Now lets get to the real meat of this story. In the US McDonald's employs over a half million people. This is with an average of around 9 dollars an hour. If you are working 40 hours a week this wage only brings in a little over 18,700 dollars a year. This yearly income without taxes being deducted seems in my opinion a little unreasonable. Unless of course your single and live in a one room apartment. To scrape by one would need a second job working the same number of hours for the same pay. Eighty hours a week leaves no time for the family that most employees have. The argument is that most employees are high school or college students trying to make some extra cash. This is a fallacy. The average age of fast food employees is about 29 and a half. While there are a lot of people making some extra cash there are also many more trying to support themselves and families. I fully support the strikers and what they stand for. The minimum wage is just that a minimum. I think I speak for all Americans when I say that McDonald's needs to stop scraping by on the minimums.
Some of you readers might say why don't they just get better jobs or go to college. I say why don't we just live underwater. By this I mean not everyone is capable of adapting or even creating better situations for themselves. We can't just wade out into the ocean and be good to survive for any length of time. It is all easier said than done. But if they don't want to do any of that doesn't that mean they are just lazy? NO. In fact, to call anyone who works 40 hours a week to get a mere 9 dollars an hour is just disrespectful. I am sure a vast majority of fast food workers can tell you that these jobs are not a vacation. I see them as victims of the status quo. The rich need to keep their wealth and the poor need to keep being poor. This will not change either not until the poor take control and utilize the tools they have at their disposal and we are finally seeing a little bit of that with the current strikes.
To wrap this article up I would like to leave you all with one thought. If you drove on a road, crossed a bridge, accepted money from the government for college, taxes paid for that and a whole heck of a lot more. So is to much to ask that the people with four homes pay into the system a little more if it means all these things can get better?
