Where to Find Employees in Pittsburgh? (Scranton, Carnegie: leasing, unemployment rate, high school)
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There's really no point in arguing with you, because we're not going to see eye-to-eye on this, and that's fine, but there IS one thing I'd like to point out about the second half of your post.
The "greatest generation" you speak so highly of did have great work ethic. They also, in nearly all cases, could get jobs with nothing more than a high school diploma that allowed them to buy houses and feed their families. Their efforts paid off. The economy was booming. The "class warfare garbage" you speak of was not nearly as bad. Maybe I'm an entitled jackass, but I don't WANT to spend 60 hours a week driving around slinging pizzas to rude people for crappy tips. You do what you do to get by. I get. I really do. I'm going to be graduating college $20,000 in debt after four years...and that is LOWER than the average, and I took the most responsible, cheapest path I could. I want great things - not unnecessary material things (as much as you love to paint a portrait of our generation as all vapid selfie kings and queens, we aren't), but the simple things that people in your esteemed post-war generation could attain - a small house, a decent car, a job that pays me enough to live a middle-class life. It's becoming increasingly harder to attain these things for young people just starting out in 2014, and I refuse to sit on my ass and watch the rich get richer while we see a smaller piece of the pie with each passing year. If wanting stability, free from debt, free from the concern that an f'ing medical bill will bankrupt me, makes me entitled, then so be it, but I refuse to play a part of this cruel rat race society that we have constructed for ourselves in the 21st century.
I don't get this "watch the rich get richer" rhetoric. Sorry. I never will. It just sounds like petty jealousy. Maybe someone else can once again explain to me why Americans need to become like Robin Hood---taking from the rich and giving to the poor?
If I PERSONALLY amassed $1,000,000,000 I'd probably give the vast majority of it away to charity, family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, etc. and save just enough for myself to live comfortably. If someone else amasses $1,000,000,000 through their own innovation and hard work and chooses to NOT share it, then I don't see why that makes them a terrible person or a bad American.
Guess what? One of those billionaires decides to buy a new yacht for $310,000. A yacht manufacturer receives a new order for a new yacht. White-collar workers design the yacht. Blue-collar workers build the yacht. A yacht dealer sells the yacht. A yacht salesperson collects a commission from the sale. Yacht part suppliers receive orders for their parts and fulfill them accordingly. That yacht salesperson uses his $3,000 commission to install central air conditioning in his home. He and his family benefit from comfortable indoor temperatures all summer. The A/C installation technician receives compensation. The A/C dealer receives a sale. The A/C manufacturer has one more A/C to make to replenish the retailer's inventory. The owner of the yacht dealership uses a portion of the $10,000 profit on that yacht sale to vacation with his family in Pittsburgh. While here they stay at the Omni William Penn Hotel. They tip the bellhop. They tip the Lyft driver they use to take them to South Side Works, where they eat at Emiliano's and tip the server 20%. That server uses a portion of that 20% tip to order food from Wheel Deliver and tips the driver 20%. I use that tip to tip the person who will be cutting my hair next week. The owner of my business uses a portion of that restaurant order to buy a new fax machine at Staples. That sale at Staples helps to generate enough profit to keep the place making payroll for at least another hour. Am I the only one who sees how rich people spending money can trickle down and drive the economy? By acquiring great wealth and BUYING things, the rich help EVERYONE out in the long-run. Why attack them so much?
In France, they only work thirty-five hours a week and are given five weeks paid vacation. Also, they don't earn tips. Ah, c'est la vie!
I know this. I also ACCEPT that this is NOT going to be the case in the United States. Others need to as well. What did all of those "Occupy" buffoons who ruined the green space around One Mellon Center accomplish as they camped out and garnered all sorts of media attention? Nothing. Everyone talked about them for certain. The rich didn't shake in their boots, though. The busy working class like me couldn't understand how they had enough money to NOT work for months while sitting in a tent playing bongo drums advocating for more welfare. Politicians didn't bat an eye. In a few more years nobody will even remember what "Occupy" was even about as they watch "The Voice".
