Cry me a river. Most people I went to school with didn't do the work, partied all the time, never cared to go to college, wanted the job they ended up in, popped out babies, etc.
There are no gurantees in life. Get over it. It doesn't take a high IQ or a great education to make a good living. But that doesn't mean you have the best, the nicest, the newest stuff. Anyone that thinks they SHOULD have it is a Marxist, pure and simple. They want to take from others because they can't do for themselves.
I came from a very poor family. I was in 8 different schools in two different states by the time I graduated from high school. My parents aren't the smartest on the block. I went to a state collge, the Univ of Arkansas, because I didn't get into the Air Force academy like I wanted.
Did I whine, cry, complain, demand fairness? No. I took classes, changed my major about five times and ended up with a useless degree in economics in 1982 when no one was hiring. We didn't have even one recruiter come to the business school.
The entire time I worked at minimum wage ($2.85 an hour) 40 hours a week or more (until overtime forced you into a larger FIT withholding bracket that left you with less take home pay than if you just worked 38 hours a week - thank you Ronald Reagan for indexing the brackets) and I still put a roof over my head, ate well enough (on campus cafeteria really good and I worked at food places), had a 1965 Pontiac I bought for $800 and still partied.
Was I flush with disposable income? No. Was I starving. Hell no. Was I expecting someone to give me what I haven't demonstrated I could earn? Not a chance. In every job I had I moved up because I did a fantastic job and bettered myself. I went from delivering pizza to assistant manager in weeks. I washed dishes at a steak house and in less than a year I was the head bartender making good money and lots of tips.
I started as a night auditor in a hotel and 20 years later I'm the Controller of a five star hotel making lots and lots of money with a staff of over 16 overall.
My wife never finished high school and runs the conversion department of the fourth largest payroll processing company in the country. And she makes more than I do.
At no time did we demand some "living wage" or some hand out or some government program or need some socialist jerk think I was getting exploited.
Here's some advice: drop the whiney "oh poor me" routine and just go out and do it for yourself.
Bully for you. I'm not whining for myself. I'm whining for people who would never darken the doors of a website such as this and who are really struggling to do what you did. Money went further then than it does now. One emergency room visit because you don't have a regular doctor can set you back months.
Good for you and your wife. You epitomize the American Dream.
I really do not understand the problem so many people here at FR have with WalMart, it makes no sense to me.