What A Way To Make A Living
Have you ever stopped and thought about work at a fundamental level? Have you ever tried to strip away all the narratives that come along with it? Have you ever thought about what has happened to our lives as humans? If you have, you would have concluded that most work is the selling of hours of your life, so you can hopefully survive long enough to retire and not have to work. No matter what job you do, the end goal is retirement. But today that dream has become harder and harder in America. Just look at the response to the extending unemployment benefits. People judge the poor of America for “taking a break” in life while still making money for doing nothing. Some of them are making more money than they ever did working. For a lot of the people on unemployment, this is the closest they will ever get to retirement.
Time is running out and so is the “free” money. Many people across the country are facing this reality and are being forced into jobs that are less than ideal, to put it lightly. Only Fans is increasing in popularity as more women are trading their sexuality for money. But is it any different than working in a warehouse your whole life, selling your back and knees for a minimum wage paycheck? People want to work, work gives people life, but when you sell hours, days, and years of your life, with nothing to show for it, why work?
I have a friend who often posts about his “grind” life and how hard he works for his wife and daughter. He has a T-shirt business, a vending machine business, a car detailing business, and on top of all that he works as a barber. None of these businesses don’t have other employees, it’s all on him. And I respect him for it, but why is that the life he is forced to live in order to provide himself and his family with the comforts they deserve? He brags about working 70–80 hours a week, doing all that work for a family he never gets to see. It doesn’t make sense to me. In the 50’s my grandparents had a very different existence. My grandma sold apples door to door for a living while my grandpa went to college. They were able to survive on her wage in those days. She didn’t own an apple farm nor the company that sold apples, she just sold the apples. Try selling apples door to door today and see how much money you make. Hell, I doubt anyone will open the door because they’re probably out working. One person working as a door to door salesperson was enough to support two adults, one of whom was going to college. Prices of everything have gone up so much, but wages haven’t followed suit. Well, except for those at the top. One would like to think that senior leadership at the world’s top corporations would eventually realize this and take salary cuts and instead pay low level employees better. Otherwise greed will win and money will be more important than your time with your daughter or your health. However, seeing as the people at the top are going to space, I don’t think that is likely.
In June of 2020, during the pandemic, I was deemed an essential worker. Truly a tremendous honor as a restaurant employee. Making 12 dollars an hour. Working 25 hours a week. Oh yes, I was “essential”. Had I not served people their lunch, society as we know it might have crumbled. You’re welcome world! There were so many others like me who were in the same boat. We were deemed “essential” regardless of our definition of what that meant — which was vastly more accurate. We weren’t essential. We weren’t necessary. We were cannon fodder. Yet everyday we had to put our health at risk, hoping we didn’t catch the disease. And on top of that, we deal with customers being rude and unreasonable, while likely refusing to wear a mask. Oh yes, we were so very essential.
There is just one problem when you call someone essential. Essential implies value and someone that is valuable should be paid well. Afterall, things cannot possibly run without you! But when you are called essential and aren’t paid wages that show it, you know you’re being lied to. You feel disposable. What was truly essential was making money for the corporation restaurant that signs your minimum wage check. You’re the essential contributor to lining another corporation’s pockets.
I was always complimented for my hard work and effort in the restaurant I worked in. I felt like they needed me, and I was indispensable. I was wrong. I first realized how dispensable I was to the business that I dedicated years of my life to when my coworker passed away. Before she was even buried, management asked who could cover their shifts. It was a tough pill to swallow but it brought up the all important question; why am I working for these fucks who only care about dollars and cents?
Unfortunately, this will all get worse before we inevitably reframe our perspective on work. With automated cars, self check outs , and the progression of A.I., “essential jobs” will be obsolete entirely. Without these jobs, how will we retain our livelihood, support our families, and invest in our futures? Once upon a time, buggy drivers went out of business, trolley operators lost their jobs, coal miners lost their jobs. What will happen when the restaurant workers, the taxi drivers, the grocery store workers all lose their jobs? Should we all just pay to go to college with the money we don’t have so we can apply to jobs that won’t accept us? I do not have a solution to this problem, and I don’t think there is one. We let this game get out of control and let this “greed is good” nonsense make us think this is how life was supposed to be. Perhaps this will spark off a revolution, but the Western World has mastered the art of bread and circuses. When we can no longer have enough money to afford the bread and afford the circus maybe then things will change. And we are getting close to it.
There are a lot of people that are underpaid and overworked. And it will be interesting to see if us “entitled” millennials are going to deal with it. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness are not rights the government or our employers will give us anymore. And we will have to fight for it. The American Dream of yesterday doesn’t exist anymore. We grew up being told we could be anything. Now we hope we can just be something.
