18 ms·

Occasionally, Twitter provides some nice insights in digestible forms (of course, nuance gets stripped). I saw a post recently that said something like "We wat

Occasionally, Twitter provides some nice insights in digestible forms (of course, nuance gets stripped). I saw a post recently that said something like "We watch Star Trek and marvel at their post-scarcity world. We are living in a post-scarcity world now, but all the benefits are being funneled by wage slaves up to the 0.1%." Paraphrased. I was talking with a friend who mentioned that a local pizza place is offering *$18/hr* for bussers at the restaurant. To me, that is a great wage for someone to wipe down tables and sweep floors. If they're still having trouble filling that, is it because making $37k a year in Texas isn't good enough for a no-education, no-experience job? Is it because the high-schoolers who would normally do that aren't looking for jobs due to pandemic? Is it the unemployment security and not having to actually do work 40 hours a week? I wonder if the roles of people at restaurants will have to shift, so each person does some of everything, and get paid more, instead of having dedicated low-wage cleaners. Or that profit-sharing and healthcare may be the new model for restaurants.

unyttigfjelltol 6y ago
Maybe the pizza shop would get a stronger response if they hired permanent workers on an annual $37k salary? An $18/hr wage is not identical....
- ForHackernews 6y ago
  Yeah, $18/hour sounds less appealing if it comes with an unpredictable schedule and uncertain hours from week to week. I used to work retail, and it was rough trying to attend classes not knowing when I might get called in for a shift.
- _wldu 6y ago
  But then they'd have to provide benefits (like health insurance, parental leave, etc.) and treat workers with dignity and respect. In America, that's unlikely to happen without government regulations enforcing it.
  - scotu 6y ago
    to be fair, nowhere that's likely to happen without government regulation where there is profit to be had otherwise.
  - gher-shyu3i 6y ago
    Is it the same for restaurant workers in Europe?
colinmhayes 6y ago
We aren't actually living in a post scarcity world though. We're moving in the right direction, and hopefully we get there soon, but there is still plenty of scarcity.
- toomuchtodo 6y ago
  We would move faster towards post scarcity if businesses were economically incentivized to uptake automation faster (and then we tax businesses [1] to fund social safety nets). If we continue to encourage an economic system through policy that is satisfied with labor making wages that provides a dystopian poverty level of life quality, it will take longer to arrive post scarcity. Economic incentives matter! [1] https://blog.samaltman.com/american-equity https://blog.samaltman.com/american-equity
- pydry 6y ago
  Worse, a lot of what is considered postscarcity / precursor-to-fully-automated-luxury-communism already in here is simply the US hegemony discount. And that won't last forever.
- seiferteric 6y ago
  Not even close, maybe if we ignore the obscene externalities baked into everything we consume. This apparent bounty we have today will be short lived in the grand scheme.
Red_Leaves_Flyy 6y ago
Profit sharing and healthcare are the minimum people want to keep do the same crappy jobs in hostile environments with creepy, violent, or domineering managers. The jobs have gotten harder, people have more bills, and pay hasn't budged. Some introspection by the "job providers" would be greatly appreciated as they complain about labor shortages.
mandelbrotwurst 6y ago
I won’t argue your overall point but I will point out that the “sweeping and wiping down tables” are the easiest parts of that job and a small fraction of the labor that is done.
stakkur 6y ago
>is it because making $37k a year in Texas isn't good enough for a no-education, no-experience job? Maybe it's because it offers no meaningful health insurance, is most likely not full-time (such a job rarely is), and has little long-term promise.
claudiulodro 6y ago
> Is it because the high-schoolers who would normally do that aren't looking for jobs due to pandemic? The concept that entry-level food service is mostly staffed by high-schoolers who don't really "need" the money is the weirdest trope. Basically every restaurant is open during school hours. Who is handling the lunch rush?
- pydry 6y ago
  Almost as if the trope were a pretext for why it's ok to pay shit wages.
  - minimuffins 6y ago
    When an objectively flimsy discourse like that circulates widely you have to ask yourself what its actual function is. Its apparent function of describing the world accurately is not being fulfilled, but the discourse persists, so what is its less apparent function (and you got it: it's to naturalize exploitation)?
- imbnwa 6y ago
  Yeah, I worked in hospitality my entire 20s in a major American city, only ONCE did I work with an actual HS teenager and that was at a middle-brow Mexican place and his family knew the owners, and he only worked weekends. Great kid though. Also, most places serve alcohol and teens can't serve.
  - parineum 6y ago
    >Also, most places serve alcohol and teens can't serve. Considering how profitable alcohol is, I wonder if that regulation isn't a major factor in hiring under 21s.
    - ketzo 6y ago
      FWIW, many states allow you to serve alcohol once you're 18. But the "high schooler" lack is still in play.
howmayiannoyyou 6y ago
