What was I thinking! This was supposed to be a quick hit. Spank the Lefty and move on. But the naivete is so dense it grew to be a two-part masterpiece.
Miss Milano had complained that:
No Child should go hungry in this country.
No one should have to work 2 or 3 jobs to get by.
Woman need equal rights.
The short answer to all of that is, “Well, DUH, Alyssa!”
But because it is mostly the work of her tribe that has created these issues, I decided to lay it all out for them.
When we left off, we had discussed the value of RESPONSIBLE Fatherhood, and RESPONSIBLE motherhood. We need to educate our kids and not treat drug abuse like the abuser was suffering from a virus.
Let’s move to the next point.
Ding bat point 2: People shouldn’t have to work 2 and 3 jobs to get by.
That sentiment is LOADED with 21st century weakness and churlishness.
All people will work as they deem fit to work. Having one job or five isn’t a moral dilemma for wider society. Nor is it an issue appropriate for the Chief Executive of the Executive Branch to attend to. It is a reality that WILL NEVER be changed by wealthy, hand-wringing show folk no matter who they shill for in an election.
There are a few reasons one might work more than one job. A person impatient to improve there financial situation may not be satisfied with their primary employment. We’ll say Joe is working in a junior bank position may know that promotions will come, but is not satisfied with his entry level salary. He might take a job doing any kind of gainful activity. He might work in a restaurant or drive for a rideshare company. It usually doesn’t much matter the work. The ambitious youngster is banking coin. He’ll coast when he picks up a more senior position at his day job. And he’ll always have a few bucks in his pocket.
Imaginary Mary wants to buy a nice, reliable car with a few bell and whistles. She knows she can’t pay cash. And a car in the class she desires may mean monthly payments that would be irresponsibly high. On top of her pharmacy job, Mary decides to put in 25 hours per week at Home Depot. In a year’s time, watching her spending, she can have a fine downpayment set aside and drive a car her peers would envy.
A less attractive reason for a second job might be debt. No aspersions cast here. There are all kinds of debt. But let’s say a couple, Jenny and Tom, want to buy a house. Their mortgage guy tells them that base on the debt-to-income ratio they can afford a $490,000 mortgage. They look around and find the $490,000 will buy a really nice place. They ink the deal.
But Tom and Jenny never heard the adage, “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” They just maxed out their debt to income ratio. They have zero wiggle room when two days after the warranty expires, Jenny burns out her shitty, KIA, enclosed, unservicable transmission. And damn, Tom’s employer announces the loss of a contract and the overtime gravy train has rolled to a stop.
You know these two people are not going to just roll over. They have bills to pay and a transmission to replace (if not a whole car). They’re evenings and weekends will be spent wearing a wearing a blue vest at Walmart or waiting tables or being telemarketers.
Hell, in that scenario, a couple might not even have to face reduced work hours or material loss. Just two years of Bidenomics would have put them in the exact same situation. When you’re maxed out, you can’t just magically pay 35% more for everything. Somebody will have to schlep for a second income.
And our ding bat of the week wants to keep that bag of bones in office!
Here are two more scenarios that have a different flavor.
I have a friend who, like SO MANY parents, bought into the college scam. Your child MUST go to college is they are to succeed! My friend had a good job which you might consider admin or lower management. She borrowed tons of money to get her daughter into a very good school; not Ivy League, but way more expensive than Community College. She had to take a second, full-time night job to make the payments.
She did this all through her daughter’s time in school. And for years AFTER HER KID DROPPED OUT! Nobody was bad, here. The kid just wasn’t a good fit for the program. My friend is far from alone. There are lots of parents out there slinging hash or even working under the table in response to the same con game.
Then there’s the question of YOUR learning.
There is a reason low-end, entry level jobs are called that. It’s because they are low-end, entry level jobs. For decades those jobs were pumping gas, flipping burgers, delivering pizza or newspapers, selling tickets at the movie theater. They were simple jobs, that needed to be done. And we had a flood of eager kids who would kill for the money. My first jobs were substituting for my brother on his paper route and sweeping green at a mini-golf consession.
These jobs were ALWAYS filled by kids. They were an economy of scale. At no time was there ever the idea to hire adults to do them. They were gas money. Date money. My cousin worked his way up, part time to where he was at K-Mart through college. He was a shift manager when he left to have a great career as a teacher. But he wasn’t thinking of that when he started at the store.
With the explosion of fast food and big box stores, many more positions opened up. If you were young and half-assed intelligent, you’d have to hide under a bed to NOT work. Then these stores started a practice, that on some levels, I am sure they tend to regret. They started offering these positions to adults who have no hope of making a healthy living from. It is an economic impossibility…unless they stay on long enough to move up.
