NO, NOT ABOUT EATING PEOPLE; I’m saying he was right to ask this question of Clarice Starling: “First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. ‘Of each particular thing ask: What is it in itself? What is its nature?’”
The quote is from (or more accurately, inspired by) Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations,” regarded as one of the masterworks of Stoic philosophy from Classical Antiquity.
My first job out of the Army was working at McDonald’s, the one over in Sun Valley Mall. It was close to the holidays, so getting hired was a cinch, and the pay was $5 per hour — pretty OK money in 1987, the equivalent of $10.26 today.
I worked there for about a year, and note that I say the following as someone who has been in the labor force for 36 years and worked a wide variety of jobs: I have never worked that hard in my entire life, before or since. Not when I did grunt work for a local landscape contractor, not even when I was humping a heavy pack and a machine gun up and down hills for mile after mile in the Army.
I worked in the kitchen during the closing shift, and by the end of every long shift I ached all over, smelled like French fries and had enough animal fat on my skin and in my hair that I was probably a fire hazard. I’d head home after closing, try to keep my eyes open in the shower, and collapse into bed and sleep the sleep of the dead. (Hint to any young people who are thinking about getting into the food service industry: You always want to work the opening shift. You have to get up pretty early, but you’ll arrive at a squeaky clean restaurant and at the end of your shift hand off to the night crew, who will be responsible for cleaning up both their mess and yours before they can leave for the night.)
There was an older guy named Rick whose morning shift overlapped with mine. Rick was in his 50s, and his hair was mostly gray, and he’d had some kind of back surgery so he moved in a very deliberate way, as if every move he made was pre-planned to minimize the possibility of pain. Rick worked the grill where first the breakfast items, and later in the day the smaller (10 to a pound, hence the name “10-to-1 grill”) hamburger patties were cooked, and I learned a lot from him about how to manage tasks in such a way as to minimize stress and keep from getting jammed up during the lunch rush. He was always patient, always willing to share little tricks he’d picked up, never short with me. He’d have made a great high school coach, the kind whose players revere even 30 years later. He made my time there more bearable.
Rick lived in a camper shell on his pickup truck.
Barbara Ehrenreich, in her 2001 book about the working poor “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America,” said the following (and note that her book was written between 1998 and 2000, more or less at the crest of the 1990s boom):
“When someone works for less pay than she can live on — when, for example, she goes hungry so that you can eat more cheaply and conveniently — then she has made a great sacrifice for you, she has made you a gift of some part of her abilities, her health, and her life. The ‘working poor,’ as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else.”
Ehrenreich is onto something there, but I would take it a step further. I would say that no society has the right to impose such “philanthropy” on its workers. Any society in which some “go hungry so that others can eat more cheaply and conveniently” is a society that, in the words of the biblical author, “cries out to heaven for vengeance” because it is indifferent to manifest depravity in its midst.
“Of each particular thing ask: What is it in itself? What is its nature?” Any society where some are required to neglect their children so that others can be cared for is a society in name only — one that, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “is approaching spiritual death.”
The good news is that there are two efforts under way to address the injustices I’ve named.
One is the effort by fast food workers around the country to win a wage of $15 per hour. I support this: as I mentioned, I can say from personal experience that if workers were paid according to how tired they were at the end of a work day, fast food workers would be paid far better than they are today (and lots of bankers and Wall Street types would be paid considerably less.) The other is to raise the minimum wage to $10 per hour. Given the cost of even basic shelter in the Bay Area, that would be a start, but I think the minimum in our region should be more like $12 or $13 per hour.
Both initiatives are worthy of your support.
Matt Talbot is a writer and poet, as well as an old Benicia hand. He works for a tech start-up in San Francisco.
