Minimum wage then (1970s) and now (2010s)

Saw an article on Reddit about a guy that used to work at McDonald's back in the 70s. A simple read but interesting to hear about the changes over the years as far as his experiences goes. One thing that caught my eye was someone asking about paychecks. This man earned minimum wage and felt like he was "rolling in money." Granted he wasn't supporting himself but he also didn't plan on flipping burgers as a life-long career choice but who does? Apparently those people protesting that minimum wage is to minimum.

I think this is what is lost on the current minimum wage debate — minimum wage is not a support-the-family wage. It's a stepping stone towards (potentially and expectantly) earning more money by either moving up within a company or moving to another company.

As defined:  Minimum wage is the lowest wage as permitted by law.

Do you minimum wage earners hear that? Do you understand it? It's the MINIMUM wage allowed by law! Employers can't pay below that rate but they sure as hell can pay just that rate.

If you want to earn more, learn a SKILL or take some college or continuing education courses specific to learning a skill or craft. Do you really, I mean REALLY expect to earn $15/hr working at a McDonald's or Wal-Mart? Those are very easily learnable duties and do not take any sort of educational training or specialized skills. Let's put employment at McDonald's and Wal-Mart into perspective:

At McDonald's you either take orders at the front or drive thru, flip burgers, deep fry things like fries or chicken and maybe occasionally clean the restrooms. At Wal-Mart you either walk the floor as a "helper" for customers or refolding/refixing things the customer messed up on shelves or hangers, "guard" the dressing room, checker, stocker or greeter. All in all the McDonald's employee seems more happy/friendly than the Wal-Mart employee even though both think they should make a lot more per hour but I feel the McDonald's worker could have a worse job because of all the grease, food smells, nasty restrooms, etc. Anyway, do any of the duties I listed require any kind of specialized training and/or education? HELL, NO! So, why in the world would you think you DESERVE ANYTHING more than minimum wage? Again, it's the MINIMUM an employer can legally pay and not a minimum LIVING wage. Hell, I'm not making too far above the latter and I AM skilled and educated! So fuck y'all!

Anyway, most minimum wage jobs were previously occupied by 15-18 yr olds or so until they went off to college. Sometimes they'd come back during holiday breaks and summers to that same job. I'd bet none of them complained about it like the minimum wage earners now.

Minimum wage is a stepping stone to learning about working hard to earn money...no matter how little that was after getting raped by the governmental taxes. A step to learning how to stretch that money over time until the next paycheck. A step to learn a sense of responsibility and build trust with employers, family and friends. A step towards life maturity. A step to learning that there's got to be a way to make more money whether it be a college education or learning a skilled profession as an apprentice or something. It sucked to earn minimum wage and sometimes it took a while to earn more but no one EVER wanted to stay making minimum wage in ANY job. The minimum wage worker at McDonald's typically stayed there for a long period of time to try and work their way up the ladder to assistant manager, then manager and then whatever is next. They didn't EXPECT to earn more than minimum (or even double as the bitchers are bitchin' for now) as a burger flipper or order taker.

Wake up people! Why should we cater to you people that want to stay in the same job doing the same duties for ever and ever and ever? Many jobs are like educational courses — you take one and then move to a new one at a higher level unless you fail or suck at it and you stay at the same level. Stop looking for free upgrades that you feel you are entitled to because you ARE NOT entitled!

Article here while it lasts.

What IS Blockbuster on Demand

I don't know how I got to this page—Blockbusternow—but apparently Blockbuster still has not realized that their business model is out-dated and over-priced although I guess it's now Dish's fault since they bought them.

Why would someone want to stream a movie from Blockbuster for between $2.99-$4.99 per movie when they can play a flat rate for Netflix, Amazon Prime Movies, or any other better-than-Blockbuster streaming service.

They were on top of the world with all their stick-it-to-you late fees and now...it's too little too late for these guys.

How much for that sandwich!?

You can barely read the prices but for the filet mignon steak sandwich you see in the photo, it costs $18.00!

Maybe next time when I attend the U.S. Open, I'll treat it like going to Six Flags and have an ice chest with drinks and sandwiches in the car in the parking lot because it did not taste like an $18 sandwich!

I did purchase it and I didn't taste anything special from it other than it tasted like a steak (meat) sandwich. It definitely wasn't worth $18 but there isn't anything cheap to eat at the U.S. Open!

Colleyville Public Library

I sometimes play tennis early on a Saturday morning in Colleyville. I think the park used to be called Bransford but now it looks to be called Colleyville City Park.

I've been to this park many times but have never walked around it. Years ago I brought my kids when they were little because it had a pretty cool playground facility made out of railroad-ties type timber...but not exactly. It was like a giant wooden fort or an on-the-ground tree house. That's been since removed for a "safer" playground.

This one particular Saturday I drove out to play I had arrived fairly early. My friends, for doubles play, weren't going to arrive for at least twenty minutes so I decided to take a walk around the park to stretch my legs from the thirty minute or so drive from my home in North Dallas. It was a pretty cool day compared to the energy-sapping heat/humidity we had been having. I walked about halfway around the park and saw that it actually backed up to the town square. I've driven through that square once years ago because I thought I could cut through it to get to the tennis courts. I was wrong.

Anyhow, this is the first time I noticed the Colleyville Public Library building.

It's not a huge deal for all people but it looked kind of cool to me. I walked in the little archway there to see what it looked like. I peeked into the building through the large glass windows like a little kid. Nothing extraordinary but nostalgic since I've probably not been in a public library in many, many years!

It briefly took me back to the days I'd go to the Euless Public Library as a kid for class field trips or the occasional origami book to check out so I could learn new paper-folding patterns to impress people.