a country now. People dying in the streets due to lack of healthcare/homelessness, and being stuck delivering pizza with no real routes to get out other than to “learn to code”...
This is exactly my thoughts when I hear people complaining that they pay more tax as high earners because they're "worked hard" for the money and to get there.
Hard work is relative and people are working very hard at all salary levels. There are many other constructs which are the true reasons behind how much people earn.
I started my career working the night shift stocking shelves at Home Depot and riding the bus. I now own a 180 full time employee agency and am on the other side. The solution here must come from the government... McDonald's and no other single employer can raise wages as their competitors will not and they will go out of business due to being too expensive.
I agree with the Fight for $15... But I think they need to attach this to inflation or somehow as a percentage of the highest incomes in the economy. Otherwise Trump will just keep pressuring the Fed to print more money and $15 will only be worth $5 in today's money.
Coming from Norway, this article is horrendous. I can never understand the mentality that lies behind all of the arguments most you guys are presenting here - defending the employers shit salary and rights.
You guys know that McDonalds manages to run in countries with decent wages as well, right? And that maybe a company with a yearly global profit of over 10 billion dollars might be able to afford giving their employees a livable wage. Hell, just the fact that it`s possible to have a full time job in the US, and still need food stamps should be a massive, red flag about your situation. But for some reason you prefer to (by extension) defend the extremely rich owners of these companies.
I'm not from Norway but the Netherlands. If you have a fulltime job at McDonalds, the only way to live on that wage is with heavy subsidies from the government. You will need healthcare subsidy, rent subsidy, social housing, various municipal arrangements and perhaps even go to the "voedselbank" (food bank, free food charity).
So while you can live on a McDonalds income, it's only because your fellow citizens are chipping in. Effectively we are subsidising McDonalds as they can now give you a lower income and get away with it.
I’ve worked in the fast food industry for 14 years—about half my life
Can someone give me an anecdotal example of how this could come to be without some fault in Brown's decision-making process?
For starters, I've always heard that commute time is inversely proportional to career mobility. I made it a rule not to work anywhere farther than half an hour away. And that is the absolute maximum which was necessary when I lived rural area. Currently, I work remote, which has indeed provided more time for further career training.
My mother has worked at the same minimum-wage food joint for almost eight years. She tells me it's because she's "comfortable" and friends with everyone there. Personally, I think it affords her the time and lack of responsibility needed in order to engage in non-moderated drug use. This was certainly the reason she was usually unemployed and unable to provide the most basic resources for me as a child. If I bring up this or her other time-sucking addictions such as mobile gaming / simulated gambling, she becomes very defensive.
Regardless of the reason, comfort breeds complacency. Complacency leads to not making a meaningful change to your career trajectory in a 15-year period. As someone who grew up in relatively abject poverty, most of the positive things in my life have only come from within, due to my determination to succeed despite numerous setbacks. Sometimes I find myself having difficulty empathizing with people who seem reasonably intelligent but have been in the same situation for 10-20 years.
Everybody seems to be latching on to the McDonald's part of her story, the author included. But it's the hospital part I find mortifying. McDonald's is pinching pennies left and right, it's their key to success. The hospital is not. How much would you guess they're charging per day for the average patient to stay there? I bet it's enough money to cover full-time employment and benefits for their food service workers.
I find it very interesting that most people assume it should be the employer's responsibility to provide for the employee's wellbeing. Call me naive, but I think it should be society's responsibility. What about Hedge Funds, Technology companies, Law Firms and every other company that hires primarily 6-figure white collar employees. Should they be completely off the hook, just because their business model only requires small numbers of white collar workers? What about yuppies and millionaires who eat at nice restaurants, shop at Whole Foods and cook our own meals, instead of buying from McDonalds. Should we be immune from minimum wage increases just because we can afford to pay for the finer things in life?
Minimum wage laws are fundamentally a tax on low-margin businesses and the low-wage workers who frequent them. There's a better option available. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). It can ensure that workers take home $15/hour, while also ensuring that the cost is borne by the entire society. Not just a few specific industries and the specific demographics that rely on them.
Hopefully Trump's new federal policy of requiring hospital groups to disclose prices will help answer these questions and put pressure on that industry.
Other than the low salaries, there are two compounding issues here:
– Transportation. The US is very unfriendly to forms of transportation that are not cars. There are a few exceptions, but these are exceptions. Good public transport or even bike lanes would massively improve conditions for a lot of people.
