General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: In 1981, I was a full time stock clerk at an Ohio Big Bear grocery store making 12.60 an hour [View all]Johnny2X2X
(19,498 posts)Regular Americans have lost the belief that you should be able to live if you work, no matter what the work.
And I hear it from people I grew up with. I started working in the mid 80s, made $4.00 an hour starting some places. And even now, some people I grew up with say $11 an hour is too much for those same jobs. Worked in a kitchen in 1990 with my best friend who's adament that people working cook jobs should make a living wage because we only made $6.50 an hour back then. I said to him, "But man, don't you remember? Sure, we were high school kids, $6.50 was a lot of money to us, but there were also full time cooks in the kitchen we knew well who made maybe $7.25 an hour, but those guys made a living. They had apartments, cars, and some supported families on $7.25, which is $17.03 an hour in today's wages. You try affording anything on $10 an hour right now."
His argument is that these starter jobs should not be the end goal, they should be a start that young people work up from. He simply doesn't know that when we were making $6.50 an hour as fry cooks, it was $15 an hour in today's money. So he was making $15 an hour as a fry cook in high school, but he doesn't want today's kids to start the same as he did.
And this was 1990, after a decade of Reaganomics had already begun to destroy the middle class. But in 1990, there were plenty of people working fast food jobs who could afford to live. I knew tons of kids who worked at gas stations or in fastfood that could affor to live off their incomes in 1990. Today those same workers have to live with their parents, their fast food incomes only pay for their car insurance and phone bill, pus a few bucks to cothe and feed themselves. In 1990, I knew fry cooks who owned homes, had car payments, and some even supported their families with their spouse just working part time. It was possible, not easy, but possible.
If you work full time, you deserve the basics in life, period. I don't care if you're sweeping floors, washing dishes, or frying food, I want evryone who works fulltime to be able to afford a basic apartment, transportation, have health c are, and not have to scrouge for food or clothes. That's the America Dream I want, where those entry level jobs set a floor that has some dignity. And that's the American Dream we used to have and can have again.