The bottom 99.9% in America enjoy healthcare, communications, caloric intake, political freedom, public services, education and safety from violence unprecedented in human history. By almost every metric society is better off now than it was in the 1950's, 1800's, etc. The over-focus on the negative propels us toward greater collective good - up to a point. We would do better as a society to revert to a mean that expresses some recognition and gratitude for the progress made. We're sowing the seeds of our own destruction via economic, racial, ethnic and class tribalism.
- pydry 6y ago
  Worse than 20 years ago but sure, better than the 1800s.
  - colinmhayes 6y ago
    The existence of smartphones alone makes life much better than it was 20 years ago.
    - pydry 6y ago
      Sure, I mean, you might be priced out of a home but you can play flappy birds. So that's something.
      - reddog 6y ago
        You might be interested to know that that phone also gives you access to all the worlds knowledge, all music and art, all literature and films, you can buy anything with it and have it delivered directly to you and you can instantly communicate with anyone in the world multiple ways at almost no cost. And you can play Flappy Birds.
    - r-zip 6y ago
      Strongly disagree. The existence of smartphones has accelerated the development of social media, which negatively impacts people's mental health and children's attention spans. Their popular adoption has also driven the growth of disgusting surveillance ad-tech. Blegh. I'd gladly go back to using a Garmin GPS and carrying a Nokia if it meant that we didn't have all the accompanying garbage.
MisterBastahrd 6y ago
$18 for how many hours? Most "pizza places" will not hire someone full-time. They want part time employees so that they do not have to deal with benefits. Now, the intelligent thing to do as a nation would be to offload those benefits to the government so that companies would be free of the extra work AND employees would be free to move to better jobs... but America is not the land of the smart.
- OldTimeCoffee 6y ago
  I hear this a lot, but it's really not true. Most "pizza places" are small businesses (<50 FTE), so they aren't required to offer benefits anyway. They want part time employees because it offers scheduling flexibility. If all you have is full time workers and someone calls out sick, you're short a person. If you have mostly part time workers, you can call everyone not scheduled that day to see if they can come in. Office jobs don't really have this because it's typically not critical that the employee is there.
  - MisterBastahrd 6y ago
    LOL. In your rush to defend the actions of asshole bosses, you miss an important part: people who are trying to make a living with part time jobs are going to get another part time job. Not only are those people NOT more flexible than full time employees, but half the time they are less available than full time workers because they are stuck on a treadmill where not being at both jobs equals a loss in hours for the next week. There are tons of full time hourly employees who will JUMP at overtime.
cosmodisk 6y ago
Not sure about the US,but here in Europe,or Britain,to be more precise, many places expect you to do cleaning, serving tables, etc. All this 'joy' for minimum wage+a few pennies more. Apparently all the hospital sector is struggling to hire because people either moved abroad or went into more stable sectors,so now newspapers are plastered with articles how poor restaurants can't hire.
flybrand 6y ago
> We watch Star Trek and marvel at their post-scarcity world. We are living in a post-scarcity world now, but all the benefits are being funneled by wage slaves up to the 0.1%."
csours 6y ago
With apologies to William Gibson "The post-scarcity future is already here – it's just not very evenly distributed."
- TimPC 6y ago
  Average Income in the US is $68,703 which certainly doesn't pay a mortgage in most big cities. So I think post scarcity is a tad optimistic. If nothing else there is always going to be a shortage of non-apartment housing where people want to live.
  - humanrebar 6y ago
    68k would be a lot if rent was reasonable.
paulpauper 6y ago
Such signs are somewhat misleading. it does not mean the restaurant is in urgent need of work. it is more like, we have a position open, please apply. You may be hired, but likely not, as many other people applied for it, and we need someone who can meet our stringent requirements. They may not even have a position open and instead are looking for an ideal employee who meets these criteria, which means someone else may be fired.
Communitivity 6y ago
I think the problem may be that many companies increase their prices to whatever the traffic will handle for needed items. For example, the $600 cost of epi pens. "$100 in 1980 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $321.45 today, an increase of $221.45 over 41 years" - Source:https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1980 https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1980 This is a 68.89% decrease in spending power. For comparison, the minimum wage in 1980 was $3.10, and minimum wage today is $7.25, and increase of 233.87%. By rights the minimum wage should be able to keep up, with that big of a disparity. The problem is that purchasing power figure takes into account an average over all things. The ten cheapest cars in 1980 all had a base price under $5k (source: https://blog.consumerguide.com/cheapest-american-cars-1980/ https://blog.consumerguide.com/cheapest-american-cars-1980/). Then ten cheapest cars in 2020 were, other