Forum Post: To the "Get a job" folks.
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 24, 2011, 7:08 p.m. EST by 8472ofborg
(100)
from Bruce, SD
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
We have jobs..or had them. They are at McDonald's working 40 a week and making $8 an hour without benefits. At Wal-mart where we aren't allowed full time unless we work whenever they tell us to and our benefits cost us more than we make in a year. At a construction company where we are worked to the bone 60 hours a week for $10 an hour, no sick time, no vacation, no healthcare. Our jobs are at offices where we get shit on by the higher ups because they are feeling a little less powerful than usual and just want to see us cry. We work in manufacturing jobs where our safety can be in question most of the day yet we are required to work overtime or be fired, even if there is no heat or air conditioning. We work the jobs provided to us by our wonderful trickle down economy, where the richest of the rich can take 10 weeks of vacation a year, get multi-million dollar bonuses for laying off hundreds of thousands of people, and own where we live, where we shop, and where we work all at the same time.
We work hard, we work for very little, and we want to be treated fairly. So next-time you tell me to get a job, work my 3 and try to afford anything you have now.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201109/are-jobs-we-know-them-becoming-obsolete
http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/09/07/rushkoff.jobs.obsolete/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Z8TR4ToNs
People that were not affected by the millions of jobs that left this country and still have their job are stuck in their self righteous attitude of judgement and have no compassion for the rest of us who no longer have a job.
They are not immune however, because the slippery slope is still sliding downward and they will be in the same boat as the rest of us.
Don't bother debating the "get a job" folks. Their job is to create disruption and agitation; they get paid for being incendiary on public forums. They probably get paid by the number of responses they get their posts. Or they might not be human at all (like alicebot s)
The worse thing you can do to them is to ignore them. Instead, speak to the people who are reading but not posting.
Just like how I didn't make much money at a grocery store.. It gave me the experience in life that helps me with my current job as a programmer.
I am happy that my Programmer's Wage is better then when I stocked shelves..
Yeah, I am too. There are skills involved in some jobs and not in others. But I ask you, is it fair that a programmer can afford a place to live, food, and health insurance all at the same time while the person working at any of the places mentioned can't?
Do not misunderstand, I am not saying make everybody's pay equal. I am saying make the minimum wage enough to allow people making it a decent life.
Actually there were many people that worked at the store that owned homes..
Place to live /= home owner. Also, where did their spouse work? Were they on welfare? How much did the home cost? There are a lot of factors to take into account. Personally, I own a home that cost me $20k and I earn 10 an hour. The house is undergoing constant renovation but it is progress. Still, before I had the job I had now, I couldn't even afford rent and food, let alone health insurance, a vehicle, or the ability to turn the heat on the place up to over 55 in the winter. Worked full time with overtime while working a second job though.
Some jobs are are not meant to be ones you live off of.. I was in high School and College when I worked at the store.
Are you going to pay $10 for that box of Mac and Cheese?
Actually, the cost of raising the average salary of every employee at a location is based off sales of said product. So, if all Kraft workers got a $5 and hour pay raise, the product cost would go up by the number of employees times the cost increase divided by the number of product sold to make a profit. I don't know Kraft's numbers but I do know wal-mart could raise employee starting wage to as high as $16 an hour and still have over 50% of its profit left over.
"They are at McDonald's working 40 a week and making $8 an hour without benefits"
When the masses are willing to pay $20 for a McD burger, you can make $20 an hour at McD.
Working at McDs was never meant to be a skilled trade or occupation.
And the weaker the economy, the more are there due to the cheapness of it. And around and around we go..
Your benefits cost you more than you make in a year? Then you are writing checks to your employer to cover the difference?
The wal-mart one is about the amount it costs before benefits kick in. The best family health insurance plan (at least, the one with the cheapest deductible) did not even start covering anything until you met a $10,000 deductible. After which point it covered you at an 80% rate. That cost $140 a paycheck. So, after taxes on a 36 hour work week (as 40 is taboo there for some reason) at the base rate of $8.25 an hour, you have about $600 before taxes. Making your take home yearly $15,444 a year. Subtract the $10,000 deductible then the $140 per two weeks and you get $3640. So, should you or any family member need medical care, you are in the negative numbers after taxes before the plan even kicks in covering the 80%. That was the BEST plan they offered.
