It has been fascinating to watch the current angst-filled parade of businesses decrying California moving to a wage of $20.00 per hour for fast food workers. While not wailing, and gnashing their teeth at the indignity of having to compensate people fairly, there are more cries and lamentations that this will bring down the economy and small businesses. Of course, higher costs in other resources are either absorbed or passed on to the consumer but labor costs- they are the stuff of rants and shareholder panic attacks. Maybe these businesses need to lift themselves up by their own bootstraps and find creative ways to do more with less like they have been asking of workers for the last few years- the corporate equivalent of eating cereal for dinner. Perhaps we need to understand the prevailing idea that capitalism is non-negotiable. It is the 800-pound gorilla that must be fed (and not cereal at that). Corporate loss is a moral shortfall. Stockholders must be paid, and CEOs must be compensated no matter the cost. We are committed to the system above all else and if we need workers who can not live with the wages they are paid, the problem must be with the workers. Perhaps like the lyrics in Tom Jones’s Thunderball, [they] know the meaning of success (their) needs are more, so [they] give less.
Whoever said the system had to work for workers?
Because every day needs a little Tom Jones
The Mc Luhan Galaxy 