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Matt: Good for you. Sure to stir up some controversy, but good for you. The absurdities of CEO’s glutinous excessive pay and offshoring work must also be included in the view. When we screw the least of us, who do we screw in the long run? Ourselves. Peter Bray, Benicia
Matt, as usual you bring interesting topics to the table. I for one, am not for raising the minimum wage. It seems like a good idea when considering it from an emotional standpoint but in actuality the numbers just don’t work. Comparing how tired you are at the end of the day from physical work vs. mental work is not an apples to apples comparison. One can have an extremely physical job with very little to no mental stress but when you are in higher positions of authority, the compensation comes with a ton of responsibility, liabilities and stress that can be extremely exhausting. Not trying to diminish your concept but I just don’t think it is a well though out comparison.
As for the idea of raising the minimum wage, only 2.1 percent of hourly workers in America were earning minimum wage in 2012. How is raising the minimum wage going to have an impact when there are actually a lot of other factors in play other than how tired you are at the end of the day or how tough the job is. I would submit the following article as an interesting read from a purely economic impact point of view.
http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/Maine_Voices__Increasing_the_minimum_wage_a_bad_way_to_help_the_working_poor_.html
Actually, 4.7% of hourly workers make the minimum wage, a mere 123% higher than you suggest. You’re linked opinion piece aside, facts prove otherwise…lifting the minimum wage DOES benefit the economy. More money in the pockets of the people that will spend it. And, my personal opinion…if a business can’t afford to pay an employee a liveable wage…the perhaps they ought not be in business.
You can’t complain about government spending on safety net programs if you’re also against a raise in the minimum wage. You can’t have it both ways. You have to pick one.
Take the higher number then. It is still a very small number and the other elements are a much bigger factor. Since you are sighting facts, let’s hear them. Safety net programs and minimum wage have nothing to due with each other. Interesting that you tie them together. Obviously you are for more government control of our lives and and widening the safety net, as you call it. The actual fact is that raising the minimum wage will have the opposite effect you seek. But I am not surprised that you are not able to follow that logic.
First, nearly 5% of the hourly workforce is not a nominal number. Add those earning barely more than that, and the number of ppl impacted becomes larger. Second, were it really as small a number as you indicate, the impact of a raise to the minimum wage would be minimal, wouldn’t it?
Third, if I’m making $7.25/hour, I need food assistance. I need housing assistance. My children need education assistance. If I’m working a second job to make ends meet, I’m keeping a job from someone else who needs one. To suggest the minimum wage and safety net programs are unrelated is sheer insanity.
The government (read: taxpayers) does many things to help businesses succeed (tax policy, infrastructure, etc). Paying a livable wage to employees in return seems little to ask for in return. That you interpret policy that lessens dependence on safety net programs as ‘more government control’ again defies logic, but it’s what we’ve come to expect from you.
Sorry Benician you are wrong. Did you start out working at a fast food place and decided that was all you were ever going to get. If you did I am very concerned about you. Fast food employment is just a temp job. I sure hope you understand that.
No one is holding them hostage working there. You know it is still a free country and they can work some where else. Apparently there are enough people that don’t feel the way you do cause there seems to be no shortage of fully staffed fast food joints.
Sure…they should work somewhere else. I suppose they should just walk up to Apple a demand a high-level executive job. You’re so right. What was I thinking?
Are you aware an increasing number of jobs in the country are low wage jobs? Are you aware that while 21% of jobs lost during the Great Recession were low paying jobs, 58% of new jobs in the recovery are low wage jobs? How does one do better than a low wage job when those are the only ones available?
Your answer is to make all jobs a living wage. Just what is a living wage? It does not work that way. Even educated folks to not start at the 50th floor. You must work your way up or just stay put and except what your personal desires our. Making every job a so called living wage just means it will now be a low paying job as it always was. Changing the wage will not improve the issue it just makes it the same as before and it will still be a very low paying job except with less folks working. Very easy to figure out Benician.
If you are making 7.25 an hour, you are most likely living at home with your mommy.
Half of those earning minimum wage are 25 or older. 43% have attended college or have a degree. If you are living with ‘mommy’, perhaps it’s because you can’t afford shelter and food at $7.25/hour. It’s amazing that at a time when income inequality is greater than it has ever been, your solution is to widen the gap between rich and poor even further.
