Minimum Rage

An unusual thing happened to me a few days ago. I was waiting
on a friend just inside one of the “big box store” chains that quickly
choke their way across America, When a young lady, walked over to me
and asked me if I needed any help. This was not unusual. I explained
to her that I was only waiting for someone and trying to make a call.
She continued to speak to me, (this was unusual) first about what
phone service I used then about her family, the high cost of living,
and her job at this location and another one. Both of course part-
time and wholly inadequate to provide a reasonable living.

Work soon interrupted and I was sorry that I did not get to
say goodbye. It has been awhile since an attractive young woman has
taken the time to speak with me when she did not have to (sad- I know).
As I left I tried to determine her motives for such an act, and contrary
to my normal paranoia the only sensible conclusion I could arrive at is
that she simply wanted someone to talk to, or more to the point, listen
to her.

This has stuck with me for several days as I knew how she or
anyone else who struggles this way on a daily basis would feel. Having
money alone will not make you happy, but it can make life so much easier.
Not having to worry constantly about how you will make it day to day can
lift the despair that can make the burdens of life seem so endless and
so tiring, as if nothing will ever change or get better and all you want
is to see some way out. But things do get better, at least on some level
and you push through even if they do not because you have no choice.

Here is a young women who is only trying to support herself and her
family, most likely working over forty hours per week but because it is
for two different companies she will never see a dime of overtime or
benefits that any full time employee would expect and by law be entitled
too. I know people will say “it's just business, it's just capitalism,
they have to make a profit.” I know all the arguments, but it just feels
wrong. And in most of my experience if it feels wrong it is wrong. Do
the profits and the executive salaries have to be so high.

Meanwhile the the nearly all millionaire Congress proposes that
“We should get rid of the minimum wage, it will help business.” I don't
know if it will help business but it will surely help business owners
and most likely stock holders, though I'm almost certain the woman I
spoke with owned no stocks. I am sure that this policy would hurt the
poor, who could expect huge pay cuts or to be fired so that they could
hire cheaper employees. The best case scenario I could foresee is that
all future hires would make $2.78 per hour. This would hurt business
in the long run as you try to imagine how much an employee earning this
rate would care about good customer service. They could make as much
selling lemonade on a street corner so what is it to them if they get fired.

Maybe all these companies that give only 32 to 38 hours a week
to get the maximum amount of work from employees without having to pay
for overtime or benefits, should pay into a general fund that could
provide some overtime and/or benefits to those workers who work over
forty hours a week and would normally be entitled to if it were for a
single company. Most people would see this as welfare (which it is not)
and Hating welfare is easy because they think of it as people who live
off the hard work of others. The same could be said about most corporate
managers. They preform no valuable services for the customer nor do
they produce any usable products that consumers would buy yet they take
generous salaries from the profits of the hard work done by others who
earn much less. By this definition alone, corporate executives are on
public assistance.