– Health care. Private companies are overcharging people and have made health care(hospitals and medication) unreachable if you don't have your costs subsidized by your employer.
– Education. Higher education would likely help this person. But how could she afford it?
> Good public transport or even bike lanes would massively improve conditions for a lot of people.
Bring up public transit or bicycling to people in nearly every non-urban part of the United States and you'll get a million reasons why it won't work.
Car culture is so engrained in America that people have convinced themselves there is no alternative. "I'd get sweaty", "Oh but I have to carry...", "Walking to the stop would take...", "My kids...", "I don't want to sit next to people..." . Even the rare people who actually have to drive refuse to understand why they should be among the strongest proponents of alternative and public transit.
> Health care. Private companies are overcharging people and have made health care(hospitals and medication) unreachable if you don't have your costs subsidized by your employer.
Medicare for all is one of the most important policies to alleviate pressure on lower-income people. Even for the middle class, the freedom to change jobs or take time off without fear of disaster will take such a load off of society.
This is why I get annoyed when people praise the successes of the economy (aka artificially manipulated stock market) and our low unemployment rate. $9, $10, $11 may be a _survivable_ wage in Durham, SC, but prices and costs of living keep going up, and wages remain stagnant. In real wages this woman is probably bringing home only $6-$7 an hour, effectively making _less_ than she would have in, say, 2005 or 2010. I don't have any charts or tables to back this up, but I sure pay a lot of attention to prices at the grocery store.
Even though it seems like she lives in an urban area (or urban enough to be squeezed by rising home prices), the public transit is so poor that she spends 3-5x more time getting to work without a car than with one. Sometimes she can't even get home. That's crazy, the car dependence of America means that you need to pay for insurance + a car to even function in society. That is the opposite of freedom
Her job is already going away; McDonald's around me have already replaced cashiers with kiosks. Unionizing and requiring $15/hr + full benefits is only going to accelerate McDonald's automation plans. Is the answer to fight for $15/hr or is the answer to go back to school, apply to more jobs, and/or go into a trade? Honest question.
I was a McDonald's cashier many years ago in high school. I could not figure out any possible way to make it work (in the sense of being able to rent a minimal apartment and feed myself). At the time I think my salary was $5/hour and they wouldn't schedule more than 20 hours a week ($400/month). the managers (all of whom had gone to "hamburger U" in Chicago) didn't seem to be doing well, either- they worked 80 hours, often driving between multiple stores all over the state every day.
The only person who seemed to be doing well was the person who bought the store as a franchise. When I quit the manager said "I couldn't cut it as a cashier".
Unfortunately, this seems to be the norm for a lot of low-level jobs in the United States. You end up giving in because the job market for such jobs is saturated and others will take it for lower wages/off-the-books.
When I was 18 (many years ago), I remember having a job that did the same "we need you to stay later" BS. The buses stopped running at 8PM in the suburbs and I had to regularly walk 5-6 miles back home. Cabs and Lyft/Uber aren't much of an option when it would significantly eat into your paycheck. Most people get tired of giving you rides because you cannot afford a car.
Using a bicycle was more dangerous than walking; some people would throw things out their window at you or swerve/yell to scare you.
Factor in how managers "reward" certain employees with better shifts or punish by cutting hours. I could see why many people switch to the dole or dealing.
An employer's desire is to pay/benefit you as little as you will possibly take. It is ALWAYS an adversarial relationship. No matter how much you like your boss, someone up the chain is trying to screw you, somehow
I agree. It's worth noting that successfully getting high minimum wages enacted can be expected to make more jobs more abusive in this way, because rationing by willingness to take abuse would substitute for rationing by wages.
A more humane and less distorting way to help poor people is to just give them money.
These questions like "why doesn't she simply x or y" make me sad. The person in the article is poor, not dumb.
She likely can't move. It's expensive to move, no matter who you are, and since she has two jobs, it seems like she's going to spend a lot of time on the bus no matter what.
She definitely can't demand McDonald's pay for a taxi, or she can ask, be turned down, and have her hours cut for next week. They'll cut her hours if she just leaves at the end of her shift, and they ask her to stay.
She's already doing something that could ultimately have a positive material impact on her life, organizing with her coworkers. It's just that the many interlocking systems around her life all work against her; bad public transit, bad pay for physically exhausting work, and having to fight so hard for something as basic as a union at her workplace.
This is a situation that calls for compassion, understanding, and working alongside her to change the systems that keep her in this situation, not suggesting "why doesn't she".
One thing that made her life so difficult is the difficulty of getting to and from work.