7.) Why everyone who works 40 hours per week should earn enough to live like a baller.
8.) Why independent contracting positions are the devil.
9.) Why I'm too stupid to not realize working at PNC for higher stress and less pay wasn't a better idea.
10.) Why I'm an evil Republican capitalist pig for not wanting to throw more money at people to NOT work.
11.) Why I'm not paying my employees more (when I don't own the business).
12.) Delivery drones will make this position obsolete domestically in about a generation or two.
13.) Why people on other message boards make fun of me.
I conducted an interview this afternoon. It went well. The candidate was extended an offer and will notify me tomorrow if he should happen to choose to accept it. I look forward to welcoming him on board if he does choose to accept it. He's in the military, and it makes me very proud to have someone who valiantly served us considering us as an employer. I've posted an ad on CraigsList. I've posted an ad on NextDoor. I've had a status update advertising the positions shared and re-shared on Facebook. I'm going to consider ReddIt, thanks to one of the only helpful responses thus far in this thread.
I don't get this "watch the rich get richer" rhetoric. Sorry. I never will. It just sounds like petty jealousy. Maybe someone else can once again explain to me why Americans need to become like Robin Hood---taking from the rich and giving to the poor?
If I PERSONALLY amassed $1,000,000,000 I'd probably give the vast majority of it away to charity, family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, etc. and save just enough for myself to live comfortably. If someone else amasses $1,000,000,000 through their own innovation and hard work and chooses to NOT share it, then I don't see why that makes them a terrible person or a bad American.
Guess what? One of those billionaires decides to buy a new yacht for $310,000. A yacht manufacturer receives a new order for a new yacht. White-collar workers design the yacht. Blue-collar workers build the yacht. A yacht dealer sells the yacht. A yacht salesperson collects a commission from the sale. Yacht part suppliers receive orders for their parts and fulfill them accordingly. That yacht salesperson uses his $3,000 commission to install central air conditioning in his home. He and his family benefit from comfortable indoor temperatures all summer. The A/C installation technician receives compensation. The A/C dealer receives a sale. The A/C manufacturer has one more A/C to make to replenish the retailer's inventory. The owner of the yacht dealership uses a portion of the $10,000 profit on that yacht sale to vacation with his family in Pittsburgh. While here they stay at the Omni William Penn Hotel. They tip the bellhop. They tip the Lyft driver they use to take them to South Side Works, where they eat at Emiliano's and tip the server 20%. That server uses a portion of that 20% tip to order food from Wheel Deliver and tips the driver 20%. I use that tip to tip the person who will be cutting my hair next week. The owner of my business uses a portion of that restaurant order to buy a new fax machine at Staples. That sale at Staples helps to generate enough profit to keep the place making payroll for at least another hour. Am I the only one who sees how rich people spending money can trickle down and drive the economy? By acquiring great wealth and BUYING things, the rich help EVERYONE out in the long-run. Why attack them so much?
A quick search finds that among dozens of yacht manufacturers, only three are in the US.
Trickle-down doesn't work, and is how we ended up with the economic disparities that got us where we are today. But go on, blame as many victims as you can. Unreal.
A quick search finds that among dozens of yacht manufacturers, only three are in the US.
Trickle-down doesn't work, and is how we ended up with the economic disparities that got us where we are today. But go on, blame as many victims as you can. Unreal.
So people who aren't in the 1% are victims how, exactly?
"Out of touch" with what, pray tell? You want me to lead a strike and revolt against a business I earn a comfortable living at because you think it's not paying well enough? There was once a point in time when being lower-middle-class wasn't something to be frowned upon. You could vacation once a year domestically (we do), dine out or order pizza or something once per week (we do), see a movie once a month (we do), pay your bills on time (we do), and live a relatively low-stress lifestyle (we do). Now with the advent of stuff, stuff, and more stuff everyone is in an incessant p*-ing contest to outdo one another and be king of the hill or top of the heap. It makes life so needlessly complicated.
