This would spell the end to not only my job, but the jobs from management (of which I am not) right on down to assembler, lawn maintenance, or cafeteria worker.
I am one of those mid-$20/hour laborers whom you apparently look down your nose at. I didn't start off earning what I earn now. When I was 17, I fathered a daughter--something that could have locked me into a life of making below $8/hour, had I let it.
Instead, I joined the Navy partly because I believed in America and our defense; but mostly because I wanted to make sure I could put food in my daughter's mouth. Originally, I was ordered to pay $200/month for child support. After that and $100/month for GI Bill my checks were very small.
So you know what I did? I took advantage of every educational opportunity that came my way. I worked my regular Navy job which sometimes totalled nearly 80 hours in a week. And when I wasn't working I was either studying for my advancement in the Navy or studying for credit.
Five years after joining, I left the Navy. Struggling to find a job in electronics (what I had done in the military), I did odd jobs as a temp averaging $5.50/hour--when I could find work at all. Somehow, I still managed to pay my support payments, eat, and live. Yes, I had to move back in with my father for about a year. It wasn't the end of the world.
About a year after getting out of the Navy, I found a permanent job as a taper for a printing press manufacturer--a job for which I was highly overqualified. You see, my job was to mask off the parts of the assembled equipment so that they could be painted. When I wasn't taping, I worked with assemblers and made it a point to learn everything I could about the machine assembly process. After I had been a taper for about 6 months, the electrical assembler quit and I was given that job--no, I had earned that job. All of my hard work and studying was starting to pay off, yet even then I only earned about $8/hour.
About one and a half years later, I earned the job of Field Service Technician with that same company--which came with an annual salary of $30K. By the time I left that company I was up to $39K.
Today, and several companies later, I am earning above $55K from my primary employer. None of these companies have "given" me any of this, and none of these wages have been because I have any "inherent personal worth," or am a "human being who deserves it." It is all because I provide a service coupled with skills, knowledge, and training and I trade that service for money and other benefits.
You forked over child support, score 1 for you if you are telling the truth, but you didn't have to find babysitters, cook, clean, stay home from work when your kids were sick, you had a definite advantage in the labor market.
I don't look down my nose at you, but I resented people like you for years. I had to pay your kind $20 an hour to fix my car so I could get to work and earn my $8+ per hour.
I'm not impressed with your accomplishments. You didn't have one hand tied behind your back and probably didn't have to take anti-depressant/anti-anxiety medication to keep going so you wouldn't lose your kids.
Good on ya! Keep it up, Navy.