It's pretty crazy that we spend nearly 15% of GDP on transportation costs. I mean sure, we can all reduce the expenses by buying a 10 year old Prius and get our travel costs down. but, a big part of the problem is that housing is always so far away from work. 500 years ago, people lived within a mile or less of their work places. now it's normal for people to live 20 miles or more away. we need to start building our cities with residential and work places closer by and hold employers accountable for where they create jobs. If you want to regulate it, then by all means regulate as follows: no job can be created unless there's an available residential place to live within 1000 feet of it. this would not only save people's lives, but also significantly reduce C02 pollution as transportation is a major source of c02.
For people who have worked these kind of jobs: how much difference in your day does it make when people are pleasant or friendly? I get takeout pretty often and I am always super friendly and pay a tip of $2 when I'm picking up -- they still had to do the work of packing up the food, right? And honestly, they probably need the couple bucks more than me. I assume it is appreciated but I always wonder how much of a difference it makes for the person. Whether it's just a drop in the bucket or if they go home in better spirits or whatever. I'm also always curious if it goes into a pool so the cooking staff get a cut as well, cuz they deserve it as well.
This by far not a popular opinion, but some jobs aren’t worth $15 an hour. We shouldn’t force social policy on private corporations. Sure she needs more than $9.15/hour to live as an adult and pay for insurance but a teenager staying at home doesn’t.
I am strong believer in a social safety net but I think that should be the role of government. She shouldn’t have to depend on private corporations for insurance, that should be the taken care of by government like it is in every other first world country.
We already have a program where the government (instead of corporate America) recognizes that the monetary needs of an adult is different from that of a teenager staying at home - the Earned Income Tax Credit. We as a country should both make that more generous and easier to be distributed through out the year. Historically, the EITC was supported by both Democratic and Republican administrations.
It shouldn’t take her two hours to get to work, we need better public transportation. Heck barring that I wouldn’t be opposed to subsidizing private transportation solutions like working with Uber and Lyft if it’s cheaper long term.
The people who do ok with these jobs are people with tight nit families who live 12 people to an apartment and share all expenses. For some reason, that kind of living arrangement never works in America. Zoning can cause that to be a problem, but there are other reasons it doesn't work.
I was reading a blog by an American who took a job at a hair cutter in China and 12 people lived in 3 rooms in bunk beds in the back of the store and they never fought. He commented that this living situation would never work in America.
I worked as a cashier once and it wasn’t the same as it is for my friends who still do. These days, they all have employment contracts, non-competes, and self checkouts taking their jobs. Back in my day, you could just leave any retail job like that and go across the street
In the old days middle class kids all had real service/manual jobs as teenagers & college students. Its scary that now the new generation has to read about what it is like.
[+] [-] duxup|6 years ago|reply
I've been overworked at many professional technical jobs in different roles before.
I'm paid a great deal more now, and yet I was never more tired or worn out or found it hard to study than when I worked the ovens at the pizza place.
I often work with people who have never worked such jobs. They're upset that they're 'overworked' and spend their time in the fancy break room with all the perks. Many I suspect have no clue.
[+] [-] derg|6 years ago|reply
Not that it's a realistic idea but damn if everyone had experiencing working in the demanding, underpaid, crappy jobs in the service industry, we might be more empathetic and better off as a whole.
[+] [-] monoideism|6 years ago|reply
That said, if I could get a retail job that paid what I make as a dev, I’d definitely consider it. Retail was grueling, but at the same time much less psychological pressure, and much less mentally exhausting.
I always say I’m not going to let my next dev job take over my life, and maintain work/life balance, and things always start out well. But inevitably, pressure builds, I cave, and things get bad again. I realize that I share the blame for this situation, but at the same time, this situation seems to be more common than not among software devs.
I never faced this kind of pressure in retail jobs. Work was grueling and at time abusive, but when the work day was over, I was 100% able to relax and forget about work. I struggle to do that with a software job.
But at the same time, my compensation is considerably higher than most other jobs. So I’m both grateful for my job and yet still wish there were another way. Like a part-time software development job, which seem to be unusually rare.
[+] [-] Baeocystin|6 years ago|reply
No complaints, I actually enjoyed the work, but it was exhausting in a way that no office job can compare. The experience also makes me want to throttle folks who have never lifted anything heavier than a pen as I hear them whine about utter trivial things.
I don't, because it is considered rude to throttle one's co-workers.
The urge remains.
