My dad (silent generation): Back in my day, a guy could get a job at a gas station and be able to own a house and support a stay-at-home wife and kids. I dunno how you kids make it.
Me (gen X): Back in my day, a guy could get a job at a gas station and afford rent and food. I dunno how you kids make it.
I’m not sure when the guy in the comic was born. Medieval times maybe? Because economic conditions for working class folks have been getting steadily worse for the entire lifespan of everyone alive today, at least in the US.
WW2. That was the event that created the initial prosperity that allowed the previous generations to build up their wealth, since the US was one of the only industrial countries that kept pretty much its entire infrastructure intact, and we’ve been on the slow, steady decline ever since now that the rest of the world has caught up again. And now instead of innovating, our economy has been converted into primarily rent-seeking on already existing things.
Love how yer man’s just standing there in the last panel like ‘well this is unhelpful and now I’m upset’ so real
Too tired to do a webcomic “I am the smart one here, look look”
face.
At the same time, there are a lot of people, especially in my line of work as a mechanic, where they somehow expect to be able to sit around and not do much actual work and still collect a paycheck at double minimum wage.
Like yes, workers should be paid fairly for their time. But also, workers should be trying to do a good job. Employment is a give and take, and its really hard to find that balance. Working for yourself is a good solution, but you have to deal with a lot more such as taxes and marketing your business and such. Being hired at a bigger business takes all that pressure away to let you just focus on your job.
There is no perfect system, because it relies on both the employer and the employee to not be greedy.
Double the minimum wage isn’t really that great in a lot of the US (assuming US here). $15/hr is ok. That’s less than $30k a year before taxes.
In California, double minimum wage is $30/hr, not $15.
Double minimum wage? So like what, bust their ass for 14.50? All to make you feel good about your perception of their work? Blow it out your ass.
No, in my area double minimum wage is $30/hr.
Sounds like socialism will be a good solution for this since workers won’t have to work so many hours to get their surplus value extracted to make a business profitable. Therefore, with socialism, people will be incentivized to work better since they will work fewer hours. 😊
Sounds like communism will be even better since no one would need money to survive and therefore “profit” wouldn’t even be a consideration.
Yeah! Communism is the best economic system!
One of those two people is already being greedy so yeah I’m not gonna say a fuckin word about that employee deciding they’ve had enough exploitation and choosing to do nothing.
This is coming from someone who’s worked in food service his whole life. I’ve seen employees of literally all kinds. Yeah having people who want to work is great. Makes the day much smoother. But I’ll never give someone shit for wanting to sit around or do the bare minimum because I would if I could.
