Posted on 10/25/2005 4:34:18 PM PDT by SJackson
What happens when you're unskilled, and as an American (I'm presuming these people are legal) have to compete with those "willing" to do the jobs Americans like you won't do.
My guess the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice would disagree with me.
political list?
Yo, Interfaith Justice for Whatever Whatever. Who cleans the bathrooms at your offices?
Where is it written that every menial job must pay enough to support a family of four and constitute a career?
So we fill our Country with illegals for cheap labor then complain and try to eliminate the cheap labor?
I want to ask if this is a joke - but I'm afraid someone would tell me what I'm afraid to find out.
Fact is that if janitors want a "living wage", they need to get better educated so they can make better career choices.
A janitorial job in a factory is a dream job. I have a friend who works as a janitor in a small machine shop and he makes about 12 bucks an hour. It's not spectacular but it could be a heck of a lot worse.
If they aren't earning a living wage, then why aren't they all dead? (W. F. Buckley)
Gosh, if instead of encouraging people to skills that are in demands that they can earn more legitimately we just give them money won't that discourage them from bettering themselves?
Didn't you know that was in the Bill of Rights?..../sarcasm
It's one thing to compete fairly and legally in the open market, quite another to cheat with ILLEGAL labor.
For your comments...
The interesting part of this experience was that my father was very wealthy. But because I didn't attend his alma matar, Lehigh University, I was not worthy of a college degree.
So I started a stereo sales company, bought a used BMW R-50, and that really pissed him off. Then I bought a 2002 sedan. That REALLY pissed him off.
Some folks understand the struggles in a free market, hard work, no government or parental subsidies. Others, even here, do not understand innovation, hard work, creativity and innovation. I still have scars from flying sparks and steel slag. But I never whined, pissed and moaned. More people need to "suck it up," and remember how this country was founded.
The Microwave-Instant-Gratification-Mentality makes me puke.
/rant
I haven't had a laugh this good in ages. Very funny, and typical Buckley, right on point.
My father-in-law was a janitor for the UMichigan most of his life - and he was a white guy - as we like to say in the hood. He provided for 4 kids, owned a home, wife didn't work until he retired; mostly to get away from him. They weren't rich or educated past high school, but they did ok.
These days, maybe folks wouldn't be as happy to have any job, even a janitor's job, as my father-in-law was. They want to complain about the money they get, but boy, they sure aren't willing to put in the time to learn a new skill or get the education that would command a bigger pay check. Sorry folks, some jobs just aren't worth a lot of money.
To quote the great Thomas Sowell, "Virtually no idea is too ridiculous to be accepted, even by very intelligent and highly educated people, if it provides a way for them to feel special and important."
That would certainly apply here.
Excellent rant. I agree with you 100%. I had the same type of youth; on my own at 17, joined the military, invested in real estate, became a self-made Woman and never looked back. To this day, my Dad's favorite way to tease me is to say the reason he loves me so much is that I left the nest running and never came back, LOL! (Unlike my sibling.)
"More people need to 'suck it up,' and remember how this country was founded."
Unfortunately, kids aren't taught this today in our liberal public schools. They're indoctrinated that Mother Government is all they need in this world. *Rolleyes*
If they are worth more, they should be able to go out and get better wages.
If they can't do that, they are probably not worth what they are being paid now.
What do you mean, menial? As a housewife I sweep floors and clean bathrooms and I have never thought of it as menial work. It is good work and I am proud of it when I am through. I work part time in a department store and I swept the floors in the dock area yesterday. I did not think of it as menial either. There's no honest work that I am too good to do. That's the meaning of conservatism IMHO.
I believe that janitors and cleaning crews should make a couple of dollars over minimum wage. Minimum wage is for your teenage baby sitter. Any employeer who only pays the $5.15 minimum wage is a big time stinker. That's not to say I think the minimum wage should be raised. But I think those who only pay the minimum wage because they can get desperate people work for them are mean greedy bastards.
I worked as a janitor while I was going to school. I looked at it as a way to help pay the bills while I prepared for my life's work, not as a career in itself.
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