Choices Lead to Consquences: We Really Do Need To Do a Better Job of Teaching That!

By Rich Kozlovich

Recently, what I thought was an insightful article, appeared in the Las Vegas Review-Journal by Bobby Soave entitled "Painful lesson learned on minimum wage" telling us about the plight of "Talia Jane who became suddenly Internet famous after being fired from her job at Yelp — fits an all-too-easy narrative: underpaid 20-something writes desperate complaint about low wages, and greedy corporate employer suppresses dissent by firing her."

He goes on to say: "millennials working for starvation pay should learn something from Jane’s fate: Things could be worse, and will be, when minimum wage laws price them out of their jobs.  For many, Jane — who wrote an open letter to her CEO about her situation — is a sympathetic figure. She claimed she was making just $8.15 an hour after taxes, working a boring job in customer relations for Yelp/Eat24. That’s not a lot of money — especially in San Francisco, and especially for an unfulfilled college graduate with an English degree and journalism aspirations. ..... [who] doesn’t think working a second job or getting roommates should be something she has to do in order to get ahead after three months of an entry level job in the most expensive city in the country”. 

Wow!  Three whole months she worked without getting massive raises in pay?  Outrageous!  But then again, maybe it's a good thing her boss fired her.  Now she can get out there and "show them" by finding a job teaching English, in the third world maybe, with all those malaria and zika virus carrying mosquitoes.  Or maybe she can get a journalism job at a newspaper.  Except in the U.S. where journalists with experience and track records are now out of work.  Maybe she could get a journalism job in the Middle East?

Then again she could have chosen to move to Maine, or North Dakota or some other underpopulated area that really are in need of teachers.  So can someone explain to me why does she has to live in San Francisco? 

It would appear - without being judgmental of course because being judgmental is evil - her choice of college courses wasn't the wisest, or any choices she's made since then.  Of course it could have been worse.  She could have gotten a degree - or degrees - in one of the ethnic or gender study disciplines.  That would have qualified her for.......well......nothing at all!   Then again-  those courses are exceptional at teaching one how to whine, at which she seems quite good so perhaps she did take one of those courses, and if so, it's amazing she was hired by anyone.  As for why those in her fields of expertise didn't hire her - is it possible she wasn't that good a student.  Just a thought!

Oh, I just had another thought.  I wonder how much she owes in student loans?  And even if somehow she paid for her education I have to ask - was it worth the forty, fifty or even one hundred thousand dollars she paid?

So let me recap and see if I understand this correctly.  

She has a degree, or degrees, in studies that aren't attractive to a large percentage of employers, to which she may not have graduated cum laude.  Degrees for which she paid a fortune to earn through choices of her own making.  Seemingly the college administration didn't tell her these choices weren't as marketable as others, and she can't get a job commensurate with what she think those degrees are worth, or in her fields of expertise.  Now she's angry at her boss- after only three months working at an entry level job almost anyone can do - and writes a letter to him, which she shares with the public, telling the world his company stinks.  Now she, and others, are apparently dismayed she's fired.

But she's not mad at the educational system that promotes this insanity, or the government that causes tuition rates to skyrocket by pumping money into the system, or her parents or friends for not advising her better, or herself for not listening to them if the did advise her to do otherwise or for making bad decisions.  She mad at her boss, who apparently explained to her exactly what she would be doing and how much she would be paid before she took the job. 

Does anyone besides me think her real problem is she's not very good at making wise decisions?  Dose anyone besides me think she might have a bit of an issue with problem solving?  Does anyone besides me think she just might just have a little problem with arrogance?  Of course it's possible this whole experience is just another set up by leftists like the Sandra Fluke situation? 

Nah....can't be..... we all know there's no such thing as a conspiracy unless it's vast and right wing!