than 1 exception, all below $17k (source: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/g29414710/10-cheapest-new-cars-for-2020/ https://www.caranddriver.com/features/g29414710/10-cheapest-...). That's a decrease in spending power for cars of ~70%. For median family single home in 1980, $55k. In 2020, $300k. (source: https://dqydj.com/historical-home-prices/ https://dqydj.com/historical-home-prices/). A decrease in spending power of 86%. The majority of the US is facing a huge discrepancy in the decrease of spending power amongst big ticket items, the increasing lease-economy, and unprecedented debt. There is also a sense of entitlement at avoid certain menial jobs in some. As a result a $7.25 minimum wage is not going to cut it, as that's only $14.5k per year, well below the poverty line of $26.2k for a 4 person household (2020). Double it to $15k/hr and you still are just barely above the poverty line, forcing both parents to work full time, or one parent to work two jobs.
- gruez 6y ago
  >For median family single home in 1980, $55k. In 2020, $300k. (source: https://dqydj.com/historical-home-prices/ https://dqydj.com/historical-home-prices/). A decrease in spending power of 86%. Inflation-adjusted monthly mortgage payments (the actual price that matters when it comes to housing) has actually gone down since 1989. This is on top of houses getting bigger. https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2021/03/what-if-housing-prices-arent-as-high-as-they-appear/ https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2021/03/what-if-housing-pri...
cratermoon 6y ago
> $37k a year in Texas Where in Texas? On average for the state, that's only a living wage for a single person with no kids. https://livingwage.mit.edu/states/48 https://livingwage.mit.edu/states/48
Red_Leaves_Flyy 6y ago
To me, no education, no experience jobs are the norm. Does that restaurant pay incoming career food service staff a wage sufficient to raise a family on? A solid third of the households in the US take in under 50k/yr. More than half that are under 25k. I don't know about you, but 37k doesn't go far. Assuming 30% effective tax rate that's 2158/mo. 1 bed flat in my city $1400 Cell phone bill: $100 Home internet: $100 Electricity: $50 Heating: $50 Healthcare: $230* assuming 50% sponsored Car payment: $400 Insurance: $130 Without including food, dental insurance, deductible, OOP limits, retirement contributions, emergency savings, and anything at all for pleasure I've exceeded my budget. So, please, tell me more about how that's a good wage. How can someone go about improving ones position in life if they're kicked into a world that they'll never be able to afford? Should I go to college as an adult and get into eye watering levels of debt that'll follow me out of bankruptcy to keep bussing tables, like all the people that do just that? How can I juggle my full time job, side hustles at uber and lift (to keep the lights on), and a full course load? There are structural problems in society that no amount of blaming poor peoples bad decisions can wave away. Simple fact is some people with very large waists are going to have to tighten their belts so the millions of Americans whose only mistake was being born poor can have half of a fair chance at success and lead a modest yet dignified existence. There's no incentive for any halfway intelligent poor person to go to college unless they're a glutton for punishment, have a strong $upport network, and massive appetite for risk. https://www.statista.com/statistics/203183/percentage-distribution-of-household-income-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/203183/percentage-distri...
- majoram 6y ago
  Thanks man, you really understand. Good post. It's sad to say, but the pandemic was lifechanging for me. With the unemployment benefits I received, I was able to save up some money and had time for myself to start thinking about what I needed to do before the money disappeared into rent. I applied for the local community college and trying to get financial aid here in California, and if it works out, I'll "only" pay like $3.5k for each of the two years. If they don't give me financial aid, it's time to give up lol. I wouldn't have been able to afford even entertaining this idea before, because all the money disappears into living expenses. The pandemic saved me...the only way for someone like me to get a higher education, is for a global pandemic to happen at 24 years old haha.
runako 6y ago
> If they're still having trouble filling that, is it because making $37k a year in Texas isn't good enough for a no-education, no-experience job? It's most likely because somebody in the area is paying more and/or offering a better job. Is it really $37k, or is it an $18/hr job? That is, are they offering $18/hr for 40 guaranteed hours a week for 52 weeks, or is it just a few hours a day during the dinner rush (unless they send me home early because of a light evening)? Can they tell me today what hours I will be working 2 weeks from now, or do they usually disclose the schedule a day or two in advance? Are there any benefits? In other words, is it a typical restaurant job? I personally would prefer (say) $16/hr with a guaranteed 40 hours and predictable schedule to a typical restaurant job. Now that big employers like Target, Amazon, etc. are in the $16 range, they may offer jobs that pay a lower hourly rate but are more compelling overall. (The Amazon warehouse in Fort Worth is paying nearly $18 and they have nonzero benefits and are unlikely to run out of hours.)

