Today I was at an establishment that I often frequent, when I noticed that one of the partners of the business was standing in the lobby talking to people.
He's talking about how sad he is that he is about to move to a new city and how the Little Caesars pizza place in said city is about to close because they can't find anyone to work there.
He starts going into a monologue of how “no one wants to work!” – the argument he's presenting is going in circles.
I chime-in from about 20 ft away and say “well yeah no one wants to work there for minimum wage, it's not enough to survive on.”
And he kind of shakes his head and realizes that he just bit off more than he could chew, as I love to loudly debate and I wasn't at all bothered to be doing so.
I then say how peeps should be focused on increasing the minimum wage (in the state of MI) to at least $15/hour and how even that is not even a living wage.
He looks at me with a look of defeat and a look of frustration and says “now…is that even going to solve anything though, whats the point? — His tone switched from combative to now being almost somber in a way.
I said “well yeah, man. I want to make a living wage, just as much as you do!”
He shakes his head and realizes that he's not going to offer anything else to win his argument and ends up walking away in a weird confusion. lol
A few days before this I was talking to another Boomer about increasing the minimum wage in our state.
I'm talking to this person and he chimes in with how he feels like raising the minimum wage is a bad idea and people need to earn what they are worth.
I said “okay but people need to have a living wage you have to understand that people can't survive off of $9 an hour with inflation the cost of living goes up what do you expect them to do?”
After he argued in circles similar to the other man, his last ditch comment to win his argument was to say “well you know, with taxes and all that the $15 that they're now going to make – it's not even going to seem like that much more money after taxes! So what is the point??”
I kind of stop dead in my tracks in my mind and couldn't believe he could say something so dumb.
I said the obvious “well I would much rather prefer making more money and being taxed a little bit more compared to making less money and being taxed all the same!” — He of course had nothing to say after that besides repeating things already said.
These two men had so much in common in these two conversations. The tone and rhetorics used had such noticeable parallels. Both these people could not even fathom how people need to be earning a livable wage but yet have the gall to openly complain over and over “how no one wants to work!”
I'm so tired of hearing this sentiment. But to be honest, it's now making me sad. Sad at how disconnected people are from the issues of others. It's all just…… blah.
So yeah, thanks for reading!