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As I drive to work in my 300,000+ mile vehicle, I realize that, at the age of 28, I’m an old man. I listen to talk radio, yell at the stupid commercials, and glare at those “pesky teenagers bumping their techno-jazz-fusion-punk-rock music!” You know, unless they play a rap song from the early 2000’s, then I’m crankin’ that ish up and getting’ crunk! ….. But back to the talk radio.
On my way to work, I get to hear the exciting debate over the Seattle, WAÂ minimum wage. If you’re not from here, you might not know it, but we boast one of the highest minimum wages in the country. The national minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, and WA state is $9.32 per hour. Sure, it’s not a LOT of money, but you can earn some decent scratch working at that rate.
But no, that’s not good enough. We want people to do the same work and earn a crap ton more. How much more? Well, the current proposal is to bump the Seattle, WA minimum wage to $15 per hour.
What The What?
I know, that’s what I said. So here’s the deal, I’m not here to talk about the politics of the minimum wage, or even how much money workers should make in certain jobs. What I want to talk about is laziness.
Laziness is a life-sucking, motivation killing disease that infects your bones, rendering them inoperable. Your body can’t get up before 12pm and your activities cannot include anything productive. Laziness also comes with a side dish of entitlement, and a belief that doing more is a waste of time. Laziness is being defeated.
Life Is Too Short
Having lost 2 grandparents recently, I have been reflecting on the legacy they left behind. My grandpa was truly a man of great presence, full of generosity and laughter, truly someone who gave of himself until there was none left. He built his own dream home, and small cabin on a lake that still stands today, 50 years later. He provided for his 6 kids and wife by working sometimes several jobs at a time, never once questioning why he had to work so hard.
I remember one story when reading through the book he wrote, talking about how he would go away to school for a few weeks at a time. He found a job each time and worked part time after school each day. Let’s read that again. HE GOT A 2-3 WEEK PART TIME JOB EVERY FEW MONTHS WHILE HE WAS AWAY AT SCHOOL! I don’t know about you, but having to leave my family for continuing education every few months, my first inclination would not be “go find work to keep my bones from a laziness infection.”
My grandpa realized that we can waste our lives complaining about this or that, looking for an easy way out and generally hitting the bare minimum, or we can get up in the morning like we give a fuck.
Laziness And Your Finances
What I have found is that laziness and money seem to repel each other. I don’t recall a time in my life when I decided “you know what, screw trying. I’m going to keep doing the same thing and watch the money roll in!” Nope, it has never worked that way. In fact, I have found the opposite is true.
I’ve talked about in the past how we were barely getting by, but made it work being on a well-planned budget. When we got pregnant, I realized that I needed to increase our income to fulfill our dream of having my wife stay at home. What I DIDN’T DO was go to my job, demand they pay me double my wage for the same output and then build a publicity campaign around it because it was too hard to actually TRY! No. I immediately started looking at ideas for a second job, and ways to use my skills and time to make ends meet once my wife left the workforce.
I got my tax Enrolled Agent license and started preparing tax returns after hours and on weekends during tax season. I also started this website and built it into something that helps tens of thousands of people every month and brings in income as well. That determination seemed to rub off on my day job as well, scoring 3 promotions in 5 years. I’m not saying this can always happen, but I guarantee fighting laziness will be a catalyst to many awesome things in life that would normally pass your lazy self by.
$15 An Hour?
Motivation. It stems from having priorities and goals in your life. If you don’t have those, you can’t even possibly know what to do with your money. And if you don’t know what to do with your money, how is getting more of it actually going to help you get out in the world and kick some ass? $15 an hour sounds like a nice number to those stuck making a measly $9 per hour. But I guarantee those making $9 with a plan won’t be there for long. They might take on a second job to get full time hours. They may take on more responsibility because they know that it will leads to a promotion. They may just continue their diligent work while building a skill set on the side to get them into a more career-worthy position.
The point is, those with motivation will succeed, regardless of the government mandated minimum wage. And those whose subscribe to a philosophy of laziness will not, while continuing to demand more for less.
You have 80-ish years to build a legacy.
You have a choice.
Laziness or Success.
Here in the UK the minimum wage works out at about $10.40 an hour (which my sister in law lives very well on) and there is a push towards a national “living wage” of $12.24 which is designed to enable people to raise a family
I agree with everything you say about people developing feelings of entitlement. I’ve always thought that you are entitled to what you’ve earnt and saved and nothing more.
