To start, let me say thank you to all who have found time to be a part of this movement.  At the very least you are capturing people’s attention.

Next let me say that taxing the rich is not the solution to our problems.  We need to reform the way big business is structured and while this inlcudes the rich, simply taxing them will not get us anywhere.  Eventually they will run out of money and you will receive little to no ROI. 

We need to raise the minimum wage and require businesses to invest in their employees.  Unfortunately, captialism has led us down a path that allows business to sacrifice thier employees well being.  How about instead, employees are paid the compensation they deserve so that they can in turn support themselves, contribute to the economy and perhaps one day themselves, “get rich.”

We all love “getting a deal” or discount shopping, but did you ever stop to think that the reasons these discounts exist, is because big businesses can pay their employees so little?  The worst part is that selfish Americans still expect a high-level of service from these discount purchase, thus the age of complaining to managers.  Do you really think that employee you’re complaing about cares?  They are paid the lowest of lowest wages and then have to deal with rude, demanding customers.  Ok, this point is obviously a little too familiar.

In the middle of the dinner shift while working at Fridays, management forced a bartender to punch out because he would be in overtime.  Nevermind that we were slammed and customers needed to be helped.  He was forced to punch out.  Corporate is so concerned about saving the $2.50 they would have to pay in overtime, that they fail to see cutting service will ultimately hurt the company more.  And when I say $2.50, I mean $2.50, because servers/bartenders are paid less than $5/hour.  Customers don’t care about your overtime costs they expect to be served and to be served well.

This takes me back to my original point.  First, Fridays eliminated the resource of an extra bartender while in the middle of the dinner rush.  The reamining staff still needs to handle the crowds, now one less person, and service will be slower and probably not as good.  Furthermore, customers will remember the slow, not-so-great service and remember that the next time they think about eating out.  So ultimately, instead of investing just a couple dollars in their staff, Fridays could potentially loose business.

Also, for me, one of the remaining bartenders, I loose my interest in serving Fridays corporate.  You’re asking me to provide A+ service, but then you take away my resource and you expect me to just accept this?  Well, I don’t accept it and in fact it makes me less willing to want to do a good job, because I know that you don’t care at all about my well-being.

At the end of the day, corporate executives make their millions at the expense of entry-level, poorly paid and underappreciated staff.  How, if ever, will this change? 

Again I say, we need to create regulations for the American-business model.  I’m definitely not suggesting more unions, but rather a reformation of capitalsim.  Let’s invest in the most important part of business, people.  Let’s honestly look at minimum wages and benefits and face the ugly truth that people can’t survive the way it is now. 

If you remember anything from this post, I hope it is this.  You can blame republicans or democrats or even the rich, but at the end of the day, WE let this happen and only WE can fix it.  Playing the blame game will get us no where.  Let’s work towards a solution and fix this country before it’s too late.