- Kids -

People work there because they have to, not for the joy of flipping burgers and smiling on demand.

Posted by: Jennifer Keller on July 01, 1997 at 21:24:13:

In Reply to: How could you work for a corporation like this? posted by Rowan on June 21, 1997 at 04:47:46:

: How any compassionate, environmentally-conscious person could work for a corporation like McDonalds is beyond me. I understand the need for jobs for unskilled workers, young people, or those who are uneducated. However...... I would rather work as a janitor for $4.75 an hour than for McDeath at $7 an hour (not that they pay that much!). I would never compromise my values just for the sake of my pocketbook. I understand peoples' needs to support themselves and their families but there have got to be alternatives to this.
: Rowan
: Vegetarian Youth Network

I saw your post on the McSpotlight page. I'm glad to see that you live
by your principles.

However, before you knock all McEmployees, think for a moment. Out where I live, McDeath (or Evil, or whatever you prefer) employees are unskilled uneducated, and, for the most part, learning English. These people live in my community and work extra jobs so thieir kids won't have to do what they are in order to survive. Many of these workers live in substandard, crowded housing. For them, their matter of pride is not living off welfare, instead of your matter of pride, prefering not to work instead of working at ANY job you can to feed your family.

Perhaps, Rowan, therein lies the difference. Although there are, undeniably, many young people who work at MCD's to make extra cash for clothes and movies and other luxuries, there is an (unfortunately) growing population of McWorkers who fit the description above. It is not the McEmployee who is responsible for the ills sustained by McDonalds corporation, but instead the Corporation itself, as well as the 'billions and billions' who are served. As Mike Bacon replied to
your post, some people need money and some of those people have few skills with which to get it.

I think all of us who think the world would be a better place without McD and other US multinationals should focus our efforts on the corporations themselves, not the workers, who themselves are being exploited while trying to sustain themselves and their families. Although some of us may be willing to starve, or be homeless for our cause, I do not think that is a decision we need to make for other workers, and, most importantly, their children.

In addition, janitors are quite likely to make a living wage, not minimum wage. Your choice of job for comparison reminds me of when I was an adolescent, and we chose jobs that we would 'never, ever' do. Usually this was based on some perceived degredation associated with certain jobs. Jobs are only degrading if you make them so, and it would seem to me that you have nothing but distain for the people who keep your school a pleasant place.



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