(Updated at bottom)
I've never bought into that economy BS.
You sit there late at night flipping through too many channels on the TV, searching for a scrap of intellectual worth among the vapid "content" that passes for material worthwhile for broadcast these days, and often the search ends at one of the 24 hour news channels. It's depressing as hell, but the news is often the only thing on that lets you feel like your brain isn't oozing out your ears. The worst hours are the business shows. The ones that talk about "the economy." Is it good, is it bad? Is the Dow up, or did the NASDAQ slide? I don't own stocks. Nor do most of you. Why the fuck should we care? Nonetheless, "the economy" is touted as an important factor in any presidency. Sure, the consequences of a dreadful economy seem obvious, but there is still that middle class and working class detatchment from what they talk about during the business hour and what most people experience.
I work one of those barely-above-the-minimum-wage jobs during the summer in my small conservative southwest town, where occupants will gladly defend the "Bush Economy." But I know their dirty secret. It's part of my job to know.
During the summer I ignore the $3.62 an hour paycut I took simply by moving away from my metropolitan college and pretend I'm earning enough money to justify the constant hassle of retail work. I find the profession particularly loathesome for its lack of accomplishment afforded. In retail work, the best you can ever achieve is the status quo. It's a constant repetition of the same tasks in an effort to prevent a total breakdown. You never make progress in work. Going the extra mile only ensures things run a little smoother until tommorrow. It's a zero sum game, where a worker is motivated more by the desire to avoid fucking up rather than doing anything worthwhile. As demoralizing as that is, it's amazing the system works at all. Fueled by the naive and the desperate, the "service sector" as it has come to be called is allegedly the future for the majority of us Americans.
It's all automated and impersonal anyways. There are no standouts. My next wage raise is already scheduled into the computer. So long as I don't screw up too many times before I've been at the employ of my company for the prerequisate amount of weeks, I will earn a few more cents an hour, and be glad for it. I'm no fool. If they ever need to cost cut, they can terminate me and others in my position without warning before that pay raise.
When I was interviewed for the position, my soon to be boss asked when I could start. At 5.50 an hour, it was laughable that they'd even bother to toss the extra 35 cents over minimum wage to start with. I suppose that's one of the perks to working for a national chain. I told her that she'd have to wait a day or two, as I was planning on celebrating my twenty first that Friday. (The paperwork wouldn't go through to corporate until Tuesday anyways.) Her eyes lit up as she asked, "You're going to be twenty one? How would you like to be a manager?"
I had no managerial experience. Hell, I'd barely any experience with the job I'd applied for in the first place. There were plenty of others who had worked far longer than my freshly nametagged, ass, but merit meant nothing. The regulations stated you had to be 21. Managerial positions were hard to fill. Most old employees who hit that age graduated from high school and left town. Everyone else with experience was too young or didn't care for the hassle.
So I was automatically promoted, without merit, the moment I was hired, because I had just made the age requirement. I took that promotion for the instant dollar raise it earned me, even if it meant learning two jobs at once.
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My retail job is at a moderately well known national chain that sells all the standard media fare: CD's, DVDs, and books. We even take back used media from the community at a laughable price, and sell them back at a considerable markup.
When you are known as a place to sell what everyone has, you attract a varied crowd of types who need money. Sometimes it's the old couple clearing out their collection of Tom Clancy novels. Other times it's the obvious meth head trying to pawn off obviously stolen merchandise (we are allowed to require a photocopy of their driver's liscence if we suspect anything.) I can deal with that without any emotional attachment. Just follow the procedure in the manual. Check for scratches on the CD. Make sure there are no markings. Is the spine of that book in good condition? Remember, no paperbacks.
But then come the single mothers. They're selling off their kids video games, because they need to meet the utility bills this month. They obviously have no clue what Grand Theft Auto is, and I wonder if their kids had a chance to get to the third city before she scooped it up for cash. I know these types because they always ask to be paid in cash, even though we always offer a bonus if they'll take it in the form of a giftcard. You know, keep the money in the store and all. Hell, sometimes we double the money if they'll go for it...
Those ones bother me. Even if the CD is scratched a little more than regulations say we can accept, I till myself we have that CD cleaner in the back, and take it anyways. Besides, some take it as a personal insult if you tell them they haven't taken good enough care of their crap for us to even pay them a dollar for.
Last Friday though, is when I sat there all day, knowing the fools on the business hour touting 5% growth in the economy were full of shit, for the majority of Americans, because I had an unusual amount of these sales to take. There was one constant theme the entire day.
"I need to put gas in my car."
I heard that phrase, or some variation on it more times than I care to remember. Customers sometimes feel the need to justify their parting with prized posessions, favorite CDs or movies, and that choice was in vogue on Friday. I guess it makes sense. It was nearing the end of the month. Money is tight for families that live paycheck to paycheck.
These same people I know by experience overwhelmingly would tell me the economy is great if I put it in the context of a political discussion about Bush were selling their own kids' video games to fill up their car, just so they could make it to work, or get to the store, or survive in the gold ol US of A.
The final irony, of course, is that I live in an oil town.
Update: Wow, I really was not expecting to wake up this morning and find this at the top of the recommended list. Thanks for all the comments and kinds words. I just had a couple rum and cokes last night and felt the need to get that off my chest (hence the random spelling and grammar errors, heh.) I hear what you guys are saying about turning this into an op-ed. I'll definitely look into that now. Thanks again.