When did burger flipping and salting fries become a career choice ?
Because that's the only job they can get.
I work with many people that have NO job skills. Some of it is due to their mental capabilities; their brains aren't wired to do anything more complicated. They were born that way. Not their fault. Some of them have major behavioral issues and are borderline unemployable. Some just don't give a ****. And some of them just like to work. They don't really care what they are doing as long as they are doing something. I know a dozen old ladies that do it because they are bored. Its light labor, they get out of the house for 4-5 hours a day, they socialize on the job and they get paid. Their husbands are typically older than them, retired with a pension or dead. Some of them need the money because their husbands didn't fare so well in their working years. Those I feel bad for. They'll work in unskilled, low paying jobs until their bodies won't let them or they die.
Others have no education. They are capable of doing more complex tasks, but don't have the schooling or on-the-job training and they are stuck in a financial trap. They don't earn enough to go back to school and they have to work 2-3 part-time jobs at minimum wage just to earn enough to eat and put a small roof over their heads. Many of them have families. I know a Mom, Dad and daughter that all work part-time at the same employer. Dad had a good paying factory job in the 70s-90s. He didn't have any education. He was a union forklift driver making huge wages. Factory closed. No one is going to hire someone with 30 years of forklift driving experience for $50k. Just isn't going to happen. The three of them together probably bring in $36k. No health insurance.
Many, many of the late teen to early twenties somethings I work with had no plans after high school. They had no role models. No one to help them realize their potentials. They typically come from broken families and they have been getting by on minimum wage job since they were early teens. Its hard to watch. I try to tell them they need to go back to school to get a better paying job, but herein lies the rub...
If they are a single parent making low wages, they qualify for several government assistance programs. Welfare, WIC, housing assistance, free healthcare for the kids, free private school education vouchers from the state, etc... It ads up to something like $32K in assistance annually They'd have to find a job making $16.00 per hour just to break even on what they get for free. An in our state there is also a free private school voucher program that low waqe earners qualify for. You can get $4500 per kid to send them to private schools! Three kids? Here' another $13,500.00. So that makes it $47K they'd have to earn.... about $23.50 per hour! And they'd have to work 40 hours a week, vs the 25 they work now. There is no incentive to work for something you are already getting for free. And, everyone in their social circle is doing the same thing. Their parents did the same thing. It is "normal" for them and therefore acceptable. They see nothing wrong with the situation. They have housing, food, education, cell phone. Life' not so bad. Of course, they have no adult health insurance, but that's coming too, now. And I forgot about the free college for poor kids so they don't have to save for college for their kids, either. YIKES! What a rant!
Anyhow, the system is broken. Where's the politics forum?
