If you can make $20/hour at Taco Bell, with no experience, how much money do you think I'm going to have to pay a cook, who actually has experience?
— Che Stedman
Well Che. It looks like if you did stop working a Taco Bell will replace you. So your jobs disappear, correct, but it absolutely opens it up for someone else to move in. Also, the reason Taco Bell requires zero experience is because they have sat there for the last umpteen years streamlining their process which came at a non-zero cost.
Innovate Che. That's the name of the game. Being an entrepreneur means thinking fast on your feet and having to adapt to a landscape that is tilted against you. Yes, the big players have had decades to consolidate their power and create a business world that makes breaking into the Restaurant business near impossible. Join the crowd of Ma and Pa gas stations, grocery stores, computer shops, and so on that the lack of enforcing anti-competitive laws has wrought.
Don't make it sound like we're terrible because we're undervaluing people's work. I think it's time for us to understand that our work is being undervalued, and that we're being told that we are terrible people because we are not giving enough
— Che Stedman
No, Che you seem to be missing the point. The problem is the folks you need to compete with having unfair advantage and you wanted to undervalue peoples' work to play your advantage. What this law is doing is removing that from the play book of ANY company altogether. Seeing how that was your ONLY play in your playbook, you are out of "innovation" that other companies still have three billion more plays to try. Your beef is mostly with the big boys getting unfair advantage.
But we cannot carve out an except for you because, aforementioned big boys have also abused their position to make the cost of living insane. As opposed to trying to argue your old play maybe… petition your local government to tell fast food chains to leave? So long as there are Taco Bells that can fall back on their parent company Yum Brands, small business and the everyday man will never win.
That's the really cool thing. In an actual free market, paying that $20/hr doesn't hurt you. Even better, in an actual free market, we don't even need the $20/hr to keep our heads above water.
We, as business owners, do not feel that we are the ones exploiting people. We pay huge taxes, fees, licenses, inspections, Workman's Comp, insurance, you name it. We do this for the right to work really hard, and to create jobs. Yet...we are being told that WE are the reason why people can't afford their rent
— Che Stedman
No Che. You're correct that your don't feel like you are exploiting people. However, paying people less than a living wage is just that. However, you aren't the one setting that cost of living and that's the bigger point here. You're upset that your current game plan is no longer valid, but you're so salty that you don't want to come up with a better game plan. Us small people, we feel this every day. Not having control, watching shadowy conglomerates dictate our day to day lives, and what not. It's so ingrain at this point, I'm having trouble articulating all the ways we're being screwed by large businesses much in the same way I'd have difficulty explaining what breathing actually feels like.
Che the thing is, that pain, that sting in your heart. You're just now feeling it. I know buddy. Hell someone decided that some generation was killing off diamonds and Applebee's so mutual feels on that having someone tell you that you are the reason for something.
So I guess best I can tell you Che is that, grab you a pitchfork and join the crowd who want the billionaires of this planet to stop making this world shitty. I mean I don't know really. It just seems like its always going down the shitter every fifteen seconds. I've been on this train going down so long, I couldn't possibly know which direction is up at this point.
But pay your people a living wage, that's core. Post that, start fighting for lowering that cost. Stop trying to cling to your old playbook of under paying people. You're not looking entrepreneurial. Oh and also.
Tanya and I, as most other business owners, are tired of hearing how it's our fault people can't afford their lives; tired of being told we need to work harder so other people can have more; tired of being told we should be happy with having less, working more, being liable and responsible for everyone and everything, so other people can have a better life
— Che Stedman
Buddy, that's Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and sometimes a Sunday for us. If you're just now getting upset about being told that… I mean, you can come over and I'll give you a cookie. It helps my mood. But definitely not my waistline.