As if you know anything about me. Yes I worked in a minimum wage job too. I had several of them. But I busted my butt and got to the point where I earned more than the minimum. Instead of running off to get a cigarette I did more work. Instead of saying that the union contract doesn’t require me to do more than what I am doing I tracked down my foreman and asked what else could I do. When union people came up to me and told me I was still on probation and I wouldn’t be allowed to keep my job if I didn’t do what everyone else did I laughed at them. I later found my tires all cut. That is union brotherhood for you. They guy who did it was always protected by the union. He would go off and sleep during work. He wrecked a piece of equipment. They always backed him. One day several years later he lost his job because he pulled a knife on one of the supervisors. The union would have defended him then too but the police were called in and in addition to the knife he had drugs.
As I said your distain is funny simply because you are more judgmental than anyone else. You have no idea that I was in a car accident on my 18th birthday and wrecked my back. You are correct in that I can not do blue collar work. Well I can do some but not very long. I physically am not able to do so. If I was one of the people you admire so much I would live in the city and draw welfare. Instead of that I put myself through college with the help of my parents. I worked all through college. No grants or gifts just pay cash and collect a degree. At times I put in 40 hours while still taking 18-20 hours of classes. But that doesn’t fit into your idea that all white collar workers are good for nothing and lazy.
When I got out of college I earned $6000 the first year. The average entry level position earned $12,000. My soon to be wife made $10,000. I went to my dad and told him I needed to make more money and he said that he agreed. If I wanted a raise go earn it. He worked 80 hours a week and he thought I should work at least 60. Handouts? They don’t happen around here.
My back is so full of arthritis it wakes me up in the middle of the night. My back is always stiff, my arms and legs numb. I see a both a chiropractor and physical therapist to get some temporary relief but that comes right out of my pocket. Thanks to our loving father Obama I can not change from my current policy to something else because it would more than double my premium.
You have no idea that in order to keep a promise to my son I tried to train for a 5 K race and in doing so popped a rib out of place. I was in pain for more than a couple of weeks. On the day of the race my son had to come back down the race course to find me. I was one of the last participants to finish but I still finished. The chiropractor had to shove the rib back into place but it took three attempts on three different days for him to get it in.
You have no idea what it is like to have dinner with your mother, leave to run a few errands and come back a half hour later and have her ask you if you have had dinner yet. To stop by and check her mail in order to pick up the bills and have her tell you she has not gotten any mail that week. That the post office must still be forwarding her mail some place else. You have to tell her that she has said that 3 times that week already and that you did go through her mail her the other times. Do you know what it is like to have her ADT alarm go off at 10:30 at night and she doesn’t know how to reset the alarm? That she doesn’t remember the “all safe” code work to tell the alarm company?
So you think you have had a shitty life so what. Everyone has gone through tough times. That doesn’t make you special. That doesn’t give you the right to crap on everyone else. You remind me of the Frank Baum character who was so afraid of others he thought the only way to prove himself was to accost those around him. You think I really care what you think? Not hardly. I have dealt with bigger pricks in my life than you.
And all of this does speak to the min wage. You want a sustanable income, earn it don't wait for someone to hand it to you with little or no effort on your own part.