Benician take a look at the minimum paying jobs very closely. We now have more outlets for these jobs that also can provide a career path. Not to long age there were not these opportunities for the folks to shop, dine, entertain and just plane have a good time. When we were all younger our towns may have had only a very few places like a movie house etc. Those jobs were desired by the young folks and were a very important part of their own independence as they moved on in life. I worked part time at a lumber yard when I was in high school and guess what I learn how to read blue prints when I was sixteen. I learned how to build brick walls, frame a wall and many other things that the job provided. It was not going to be my career but guess what it did come in handy latter in life with my own home and family. It is not all that bad Benician. You are trying to make it look bad.
It doesn’t require much effort to make it look bad. You are trying to make it look good. And failing.
People are hurting. Are you suggesting the minimum wage should NEVER go up? What would it take for you to agree it should go up?
Hank it would not take anything. The minimum wage goes up all the time. No more 75 cent an hour jobs. They will always be called minimum wage jobs. Ever had one Hank? There are many professions that these folks can get started on in high school and a few years after high school. The minimum wage job pays their way till they get excepted into a new profession. Such as carpenter, electrican, pipefitter etc. The minimum wage job is a good thing and it does serve a purpose. Minimum wage job should not be a career job it should be a stepping stone. It is not as bad as you seem to think. Your beloved President seems to think he is the answer. Well guess what he has no answers he is the answer to any economic question. Which simply means he is the problem not the folks.
“Well guess what he has no answers he is the answer to any economic question.” Yeah, I don’t know what this means.
OK Bob, when was the last time the minimum wage went up? And how has it kept pace with the cost of living? Please provide specifics. And you did not answer the question: What would it take for you to agree that it should go up? Bread lines?
Those scare tactics will not bother me. Read my comment I did answer, the word is anything.. Minimum wage is exactly was it says, minimum wage. It has nothing to do with cost of living it has everything to do with need. WEhat bread lines Hank. I do not see any bread lines. Do you and where? Stop this minimum wage scare tactics and start to understand what a minimum wage is all about. It is not to keep up with the Jones.
Only one of us is using scare tactics, and I’ll make it easy for you, it’s not me. Bread lines were a hypothetical. I was asking whether it had to get to that point before you moved off your silly and indefensible position. And I understand what “minimum” means. How far removed are you from your last minimum wage job? Why should we believe you have any clue what it’s like to live on 7.75 an hour? As usual you have no answers, only confused positions that long ago became obsolete.
Here, since you love to carry corporations’ water so much, read this:
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/how-raising-the-minimum-wage-would-benefit-mcdonald-s-and-walmart-142746772.html
And another way to look at it that you no doubt never thought of:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/13/minimum-wage-productivity_n_2680639.html
When I was sixteen Hank I work for 50 cents an hour and loved every minute of it. I got a real eye open when I worked the orchards and was paid by production. Believe me I made more than 50 cents an hour and the farmer was happy to pay it and wanted me back every summer. I was in high school and of course living at home. My life was never going to be a minimum wage life.
Benician have you ever thought that as these employees move thru the ranks and get trained they become more vaulable to the place they work. Could become a department manager, shift manager and many other higher paying positions. These can and are good jobs for the reason that the person chooses them to be. Career or just temp to get on with their education and many other very noble reasons. I assume all of us had part time jobs when we were developing our career path. These jobs do look good on a resume as you move to other opportunities. It is not just the needy or poor who have these jobs. I use fast food places all the time plus many other places that use entry level paying positions. You can tell by observing these very good workers where they are going to be in a few years. Many will move on to much better positions and it is all done by there personal desires and not a living wage. They had a desire to get to a position of a living wage job.. It may take longer than planned but it does happen all the time. I hired a person right out of a chain grocery store. They took that opportunity to finish their education and guess what they are now in a very good position in life. It has more to do with desire than minimum wage. Minimum wage jobs will always be there for all the right reasons and it is not political or greedy big corp.