Minimum wage seems to have started, like any other good movement, as a protection against worker abuse, but has now spread to be some kind of “I deserve this” mentality. Doesn’t help keep people motivated, IMO.
Awesome thoughts. You want it, work for it, don’t whine for it!
Yup!
Being a Seattleite I’ve too have heard plenty about the $15/hr min wage. At first my reaction was something along the lines of “what are these people thinking, that’s a 60% raise, minimum wage jobs aren’t meant to sustain you and your family for your entire career, these people must be lazy”.
My gut reaction rubbed a few family members and close friends the wrong way, and as a result I spent countless hours listening to arguments for both sides. One argument that stuck with me a bit is that any full time job should be able to support a family. I kind of get that, but at the same time I still think there are plenty of opportunities to advance yourself out there and I can’t think of any reason someone should stay in a low paying position for any length of time beyond not putting in the effort to advance themselves (aka, being lazy).
Perhaps if I wasn’t there before I would feel differently, but I’ve been there. I worked 2 jobs while putting myself through college (one a crappy clerk job in a grocery store, the other a low paying gig in my field of study), I still graduated with some debt (I wasn’t as mustachian with money back then), but I managed to pay it off in my first year after graduating and landing a “real” full time job. I busted my ass back then to make my life better.
Some of us will have more challenges than others, but for everyone combination of challenges, someone out there has overcome them and succeeded. I consider myself lucky, I knew that if I failed miserably I would be taken back under my parents roof. I know some folks don’t have that safety net, but that’s all it is, a safety net. You can succeed without one, plenty of other people who had more challenges than I did have done it.
I clearly remember having a choice, it all came to this single point where I decided to change my life. I could have stayed the course, kept my 1 crummy almost minimum wage paying grocery store job that wouldn’t have brought me the sort of opportunities I have now, but I chose to suffer (and oh boy did I suffer; earning a computer science degree while working 2 jobs is something of a challenge) so I could have a better life later. Now here I am in my 30s, working a job I enjoy, making a comfortable wage, but I’m still sacrificing for my next goal: Financial Independence. I can confidently say on my current path I will have my FU money in no more than 10 years. Is that good enough? Of course not, I’m still hustling and looking for ways to decrease that number because now I’m wired for success.
Why can’t everyone succeed like this? Is it laziness like you’ve proposed? I’m very tempted to say that it has to be a huge contributor, but I also think sacrifice is a big part. Lots of folks declare wants as needs and some of my lowest income friends buy more stuff than I would ever considering dumping money on. So I think it’s more than just lazy, sacrifice and making the smart decisions that pay out in the future definitely factors into this.
I’m still not sure how I’ll be voting when the $15/hr wage shows up on the ballot later this year. I can possibly imagine some cases where it would be good for our city, but I’m just not sure and I haven’t read enough well researched statistics and facts to sway me one way or the other yet. I plan on putting in the effort to do that research later, when we know for sure it’ll be on the ballot.
Yeah, I’m not trying to indict anyone who agrees with it, but want to help motivate those who think more money is the answer, when actually HAVING A PLAN AND SOME GOALS is the answer 🙂
I don’t really understand how a higher minimum wage would make people lazier, but I don’t live in WA so I haven’t seen this campaign. The problem that I see is that raising minimum wage will just increase the prices of basic necessities in the not-so-long run. I am sure that all of the interactions between minimum wage and inflation are more complicated than I am stating them. But I do remember clearly when the minimum wage increased from $4.75/hr to $5.15/hr and my then employer immediately raised prices to compensate for the higher payroll.
Agreed, prices will definitely be much higher. The point of this article was not to point out that the minimum wage will create more lazy people (though I think it will enable those who are already lazy), but that laziness is that type of attitude that keeps people stuck. And breaking free from laziness is the solution to those who think minimum wage is too little to live on.
I love the story about your grandfather. What a guy! I also would probably not have the motivation to find a part-time job for a few weeks while away at school or for continuing ed- and I’ve never thought I was a lazy person! I think some our our grandparents were among the hardest-working generation ever- mine were the same way with hard work. 🙂
I like the message and motivation here. The minimum wage is not the cure-all for advancing people forward. $15? $25? $50? Where would it end? There is education, discipline, change in mentality (no more laziness like you said), and a host of other things that can get those in lower income to making more money.