Tax the rich
The tax loopholes for the rich are illegal because they are all the kickbacks for the bribes they gave to Clinton/Bush/Obama and congress. Tax loopholes are candy for elected officials. The $3 billion loophole that GE used was created by the GE bag men (lobbyists) which transferred that profit to the debt. The same goes for all the multinational corporations, not just GE.
The rich are the masters of wealth transfers from the 99%. Then they turn that around claiming that medicare and social security is a wealth transfer for the 99%. We are the puppets for the rich.
To expect any of this to change because OWS is sitting in the park is silly. Unless OWS actively campaigns for a 3rd party to remove the Republican Democrat CRIME FAMILY in 2012, we will keep getting screwed by the rich. It is a class war that the privileged created.
We 99% are the victims of the class war because the 99% aren't fighting in the war. We are like the Jews who the Nazis loaded into the cattle cars for their trip to the death camps. They all hopped right into the cattle cars as if they were going on vacation.
If we can't elect a 3rd party, the Republican/Democrat CRIME FAMILY will continue destroying all of us. It is a class war that the privileged created.
Obama has a 400,000 annual Latino quota. They admitted this on a PBS show that when they round up innocent people to deport it is collateral damage. They said they meet their quota to keep getting their budget allotment. Its tough shit for the children and others who have a parent shipped back to Mexico.
slow clap
The "Get a job" folks are either trolls, people who foolishly think we are living in a bygone era where jobs are plentiful, people who just don't seem to have the ability to understand the plight of the victims of this economy (the unemployed or underemployed, those who are now poor or bankrupt, those who had to foreclose on their house or are close to foreclosing, those who don't know how they are going to pay their rent and fear eviction, etc ), or it could just be that the "get a job folks" are just thick-headed and don't care.
Jobs are scarce, especially good paying ones. Anyone who has been out there looking knows this to be a fact. So sad that some people just don't get it or want to get. Maybe one day, they too, will join the ranks of the unemployed and understand how bad it is out there.
I have just started to ignore the "Get a job" people. Like you said many of them are trolls and the rest are people who just don't have a grasp on how the economy works. The majority of the unemployed are not unemployed because they are lazy, it's because with advances in technology human labor is not needed anymore. Even John Maynard Keynes, who is credited with many of the theories in economics we follow today, predicted that the system would begin to fall apart with technology displacing labor. The best we can do here is ignore the people who have no intentions of thinking outside ofthe box, and try to educate the people who have a craving for knowledge.
Yes, it funny that we hear so much about outsourcing, but we don't hear about what is obvious--all the jobs that have been replaced due to technological advancement. It a shame that we keep getting told about all the wonderful things these technological advancements achieved, but we overlook the downside of it all.
Yes, these people who can't get it in their head that there is are people unemployed through no fault of their own (victims of this terrible economy), are very narrow-minded to say the least.
BTW, check out my thread bringing attention to the practice of discrimination against the unemployed. Another reason, why people may be having a hard time finding a job. So unfair!
Link it link it, otherwise I can't find it.
Here it is. This will lead you to the post and the comments highlighted. http://occupywallst.org/forum/ows-scott-stringer-is-lobbying-for-new-statecity-l/#comment-196768
You're right. F the man. Lets get sloshed, pitch a tent in the park, do our neighbor and sleep 'till noon. That'll show'em.
The "dirty hippie" meme is last week.
They've gone from "ignore" to "mock" to "nervously attempt to co-opt".
Better get out there and make some tea party style arguments. THis train is leaving with or without you.
I feel for the person who posted this. I do. Terrible situation. I too am unemployed. So, with my own two pennies, I work toward more degrees, try to better myself, and maybe the next time around, my situation will improve. And I agree that things need to change. So I will vote for change, support leaders I think can make it happen, and recognize who is being funded by drug companies, oil companies... etc.
But I will NOT sit on the curb with a big colorful sign that says "down with greed", "down with wall street", and call the teenage pothead to my left pissing on a light post my equal.
If you want to make change you appeal to all. I live in the forsaken town - no one wants to see that. and I can't support it.
I'm not on the street either, I live to far away and work to make ends meet. Note my location. I am, however, supportive of the idea behind the movement, which is why I try to get online as often as I can.