unyttigfjelltol 6y ago

Maybe the pizza shop would get a stronger response if they hired permanent workers on an annual $37k salary? An $18/hr wage is not identical....

ForHackernews 6y ago
Yeah, $18/hour sounds less appealing if it comes with an unpredictable schedule and uncertain hours from week to week. I used to work retail, and it was rough trying to attend classes not knowing when I might get called in for a shift.
_wldu 6y ago
But then they'd have to provide benefits (like health insurance, parental leave, etc.) and treat workers with dignity and respect. In America, that's unlikely to happen without government regulations enforcing it.
- scotu 6y ago
  to be fair, nowhere that's likely to happen without government regulation where there is profit to be had otherwise.
- gher-shyu3i 6y ago
  Is it the same for restaurant workers in Europe?

colinmhayes 6y ago

We aren't actually living in a post scarcity world though. We're moving in the right direction, and hopefully we get there soon, but there is still plenty of scarcity.

toomuchtodo 6y ago
We would move faster towards post scarcity if businesses were economically incentivized to uptake automation faster (and then we tax businesses [1] to fund social safety nets). If we continue to encourage an economic system through policy that is satisfied with labor making wages that provides a dystopian poverty level of life quality, it will take longer to arrive post scarcity. Economic incentives matter! [1] https://blog.samaltman.com/american-equity https://blog.samaltman.com/american-equity
pydry 6y ago
Worse, a lot of what is considered postscarcity / precursor-to-fully-automated-luxury-communism already in here is simply the US hegemony discount. And that won't last forever.
seiferteric 6y ago
Not even close, maybe if we ignore the obscene externalities baked into everything we consume. This apparent bounty we have today will be short lived in the grand scheme.

Red_Leaves_Flyy 6y ago

Profit sharing and healthcare are the minimum people want to keep do the same crappy jobs in hostile environments with creepy, violent, or domineering managers. The jobs have gotten harder, people have more bills, and pay hasn't budged. Some introspection by the "job providers" would be greatly appreciated as they complain about labor shortages.

mandelbrotwurst 6y ago

I won’t argue your overall point but I will point out that the “sweeping and wiping down tables” are the easiest parts of that job and a small fraction of the labor that is done.

stakkur 6y ago

>is it because making $37k a year in Texas isn't good enough for a no-education, no-experience job? Maybe it's because it offers no meaningful health insurance, is most likely not full-time (such a job rarely is), and has little long-term promise.

claudiulodro 6y ago

> Is it because the high-schoolers who would normally do that aren't looking for jobs due to pandemic? The concept that entry-level food service is mostly staffed by high-schoolers who don't really "need" the money is the weirdest trope. Basically every restaurant is open during school hours. Who is handling the lunch rush?

pydry 6y ago
Almost as if the trope were a pretext for why it's ok to pay shit wages.
- minimuffins 6y ago
  When an objectively flimsy discourse like that circulates widely you have to ask yourself what its actual function is. Its apparent function of describing the world accurately is not being fulfilled, but the discourse persists, so what is its less apparent function (and you got it: it's to naturalize exploitation)?
imbnwa 6y ago
Yeah, I worked in hospitality my entire 20s in a major American city, only ONCE did I work with an actual HS teenager and that was at a middle-brow Mexican place and his family knew the owners, and he only worked weekends. Great kid though. Also, most places serve alcohol and teens can't serve.
- parineum 6y ago
  >Also, most places serve alcohol and teens can't serve. Considering how profitable alcohol is, I wonder if that regulation isn't a major factor in hiring under 21s.
  - ketzo 6y ago
    FWIW, many states allow you to serve alcohol once you're 18. But the "high schooler" lack is still in play.

howmayiannoyyou 6y ago

The bottom 99.9% in America enjoy healthcare, communications, caloric intake, political freedom, public services, education and safety from violence unprecedented in human history. By almost every metric society is better off now than it was in the 1950's, 1800's, etc. The over-focus on the negative propels us toward greater collective good - up to a point. We would do better as a society to revert to a mean that expresses some recognition and gratitude for the progress made. We're sowing the seeds of our own destruction via economic, racial, ethnic and class tribalism.