The business model doesn’t support paying junior floor walkers enough money to raise kids.
If you have a whole lot of something, in this case positions in your work place that anybody can fill and you have no problem getting applicants, that thing is by definition, not very valuable. Spending lots of money on it is impossible.
Walmart could completely revamp its model and become a high-end boutique. They could cater to people who buy expensive stuff. And they could give their sales staff intensive training and pay them much more. But then there would be one less place where people like your handsome host can go to stretch his dollar. AND…here’s the key part…Walmart WILL NOT hire as many workers.
For adults Walmart ALREADY IS the place where you go for your second job stocking shelves or directing people toward a purchase.
The reason we have so many young adult and middle age people working in retail and the service industry trying to make ends meet with just that as income is because we have WAY too many foreigners who showed up without marketable skills AND our local gentry is wildly under educated and trained.
Do you want to make adult money? You need to acquire knowledge or skills that are in demand.
An employer has to pay you the difference between what it costs to hire/keep you versus what he can save by not hiring you. If profits demand another body, congratulations. You’re hired.
Right now, wages in the big box stores are pretty good because we have more positions available than we have people motivated enough to take them.
Which leads to another conclusion about ding bat point 2. If I have a job, and I am able to go out and get a second job, that’s because there are a huge number of people out there not seeking employment of ANY kind. They must be waiting for Boeing to knock on their door and offer them a VP position.
We have one of the highest non-participation rates in the employment market ever. We may have very well lost the middle third of our employment age workers. We can only hope the next third doesn’t acquire their work ethic.
And Ding bat point number 3! Equal rights…
Ding bat point number 3 is the most propagandized of the three, and that’s sayin’ somthin’!!
Under the existing Constitution, and under law since the end of Jim Crow, if you are treated unequally by anyone in the public economy or government you have the right of redress because your existing equal rights have been violated.
For example if you are rejected by a school only to find there were numerous other people who have been admitted with lesser credentials, you can sue the school for redress. An ethical judge or jury MUST find in your favor should you prove you case. Many have done so successfully. That’s why colleges are now doing away with measurable qualifications so they can treat people unfairly (discriminate) in a way that can’t be measured.
Your rights are clearly outlined in the Bill of Rights. Whenever an employer or government official bypasses you in favor of someone else with less qualifications; whenever you lose an opportunity for reasons of you sex or color or political views, the offender is guilty under law.. But you have to prove it.
The danger lies in trying to create rights for this group and not for that one. Many companies and even our own government already do that contrary to law. But these days it is popular, despite being utterly wrong-headed. What a crime it would be if we tampered with the Constitution such that we made such unequal treatment legal!
The challenge is to bring everyone under the existing protections, as we did Black Americans in the previous century. Right now, with hiring and college quotas (in federally funded schools), we are pushing people out from under the umbrella with the existing government’s blessing. We need to get back to a time after 1965 and before quotas, so we can all enjoy our protections together.
We lose our rights when emotional train wrecks, political whores or showfolk start insisting that one group should have these rights and another should have those rights. What you should be calling for is the proper enforcement of existing law both civil and criminal. We all sink or swim together.
As to the main objection rolling around in you brain: It can’t be done. It’s too hard (for the folks we are addressing? Or for you?). Or it’s just not cool enough.
There is nothing strenuous to what I am suggesting. It was the default majority position of all races and economic levels for generations. It is just living life in a useful, happy way. BUT…to be a part of it isn’t easy or cool. Demanding the people around you have an ounce of dignity certainly isn’t popular right now. And what’s popular right now, the way Snoop dresses, America’s Got Talent, kids teaching and correcting their parents, is a function of media geared toward 14 year-olds across the board. If you 16, you’ve outgrown popular media already. Act like it!
Your P4B book list
Your P4B book list
A strong P4B recommendation: The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius Power and Deception on the Eve of WWI by Douglas Brunt A real-life murder mystery.
An easy, fun read with lots of follow-ons: After Dunkirk by Lee Jackson. Part 1 of a WWII historical fiction series. Will be a featured review on the P4B.
A studious and interesting study. Excellent reading. Jefferson's Godfather, the Man Behind the Man: George Wythe, Mentor to the Founding Fathers by Suzanne Munson. Will be a featured review on the P4B. See Suzanne’s appearance on the P4B here.
New on the List
The Winds of War by Herman Wouk This the first in a two part epic. Like After Dunkirk, it is a WWII historical fiction. But it is a much deeper dive. Very well written. You will get lost in it. I will do a complete review here later.
Alyssa Milano continued...