As a recent graduate, I'm in a unique position to run headlong into this steaming pile of excrement called the economy. No safety net, no experience, just a 'So long, don't let the door doesn't hit your ass on the way out' attitude and a bundle of student loans.
You could say it's my fault. You could say, "What do you expect? You're a humanities major and all they ever amount to is grocery baggers and humanities professors. Worse, you're a communication major, which only exists to introduce business majors to someone hot to marry" And to an extent those are true. But I've done generic office work; something that a lot of Americans do. But try and find that now. Go on, try. I can either work for insultingly low pay/no pay or I can try and get a paying job where I don't have the experience to do it. Which is to say, The only options available to me are low/no paying jobs.
I grew up, spent my entire life believing that if I went to college, if I worked hard and got into a good school, that when all was said and done, that I'd have a job. I spent my entire school career believing that the harder I worked then, the better off things would be for me now. I don't believe that I deserve to have a job just because I went to college. I'll just say this: don't call me entitled for believing that I deserve a job. I worked my ass off to get here. Believing someone who works hard should be rewarded isn't entitlement; it's fairness.
It's fairness. It's justice. It's the idea underpinning the very capitalism that some claim the Occupy movement is undermining. In order to be a capitalist, in order to believe that there should be as few safety nets as possible, that the invisible hand of the market is a benevolent force that lifts and helps all who deserve it, you have to believe one fundamental tenet. You have to believe that those who work hardest at making the society the best will be rewarded the most.
If hard work towards good ends doesn't translate into a better reward for a person, then why in G-d's name should I abide by your system? If all are not equally treated, if some hard work is more equal than other hard work, then the system is flawed. If I can work hard, apply myself to a job so well that in 19 days I not only get offered a paid position, but wind up taking over my immediate superior's position - if I work that hard and yet my reward is a salary that's just pissing distance from the poverty line, then something is wrong.
I worked hard, I did all the "right" things, but I'm not able to get the reward I deserve. Someone who made the sorts of dangerous trades that brought the country and world to the brink of financial collapse - someone who did all the "wrong" things - is able to reap the benefits. But hey, that's the new reality. Screw over or be screwed over. So be it.
I sympathize with your frustration. I don't think you're "entitled" for thinking you deserve a job, but to be honest you sound a bit delusional if you think someone who hires you at a high salary is making a good investment. What would make you comfortable, $40k a year? Add payroll tax and required benefits, and an employer's putting down $60-70k a year to give you a $40k salary. Can you earn more than $60-70k a year for your employer? If you can't, get out of the labor market and start bumming around NorCal or something. If you can, find a way to prove it. Protip: that probably involves working for a lot less for a while first. Employers aren't psychics and unless you're walking into tobacco or oil they've all got profits margins so small it would make your risk-averse head spin.
ReplyDeleteScratch that, you are entitled. You aren't worth more than a minimum-wager just because you went to college. You aren't a fundamentally more productive person after college (unless you got an engineering or CS degree). You're worth what you can bring in, minus your employer's cut, and not a penny more. If you didn't plan to spend the next 20 years in shitty apartments as you build a career from *nothing*, because you thought you inherently possessed more than *nothing* to begin with, you're entitled.
I think that a flaw in your train of logic is that you think that you are at the end of the journey, when really you are at the crossroads. You think you are looking back at a track record of good decisions and should now be rewarded, which may be in part true.
ReplyDeleteThe more important thing is that you are now faced with the most important "right" or "wrong" decision. Can you accept the fact that the world isn't fair, take a underpaid job (like most people have), make the best of it, and realize that you're still better off than most people in the world? Or can you not?
Because if you can't then you're about to start making the "wrong" decisions. How do you think the fabulously wealthy who you denounce as being so corrupt got to where they were? Discontent. They looked at what they had and they said "It's not enough, it's not fair, I deserve more, I can get more, and I'm going to take it." I guarantee that if you challenge any wealthy person about their wealth long enough you will eventually unearth the statement that they "deserve" their riches because they worked for them. It is the underlying justification behind everything that they do to acquire and preserve their wealth.
They made the decision that they would rather work hard than work honestly. They decided that they were willing to take what they want even if it meant taking it from others, because...they deserve it.