How the other half lives

supply & demand

It's not clear what this guy is expecting.  Lately it seems that culinary arts schools are pumping out graduates like never before.  Why fault his employer for paying the prevailing wage?  He works for a corporation not an employee owned cooperative.

Alternative suggestions:
-Tax the business transactions used by private equity and other large financial firms
-Tax capital gains and dividends the same as ordinary earned income
-Increase the earned income tax credit (or better yet establish a basic income)
-Open medicare up to everyone
-End student loan subsidies for degrees that don't result in jobs that pay enough for the graduate to pay back the loans

None of these suggestions are going to be accomplished by delivering a letter to the CEO.  Corporations cannot be expected to act unilaterally to implement good public policy.  Companies that do risk falling victim to competitive pressures.  More importantly funneling pubic policy through corporate employers only strengthens the hand of corporate interests.  Public policy initiatives for strengthening the middle class should come from the government directly as a way of dis-empowering corporate interests.

---

by: ibelieveinMichigan @ Wed Aug 29, 2012 at 19:02:35 PM UTC

Horseshit

This guy's spent 10 years doing hard work in what is probably a very hot kitchen, only to see the fruits of his labor go increasingly to some rich asshole sitting in an office someplace. That is, he's watched increase the percentage of a guest's paycheck used not to pay the guy cooking the meal but to someone who's actual job isn't even to manage the restaurant itself but the chain bureaucracy itself, and you think there's something wrong with registering your disagreement with that. You think the problem here are really the number of people who attend and get degrees from cooking schools? You think this guy ought to be agitating for and end to loan subsidies for people who get degrees that can't be translated by someone into a real wage (and, by the way, who the fuck are you to tell someone what their degree can't result in a wage high enough to pay back a loan ... I know a guy who turned his philosophy degree into a human resources job earning six figures, I also know a guy who got a teaching degree and decided he liked better working on a farm)?

No, really, the problem here is that company owners are sharing in the wealth created by their companies in inequitable fashion. They're taking too much of it while leaving the people who actually do the work with what comparatively amounts to a hill of beans.

Among the Trees

---

by: Eric B. @ Thu Aug 30, 2012 at 13:21:01 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Outrage

Things have names.  You're not doing things a favor when you do not call them by their names.

The fact that the people who are actually doing the work are getting further and further behind while the people who don't actually do the work pile up the cash is, simply, an outrage.  

We ought to start treating it like the outrage that it is.  

This isn't the Seventeenth Century.  We shouldn't have to live like serfs and we shouldn't have to go to school for an Ivy League MBA to expect a living wage.  

I think a little outrage is justified in this case.  

---

by: Buster Vainamoinen @ Thu Aug 30, 2012 at 13:32:34 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

MORE TO THE POINT...

How could this POSSIBLY be good for business?  

---

by: Buster Vainamoinen @ Thu Aug 30, 2012 at 13:33:53 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

A lot of outrage

I don't think a little outrage is appropriate. I think lots and lots of outrage is appropriate. These people who are doing all the taking say they built them when, in fact, they either simply took over something someone else built and tore it up for personal gain or got lots and lots of help from government agencies. In other words, they got lots of help getting to where they are and think that makes them entitled to even more.

Among the Trees

---

by: Eric B. @ Thu Aug 30, 2012 at 13:40:28 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

agree and disagree

I totally agree with your statement: "The fact that the people who are actually doing the work are getting further and further behind while the people who don't actually do the work pile up the cash is, simply, an outrage. "

But I completely disagree that it makes sense for this guy to be delivering a letter to the CEO.  What is a manager going to do?  Is s/he suddenly going to say... "wow, I didn't realize that my huge salary was due to the peanuts we pay the underlings.  Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Here, let me write you a check right now to make up for this."

No manager in a large company is going to voluntarily give up a portion of their compensation to raise wages at the lower levels.  This is a role for government taxation and welfare.  

As I stated above, I would love to see the establishment of a basic income.  A basic income would not only help with the current economic mess, but would also position us for future job losses due to technical obsolescence.  

---

by: ibelieveinMichigan @ Thu Aug 30, 2012 at 16:59:59 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

wow

I'm not happy with the stagnation, if not decline, of the middle class, let alone the near abandonment of those in poverty.  My point was that petitioning your boss is wasted effort, especially when you are an easily replaceable "line cook."

Its ridiculous to think that corporations are the means to advance a progressive agenda.

---

by: ibelieveinMichigan @ Thu Aug 30, 2012 at 16:32:09 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

taxpayer

you ask: "who the fuck are you to tell someone what their degree can't result in a wage high enough to pay back a loan"

all taxpayers have the right to question whether their tax dollars are being used effectively.  Yes, I do question why it makes sense to subsidize loans for degrees and certificates with weak job prospects.  A subsidy is an economic inducement to take some action.  It makes no sense to be encouraging people to go into a field that is more than saturated with job seekers.  I'm not saying they can't try to make a go of it despite the odds, but I don't think tax-subsidized loans should be used to obscure the risk.  Surely an apprenticeship program (or similar on-the-job training) is a better form of training for these types of jobs to help make sure that supply doesn't drastically exceed demand.

---

by: ibelieveinMichigan @ Thu Aug 30, 2012 at 16:48:12 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Again, who the fuck are you to tell people what degree to get, and what to use it for?

First off, do you have any idea how much money it would cost to implement your program? You're talking about auditing the curriculum choices of millions of people, and making sure that they're not telling the government one thing to get a loan while doing an entirely different thing at school.

Second, who the fuck are you to tell people what degrees they can pursue and for what purposes? People get jobs in fields outside their degree specialty all the time, and that includes going on into things like graduate programs in related fields.  For instance, to some peanut eating paper pusher, it might look like a colossal waste of time for someone else to  pursue a degree in biology. But, what if that person going after a biology degree plans to take their biology degree and go into a field that requires as a prerequisite degrees like biology. And, I won't bother with the number of people I went to school with who turned journalism degrees into teaching certificates or law degrees or other stuff ... and the field is saturated.

But, this is all besides the point of an employee complaining to his corporate structure about the size of management compensation compared to the people actually doing the work ... your solution is to not complain, because the guy ought to feel lucky to have a job? You think the labor movement got its start groveling on its knees?

Among the Trees

---

by: Eric B. @ Thu Aug 30, 2012 at 17:08:23 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

"Bloomin' Brands is identified as controlled by Bain Capital"

"Bloomin'" looked familiar, as in Outback's Bloomin' Onion. Sure enough, Outback is the first brand listed on the website.  So, when I go to Outback, I help enrich Willard the Rat.  Lovely.

That written, it looks like the corporation just had its first IPO.  Just the same, there are three executives from Bain Capital on its board of directors, along with the Vice Chair of Staples.  IPO or not, there's no doubt who's actually running the firm.

BTW, the same is true of Domino's Pizza.  Compared to the politics of Tom Monaghan, Mitt Romney and Bain might be an improvement.

Greetings from Detroit, Ground Zero of the post-industrial future!

---

by: Neon Vincent @ Sat Sep 01, 2012 at 03:15:38 AM UTC