They were just calling the Great Recession the "Great Reset" not that long ago because it made people prioritize what's really important in their lives. "Stuff" isn't important to me, so I don't need to make a lot of money. I need to find like-minded people to work for me, but, alas, everyone has been convinced by the media that more stuff equals happiness. It doesn't. Trust me.
Show me these baseless strawmen arguments regarding exurbia/suburbia, please, and explain to me how they're baseless.
I couldn't care less how you feel about how much YOU make. If you think you're doing so wonderfully on your very high tax, high cost, 60-70 hour work week, more power to you. It's completely exclusive to you and your specific life. But when you extend that to gross strawmen about society at large, to your ignorance of economics and history, and widespread ignorance and "just world" fallacies about people who have different circumstances and needs than you... you're going to get called out on it. It's a consistent thing with you, making broad statements about groups of people based on your cliche beliefs and confirmation biases. Everything's about you, you, you. No empathy for anyone else.
Four figures of people showed up to work low wage retail jobs at Giant Eagle at a job fair. People have lined up around the block for jobs at McDonalds and Walmart. Plenty of news stories about that. People all across this country slave away at minimum wage or close to minimum wage jobs. For many people, and for very good reasons that many have outlined, those jobs are a better deal than the job you're offering. After all the costs and extra taxes, they pay more and often have some benefits. Yours has none, just the risk of automobile accidents and running an expensive possession into the ground.
And the only thing that the "great recession" help reset was to allow the "job creators" to horde even more money and profit much higher while destroying even more labour rights, shrinking the middle class, shrinking wages (even moreso when compared with inflation), increasing work load, lowering job security, and destroying work-life balances. All you have to respond with are discredited, failed economic cliches and conservative rhetoric that is setting this country up for widespread social strife and economic collapse. Because, well, in an economy that's built on the house of cards of consumerism... when the masses don't have money to buy things, well. Henry Ford understood this. Henry Ford understood this literally 100 years ago. You're struggling with this today.
I mean really, you don't understand the complaints about, the implications of, or the snowballing effects of growing income inequality? That it's just "jealousy"? Somehow I doubt you've sought out the works of many of the west's top economists, including several Nobel Prize winning economists, who have dedicated their lives in the last decade or two on studying, writing about, and discussing the issue. Yeah, it's just lazy McDonalds workers whining about not being able to buy an iPad. You've got it pegged.
Since arguing with SCR is like arguing with a refrigerator, and even trying to get him to treat people as individuals is a fool's errand, I'll ask this instead: are there restaurants or delivery places who don't use ICs as delivery drivers? I'd be happy not to use WD again and to put some money in a more ethical employer's pocket. When I delivery-drove I was an employee.
Funny how I don't even make $15/hr. most of the time and am MORE than capable of "living" on that. There's a difference between "living wage" and "entitled wage". It may be a requirement to make $15/hr. to survive in NYC. In Pittsburgh? No. Will $12/hr. get you the latest gadgets, gizmos, and flashy this and flashy that? No. None of that stuff is NECESSARY, though. Food, clothing, shelter, etc. ARE necessities. Everything else is gravy. A "living wage" SHOULD cover those essentials---not luxury items and extravagances.
You know that the fight for a $15/hour living wage for fast-food employees is centered in very high cost of living cities, right?
Look, that number is a rhetorical strategy. It's a bargaining tactic. Throw out a high number you know you're never going to get, and then bargain from there. In a place like NYC or San Francisco, that $15/hour is barely a living wage, but everyone knows that varies from region to region. The movement for $15/hour is meant to start a national dialogue about living wages and labor practices in the service industry.
If you want to embrace Pittsburgh, I think you've got a lot of homework to do on the labor movement that was born here.
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There was once a point in time when being lower-middle-class wasn't something to be frowned upon. You could vacation once a year domestically (we do), dine out or order pizza or something once per week (we do), see a movie once a month (we do), pay your bills on time (we do), and live a relatively low-stress lifestyle (we do). Now with the advent of stuff, stuff, and more stuff everyone is in an incessant p*-ing contest to outdo one another and be king of the hill or top of the heap. It makes life so needlessly complicated. 
