The local news (in LA) showed protesters in front of a building that houses banks, accountants, and finance companies. The protest signs said things about jobs, mainly.
Some of the employees from the building were commenting on the protestors, and at least two of them said (as close as I can get) “Sheesh. Those people need to get jobs.”
I didn’t know Marie Antoinette worked in downtown LA.
in California salaries for prison guards or “educational administrators” are higher than for those accountants. So the protesters should have been protesting the highly paid leeches on state government payroll instead.
Heard exactly the same thing in Philly this week - “Don’t they have jobs?” “Probably living off of parents’ money.” Meanwhile the closest protesters were a 60+ year old couple. It’s interesting that they notice just enough to be bothered by it but not enough to process what they’re looking at.
Prison guards put their lives at risk every day of work. I’m okay with them being paid more than accountants.
“Educational administrators” . . . depends. If they’re talking about the college presidents and board members who are retiring with pensions that pay them more than they ever earned in a year, uh, yeah. I’m okay with protesting that.
taxi drivers continually put their lives at risk too (from car accidents and violent attack). And they don’t have all the cages, the tasers, the guns and other accoutrements of running a modern American zoo for human beings either. But, working for the private sector, taxi drivers don’t get 6-figure salaries and ironclad job security on the public dime from a bankrupt State that is experiencing big out-migration of productive middle class taxpayers that are fed up with the tax-eating SOBs.
Standing in line marking time-
Waiting for the welfare dime
‘Cause they can’t buy a job
The man in the silk suit hurries by
As he catches the poor ladies’ eyes
Just for fun he says “get a job”
This is going to get worse before it gets better. The ignorant onlookers in the OP don’t realize there are simply fewer jobs available. There are fewer every year, due to outsourcing and mechanization and obsolescence, even of skilled jobs! We don’t need as many librarians or newspaper editors as we used to have, that’s for damn sure. And the more money companies make, the harder and longer they want to work their employees. Until a breaking point is reached, companies will just keep eliminating raises, lowering wages for new hires in spite of rising costs of living, and demanding mandatory overtime to minimize the outlay for benefits that hiring additional employees would entail. It’d be nice if the ignorant onlookers would take time to research exactly who is out of work. It ain’t just broke unemployable losers who can’t find jobs today.
I know that I was really freaking lucky to land my current job. I could easily be one of the legions of unemployed, if my timing had been off by just a couple of days or if I had talked to a different HR rep (my rep was in the same service fraternity as me). Luckily, I’m in a largely recession-proof industry (insurance), so my department hasn’t needed to do any layoffs. /crosses fingers it stays that way forever
I really hope this is the start of the class revolution that America *so desperately *needs. We’re approaching a point where two higher-than-minimum-wage incomes is no longer sufficient to raise a family. Contrast that to the 1950s, where nearly every family was single-income and not suffering for it. Blue collar, white collar, you could raise a wife and two kids on that income, and still put $$ by for retirement. Those days are long gone.