This post deeply misunderstands the need for a higher minimum wage, and conflates low earners with lazy people. The ‘bootstrap’ mentality is nice in theory, but the reality is that many people making the minimum wage have few ways to get out of the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. Many people are already on very tight budgets, and your tips are not going to help them if their wages do not also increase. It’s simply unsustainable for someone to work 3 jobs for their entire life and live on a shoestring budget, all while being told by people like you that their situation is their fault because they simply didn’t work hard enough or want it enough. If your solution is that they simply need to work harder, then you need to take a good look around you and see how many people are struggling to make enough to live on while working many more hours than you probably are.
Definitely. Let’s not equate minimum wage workers themselves with lazy people. I am definitely NOT doing that here. What I am saying is that laziness in general is a defeatist attitude, and sucks the hope out of any situation. I know those struggling to get by as well, and helping motivate them with a plan is much better than “hey, just campaign for more money!” . And with that minimum wage hike, it doesn’t encourage progress and development, but complacency.
I have worked minimum wage. I worked as hard as possible to get OUT of that job. I understand it’s not easy, but to expect someone to work “3 jobs their entire life on a shoestring budget” sets the expectations VERY low for these people, which is unhelpful. I would rather show them that avoiding complacency and always looking to advance will serve them far better than asking for more money without providing more value.
Who are you or anyone else to say they aren’t already providing more value than they are earning though?
Are you really saying that hard working cleaner = low value, guy who runs a personal finance website = high value? Do you really believe that? I’m sorry but I don’t, and I’m clearly in the latter of those two! 🙂
I’ll back this up with some figures quickly.
My company will make ÂŁ9 million this year and we have 22 employees. I can therefore say I’m providing roughly ÂŁ400,000 worth of value. I realise companies have to be prudent with finances but do you think I even get paid anywhere near that figure? Not even in the same magnitude as that. I’m not complaining as I have plenty to get by on and am smart enough to budget and save, but if you are talking about providing value then I should be up in arms and campaigning for a 350 grand pay rise, correct?
Personally I think the lower you are in a company the worse the value provided to earnings divide gets.
It’s tough, because truly, the only people that should have a say in the value of an employee is an employer. And the free market. But when society as a whole doesn’t like it, they have the government jump in and help. AND I DON’T THINK THAT’S A BAD THING.
I think for both sides, it’s best to put yourself in each other’s shoes. but no one seems to want to put themselves in the shoes of the employer, because “they’re all greedy pigs”. On the flipside, no one wants to truly help the “unskilled worker’ either, so it’s an impasse.
So I think the solution for individuals is to look at how they can get themselves out of the minimum wage job, not how to make that job pay for their future forever, which people seem to hint at.
Again, this post is not meant to say all minimum wage workers are lazy, and that they all only deserve a certain amount, but to speak to how laziness can and will keep people stuck in complacency, and there is a way out! 🙂
Thanks for the great counterpoints, though. I love thinking through this stuff.
No worries, I hear ya brother!
There are two distinct points going on here and clearly, I agree with your points on laziness and really all of the main article in general. It was always going to raise discussion on some of the other issues about min wage simply by mentioning it though, which is all good in the hood, a bit of slightly off topic healthy debate never hurt anyone 🙂
Cheers again!
I will say one final thing (sorry!) that if you run a business and can’t afford to pay your workers a decent wage, you should not be running a business! (And I also think that most of them can yet choose not to in the name of even more profits, again I’m talking about the big guns here not your Mom n Pop stores and small operators, who may genuinely have to cut wages including their own, to survive leaner patches of business)
Agreed. If we shift the debate to the ethics of running a very large business, I think that minimum wage isn’t entirely a bad thing, but kind of a like having a union to make sure you don’t get screwed by a greedy employer.
There’s a saying that my pastor uses, “If you want to get something done, ask a busy person”. It can apply to several things, but it comes to mind when you say you got 3 promotions in 5 years at work. People recognize commitment and hard work, and it’s often rewarded in ways that aren’t looked for. Good for you, and get advice!
The minimum wage debate is definitely a complicated issue that we’re dealing with at both the state and national level. Growing up around two incredibly hardworking parents, I’ve never known any other way, and this attitude has always been reflected in my work. I’ve tried hard not to judge others who weren’t blessed with the same role models I’ve had. That being said, you are 100% correct that we are in responsible for both our attitude and work ethic regardless of how much we are being paid. We have a responsibility to ourselves to be the best that we can be.
Right! And though you have a built-in ethic of hard work, those that don’t need to find some motivation and set some goals to help build that hard working ethic.
