I am so sick of people that think it's ok to work 3 jobs.

[ceile]

I'll leave out the specifics, but basically I have a friend that thinks it's ok for her to work 2 jobs to put herself through school and take care of her kid. She thinks that instead using public assistance people should work three jobs. She (and several on her FB page) doesn't see the big picture. No one should have to work 3 jobs! No one should have to work 2 jobs, go into debt because of student loans to create a better life for their kid. Businesses should pay living wages and instead of raising tuition costs why don't we cut the football coaches salary from 2mil to 1mil? Oh and she thinks that everyone can just go back to school and learn a "trade" so that they don't have to work 3 jobs. Again- back to the student loan and tuition...
I just don't understand this mentality. When are people going to wake up and realize they're getting screwed?!

[Dreamer Tatum]

1. If she thinks it's OK to work 3 jobs

then why can't she work 3 jobs?

[southernyankeebelle]

3. Great idea to work 3 jobs. Somehow I think her child is losing out.

[socialist_n_TN]

42. Yeah, that was my first thought..........

Working 2 jobs and going to school is REALLY shortchanging that kid RE: parenting.

And my second thought was that old saw about people on their deathbed never wishing they had spent more time at the office.

Work should be a PART of life, not ALL of it. Which is why we need wealth redistribution. So that everybody can have a living wage and a balanced life.

[southernyankeebelle]

54. There should be a happy medium I agree. My daughter-in-law is having a fit because

her husband (my son) always works. He has a good work ethics. She on the other hand has a hard time staying in a job always finding something wrong. My son has been at the same place over 15 yrs. He is finally getting someplace with the company. He was will to move to another place because he was tired of being taken advantage of. They have a new company manager and they talked to the managers in the store and asked them if he was able to hold all the jobs in the place except working behind the bar then why haven't they tried to help prepare him for the test. They made the manager of the store give him the 40 hr man position with a $1.00 raise per hour. Then they must help prepare him to take the test. Because they know he is the best they have and they don't want to lose him. I tried to tell my daughter-in-law she is lucky being home and just taking care of the kids with homework and straighten up the house. She complains all the time. I told her she could never handle being a military wife. Husbands go off and your left taking care of the home front. I would think she would be happy that he has gotten a promotion. Since he is the only one working she should understand that his job comes first. That is always the way I grew up. I guess this is a different breed of women today. I don't know. I would think she could admire his willness to work.

[pipi_k]

48. On the other hand...

Maybe the time she is able to spend with her kid is actual quality time.

She's also being a model of strong womanhood...not relying on a man to take care of her. Not running to public assistance if there's a chance she can do it herself.


I would rather have a mom like that, than one who works just one job (or none) and then ignores the kid(s).

Of course, we don't know what her personal situation is, but I think it's unfair to judge her or to assume there's some ugly stereotype (busy mom too involved with her jobs to care about her kid) going on here.

[southernyankeebelle]

55. Well it could be. On the other hand I don't think she honestly can give her child the

quality time. My husband and I worked 2 yrs before he got out of the military to save for a down payment on a house. My husband was in the military and he had to be to work at 5:00 am to do PT. He would come home and clean up and take our son to school. Then on Fri, he go to his part time job at the Youth Center and work til 10pm. Then on Saturday he would work from 5-10pm. They were closed on sundays. Working Monday - Friday active duty from 5:00 am- 5:00 pm. Two of those 2 days in the evening he would go 1hr away to take college courses. He would get home late. Sundays was catch up days helping each other getting the house in order.

I worked Mon - Fri 7:30 am- 2:00 pm. Then I would go and pick up our son at school and drop him off at home. Then I went to the Youth Center for my other part time job from 2:30pm - 6:00 pm. I would take care of children at the day care that was there. Then I went home. On fridays I would sometimes bring our son so he could play basketball and other games they had for teens. All free. Sometimes he'd stay with his dad there. He had a ball. We did it for 2 years.

But honestly you can cut back on things so you don't have to work so many jobs. We did that. I don't regret it. I hated going to work because I always had a stay at home mother. I felt my son lost out on that. I try to tell my daughter-in-law to enjoy it. But I don't think she does. She doesn't like working and she doesn't like being home. You can't make her happy.

[Vincardog]

4. Maybe she can work 4 or 5 if she wants to. Why doesn't everyone work 6 or 7 jobs if they want to?

If they want to be rich they should be able to work all the jobs they want. Right?

[CreekDog]

29. OP didn't say "can't"

you're putting words in the OP's mouth to make a strawman of the argument.

[Zalatix]

30. Because it takes 2 jobs away from someone else.

[JSnuffy]

35. Sorry, but that is just...

wow...

Does that mean someone shouldn't work overtime because those are hours that could go to a new hire?

Wow...

[Zalatix]

36. It is simply the truth. Or is mathematics an evil, wrong thing?

When you take 2 extra jobs, there are 2 less jobs for others. If you have a problem with this then take it up with the laws of mathematics, not me.

