I’ve recently been having a bit of fun talking about the (not really that) private Facebook group for my home town that Julie and I have been reading and casually engaging with. There are basically, as I mentioned once before, only a few sorts of posts there:
- Political rants that are usually ill informed Trump supporter stuff
- Positive reviews of one Pizza place that I swear must have every single employee and friend posting
- Take downs of every other dining establishment in the area
- Questions about where to find people to do work that could be easily found via a Google search
- People looking for jobs
The last one is what gives me pause today. We have a thing happening in Richmond where a number of people are pulling a homeless grift by our Wal-Mart/Kroger. Three hot tips for those people if they’re reading:
- Homeless people don’t get dropped off by a friend or spouse with their gear in a late model car
- Homeless people don’t have clean and pressed clothing
- Most homeless people don’t have Starbucks with them
The presence of these people and the belief by some that they are actually homeless (there are, sadly, homeless people in our community; they just don’t try to get free money standing at the stop light by the Kroger with a sign and a latte) and that employment in Richmond is in the gutter.
It really isn’t. On a typical drive across town, I pass a McDonalds, a Wendy’s, an Arby’s, a Taco Bell, the Wal-Mart, if I go on their lot I pass TJ Maxx, Gamestop, something called Cosmo Prof, a JoAnn’s fabric, some manner of dollar store, etc. It’s a suburban town. There’s a wide range of service industry.
80% of them are hiring at any given time.
Those are minimum wage jobs. It would be very hard to live on the income from one of them, but it’d be possible, particularly in Richmond, where the cost of living isn’t nearly as high as it is even in neighboring communities like Indianapolis or Dayton.
The problem?
People don’t WANT those jobs. This dovetails out of the commentary last week from some talking head (I forget which one– someone reading this hit me with a quote if you have it) who claimed that poor people just need to get better jobs. This country doesn’t have high paying non-skill labor anymore. There aren’t factory jobs that support a family. The trucking industry better be keeping an eye on the ragnarok that self-driving trucks will bring (if you saw Logan… it’s coming). If you want to try to survive, you have to either take one of those low paying jobs that exist and struggle or, like me and Julie, you have to invest in an education. And if you pick poorly investing in an education, you’ll end up in a weird space on the other side where it’s not actually that much better, though you don’t have to deal with asking if people want whip cream on that mocha or fries with that.
There’s a larger problem, still, though, that is ravaging part of the younger generation. I say part because I know some amazing young people. I work with amazing young people for a living. But I also work with even some of the brightest who suffer from a double bind that is just paralyzing their lesser peers:
- they grow up thinking that everyone has the same chances they have because, as one student told me in an actual argument in one of my classes, he “took the bus through the poor part of town and there are signs that say the government will help you, so it’s their faults they don’t get help.” That, of course, is bullshit. It’s born from the same attitude as the people in the government who call social services “entitlements.” Entitlement is the rich kid who wants an A on his paper because he didn’t turn it in but would have had his parents not taken him on a second spring break to Aspen with his high school aged sister (hence his missing my silly deadline). Entitlement is the student who can’t figure out the homework and just doesn’t do it. Being given medical care so you don’t die is a human right. And if you come from a political background that thinks that teaching safe sex and/or having an abortion (or even using birth control) is wrong, you’re asking for there to be more people. You have to fucking take care of them. You just do. And all those older people on social security– I really hate to point this out, but I guess I have to– PAID INTO IT. They aren’t asking for a handout. They put money into it their whole career. I do, too. You do, too, if you work. We might not ever get benefits from it, which should bother people more than the fact that people get benefits now.
But I’m getting a bit offtrack. What I mean is there are young people who don’t realize the huge advantages they have. We are not on an even playing field. Some people (cough, me, cough) had to work multiple jobs AND take loans to get through college. Some people can’t even take that risk because they need to devote their time to staying alive. They’re way down Maslow’s triangle. - That same generation has the impression that somehow they can all be the boss when they graduate. This is the same problem that destroys this country’s solidarity. Everyone admires the rich and powerful thinking one day that could be them in the position of power. Only honestly, it can’t. To be part of the power elite you have to be born into it or you have to strike gold and oil while being struck by lighting and winning the lotto. You aren’t going to start poor and get rich instantly unless you break big as an entertainer or an athlete (or unless somehow you discover the next major tech advancement– but the person who does that isn’t going to be poor, because that person will need at least university resources).
I hate to say this sometimes because I think it hurts people to hear it, but I want everyone I work with to dream big but realize that they will probably not ever be anything more than a mid-level employee in whatever they choose to do. People hear me say that and think it’s terse or defeatist, but it’s not. That’s something to celebrate. The world is run by people who are not the boss. If all we had were bosses, nothing would get done, ever. I am a lower level to mid level employee. I’m really good at what I do, though, and it’s rewarding ( a little more stress to dollars at times, but it’s rewarding). I don’t really want to be a dean or a provost or a university president– I think the highest I’d ever seek to go is chair of a department or program.
That’s not a bad life. That’s what jobs are.
I fear that the mix of people not respecting or wanting service jobs and the sense that every college student has of being the big shot boss after graduation is going to make this generation (the one I have to depend on to take care of things when I’m too old to take care of things anymore) functionally inert.
If you need money, go fry a burger or bag groceries or deliver food or drive a taxi. I did. I was a parts courier for a car lot. I delivered papers. I answered phones.
Life isn’t always glamorous, but it’s meaningful. Quit thinking that you have to be the big shot to matter. The truth is that the big shot is often far less capable than the four or five people directly below him. Talent is rewarded, but not how you think. Aristocracy is a rigid structure, and social climbing is a myth.
Don’t think you failed if you decide it’s cool to do what you land doing. I don’t feel like I failed. I mean sometimes I do, but that’s because of how other people make me feel about my career. Based on where I started, I kind of crushed it.
And the next time you’re out in public and you buy something, realize the person making you food, checking you out, washing your car, or whatever the service is– that person isn’t lesser than you. They aren’t below you. They are doing what they need to do to survive.
You could learn from them.