Choosing the Dead End

From Townhall, there’s a fascinating column by Walter Williams on “McJobs.” Williams (showing more common sense than the left wing of the blogosphere) writes:

Putting down so-called dead-end jobs is a destructive insult to honest work.

How dead-end is a McDonald’s job? Jim Glassman, an American Enterprise Institute scholar, wrote an article in the Institute’s June 2005 On The Issues bulletin titled “Even Workers with ‘McJobs’ Deserve Respect.” He listed some well-known former McDonald’s workers. Among them: Andy Card, White House chief of staff; Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com; Jay Leno, “Tonight Show” host; Carl Lewis, Olympic gold medalist; Joe Kernan, former Indiana governor; and Robert Cornog, retired CEO of Snap-On Tools. According to Glassman, some 1,200 McDonald’s restaurant owners began as crew members, and so did 20 of McDonald’s 50 top worldwide managers. These people and millions of others hardly qualify as dead-enders.

I’m one of those who has benefited from McJobs, though not the one with McDonalds. Through my work at Arby and Taco Bell, I got customer service skills which got me my job at Stream and then my current job. If I’d not gotten the job at Arby’s, I wouldn’t have the job I have now. You build job skills and experience on other jobs.

I knew people who were “career fast food.” They tended to be people who didn’t have any ambition or drive to move forward in life. A job is what you make of it. It can be an opportunity to acquire skills or can be some stupid job that you just go and get paid for. Your attitude determines your future. As Williams points out, minimum wage isn’t forever:

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Sixty-three percent of minimum wage workers receive raises within one year of employment, and only 15 percent still earn the minimum wage after three years. Moreover, only three percent of all hourly workers and two percent of wage and salary earners earn minimum wages. Most minimum wage earners are young — 53 percent are between the ages of 16 and 24.

Other blogs:

No Blog of Significance
Taking Down Words
Random Yak

Mcjobs

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