People should work less overtime - employers work employees overtime to avoid hiring more workers. This is a well-known fact of economics. This is why FRENCH workers and left wingers are fighting laws that increase the number of hours they work, because it reduces hiring.

Before you come back at me with your arguments for working more overtime, please, PLEASE, read up on this issue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/35-hour_workweek

[FLyellowdog]

2. "sarcasm" ?

[sinkingfeeling]

5. You see something wrong with people working multiple jobs to better themselves

and their families?

[Populist_Prole]

9. That wasn't my take. It's more about being a workohaulic by "necessity" due to the plutocrats

They're barking up the wrong tree. They should be barking up the tree to the corporate influence of economic policy which is putting downward pressure on wages and employment and thus having to work more, instead of trying to appear as go-getting rugged individualist scavenging for the crumbs the 1 percent chuck at us.

[ceile]

10. Well no of course not.

But why can't business owners/companies pay a living wage so that this isn't necessary? And I'm not speaking specifically to those that chose to do it- I'm speaking to those that think it's better to kill yourself working rather than use public assistance.

[azurnoir]

14. True however the system should be far more supportive of a mom trying to better life

for herself and her child your OP does not specify however I got the impression she is a single mom

[azurnoir]

11. In principle nothing I suppose however what is wrong is a system

that makes it that difficult for a single(?) mom to better life for herself and her child and albeit the OP does not give the kids age if Mom is working 2 jobs and going to school who's raising the kid?

[Zalatix]

39. You see nothing wrong with workers being exploited by the Plutocrats?

The fact that someone needs to take 3 jobs is proof that livable wage jobs have gone away.

When jobs are scarce what do you think happens to unemployment when one person is taking 3 jobs? Yes, 2 other workers cannot find any jobs.

The 1% is to blame for this.

[Enrique]

6. I don't think it makes sense to put all that on her

it sounds like she's just trying to get by like everyone else, it's not clear what she's doing wrong.

[Initech]

8. It says that there's something royally fucked up with the system.

If the one job actually paid enough for a family of four to get by, the need to work jobs 2 and 3 wouldn't be necessary. Instead of getting what we deserve it all goes to outrageous CEO salaries and untaxed corporate profits. I think that's what the OP is trying to say - it's not the individual, it's the system.

[ceile]

12. Oh she's not doing anything wrong.

She's a wicked smart, go -getter type of person. But what if she didn't have to work two jobs? What if her special ed job actually paid enough to allow her one job and her tuition was such that she could manage with that one job? It is so ingrained in society today- the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" crap -that we just don't fight the staus quo anyomre...

[RC]

31. You just hit on the real reason we are still in this mess.

And the reason we are in it in the first place. Too many just go along and don't fight the forces auguring us down the drain.

[azurnoir]

7. No its not ok at however when it comes to Public assistance since the so called Welfare reform

in 1996 many states including have made it incredibly difficult for recipients of any public assistance to go to school, in my state you must also work at least one job in order to go to school without being 'sanction' a procees which gradually cuts your cash and food stamp assistance over a period of 3 to 6 months,preferring instead that women find minimum wage jobs and stick with it that's the 'ticket'

now I do not know how old your friend is but this has been in place for 16 years now and somew people seem to think its the norm add to that the stigma for some of being on any form of public assistant and well the die is cast so to speak

a question though how if you friend is working 2 jobs and going to school who's raising her kid?

[ceile]

15. Kid is 13.

Mom and dad have joint custody- week with her, week with him. He's involved in afterschool activites so he's generally at school from 8am-5pm.

[azurnoir]

17. Thats good she and her kid are lucky in that respect

however the rest especially how difficult it can be and IMO is intentionally made for a single mom to better herself today is unconscionable

[ceile]

21. Exactly.

Although I think it was worse in the past in one repsect. I was raised by a single mom (the youngest of four, no father involvement) and she worked sometimes 3 jobs even though she was an RN. But in the 80s she had to contend with the "there's something wrong with you if your husband left" mentality so it was like "you get what you deserve". Does that make sense? Haven't had enough coffee today...

[laundry_queen]

53. That mentality still exists today

Says this single mom of 4.

[dems_rightnow]

13. I'm sick of people

... who think that their way of thinking is the only way... and want to make people live their lives THEIR way.

[Amaril]

16. Once upon a time........

....I worked full time (and for a while I had a part-time, weekend job as well) AND was going to school at night AND had a one year old AND got pregnant with my second child near the end of my first / beginning of my second year of school (he was born in July, and I wound up having to delay my last semester of school as a result). I was married, but my husband was career Navy, so he was gone a LOT.

I did it because I felt it was what I needed to do for my family. I struggled for 2 years -- on about 4 hours of sleep a night -- it was rough, but I (and my children) survived it just fine and I have never regretted it..........and I never felt like I was being "screwed" -- it was my choice - nobody made me do it.