pydry 6y ago
Worse than 20 years ago but sure, better than the 1800s.
- colinmhayes 6y ago
  The existence of smartphones alone makes life much better than it was 20 years ago.
  - pydry 6y ago
    Sure, I mean, you might be priced out of a home but you can play flappy birds. So that's something.
    - reddog 6y ago
      You might be interested to know that that phone also gives you access to all the worlds knowledge, all music and art, all literature and films, you can buy anything with it and have it delivered directly to you and you can instantly communicate with anyone in the world multiple ways at almost no cost. And you can play Flappy Birds.
  - r-zip 6y ago
    Strongly disagree. The existence of smartphones has accelerated the development of social media, which negatively impacts people's mental health and children's attention spans. Their popular adoption has also driven the growth of disgusting surveillance ad-tech. Blegh. I'd gladly go back to using a Garmin GPS and carrying a Nokia if it meant that we didn't have all the accompanying garbage.

MisterBastahrd 6y ago

$18 for how many hours? Most "pizza places" will not hire someone full-time. They want part time employees so that they do not have to deal with benefits. Now, the intelligent thing to do as a nation would be to offload those benefits to the government so that companies would be free of the extra work AND employees would be free to move to better jobs... but America is not the land of the smart.

OldTimeCoffee 6y ago
I hear this a lot, but it's really not true. Most "pizza places" are small businesses (<50 FTE), so they aren't required to offer benefits anyway. They want part time employees because it offers scheduling flexibility. If all you have is full time workers and someone calls out sick, you're short a person. If you have mostly part time workers, you can call everyone not scheduled that day to see if they can come in. Office jobs don't really have this because it's typically not critical that the employee is there.
- MisterBastahrd 6y ago
  LOL. In your rush to defend the actions of asshole bosses, you miss an important part: people who are trying to make a living with part time jobs are going to get another part time job. Not only are those people NOT more flexible than full time employees, but half the time they are less available than full time workers because they are stuck on a treadmill where not being at both jobs equals a loss in hours for the next week. There are tons of full time hourly employees who will JUMP at overtime.

cosmodisk 6y ago

Not sure about the US,but here in Europe,or Britain,to be more precise, many places expect you to do cleaning, serving tables, etc. All this 'joy' for minimum wage+a few pennies more. Apparently all the hospital sector is struggling to hire because people either moved abroad or went into more stable sectors,so now newspapers are plastered with articles how poor restaurants can't hire.

flybrand 6y ago

> We watch Star Trek and marvel at their post-scarcity world. We are living in a post-scarcity world now, but all the benefits are being funneled by wage slaves up to the 0.1%."

csours 6y ago

With apologies to William Gibson "The post-scarcity future is already here – it's just not very evenly distributed."

TimPC 6y ago
Average Income in the US is $68,703 which certainly doesn't pay a mortgage in most big cities. So I think post scarcity is a tad optimistic. If nothing else there is always going to be a shortage of non-apartment housing where people want to live.
- humanrebar 6y ago
  68k would be a lot if rent was reasonable.

paulpauper 6y ago

Such signs are somewhat misleading. it does not mean the restaurant is in urgent need of work. it is more like, we have a position open, please apply. You may be hired, but likely not, as many other people applied for it, and we need someone who can meet our stringent requirements. They may not even have a position open and instead are looking for an ideal employee who meets these criteria, which means someone else may be fired.

Communitivity 6y ago

I think the problem may be that many companies increase their prices to whatever the traffic will handle for needed items. For example, the $600 cost of epi pens. "$100 in 1980 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $321.45 today, an increase of $221.45 over 41 years" - Source:https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1980 https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1980 This is a 68.89% decrease in spending power. For comparison, the minimum wage in 1980 was $3.10, and minimum wage today is $7.25, and increase of 233.87%. By rights the minimum wage should be able to keep up, with that big of a disparity. The problem is that purchasing power figure takes into account an average over all things. The ten cheapest cars in 1980 all had a base price under $5k (source: https://blog.consumerguide.com/cheapest-american-cars-1980/ https://blog.consumerguide.com/cheapest-american-cars-1980/). Then ten cheapest cars in 2020 were, other than 1 exception, all below $17k (source: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/g29414710/10-cheapest-new-cars-for-2020/ https://www.caranddriver.com/features/g29414710/10-cheapest-...). That's a decrease in spending power for cars of ~70%. For median family single home in 1980, $55k. In 2020, $300k. (source: https://dqydj.com/historical-home-prices/ https://dqydj.com/historical-home-prices/). A decrease in spending power of 86%. The majority of the US is facing a huge discrepancy in the decrease of spending power amongst big ticket items, the increasing lease-economy, and unprecedented debt. There is also a sense of entitlement at avoid certain menial jobs in some. As a result a $7.25 minimum wage is not going to cut it, as that's only $14.5k per year, well below the poverty line of $26.2k for a 4 person household (2020). Double it to $15k/hr and you still are just barely above the poverty line, forcing both parents to work full time, or one parent to work two jobs.

