HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Feb. 20, 2005 From 1986 to 2000 I worked at USS-POSCO Industries. This steel finishing plant is a joint venture between US Steel and the Pohang Iron and Steel Company of South Korea. The pay was good, the work easy, the medical plans superb and other than the presence of a few racist knuckleheads, my tenure there was very rewarding—financially, that is. No matter what state you live in, a job in a steel mill job is considered a damn good one. However, to land such a job one needs more than a rudimentary education. Not just anyone can walk in, apply and land a position in today’s modernized steel plants. I was one of those fortunate ones intelligent enough to get in the door. The long hours there meant even longer hours. Usually I shunned overtime, simply because I wasn’t trying to impress anyone with the size of my paycheck. One day after I got off work and cashed my check, I stopped by the home of an old friend. She had invited me for dinner and the two of us were going to have a few drinks and talk over some old times. This woman had a sixteen-year old son who a few months earlier had dropped out of high school. When I entered he was stepping out on “The Point” to sell some rock cocaine. After he left his mother lamented the fact that she had brought him several applications that he never filled out. She showed me applications from Burger King, McDonald’s. Blockbuster Video and an Auto Zone auto parts store. It had been a pretty typical week for me. After taxes and a few other items such as union dues or whatnot, my take home pay was just over $1200. This meant working 80 hours, typical for most jobs. My lady friend and I enjoyed each other’s company for about three hours when her son re-entered. He took a seat at the table with us and counted out almost twelve hundred dollars in five, ten and twenty dollar bills. That is what he made in just three hours. My pay, after taxes came out to just over $15 an hour. His came to $400. This made me think about the dilemma faced by a lot of kids. Many of them are hardworking, yet they lack the skill to land a job with top pay. Some have to make a choice between working hard and struggling, never getting ahead and becoming frustrated or selling drugs—where they can make good money fast, attain the material things they want and with hours a banker would be envious of. However, the latter poses serious risks, death or incarceration. Still, many youth opt for the fast money of the drug world. Work five years at a legitimate job and you might finally pay off that Nissan Sentra. Work all summer selling rocks and you might be able to pay for an Escalade with cash. Tragically, some kids dream of becoming the next Nino Brown, or Felix Mitchell, urban legends whose lifestyles appeal to kids who’ve grown up with little or nothing. A lot of youth know that Mitchell’’s empire brought in $400,000 a month. They know that his funeral will be talked about by Oakland residents for years to come. According to reports “he was buried in a bronze casket inside a gold-plated horse drawn carriage followed by 14 Rolls Royce limousines.” However, they neglect that he died in prison at age 32, reportedly over a ten-dollar debt. Felix was the face of the “big baller” scene and is a legend; Ronald McDonald is nothing but a cross-dressing clown with red hair and oversized shoes to match. Moreover, “drug sales continued and, with Mitchell's monopolistic pricing eliminated, competition reduced the price of crack and heroin. The main effect of Mitchell's imprisonment was to destabilize the market, lower drug prices, and increase violence as rival gang members challenged each other for market share. Drug-related drive-by shootings, street homicides, and felonious assaults increased dramatically. This unintended consequence is still referred to by academics as the ‘Felix Mitchell Paradox’." (info@oaklandish.org) One thing that’s for sure, they will never becoming Neo-Nino’s and Felix’s if they’re flipping burgers or working some other job that doesn’t pay a living wage. Furthermore crack doesn’t require purchase of a uniform, special hat or any other pre-employment purchases. If you can afford the Mickey D’s uniform, you can afford enough cocaine to get started. Making crack is as easy as constructing a whopper. Crack is so simple to make that a fourth grader can learn to do it in about five minutes. Unlike methamphetamine, there are no volatile chemicals to mix. All you need is cocaine and baking soda. The lure of fast and easy money is appealing to youth. Most understand the risks and c choose to work their way up through legitimate, but low-paying channels. I was fortunate enough to be raised in a two-parent household where my siblings and I were taught that education and diligence are the surest paths to success. Many of today’s youth don’t have such a support system and are forced to make some dangerous decisions. For the record, that woman’s son was arrested for sales, went to a drug diversion program and now has a legitimate job. He was lucky, but far too many won’t be so lucky and will die from gunshot wounds or get dragged to their death by someone in a car attempting to rob them. Ronald McDonald may offer a safer, legitimate opportunity, but he has no street cred whatsoever. ------------ About the author: Timothy Stelly is a 46-year old California native with a wide variety of interests-from fishing to politics, which have a lot in common: Both require you to deal with worms and most of your time is spent idling. He is a former Democrat, believing that Party represents outdated ideas. He is officially registered as an Independent, choosing to keep his options open. Timothy is also the author of more than 80 screenplays and novels, two of which have been "published": "Tempest In The Stone" and "The Malice Of Cain", both available through PublishAmerica. He defines his writing style as "Hip-hop fiction; a cross between Richard Pryor and Richard Wright." His UK columns is written in a hard-edged style, but he is not yet a curmudgeon or a conservative. (Is that redundant?) After all, one of his favorite movies is "The Adventures of Milo and Otis." stellbread0.tripod.com Email: stellbread@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
