You're missing the point by focusing too closely on a specific, unrealistic example. The point is that flipping burgers can't be a path to anywhere because onc

You're missing the point by focusing too closely on a specific, unrealistic example. The point is that flipping burgers can't be a path to anywhere because once you graduate college, your debt load is so high that a minimum-wage job can't possibly help you pay it down. Especially if you need to live on that wage, too. Getting a government job (including something in the Navy or Air Force) is a different matter entirely, due to massive amounts of tax money being poured into the military (which implies massive amounts of tax money not being poured into anything else). It is a world unto itself.