I used to not give a crap, and didn’t try very hard. But I found my motivation (a girl, of course), and started getting my butt into gear.
Again, I’m not shaming anyone for working a minimum wage job. I’m not shaming them for wanting more money. What I am trying to do is show them the answer is not more money for the same effort, but more effort (which doesn’t always mean more hours) and always seeking advancement to grow out of the minimum wage position.
I always look at my grandpa for what hard work looks like, and it puts anything I’ve done to shame!
I absolutely agree with you on the laziness thing! But, I think you are conflating two different things here.
I haven’t met very many lazy minimum wage workers, have you? They’re usually working 2-4 jobs, clipping coupons, and doing everything they can to make the most of their money. They’re often single parents, or two parents trying to work their shifts so that there is always someone home with the kids.
The idea behind the minimum wage is that if you are working full time at a job, it should be enough to live on. So someone who cannot get a fancy, highly educated job (and not everyone can, no matter how hard-working they may be) can still have food and shelter and a few extras for their family without having to juggle shifts at three different places while getting four hours of sleep a night. That the fanatically dedicated, shows-up-for-every-shift-even-if-she’s-sick cleaning lady gets to have the same time off as the equally dedicated Bank Manager to spend with her family.
Minimum Wage does not equal “too lazy to get a better job.” There are certainly people out there who could get better jobs and are too lazy to do so, but it’s a mistake to lump an entire, very large portion of the population into that group! LOL
See my reply to Lisa, but I agree. I’m not trying to shame minimum wage workers, but trying to help break the mentality of no hope. More money does not always = more hope. But a plan, motivation, and working for more can build more hope than an arbitrary increase in wages for doing the same thing.
I hate general, sweeping assumptions, so I am definitely not doing that here. But laziness can infect us all, it just so happens I know how demotivating it can be for those just getting started.
Another Washingtonian here.
I thought the $15/hr proposal was for Seattle counties only. Maybe I’m wrong on that? Or are there two different $15/hr things going?
Sir! I believe you are correct. I am on the Eastside, and I thought they were mentioning a WA state wide $15 minimum wage, but upon some searching, you are correct. Post updated.
I guess a lot of people are going to start commuting to Seattle 🙂
I can’t help but agree with your general points but what I don’t agree with is huge companies stuffing there already large coffers with dollars on the work of low level employees who get mugged off with a minimum wage.
You say people should stop complaining and better themselves, get a better job etc… But if everyone did that then who would be left to flip the burgers?
Who says they should be paid any less than one of the company’s higher level employees? Without them the company would cease to function so surely they should be due a wage good enough to live on if they are working full time hours, without having to get a second job?
Of course the argument is that they can be replaced in a second with the next grunt in line but I don’t think that makes it right. (Just to be clear, I have no idea whether $9 or $15 is a fair wage, speaking from the UK, I’m just talking through the general arguments here)
The example your grandfather set is a brilliant one and inspiring for sure, but it is not so relevant on today’s first world where money is in abundance (I doubt you got many 30 year olds retiring back then!) yet seriously skewed in who gets their piece of the pie.
Interesting topic and post for sure. I definitely want to go and kick some ass at work tomorrow! Cheers!
This is a great point. When people say that janitors, food service workers, etc should just get a better job if they don’t like the pay… to me the obvious end to that logic is that there will always be janitors who are on the edge of starvation. Whatever happened to the idea of honest pay for an honest days work, whatever that work is?
Here is a problem with a locality raising the minimum wage. Some (not all) of the workers won’t actually earn anymore money. Some of these workers know the exact maximum they want to earn so they can maximize their Earned Income Tax Credit. As a result raising the minimum wage may actually lead to them working less.
Good article. I agree. Times in my life when I was not making enough money, I would always pick up an extra part time job. I even tried two full time jobs at once for a while. At my most recent job, there were a lot of people in part time positions that constantly complained about not getting enough hours, making enough money, etc.. All I can think is why don’t you go get a second job?
“because people deserve a livable wage”…..or so the argument goes.
I think it’s great to have the conversation about wages, but really, just like the real estate or anything else, wages are priced at what the market can bare.
Public policy influences real estate prices, wages, and everything else. See, for example, the mortgage tax deduction – whether the government has that policy in place or not directly impacts prices in the market. It’s a subsidy to homeowners.
