Ben Carson Aligned With Al Sharpton?

I won't argue with your experiences, although I doubt this is true of most employers. Of course, if you're referring to someone, lacking ambition, who is content to remain where he is. In that case, it is reasonable that an employer would determine what a job is worth to them. For example, if someone takes a job at McDonalds and is happy to spend his entire career asking people if they want fries with that, it is unreasonable for that person to expect to ever earn a living wage. However, my nephew took a part-time job at McDonalds to earn money while he was in college. He found that he liked it, and ended up quitting college. He became a manager at that McDonalds, and the company eventually sent him to their management school and he was managing six McDonalds when he retired comfortably at a fairly young age not long ago.

I've worked in several industries and, even with union contracts, there were limitations on what any specific job would pay. In the paper bag industry, I began as a temporary employee through Manpower, making minimum wage. I was hired by the company at their entry level position, which was that of a stacker, for just over minimum wage. Had I decided that I was content to be a stacker, I would get periodic raises but eventually I would run into a wage ceiling for that position. So I learned to run a paper bag machine, since machine operators earned a great deal more. I could have moved into a warehouse position but there wasn't a whole lot of room for advancement there either. Paper bag machine operators earned enough that several people were content to remain at that position, but I opted to learn to do my own repairs, and was promoted to machine adjuster, which was the highest level within the union. But I found a way around that, even. I became acting supervisor, which added twenty-five cents an hour to my pay, and took a position with the union, which paid the deductible on my health insurance, giving me 100% medical, dental and eye care, when combined with the company's insurance plan. Instead, today we could expect to find stackers standing outside holding signs demanding the highest pay for the lowest level of work performed.

Similarly, in EMS, someone might remain at the EMT-Basic level and spend their career driving an ambulance, while assisting the paramedic on the scene. Instead, I became an EMT-Intermediate and then an EMT-Paramedic. I found that I could earn extra money as an EMS instructor and coordinator, and even more if I became an EMS examiner, so I did all of these things. Sure, it would have been easier for me to remain at the EMT-Basic level, since the responsibility for life and death decisions would fall upon the EMT-Paramedic that I was paired up with, but it would be unreasonable for me to expect the same pay for that.

 

I had a sister in law who held only one job in her life, and she quit after less than a month. She went on disability and spent the rest of her life on disability checks. If someone is truly disabled, I don't have a problem with government seeking a means of preventing homelessness and starvation, but it shouldn't come from the Social Security fund.

 

@Yvonne Smith, this thread almost immediately departed from the subject of the title. If there had been enough discussion of Ben Carson's relationship with Al Sharpton, I would simply split the rest of the thread off, and that is still an option. Otherwise, I could change the title of the thread to reflect the actual discussion. Which would you prefer?