• I almost never buy fast food, but in the process of helping someone move last week, I picked up a few sandwiches from Burger King. Pre-Covid, I’m sure what I bought would have been $7-$8, so imagine my surprise when the cost was $28. Inflation alone doesn’t explain that monsterous of a price hike. Restaurant prices have risen at 2-3 times the rate of other inflation. Why? It’s simple – labor shortage. Restaurants simply cannot find enough workers, so they have to keep raising wages to the point they’re now at 2-3 times the national minimum wage. I don’t consider myself that old, but I started at $3.35 when I worked at McDonald’s as a teen, so I would’ve been thrilled to start at $17-$20/hour. Yet, the fast food places still can’t find people!

  Part of it can be explained  by governments making almost all benefits means tested; in other words, paying people to work less or not at all. However, there may be even a bigger reason Americans won’t work jobs like fast food and retail: stigma. Society seems to view these jobs as low status or failure, even when, with benefits, they pay almost the same as some office jobs taken by college grads. Even mememakers like myself are to blame. A common meme template is to show a fired celebrity or politician working at McDonald’s. And we often make fun of liberal arts grads as working at Starbucks or a Walmart greeter. This practice has to stop. Anyone who works hard to support themselves and their families deserves praise. My young stepdaughter works at Culver’s, and since she took on zero student loan debt, she actually makes a pretty decent living. Almost any job can turn into something great if you really put your heart into it. A perfect example is Herman Cain‘s rise up to the top at Burger King. Even perceived dead end jobs can have pluses, as they often free up your energy and stress levels so you can thoroughly enjoy your family and leisure time.

• Speaking of labor shortages, one obvious solution to filling jobs U.S. citizens won’t work is immigration. It’s sickening that the subject has become so over politicized on both the Left and Right, with the media always highlighting the most outlier hard luck or worst offender illegal immigrant cases. The vast majority of immigrants are normal people simply looking for a better life and more opportunities. I’m guessing almost any of us would try to escape shithole countries with little education, internet, stability, or job access. Still, there’s an obvious balance needed as not to overwhelm the sytem and turn the U.S. into a shithole country itself.

  If we had even remotely reasonable leaders who cared about anything but their own power, it’d be easy to reach a compromise solution. For example, double the levels of legal immigration, but work together honestly to put a stop to illegal immigration. End the practice of giving auto citizenship to kids born to illegals. And if a pathway to citizenship is ever offered to those who’ve been here illegally, say 5 years or more, then it starts with you forfeiting your rights to vote or receive government benefits. My guess is most illegals would jump at such a deal. Oh, and if you’ve committed a felony, you get no second chances. Hasta la vista, baby!

• Message to employers: wherever you get your labor, if they’re in customer service, please make sure they speak and understand the language. I recently switched to AT&T with their fastest internet option, after which they sent me a self-install kit, because “that’s what their customers prefer.” 👌🙄 After I went through their steps, I figured out our house didn’t have all the necessary hookups, and yes I reset the router, and yes blah-blah-blah tried every other obvious solution. So, they scheduled a tech to come out, who was here for over 3 hours on the simple, do-it-yourself install. But before the tech came on his scheduled visit, I received two more phone calls from operators with foreign accents that wanted to try self install steps again. Plus, for good measure, I receive multiple texts and emails with the same instructions. 🙄

  The biggest reason customer service never seems to improve in areas like TV, cell, and internet is that they’re all monopolies or oligopolies. In other words, there’s little or no competition, usually because of government interference. A perfect example is the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile a few years back. Every roadblock under the sun was put up by the DOJ, concerned it would “reduce competion,” as if Verizon and AT&T didn’t exist. The capital-intensive nature of these industries make it difficult enough for new competitors to enter the market, so when the government just makes it worse, we end up regularly have to go through the same bullshit crappy service that has become a real-life SNL skit.

Blog Link: https://educationdojo.com/articles/2025/06/random-thoughts-06-17-2025/

Other Links That May Interest You

23 Reasons Americans Don’t Want to Work
Youtube SNL Skit: Cancelling Spectrum Cable