It’s fine if you don’t think that the government should influence the market in this particular way, but the fact is we simply don’t live in some truly libertarian society where everything is decided by the free market. And so we are always making choices about who public policy benefits and who it doesn’t.
No, I’m in agreement that government can be beneficial in helping make sure people don’t get screwed. But I think it has already done that with the minimum wage policy, earned income credit, etc. Now, almost doubling the minimum wage in one fell swoop seems like a detriment to me, and would be a detriment to me if I were at a minimum wage job.
I may have missed the mark here a bit, as I wanted to show people that laziness can and will affect your bottom line, and doing things like getting on a budget plan, setting goals and getting motivated will help you far more than a huge bump in pay for doing the same job. I wasn’t trying to speak of what job values are, I don’t employ people so I don’t feel that is my place. But really just wanted people to be on the lookout for signs of laziness and complacency in their own lives, and to kick it to the curb IMMEDIATELY and start kicking butt!
I can definitely see your point that such a big increase all at once might have unwanted/unintended effects.
Laziness? Seriously? Most people I know who work low-paying jobs work SO MUCH harder than the average white-collar office worker I know (and I am one of the office workers). They often work 2-3 jobs, no sick days, no paid vacation days, no paid holidays. No still getting paid to work at a home when there’s a blizzard etc. And it’s often more physical labor, not sitting at a desk all day and spending half your time browsing the internet.
Ambitious people can always find a way to improve their situation no matter where they start from, but not everyone is starting from an equal place. Plenty of mediocre, lazy people have good-paying jobs based solely on the situation they were born into.
Again, if you read the post, I was not indicting low-wage workers. I was talking about getting out of the mindset of laziness, and how the massive minimum wage hike can be detrimental to those who are in a beginning spot. But motivation, clear goals and a plan are the cure 🙂
I know it’s tough, I worked minimum wage for a few years. But I was also extremely motivated to get out of that job, and if a HUGE wage increase happened to keep me there, I probably would have lost motivation. It happens to friends and family I know in the grocery store business. They move you up to a “livable wage”, and then you get complacent and stuck there. Then they start cutting hours and make it tough to ever reach build toward major financial goals.
I’m not saying “pay workers nothing for their lowly work”, but more “pay workers what the position is worth according to the business, and workers, let’s kick it in high gear and find a way toward a viable career path. Don’t lose hope, not all career paths require college. You can do this!”
The problem is, if you look at the data, people are getting paid less and less for doing more and more work – wages haven’t kept pace with worker productivity at all. Some businesses choose to pay their workers a decent wage as part of their business model (one reason I love Trader Joes, for example) but it’s also very easy to make a quick profit by paying very little. It’s the same reason there are laws that prohibit child labor or require safety helmets on construction sites. I’m not saying $15 is always the answer, that’s for voters to decide, but there has to be some kind of floor. And the floor has been falling down.
And yes, some people might get complacent if their wage is raised to something they can live a decent life on. But there are also lots of people who would love to make a plan to do something better, but can’t because they are so busy just barely scraping by. There is lots of research that shows when you’re worried about keeping the lights on or paying the rent, it’s extremely hard to concentrate on anything else. Giving people motivational speeches isn’t going to do much if they can’t feed themselves.
I guess it’s tough, because when I get budget questions from those barely getting by, I always tackle the equation two ways:
1) I see where money is being wasted. Most everyone can clean up their spending a bit.
2) If things still are not looking good, i try to show them ways to increase their income. It’s the tougher job, for sure, but at some point, there needs to be some extra action to make up the difference, if there is one.
But I totally agree, when you’re in the weeds of trying to pay the bills and don’t quite have enough income, it’s a tough gig to try and stay motivated. But motivation is they key to getting out of those situations. I know, because I was there. Not at a minimum wage, but with my wife leaving the workforce, we had to cut ALL THE WAY BACK on our budget, and then I up and got 2 more jobs. Not saying that is always the best answer, but often it is.
Not saying their is an easy answer, and there shouldn’t be, because it’s a complex issue. I just want to make sure people have the best chance by squashing any lazy tendencies first. 🙂
Thanks for the discussion, Colleen. Appreciate the counterpoints.
Thanks, I appreciate your openness to discussion!
Jacob,
This is quite possibly the very best blog you’ve written – wow – you’ve got guts and integrity and you have restored my faith in your generation. I’ll thank you, yours, your parents and grandparents for that.