If working two or more jobs isn't for you, then don't work two or more jobs, but don't condescend to people who make the choice to do so for themselves and their families. If your friend is being an asshat and talking smack about people who don't live their lives the way she thinks they should.........well, maybe you need to look for new friends that have values and priorities more closely aligned with your own.

[ceile]

19. You really missed the point.

If working 2 or more jobs is what you want to do then do it. I'm not trying to be condescending to anyone. My point was if companies paid living wages, tuition was affordable and there wasn't a stigma attached to using public assistance- how many more people could spend time with their kids? How many more people could create a better life without killing themselves?
And I'm glad you were able to make it work for you. However some people just aren't that strong...

[jemsan]

18. I totally get what you're saying! I'm old enough to remember when employers paid a living wage and

you only had to work one job to have a nice life. Wages just haven't kept up for the vast majority of us.

[jemsan]

20. Here's a link to explain what minimum wage salaries should really look like.

http://inequality.org/colas-cpis-awis-14-minimum-wage/

[ceile]

23. Thanks for the link.

Good article.

[JSnuffy]

22. Good for her...

... and it is something to be applauded instead of denigrated.

[ceile]

24. I'm not dengrating her.

If she wants to do it fine. But she shouldn't have to- that's the point.

[JSnuffy]

26. Then edit your OP...

"I'm so sick of people who..." is not a neutral statement.

[jeff47]

27. The OP is sick of people who think that's the solution for everyone

in all situations.

If an individual chooses it, fine. But it shouldn't be necessary. And it wasn't necessary until relatively recently.

[Dreamer Tatum]

32. Then the wording of the OP should change. nt

[ceile]

34. No. I've already clarified my point. n/t

[ceile]

33. No. I've already clarified my point. n/t

[Edweird]

25. Hey mon...

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" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Maven]

28. You're getting attacked in this thread but I understand completely what you're saying and I agree.

People should not become complicit in their exploitation by the .01%. The mentality should not be that if we want to support ourselves and our families, we should all work 80 hours a week at 3 jobs. The mentality should be that we all deserve one job that provides a fair wage and allows us a good quality of life, including the ability to take time off.

[Zalatix]

38. Exactly. One job that provides a fair wage. Blame the 1% for taking that away.

[fascisthunter]

45. exactly... but some don't want to ADMIT it is exploitation

[slackmaster]

37. You seem to be conflating doing something by choice with needing to do it

I just don't understand this mentality. When are people going to wake up and realize they're getting screwed?!

Some people may not agree with your perception that they are getting screwed. As long as they are adults who are making conscious, informed choices and accepting the consequences, what's the problem?

[alp227]

40. Your friend must've ben listening to too much trash talk radio.

And I guess friend is also from the Houston/Galveston area (I see that Texans logo). Basically anywhere beyond the blue cities exist no left alternative to LevimBeckAnnity. If your friend enjoys work, friend has an exceptional ethic. But is unnecessary, dehumanizing suffering really necessary to make a living so much that a social/family side of life has to be taken away? Unfair how the CEOs get the most leisure time and profits on the backs of workers.

Oh, Texas is one of those right-to-work states too as are all the former Confederate states.

[Tx4obama]

41. Saying '3 jobs' is vague. Saying how many total hours someone is working would be more clear.

If someone is working at 2 or 3 part-time jobs that total 40 hours per week - then that is no difference than having one full time job.

[Honeycombe8]

46. That's what I was thinking. It's not the # of jobs, but # of hours worked that counts. nt

[bigwillq]

43. She can work 12 jobs for all I care.

It's her life.

[treestar]

44. How does she have time?

For school and 2 jobs? And who takes care of the child? What daycare continues into the evening?

[mmonk]

47. It's "uniquely American".

[annabanana]

49. Fewer and fewer people remember when an "at home Mom" wasn't a luxury item.

Women who want to stay home to raise their kids no longer have that option.

A sad little sidetrack to the emancipation of women was that the "only a housewife" meme survived the "The
Click" awakening of the '70's.

Feminism was supposed to allow women to have the choices.

[pipi_k]

50. Well, like a couple of others

my opinion is that the title should probably be changed from

"I am so sick of people that think it's ok to work 3 jobs."

to


"I am so sick of a system that makes it necessary for people to work more than one job."



If, that is, it's the true reason for the outrage...

[malthaussen]

51. Some amazing responses here

Anybody ever hear of "Making a virtue of necessity?"

There is nothing "wrong" with doing extra work to "better oneself," if such work is a matter of choice.

There is plenty wrong with having to work excessive hours just to stay alive.

Why do so many people appear to have a difficult time separating the two?

-- Mal

[undeterred]

52. If someone is working so many hours a week that they are too exhausted to drive safely

and they cause an accident, then I think they should work less. That's the only way I can think of that its any of my business.