dead_felon | Feb. 7, 2022, 6:44 p.m.
Here we are on Monday again. Late again. In my defense I did write a post detailing the time I was bullied and sexually assaulted in Junior High which led to a lot of misplaced anger in my teens when other kids would call me "gay" or "homo" in high school. I ultimately decided to take it down and delete it. It felt good to write about it and get it off my chest. It's a secret I've carried with me for years and never told anyone. I'm still not sure I care to share it with the world though, so I removed it.
So here I am once again several days late to The Friday Dump. I often think about who is the asshole that invented working in the modern sense. Think about it. Humans have been on this planet full of resources living freely, doing our own thing. Eventually professions emerged. Maybe you were good at blacksmithing and you had a shop. You basically took jobs as you needed them. You could either charge money or barter with someone to exchange your work for food or other goods. Everyone got to set their own hours and work as little or as much as they wanted. But hell, even if you didn't want to work, you could hunt and gather to survive and just enjoy your freedom.
Then someone during the goddamn Industrial Revolution was like "Nah, fuck all that. Everyone needs to work for us or get fucked!" We now have factories that do what these small businesses do. They can't compete, so they have to work for us or do something else. And most people didn't know how to do anything else, so they went to work for a factory where they got paid money so they could buy food and shelter. For us in the United States, this paved the way for capitalism.
Capitalism has basically fucked every bit of good out of life. Every company now operates on a belief that profits are more valuable than people. Sure...maybe small businesses seem like they care about their employees, but once you get larger, that goes away. Then it comes down to making the most money. This employee wants a raise and has been here for 10 years so they have lots of experience, but we can't justify paying them that much, so we lose 10 years of experience to hire someone willing to do the job for cheaper. This is how companies operate.
Capitalism has its merits, but if living wages don't keep up with inflation, then society struggles and when people struggle, companies will struggle. The problem is, the companies have the power to fix it by paying people what they deserve to make, but then that cuts into the bonuses of the executives and board members, so they will let valuable employees go just to save a dollar.
Is inflation really that bad? Well, let's break it down. In 1914 Henry Ford announced that he would pay workers $5/day for 8 hours of work. So $25/week or $1,300/year. During 1914 the average new car cost $750 and the average house was $4,000. In 2021 the low end Ford factory worker makes around $35,000/year. In 2021 the average new car costs $43,072 and houses average $375,000.
Ford factory wages increased 2,592.31%.
New cars increased by 5,642.93%.
Houses increased by 9,275%.
Let that sink in.
You HAVE to work in order to survive in this world. The 2 things you really need for holding a job are shelter and a car or transportation. These 2 items have increased astronomically compared to wages. Here's a better example.
2011 minimum wage was $7.25/hour. This is $15,080/year.
2011 average new car price was $25,048. 10 years later in 2021 this increased 71.96%.
2011 average house price was $263,000. 10 years later in 2021 this increased 42.59%.
How much did minimum wage increase? 0% it's still $7.25/hour.
It's hard to listen to older generations complain that younger generations aren't buying houses and cars and aren't raising kids. To put this into perspective, let's take a look at a Boomer's life.
Born in 1955, a Boomer would enter college around 1973. A public college tuition would cost you $1,600 with room and board per year. A brand new car averaged $3500. Minimum wage was $1.60/hour or $3,328/year. A Boomer could work a minimum wage job in high school and buy a used car or even a new car after saving. They move to college where their food and shelter are covered in their tuition. They can pay their tuition while working a minimum wage job. A Boomer graduates in 1977 with a Bachelor's degree. They don't have any student loans or debt to deal with. The average starting salary for a Boomer with a Bachelor's in 1977 was $13,772. They start their job and could buy a house for $32,500 which was the average house price in 1977.
Let's simplify this. A Boomer could buy a car, go to college, and get a degree on minimum wage with zero student loan debt. They could then buy a home with a reasonable payment. So they start their life with only a mortgage to pay for.
Born in 1985, a Millennial would enter college around 2003. A public college tuition would cost you $10,530 with room and board per year. A brand new car averaged $23,000. Minimum wage was $5.15/hour or $10,712/year. A Millennial would work a minimum wage job in high school and save up for a used car. They go to college and put ALL of their wages toward paying for college and still end up graduating with maybe $10,000 in student loan debt. They get a job starting around $45,000 which was average for a Bachelor's. Houses in 2007 are $248,000. So if a Millennial works their job and pays off their student loans, they can then save for years to save up $49,600 for a 20% down payment on a house. Then they are still left with relatively high mortgage payments.
Kids hitting college today have a minimum wage of $7.25/hour or $15,080/year and tuition running $23,000+ per year. They are graduating with $50,000+ in student debt and an average starting salary of $50,000. To pay off their student loans will take years and a $75,000 down payment on a house that still leaves you a mortgage payment of $2,000/month. That's fucking insane!
There's a reason we aren't buying houses and having children. We can't afford them.
But the absolute worst thing Capitalism has done is made us stop caring for human life. When I was in school my economics professor would say "do you want to flip burgers for the rest of your life?" What he meant by that is working a minimum wage job is shitty and you shouldn't want to do it. Sure, you'll line up and order a bag of greasy fast food, but you damn sure wouldn't make it yourself. These people working in fast food are just trying to support their families. In the Boomer's day you could flip burgers and drive a new Camaro and get a Bachelor's in business to go further in life. Or you could flip burgers and buy a house and be happy with the job you have. Nowadays if you're flipping burgers you might have another job or you're having to sell plasma and semen to survive. We have not only removed the living wage from these jobs, but we've reduced them to be a joke. We laugh at the idea of flipping burgers, but it's a job that pays money and has to be done so you can shove a Big Mac and large fries down your gullet while you feel like you're better than the people making your food and handing your bag to you.
Whenever people are asked "don't you think these people deserve a living wage?" so many are quick to respond "NO!" and that's the fucking problem. By saying that, you are saying that those people are less than you. They're not. They're people like everyone else and thanks to the Industrial Revolution and Capitalism, they are all forced to work every fucking day in order to survive just like you. We are all part of the same fucking system, but we fight amongst ourselves due to politics and mind games that our rulers play with us. Instead of looking down on someone because of their job, try empathy instead. It's not going to hurt you. I promise.
Tags: flipping burgers boomers college work jobs millennials
