For context I work for a local construction company in the office which, all of the employees are extremely conservative and I hear some of the most brain dead things.
This morning I was just drinking my coffee and booting up my computer in my office and I hear my co worker talking to one of his superintendents about the minimum wage and it went a little like this. A will be my co worker and B will be the super.
A – “what people don’t understand about economics is the big corporate companies are not going to reduce their profits so raising the minimum wage will only encourage more self checkouts and robots taking these lazy ass people’s jobs.”
B – “yeah I can see that”
A – “these workers need to stop being so fucking lazy and get REAL jobs instead of flippin burgers because I am tired of prices going up because they want to be paid more”
B – “yeah they are so selfish tryna get more money for the little that they do”
This felt like a slap in the face to me. I’ve worked a job at a pizza restaurant and worked my ass off for the tiny wage they were paying me while I saw the place reaping in huge profits.
I always want to jump into the conversation and tell them where that line of thinking ends…. Slavery, they want slavery. But I keep my mouth shut because I know I am the minority in this place and criticizing them will only bring scorn to myself.