Very nice. Another one of Barry's favorite labor force fallacies is that if everyone pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, went on to college and got better jobs, as I have, there would be no one to fill the unskilled positions like cashier or janitor.
Take a look around though. You'll see that most of your cashiers these days are 15 year old high school kids saving money for college. Sure you've got some older folks working as cashiers or in sales but some of these people, and I've worked right along side them, were simply bored with retirement so they got a job for kicks. What Barry fails to recognize is what Elton John so tenderly called 'The Circle of Life.' Barry's theory would be like arguing that if humans continue to age, the planet will eventually be filled with nothing but 100 year old cronies. That is silly, people get old, croak and new generations are born every day. Yes, those kids at Target and K-Mart are going to quit there jobs and move on to bigger and better things. They will leave behind shitty, low wage jobs that a new batch of high school kids will gladly fill. You can almost hear Elton's golden pipes in the background now.
As for the Janitors, at least the ones that clean and vacuum at my studio, they may be older, they may also have jobs that most would classify as unskilled, but they make more dough than I do in my highly specialized position. They may be cleaning the bathrooms while I'm playing video games or napping, but they have way more freedom on the weekends. It's all jet skis and bass boats for that crowd. For what it's worth, the janitor that I got this information from is a Conservative. He's an assistant to a fellow that started his own Janitorial service. Not much Blue collar angst coming from these guys. They don't need to pull themselves up, they are already there.
Yeah, I know that there are 40 year old, disgruntled cashiers out there. Just as there are janitors that hate their jobs. But the more I ask around, the more I realize that they are the exception.
And I know that these accounts are anecdotal. Barry has told me that this indicates an inability to see beyond my economic class and I think to a certain extent, he is right. Thanks to him I've made an effort to find out what people working outside my class are thinking. It is not all shits and giggles but it's about 180 degrees south of revolution. So far.
