I was sitting at the barber shop listening to this Gen Xer brag about how good he is at his trade job, and for whatever reason he steered the conversation to how Washington keeps raising the minimum wage, and he started talking about how all these franchises had to close in Seattle because it's not sustainable to pay fast food workers so much. . . .
I'm sorry, let me fix that for you pal: “These franchises were either so poorly located or operated that exploiting their workers was the only way to stay in business.” OR: “Once the franchisees could no longer exploit workers, their profit margins were only high enough to get a little bit rich, so they decided to eliminate all the jobs they'd created and invest elsewhere.”
Not to mention, mnimum wage will barely cover RENT ALONE in Seattle, which of course brought this jackass to his next point that “a minimum wage job is supposed to be your first job, not where you work when you're in your 30s. You want more, you get an education or learn a trade.”
How do people this old not see that their parent's generation (hell, as a millennial, MY parent's generation) could buy a house with a single minimum wage job. And you're STILL pushing that “education in general” is the escape route? Guaran-damn-tee this guy also has zero sympathy for people who “knowingly took out student loans” and would never imagine supporting forgiving student debt or making college free.
I've been fortunate enough to not have to work minimum wage for a long time, but even back when I did, I had coworkers who RETIRED on significantly less income than today's minimum wage, had homes, etc. Just a little over 10 years ago.
I could almost forgive someone from Gen Z thinking this way, maybe, because minimum wage has never been a living wage for their generation, but how have older people bought this narrative hook, line, and sinker when the federal minimum wage HASN'T CHANGED in over 10 years?!