[+] [-] thinkloop|6 years ago|reply
To get more money you have to pry it from people's hands. You have to have something they can't resist not paying you for. That's it.
The suffering of low minimum wage is supposed to "encourage" people to move up the value chain, as the conservative doctrine goes, but it just doesn't work when all your time and energy is spent surviving.
[+] [-] seem_2211|6 years ago|reply
Now I work in an office. It's nothing to go 4-6 hours without stopping. But of course I can stop and pop out for a coffee or a snack, or lunch whenever I want.
$4 extra an hour would change this woman's life (and a lot of other people like her). $4 extra an hour.. I don't think I'd notice it.
Many of us are SO SO fortunate, we can't even begin to imagine how good we have it.
[+] [-] e40|6 years ago|reply
I worked at gas stations after that, before college, and while it was tiring, nothing at the same level.
I can totally imagine a pizza job would be draining.
[+] [-] dpeck|6 years ago|reply
At the end of the day you just want a room temperature shower and a cold drink, the mental capacity isn't really there for much else.
[+] [-] matz1|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MuffinFlavored|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] altacc|6 years ago|reply
Hard work is relative and people are working very hard at all salary levels. There are many other constructs which are the true reasons behind how much people earn.
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] eismcc|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] silexia|6 years ago|reply
I agree with the Fight for $15... But I think they need to attach this to inflation or somehow as a percentage of the highest incomes in the economy. Otherwise Trump will just keep pressuring the Fed to print more money and $15 will only be worth $5 in today's money.
[+] [-] agumonkey|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cixter|6 years ago|reply
You guys know that McDonalds manages to run in countries with decent wages as well, right? And that maybe a company with a yearly global profit of over 10 billion dollars might be able to afford giving their employees a livable wage. Hell, just the fact that it`s possible to have a full time job in the US, and still need food stamps should be a massive, red flag about your situation. But for some reason you prefer to (by extension) defend the extremely rich owners of these companies.
[+] [-] systemtest|6 years ago|reply
So while you can live on a McDonalds income, it's only because your fellow citizens are chipping in. Effectively we are subsidising McDonalds as they can now give you a lower income and get away with it.
I'm not sure if that is the best way to go.
[+] [-] soulofmischief|6 years ago|reply
Can someone give me an anecdotal example of how this could come to be without some fault in Brown's decision-making process?
For starters, I've always heard that commute time is inversely proportional to career mobility. I made it a rule not to work anywhere farther than half an hour away. And that is the absolute maximum which was necessary when I lived rural area. Currently, I work remote, which has indeed provided more time for further career training.
My mother has worked at the same minimum-wage food joint for almost eight years. She tells me it's because she's "comfortable" and friends with everyone there. Personally, I think it affords her the time and lack of responsibility needed in order to engage in non-moderated drug use. This was certainly the reason she was usually unemployed and unable to provide the most basic resources for me as a child. If I bring up this or her other time-sucking addictions such as mobile gaming / simulated gambling, she becomes very defensive.
Regardless of the reason, comfort breeds complacency. Complacency leads to not making a meaningful change to your career trajectory in a 15-year period. As someone who grew up in relatively abject poverty, most of the positive things in my life have only come from within, due to my determination to succeed despite numerous setbacks. Sometimes I find myself having difficulty empathizing with people who seem reasonably intelligent but have been in the same situation for 10-20 years.
[+] [-] excalibur|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] whack|6 years ago|reply
Minimum wage laws are fundamentally a tax on low-margin businesses and the low-wage workers who frequent them. There's a better option available. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). It can ensure that workers take home $15/hour, while also ensuring that the cost is borne by the entire society. Not just a few specific industries and the specific demographics that rely on them.
[+] [-] narag|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seem_2211|6 years ago|reply
Criminal.
[+] [-] jonnycoder|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] outworlder|6 years ago|reply
– Transportation. The US is very unfriendly to forms of transportation that are not cars. There are a few exceptions, but these are exceptions. Good public transport or even bike lanes would massively improve conditions for a lot of people.
– Health care. Private companies are overcharging people and have made health care(hospitals and medication) unreachable if you don't have your costs subsidized by your employer.
– Education. Higher education would likely help this person. But how could she afford it?
[+] [-] paulcole|6 years ago|reply
Bring up public transit or bicycling to people in nearly every non-urban part of the United States and you'll get a million reasons why it won't work.
Car culture is so engrained in America that people have convinced themselves there is no alternative. "I'd get sweaty", "Oh but I have to carry...", "Walking to the stop would take...", "My kids...", "I don't want to sit next to people..." . Even the rare people who actually have to drive refuse to understand why they should be among the strongest proponents of alternative and public transit.
