re: #81 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Not to diminish the American values of hard work, personal responsibility and self-reliance, but we take that to mean that individuals and families with limited resources should be expected to negotiate one-on-one with multi-million-dollar international corporations for terms of employment, insurance coverage or financial services.

So much of the problem in rural America is that most folks don’t deal directly with the international corporation, they deal with the intermediaries who pass themselves off as “small/private business.” Like the lumber mill whose boss is on the city council, is golfing buddies with the mayor and sheriff, and lives in a massive house on several dozen acres of land that he got as part of marrying the previous boss’ daughter.

Way he sees it, giving you a job isn’t about adding value to his company, it’s an act of charity on his part. After all, he doesn’t need to hire you, there’s plenty of “unskilled labor” out there who’d do the job for a fistful of dollars and a bottle of tequila a day. So to hire you is actually hurting his bottom line because he’s paying you way more than the job’s worth. You should be grateful to even have a job at all. Now if you walk back out that door and don’t talk about a “decent wage” or “benefits” again, he’ll forget this conversation ever happened (spoiler alert: He won’t).