I'm leaving for NH in a few hours. Spending some time up at my uncle's lake house with my dad and sister. Should be a decent way to spend the 4th. I think I'm getting back sometime on the 5th, so hopefully I can get in a little grindcore then. I've been hella lazy so far this month an done a whopping 3.5K hands. O well...
I've been realizing lately that I feel really bad for the average service industry employee. Just through doing errands in the last few days, getting meals, and reading a few articles, I've realized that that path is pretty horrible. For one, you have an extremely limited skill set, and people know that. Your boss knows that, so a raise is out of the question, unless u manage to put in mega-volume there and perfect a perfectly useless skill. Your customers know this, and thus treat you accordingly (which I think is 100% rude and incorrect, but I cannot expect to change society in 1 day). And worst off, the employees themselves generally know this, which makes for a cognitive anguish knowing you are stuck in a rut that you will have an extremely hard time getting out of.
The service industry is an extremely rough path to travel. The pay is barely enough to afford the monthly living expenses of the current economy. (working 40hrs/week at $7.5/hr = $1200, or probably about $900 after taxes are taken out). Consider average rent to be about $450, gas prices booming, food prices booming, and the cost of pretty much anything being higher than ever before, and you have yourself in a constant state of break even. The only way to get out of this is to 1.) pickup another job (60-80hrs/week is very physically demanding), 2.) get school so you can “move up in the world” (how? You can barely afford life now, how are you going to afford school bills on top of basic living bills?) 3.) hope to win the lottery (*shakes head* at how many people think this is a viable option).
It's thinking through things like this that make me glad I have what I have. I have a college education, and though I'm not currently using it in the conventional sense, I am using skills I learned in college none the less. I have a job that allows both flexibility and a higher than break even achievement level. And I have a living, social, and physical situation that is healthy and positive. It's something I've taken a lot of time to look at, and really appreciate, because I, as many of the people reading this, are in situations where we don't have to consider service industry jobs. We are able to work at a higher level, and should be thankful for that, while at the same time respecting and appreciating service industry employees.
I'm not 100% sure what prompted that, but I just wanted to get that on paper before I left. Something to expand on...so any comments are more than welcome. I always encourage a healthy discussion =)
*SS*
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3 months ago
2 comments:
Good thoughts, man. I def know the working man's plight, as I've worked my share of shit jobs, and a moderate paying office job, barely breaking even on life for a couple years during and after college. It's pretty sweet knowing you can make more than those jobs at 25nl :P Yay for poker I hope it stays til I am done my new degree at least.
An old dude called me a scumbag dealer for 2 outing him in stud. It wasn't funny because he called me that...it was actually because he was incorrect lol. I def. understand where this all comes from tho, and it's a deadly cycle. Wait til you get out here, service people are treated MUCH worse. I'm sure you can guess why.
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