[+] [-] nlfwhulsdhouv|6 years ago|reply
Medicare for all is one of the most important policies to alleviate pressure on lower-income people. Even for the middle class, the freedom to change jobs or take time off without fear of disaster will take such a load off of society.
[+] [-] peter303|6 years ago|reply
http://www.archwaystoopportunity.com/tuition_assistance.html
Seems like giving up your best employees who are motivated to improve themselves.
Unfortunately the women in this article probably lacks the free hours to pursue this benefit.
[+] [-] virmundi|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] TurkishPoptart|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kevinqiu1|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] x2f10|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dekhn|6 years ago|reply
The only person who seemed to be doing well was the person who bought the store as a franchise. When I quit the manager said "I couldn't cut it as a cashier".
[+] [-] npo9|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ipnon|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] justinsaccount|6 years ago|reply
> The bus stops running at 10 p.m. on Sunday, but McDonald's asked me to stay until close at 1 a.m. They asked me to stay because they need my help.
Thats not a job, that's an abusive relationship.
[+] [-] itqwertz|6 years ago|reply
When I was 18 (many years ago), I remember having a job that did the same "we need you to stay later" BS. The buses stopped running at 8PM in the suburbs and I had to regularly walk 5-6 miles back home. Cabs and Lyft/Uber aren't much of an option when it would significantly eat into your paycheck. Most people get tired of giving you rides because you cannot afford a car.
Using a bicycle was more dangerous than walking; some people would throw things out their window at you or swerve/yell to scare you.
Factor in how managers "reward" certain employees with better shifts or punish by cutting hours. I could see why many people switch to the dole or dealing.
[+] [-] mrguyorama|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] abecedarius|6 years ago|reply
A more humane and less distorting way to help poor people is to just give them money.
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Frondo|6 years ago|reply
She likely can't move. It's expensive to move, no matter who you are, and since she has two jobs, it seems like she's going to spend a lot of time on the bus no matter what.
She definitely can't demand McDonald's pay for a taxi, or she can ask, be turned down, and have her hours cut for next week. They'll cut her hours if she just leaves at the end of her shift, and they ask her to stay.
She's already doing something that could ultimately have a positive material impact on her life, organizing with her coworkers. It's just that the many interlocking systems around her life all work against her; bad public transit, bad pay for physically exhausting work, and having to fight so hard for something as basic as a union at her workplace.
This is a situation that calls for compassion, understanding, and working alongside her to change the systems that keep her in this situation, not suggesting "why doesn't she".
[+] [-] thorwasdfasdf|6 years ago|reply
It's pretty crazy that we spend nearly 15% of GDP on transportation costs. I mean sure, we can all reduce the expenses by buying a 10 year old Prius and get our travel costs down. but, a big part of the problem is that housing is always so far away from work. 500 years ago, people lived within a mile or less of their work places. now it's normal for people to live 20 miles or more away. we need to start building our cities with residential and work places closer by and hold employers accountable for where they create jobs. If you want to regulate it, then by all means regulate as follows: no job can be created unless there's an available residential place to live within 1000 feet of it. this would not only save people's lives, but also significantly reduce C02 pollution as transportation is a major source of c02.
[+] [-] js2|6 years ago|reply
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/04/realestate/05...
(Yes, this an NYT Real Estate fluff piece, but god damn, sometimes I wonder how this is the same country.)
[+] [-] nullbyte|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] amatecha|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scarface74|6 years ago|reply
I am strong believer in a social safety net but I think that should be the role of government. She shouldn’t have to depend on private corporations for insurance, that should be the taken care of by government like it is in every other first world country.
We already have a program where the government (instead of corporate America) recognizes that the monetary needs of an adult is different from that of a teenager staying at home - the Earned Income Tax Credit. We as a country should both make that more generous and easier to be distributed through out the year. Historically, the EITC was supported by both Democratic and Republican administrations.
It shouldn’t take her two hours to get to work, we need better public transportation. Heck barring that I wouldn’t be opposed to subsidizing private transportation solutions like working with Uber and Lyft if it’s cheaper long term.
[+] [-] narrator|6 years ago|reply
I was reading a blog by an American who took a job at a hair cutter in China and 12 people lived in 3 rooms in bunk beds in the back of the store and they never fought. He commented that this living situation would never work in America.
[+] [-] jammygit|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rb808|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jdkee|6 years ago|reply