Some multi-national corporations, like McDonald’s, don’t pay their employees enough to live on. So their employees go on food stamps and other government programs. So we, the taxpayers, are subsidizing corporations that make billions in profits every year.
Walmart is probably the worst example. The family who inherited the Walmart fortune have billions, but you and I are paying for their employee’s health care and food stamps.
So who is the real welfare queen? A single mom who takes food stamps so she can feed her kids? Or a corporation that won’t pay its employees a living wage?
These folks live at home and it is a temp job. You know starting out in the work force. Did we all do that as we moved nto full time employment and a career. Just where have you been.
Matt –
The second most physically demanding job that I ever had was delivering the afternoon paper for $10 per week. That equates to about $40 / week in current terms. The CEO of our two person company averaged $15 per week. Some weeks he made $10. Some weeks he made $20. Boy was I getting screwed over by THE MAN (my older brother).
How could I possibly afford the American Dream on $40 a week? Why is there no longer an afternoon paper? When will the government right these wrongs?
How could I afford a house in Benicia, a wife and kids on $40 per week? How is a guy with a fourth grade education going to make it in today’s world? Think of my family! Consider my dignity!
If paperboy was the second most demanding job, the most physically demanding job that I ever had was as a caddy at the local country club. Those rich people made me carry TWENTY POUNDS on each shoulder (yup…double caddying). I think I got $10 per bag plus tip.
I then moved on to construction laborer for $8/hr. Graduating from high school reaped major rewards! But how could I afford a middle class lifestyle on that wage? Hello government officials, all of my wants are not satisfied and I don’t appreciate living under my parents’ roof and under their rules! I don’t even have my own car! THE IDIGNITY!
I never worked at McDonalds. My wife and her brother did. My brother in law did serve in the Army. They both say that the McDonalds job was easy money.
My younger brother worked at McDonalds for five years before moving on to better things. He was (and is) legally retarded.
Do you really think that McDonalds should provide a 2000 square foot house, two cars, three flat screens, cable TV and high speed Internet? Or is it an entry level job for people just entering the workforce?
Yep…suggesting a couple of extra dollars per hour is the same as demanding a fast food restaurant furnish employees with large homes, multiple cars and a wide array of entertainment devices. Well stated.
Thanks! What level of lifestyle would you suggest that an entry level job should support? Working at McDonalds should allow you to…
Tom said: “Working at McDonalds should allow you to…
A guy I grew up with went to work at McDonald’s at age 16 (this was 1968), minimum wage. We teased him some during high school about ‘flipping burgers’.
He stayed there through college. McDonald’s helped pay for his MBA and he continued on at McDonald’s. He retired about five years ago. I understand he did quite well for himself.
Similar story on a colleagues son who went to work at Walmart when in high school. Took his annual bonus in stock. He is now a multi millionaire, while his father still works.
I am sure there are other similar stories of many others who worked for the minimum wage, a better term would be: “entry level wage”.
The usual suspects will chime in to diminish anecdotes such as the above while also harping against big business.
Such people should put just a tad more thought into who is actually paid the entry level wage and why.
That is good DDL and very true.
Benician you are smarter than that. You know that these jobs are not career jobs except in a very few cases. Even at that they are not high paying jobs. It has nothing to do with corp America it has more to do with what someone wants to do with there life.
There sure are lots of 30, 40, 50 and 60-somethings working “entry-level temp jobs” these days. Much more than were when I was a kid.
Age has nothing to do with it. Entry level paying jobs or as some would say minimum wage jobs. Yes there could be older folks using these jobs as extrsa money and in many cases not qualified for other jobs for many other reasons. I believe these jobs fill a need and the ned is being supplied by students, retired folks, new legal immagrants, folks that the schedule fits into their daily life that have children in school. These jobs are not meant to supply the family income except in very rare cases. These jobs meet a need and are being filled as needed.
Key statement: “Much more than were when I was a kid.”. It implies a palpable change.
Simple Thomas people ARE living longer now. It just appears that way.
What was the question?
No question. I just made A VERY true statement
Why?
So you could reply with your one word responce which means nothing.