What are these people going to do, work at Taco Bell for minimum wage?
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They'd better damn well be working at Taco Bell if that's all they got. Its better to be working and earning than lazing around mooching off the government just because Taco Bell is a "dead-end job."
After all, if you legitimately can't make ends meet despite working, you can STILL get government benefits. The difference is you're paying into the system too - so it kind of evens out.
And someplace like TB may not be the most glamorous or prestigious place to work, but it still has its benefits. Places like that HATE paying overtime so you're pretty well set in knowing they're not going to work you to death. Do your 8 hours and go home.
Its work that you don't "take home" with you. Again, do your 8 hours and go home, never thinking of it again until you clock-in again.
And while fast-food work is manually hard (on your feet all day, sweaty, annoying customers), its mentally easy once you get the hang of it. After a month, you can do it with one hand tied behind your back.
Best of all, jobs like that will always be around and they're fairly easy to get hired on.
I dropped out of college after I received my associate's degree. I had only completed my core curriculum for my major, so I pretty much just had a "High School Part II" degree. Virtually nothing. So it was time to go to work. I didn't have the education to get a "career-job" but just a "job-job." In my delusion of grandeur, I reckoned I was "above" fast-food and Walmart, so I ONLY applied for clerical positions. No college education required, but at least it was more "prestigious" than flipping burgers.
It took me nearly a year to get a job. Getting the interview was the easy part, but the applicant pool was FILLED with people just like me who didn't want to flip burgers. It was HARD to get a clerical position, but finally I got one!
Worked there 4 years and hated every second of it. I decided to go back to school and finish my degree.
Two years later, I had my B.A. Yippee for me, except I graduated right at the beginning of the recession and nobody in my major was hiring. Unfortunately, I had chosen a very limited major that only ONE job could fulfill (print journalism). It was either the newspaper or nothing at all.
The paper wasn't hiring so I was stuck needing a job and I still was virtually at my starting point - "no education," in that I wasn't educated in anything other than newspaper writing.
I was married by then and was expected to bring in SOME kind of income, no matter how small. I couldn't just sit around and wait for a clerical position again. I just swallowed my pride and forgot about being "above" anything.
So I FIRST applied at Walmart, first and foremost, and was hired on the spot. I didn't even have a chance to apply anywhere else, I got the interview and job THAT fast.
Let me tell you, it felt like CRAP to wear that blue vest and know that I had a college degree. It felt like CRAP to wipe down dining tables and kiss customer butt. It felt like CRAP to have that dorky little nametag. There was quite a bit about the job I didn't like.
But let me tell ya, I actually enjoyed it, generally speaking. They literally kicked me out the door after 8 hours. Every 2 hours, I took a break. On slow days, we got to branch out into other departments to break the monotony. I got a raise after 3 months, then again when I was promoted soon after (so I got two raises back-to-back). Evaluation time meant another raise, then with more promotions came more money. I wasn't rolling in the dough, but I was making about $2000 a month for just doing the same 'ol, same'ol kissing customer butt, stocking shelves, unlocking the video game cabinet, sweeping floors. (but I admit we had fairly good management)
It really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
The work was physically hard, but mentally as easy as pie. Its a predictable job where you know what is expected of you. Not accounting for the public, its a pretty stress-free job. To me, the customers were the only people who brought a lot of stress. Management could be stupid sometimes, but normally they were just regular 'ol people. As long as you do what is expected of you, they stay out of your hair.
But nobody wants to work at Walmart, just like they don't want to work at Taco Bell. Everybody wants that cushy job with an office, and frankly, that's too bad. You do what you have to do to make an honest living.
Nobody is "above" working for minimum wage. Not you, not me, not them. Thankfully, now that the worst of the recession is over, jobs like these are pretty plentiful again. If that's all there is, then you TAKE THEM. No excuses...dead-end or not, its a job.
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