Raising the minimum wage as proposed is not only ludicrous it’s dangerous because it lulls people into complacency. You’re absolutely right – get off your asses, make a plan and plan on making your own success instead of looking for the government, i.e. hard working taxpayers, to carry your sorry ass. I’ve lived below the poverty level and worked plenty of shit jobs, but rather than looking to the government to help me out, I looked to the market place and guess what – it frickin worked!
I understand that the minimum wage needs to be adjusted every so often for inflation, but I just don’t get why we need to double the rate of pay. I get it that people are working these jobs and are trying to provide for their families, but these jobs were never intended to do that. They were/are intended for teenagers, college kids, and those that want to work part-time. If you are working in this job and trying to provide for your family, then why not bust your butt and get a promotion to a shift manager or update your resume with how you’ve added value to the company and go out an look for something else?
Too many people are just content with life and expect that things should happen for them. It doesn’t work that way. You have to go out and make things happen. We only get one shot at life, why be lazy and content with it? Why not make it unforgettable? I’m not saying that if you bust your butt and try hard you will become an uber millionaire, but you’ve got a much better shot at getting there than you do if you just sit around doing nothing.
Thanks Don. That’s exactly what I was trying to get at. Don’t feel stuck, but realize you have more control than you think of your finances, outgo AND income. it’s a tough spot to be in, but it doesn’t require you stay there forever. 🙂
It disturbs me that you think that minimum wage workers tend to be lazy. Yes, I read your comments saying you do not think that, but your protests are specious. When you have a post about laziness and begin it with a mention of the minimum wage debate (and we clearly know your opinion of it), I cannot think anything except that you think minimum wage workers don’t need more money, they need more motivation. If you want to talk about laziness, great! Talk about laziness. I’m sure there are people that need a good kick in the butt to get going and stop complaining. Just don’t bring minimum wage into the debate. It’s a red herring. As a white male, you can’t imagine what life is like for a poor black woman.
I would encourage you to read two books:
1) Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich
2) Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much, by Sendhil Mullainathan
The first will show you what those minimum wage workers actually go through. The second is a study of how people act who have too little of something (money, time, food, etc.). It says that if you have too little of something, it affects your thinking and causes you to make choices that you wouldn’t make if you had enough of whatever it is.
Thanks for the response Emily. Sorry to disturb you, but I NEVER stated that minimum wage workers tend to be lazy. I do not think that AT ALL. I hope that is clear enough. Let me assure you that I wanted to motivate those who need it, not discourage them.
And thanks for the resources. I can’t promise I will have time to read them, but it sounds like they have a great perspective from those who are struggling through minimum wage and poverty.
And I don’t want to sound too distant. I worked for minimum wage and lived on my own for a while. Trying to keep full hours and juggling the lame schedules was a pain. And I get the scarcity mentality and giving up easily and digging myself into debt. Absolutely been there.
Great piece. I think we often forget the serious consequences laziness can have. Its hard to stay motivated and continue working hard, but ultimately, its the right sort of life to continue living. Our time is quite short, as you point out, so we ought to do whatever we can to make it worthwhile.
Ouch some of those points almost hit me in the head. I agree, yes, laziness is a plague to mankind and womankind. Good thing when i asked my boss last week for a raise, i pointed out the additional new sets of skills that i acquired on my own; that i can offer more to progress his business. This my good Sir is a million dollar blog, to wake up a lot of people so they may earn millions or near it. Because if your hardworking you can come up with a side hustle to make more money.
$15 an hour is a lot of money. I don’t blame people for wanting it, but I don’t necessarily think that anyone “deserves” it. I worked at low wage jobs in my early 20’s and they sucked. On the other hand, that experience made me want more. And more than that, it made me work for it.
Dude I agree with you about your main points. I see it everyday. People don’t know how to work hard for their money. While I do think minimum wage in the US needs to be increased (we’re sitting around $11/hr min wage but pay almost double for gas and substantially more for food that almost all of the US), if I had a minimum wage job I would do everything i could (ie work my tail off) to get a job beyond minimum wage or work more than one job, it’s just that simple. You should have to work hard to get such a substantial increase.
This is exactly why I don’t feel good about raising the minimum wage. It feels like entitlement to me.
I feel like an old man too quite often, at the ripe old age of 27. I loved this article, what matters when it comes to success is making realistic goals and plans to achieve those goals and then taking the action needed to make something happen. As you stated about your Grandpa who was never without a job, he didn’t fall prey to good enough, he did SOMETHING, and that still leaves a legacy from the effect his story and actions has on you.