Tooth Fairy Meets Fast Food Workers.
The average child’s tooth is fetching $3.70 ( up 23%) over last year according to a survey by Visa. Fast Food workers are protesting to have their wage raised from minimum wage (7.25) to $15 an hour.
These were side by side articles in a newspaper recently. I found it amusing as well as insightful….both of these things speak of fairy tales.
The fastfood workers demanding higher wages is a classic example of wanting more without becoming more. I can empathize with the challenge of trying to survive financially in today’s world on the wages of a fast food worker. However, the reality is that they accpeted the wage in exchange for their time, at the outset. Their wages are what make the fast food model work for the fast food companies (of course from a health perspective, I would be happy if those companies went away anyway:-).
These are jobs that require little to no skill. To earn more in life you must become more. As Jim Rohn once said “Life responds to deserve, not need.” It is not a company’s responsibility to see that we get what we need…it is ours. If we want more in life we must become more and do more.
Way back when I was a bartender, I once worked with a man who worked 8 hours a day at the restaurant as a bar back, then left and worked 8 more hours at another place. This is what he did for quite some time to provide for his family. He spoke little english, and had little education, but he did not think in a limited way. He did not ask for someone to compensate his short-coming…he worked harder than most. He eventually went on to have his own businesses.
The same people who want the doubled wages probably wouldn’t like it if the company’s said okay…then raised the wage and cut the work force (which they would have to do).
The bottom line is that the tooth fairy might be inflating the value of a tooth, but our value in the market won’t go up the same way. There is no market place tooth fairy…it may happen as a part of economic evolution, but the reality is, that if we desire to improve our circumstances, we must improve ourselves.
