McDonald's Offers Employees a Tip - A Small and Insulting One

I have been writing a lot about John F. Kennedy as of late, because the 50th anniversary is coming up very soon - just two days away as I write this.

So, it is very hard to come back down from that dreamy and seemingly idealistic era, an era (I know it sounds cliché) of comparative innocence, back down to the harsh realities of the age that we currently live in. From the pinnacle days of America as a superpower, to the days of what appears clear enough to me to be a clear cut decline.

Back then, of course, everything seemed to be ahead for this nation. Yes, the United States was already the world's leading superpower, and by a considerable margin, at that.

These days, the United States is still the world's leading superpower, but the margin is not so great. Indeed, China's economy is projected to surpass our own within a decade. The United States is divided, in more ways than one, perhaps like never before, or at least not since the days of the Civil War. The government is all too efficient in clamping down on civil liberties, yet hardly gets anything done that truly benefits the American people that they it is supposed to represent. Right now, the American economy has, in a very real sense, seemed sluggish since at least the meltdown of 2008, and I would argue that it has felt sluggish ever since Presidential candidate George W. Bush projected that there would be an economic recession, all the way back in 2000. The national debt is staggering, and has reached an unthinkable, unmanageable level. Jobs are being shipped elsewhere, and there is an anti-union spirit that has been cracking down on wages and benefits consistently now for the last several years, at least (and really, we can say that it has been gathering steam ever since Reagan and the airline strikers). In almost every conceivable category that one can think of, the United States went from an enviable position back in the days of Eisenhower and Camelot, to having fallen behind (in some cases, well behind) much of the rest of the world, including in education. Overall, the quality of life has deteriorated, to the point that quite a few nations have not only caught up, but are passing us. And more are rapidly catching us, as well.

Yes, it is all very depressing. But we must face reality.

So, from the stirring words of John F. Kennedy, and a glimpse of what they saw: a truly better age and country to come for a bright future, to the reality of a grimmer future than they likely could have forecast.

Here is a reminder of the future that we have instead: a stark and sobering symbol of the reality that we live in today. McDonald's, one of many, many places that fails to offer employees an adequate, living wage or benefits, has provided their employees something as an alternative to a decent wage or benefits: some advice. You can read the article  with the link below for further details.

"McDonald's Advice To Underpaid Employees: Break Food Into Pieces To Keep You Full" by Alex Kane of Alternet:
http://www.alternet.org/mcdonalds-advice-employees-break-food-pieces-keep-you-full

Very generous advice, right?

True, it does not quite stir the imagination like some of the words uttered by John F. Kennedy, such as "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." He also spoke about how the torch was being passed from one generation of Americans, to a new one.

No, McDonald's is offering their employees a message that is much less promising and, frankly, dignified. Instead, it is sending a message that is meant to seem practical, but also serves as a warning, and not just to employees for that particular company, but to the entire nation as well.

What is that message? That low wages and a sharp reduction of benefits is a reality that is not going away anytime soon. That this is the new trend, the new reality, for our nation.

Maybe it's just the way that they worded it. Perhaps we can arrange it in such a way that it sounds a little better, maybe even more dignified and, dare I say, inspiring?

Let me give this a crack: "Ask not what McDonald's can do for you, ask what sacrifices you can make for quarterly profits".

No, that's not it. Hold on, let's see if I can make this one work. How about this: "Ask not what McDonald's can do, ask how you can cut up your meals and pretend to be more full."

Well, I got one part right, at least. You better not ask what McDonald's can do for you, unless you are satisfied with a low wage job with little to no job security, and no real benefits. Unfortunately, McDonald's is far from being the only ones who offer modern day Americans this kind of thing. The torch that has passed to this generation of Americans has set fire to many things, including our living wages and benefits, our civil liberties, and more than anything else, the American Dream itself. The promise of a better future is what has really been burned down to a mere empty shell of what it once was. That shell of what was once a solid foundation is now either an eyesore, or an unpleasant, teasing reminder of what this nation used to be. We have plenty of people to thank for that, and McDonald's is not least among them.

Our collective values have cheapened, and so thus, by extension, has the overall quality of our lives. The standard of living for Americans today is already not as high as it used to be, and children today can expect to live under a lesser standard of living than their parents. To such an extent has the American decline taken us, and it is tragic. If the United States once served as a beacon of hope, it is now a living example for many other countries of what not to become, and what not to allow to happen in their own countries. The most glaring example (to me) is something that I have been mentioning now numerous times, and not completely unrelated to this blog entry about McDonald's and their treatment of their own employees: the failed healthcare system in this nation, and how it compares, generally unfavorably, to the system that exists in every other industrialized nation in the world.

There was an age that existed, now long gone, when Americans actually were concerned for the well-being of their country, as much, if not more in some cases, than their concern for their own well-being, and that included their political leaders. But no more. These days, Americans cannot get past themselves. The most shameful aspect of it, to me, is that the worse things get, the more people wave the flag. As if that were some consolation prize.

There is that old saying about a prominent figure from the past rolling over in his grave, and I think it applies here with John F. Kennedy. Somehow, someway, the nation has taken a very decisively wrong turn, and has gotten lost. We are in desperate need of some real direction for the people, but nobody seems to be stepping up to the plate to provide us with a promise and a plan for a better future. The dream of "Bamelot", when then candidate for President Barack Obama inspired a nation, is long dead itself, assassinated by the harsh realities of a spineless leader out for his own political ambitions. He is not offering so much a better future, as posing the part of a leader who does.

That, unfortunately, is the "leadership" that we have today. That, and McDonald's, instructing Americans that we should cut up food into smaller pieces if we cannot afford food from the low wages that they pay us.

Of course, a large part of the reason that we have such failed leadership in this country, is that the very virtues that helped make the United States a truly great country, the envy of the world when it was at it's peak, have largely been eroded. Americans nowadays are seen around the world as excessively self-absorbed and inexcusably ignorant of everyone outside of their own borders, often times Americans are seen as arrogant, and selfish to the point that it is now tearing apart the very fabric that the nation was made of. More than a decade after the Kennedy Assassination, President Carter warned us about this, and we could not toss him out of office fast enough.

Since then, our so-called leaders have indeed truly been a reflection of the American people. They are self-serving to the point almost of ignoring all other concerns, they are too often petty and spiteful (just look at the political infighting in Washington today), too obsessed with big money, and they tend to be overly convinced of their righteousness. Their failings match our own collective failings. We have allowed our worst instincts to rise unabated and unchallenged, and now, after decades, we are beginning to pay the price. And what a steep price we are paying!

There is another expression that I believe fits here as well: the apple has fallen far from the tree. What the United States is today is a far cry from what it once was. Moreover, Americans of today seem to have nowhere near the same character and nobility that they once had in an earlier, more innocent era.

And that, perhaps, is the harshest reality that we now have to face.