gruez 6y ago
>For median family single home in 1980, $55k. In 2020, $300k. (source: https://dqydj.com/historical-home-prices/ https://dqydj.com/historical-home-prices/). A decrease in spending power of 86%. Inflation-adjusted monthly mortgage payments (the actual price that matters when it comes to housing) has actually gone down since 1989. This is on top of houses getting bigger. https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2021/03/what-if-housing-prices-arent-as-high-as-they-appear/ https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2021/03/what-if-housing-pri...

cratermoon 6y ago

> $37k a year in Texas Where in Texas? On average for the state, that's only a living wage for a single person with no kids. https://livingwage.mit.edu/states/48 https://livingwage.mit.edu/states/48

Red_Leaves_Flyy 6y ago

To me, no education, no experience jobs are the norm. Does that restaurant pay incoming career food service staff a wage sufficient to raise a family on? A solid third of the households in the US take in under 50k/yr. More than half that are under 25k. I don't know about you, but 37k doesn't go far. Assuming 30% effective tax rate that's 2158/mo. 1 bed flat in my city $1400 Cell phone bill: $100 Home internet: $100 Electricity: $50 Heating: $50 Healthcare: $230* assuming 50% sponsored Car payment: $400 Insurance: $130 Without including food, dental insurance, deductible, OOP limits, retirement contributions, emergency savings, and anything at all for pleasure I've exceeded my budget. So, please, tell me more about how that's a good wage. How can someone go about improving ones position in life if they're kicked into a world that they'll never be able to afford? Should I go to college as an adult and get into eye watering levels of debt that'll follow me out of bankruptcy to keep bussing tables, like all the people that do just that? How can I juggle my full time job, side hustles at uber and lift (to keep the lights on), and a full course load? There are structural problems in society that no amount of blaming poor peoples bad decisions can wave away. Simple fact is some people with very large waists are going to have to tighten their belts so the millions of Americans whose only mistake was being born poor can have half of a fair chance at success and lead a modest yet dignified existence. There's no incentive for any halfway intelligent poor person to go to college unless they're a glutton for punishment, have a strong $upport network, and massive appetite for risk. https://www.statista.com/statistics/203183/percentage-distribution-of-household-income-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/203183/percentage-distri...

majoram 6y ago
Thanks man, you really understand. Good post. It's sad to say, but the pandemic was lifechanging for me. With the unemployment benefits I received, I was able to save up some money and had time for myself to start thinking about what I needed to do before the money disappeared into rent. I applied for the local community college and trying to get financial aid here in California, and if it works out, I'll "only" pay like $3.5k for each of the two years. If they don't give me financial aid, it's time to give up lol. I wouldn't have been able to afford even entertaining this idea before, because all the money disappears into living expenses. The pandemic saved me...the only way for someone like me to get a higher education, is for a global pandemic to happen at 24 years old haha.

runako 6y ago

> If they're still having trouble filling that, is it because making $37k a year in Texas isn't good enough for a no-education, no-experience job? It's most likely because somebody in the area is paying more and/or offering a better job. Is it really $37k, or is it an $18/hr job? That is, are they offering $18/hr for 40 guaranteed hours a week for 52 weeks, or is it just a few hours a day during the dinner rush (unless they send me home early because of a light evening)? Can they tell me today what hours I will be working 2 weeks from now, or do they usually disclose the schedule a day or two in advance? Are there any benefits? In other words, is it a typical restaurant job? I personally would prefer (say) $16/hr with a guaranteed 40 hours and predictable schedule to a typical restaurant job. Now that big employers like Target, Amazon, etc. are in the $16 range, they may offer jobs that pay a lower hourly rate but are more compelling overall. (The Amazon warehouse in Fort Worth is paying nearly $18 and they have nonzero benefits and are unlikely to run out of hours.)