Herman Cain: It's Your Fault if You're Unemployed

[Coito ergo sum]

I contemplate murdering anyone who suggests "California Pizza Kitchen..."

Funny you mention them because everyone seems to love them and I just don't get it. On the way to work today I noticed that a CPK that opened recently has now closed - first time I've seen that happen!

I'm glad to hear it. They are silly.

[MattShizzle]

I have a degree and never made $11/hr. I worked at the same place nearly 10 years full time - watching over convicts. Had to have CPR/first aid/FBI clearances. We definitely did more work than is reasonably expected for one person - including being alone on a unit with 60+ convicted felons. Including both male and female with no barriers. We also had to get their medication when they needed it.

[Coito ergo sum]

I have a degree and never made $11/hr.

Why not? I can make more than $11 bartending or waiting tables. That's fucking $21,000 a year. I could make that wheeling a supermarket carriage around the street and picking up cans and returning them for deposits.

I worked at the same place nearly 10 years full time - watching over convicts. Had to have CPR/first aid/FBI clearances. We definitely did more work than is reasonably expected for one person

I can't comment on your personal experience, but frankly if someone was paying me $11 to work unreasonably, I would quit and do something else. If I enjoyed the work, I might stay.

- including being alone on a unit with 60+ convicted felons. Including both male and female with no barriers. We also had to get their medication when they needed it.

Sounds like a shit job. I could serve beer and talk to hot girls and make $40,000 without breaking a sweat.

[MattShizzle]

Well, I'm not the sort of person people hire. I'm on Social Security Disability now. While working I hated the job but couldn't get anything else.

[MattShizzle]

Around here waiter/waitress jobs don't even pay minimum wage. They're expected to make it on tips. Supermarket type jobs are maybe $8/hr.

[Coito ergo sum]

Well, I'm not the sort of person people hire. I'm on Social Security Disability now. While working I hated the job but couldn't get anything else.

People who are disabled should be helped, including mental disabilities which are no less disabilities.

A non-disabled 25 year old jockeying the window at McDonald's isn't trying.

[Coito ergo sum]

Around here waiter/waitress jobs don't even pay minimum wage. They're expected to make it on tips.

That's generally a good thing. Tips are still money, and generally a busy restaurant results in the bartenders and wait staff being paid far more than the minimum wage.

Supermarket type jobs are maybe $8/hr.

Yes, but that is an adult doing a kid's job. What is a "supermarket type job?" Sweep the floors? Scan products passed a machine which does the counting for you? When I go to the supermarket, the people staffing the checkout scanners are invariably between the ages of 17 and 21.

Why should kids make adult wages? And, why should an adult who chooses to do a kid's job make adult wages?

[MattShizzle]

Who says they "choose to do a kid job?" There are plenty of adults who can't get anything better - especially now. Every job should have to pay a living wage.

[Bella Fortuna]

Wait staff are one of the classes of employee that are exempt from minimum wage (be that right or wrong). It's rare to see a server who gets tips get paid min wage.

[MattShizzle]

Werre it up to me Capitalism would be illegal and private business generally not allowed at all.

[Coito ergo sum]

Who says they "choose to do a kid job?" There are plenty of adults who can't get anything better - especially now. Every job should have to pay a living wage.

No, because not every job is worth it, and it would price teenagers out of the market. Teenagers need to get experience, and very often proprietors will hire teenagers to work if it's not prohibitively expensive because they like to give young kids an opportunity. I know that from my own experience when I was a kid, and from three decades of work experience.

And, yes, adults with learning disabilities and mental impairments, like the Down's Syndrome baggers at the grocery store can't get anything better. So, they should be paid a wage the job is worth, and then they should receive State and Federal aid to make sure they are taken care of.

A 25+ year old person of normal intelligence and physical abilities CAN get higher paid jobs than a supermarket. Buy a fucking lawn mower and go around the neighborhood getting lawnmowing clients and you'll beat the minimum wage. I made $10 as a construction laborer in 1984. WTF - you're talking as if you're talking to someone who doesn't know what it's like to work, or what the job market is. If you want to make more than minimum wage, and you're not disabled, you can. I worked for minimum wage when I was 15 and 16. Once you learn how to work, you have value, and to keep working minimum wage is a choice.

[Coito ergo sum]

Werre it up to me Capitalism would be illegal and private business generally not allowed at all.

Then most of the stuff that you are used to taking for granted wouldn't exist. People don't do stuff for free. Well, slaves do, but free people don't, and shouldn't be expected to.

Private business is a kid who makes lemonade and sells it for 25 cents a glass, when the lemonade only cost 10 cents a glass to make. You'd make that illegal?

[Coito ergo sum]

Wait staff are one of the classes of employee that are exempt from minimum wage (be that right or wrong). It's rare to see a server who gets tips get paid min wage.

And, it's rare to see one that actually takes home only minimum wage. I've known a lot of people who waited tables in my life, and not a one of them would have stayed in a job for more than a couple weeks that only had them taking home minimum wage. They'd have told that place to pound sand quickly and gone to a restaurant where money could be made. Tips are part of the salary, and wait staff knows how much they make.

[MattShizzle]

Be real. Success in life is nearly 100% a matter of luck.

[Bella Fortuna]

Wait staff are one of the classes of employee that are exempt from minimum wage (be that right or wrong). It's rare to see a server who gets tips get paid min wage.

And, it's rare to see one that actually takes home only minimum wage. I've known a lot of people who waited tables in my life, and not a one of them would have stayed in a job for more than a couple weeks that only had them taking home minimum wage. They'd have told that place to pound sand quickly and gone to a restaurant where money could be made. Tips are part of the salary, and wait staff knows how much they make.

It's true, depending on the type of place you work - obviously there's the whole gamut. I've known servers who have worked in high-end restaurants and made quite a bit more than I do. But, I daresay that's not the norm - the rest struggle to get by as anyone else. It's not the sort of job I could do, simply for the anxiety that a varying income would give me.