“I consider work a privilege, not a birthright or means to an end. You actually don’t have a God-given right to have a job or to work. If you can earn a dollar, then thank America and its people for giving you the opportunity to work for it.”
-Gene Simmons

“If work were such a splendid thing, the rich would have kept more of it for themselves.”
-Bruce Grocott

“It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure why take the chance?”
-Ronald Reagan

“Work is the curse of the drinking class.”
-Oscar Wilde

“Work liberates.”

I grew up around people who’s philosophy was to do the least amount of work for the most amount of money. The goal was a comfortable life of anonymity where there were only three things to avoid: “Jail, Hospitals, and the Military.”
I disagree with that. It’s a good philosophy for high school, but any further and the ideology plateaus quickly.

The Gene Simmons quote challenges my ideals. In one aspect, yes it is a privilege to work with the freedom we do in the U.S.A.
There are probably entire countries who, if they read this blog would be shocked one person would be allowed to do as many jobs as I have. At some point, you’d think there’d be a barrier. A job tally man who is summoned after a person quits job #40 and is to report your spotty history to other jobs, but no. As long as a person can finagle a Greyhound bus ticket or hitchhike across the country, they can likely stay employed if they want to. After all it is our privilege to work.

I’ve only hitchhiked twice in my life. Once was when I was 7 years old on a rainy afternoon in the gulf coast of Florida. The school bus dropped me off at the front of my gated community, and I stuck my thumb out as I braved the half mile walk from the gate to my house. A guy in a black lexus stopped to pick me up, and despite all the stranger danger propaganda I was exposed to, I still got in his car. I think his name was Keller. No, he didn’t do anything to me and no I never saw him again. Such a bygone era. Could you imagine a grown man picking up a hitchhiking 7 year old today? Front page news. Whether or not that was proper hitchhiking, is open for debate.
I’ve had a homeless man tell me, “You’re not a real homeless.” When I was living out of my car, 21 year old me was quick to argue with him, but as I’ve aged I’d have to admit he was right. Choosing to live a certain way while working and having friends is a lot different than the life he was living. On a similar note, I could imagine a real hitchhiker disputing my 7 year old hitchhiking claim.
I’ve already told the story about the second time I hitchhiked.

It makes me question if capitalism itself is irresponsible?
Other countries have job hoppers as well, it’s not strictly a western hemisphere problem.
I’d have to say, on the lower income bracket with no college degree- if you aren’t well connected or willing to backstab and/or sleep with people: it makes sense to swear no allegiance to job in the service industry. Somewhere between 60-80% of restaurants fail within five years? A certain percentage of the 60-80% don’t even make it past the first year. The job “server” is the same role at Ruth’s Chris as it is at Red Lobster, it’s just a different building layout and a different menu. And nobody’s going to be checking on that either. If someone worked ten years as a server but changed locations five times throughout those ten years, who’s going to care? I can’t imagine a conversation with anybody where someone will feign interest in a big career shift in serving from Red Lobster to Cracker Barrel.

I don’t it’s common for people to start as a server and work their way to GM. Same goes for retail. I’m sure it happens but I can’t imagine most people starting out as bag clerks or custodial staff and pledging their allegiance until they become top dog at the dollar general.

I have seen this happen in the hospitality industry, but only because of how high the turnover is. Most hotels are owned by a Patel family, which is the one of the quickest ways to get your social media follower numbers to skyrocket. If you’re in a Patel family, your family reunions are huge and usually at a very nice hotel that someone in your family owns. You’ll have an easy 700 friends on Facebook just from extended family alone.
Anyways, family businesses are always trying to save money, which may lead to unethical business practices, which can in turn cause employees to quit. A trick I learned working for a Patel family:
“Never fire your employees. They’ll go for unemployment and then the business will have to pay a higher unemployment tax due to claims.”
What eventually happens is, staff members in high positions will quit, and it will be taken by whoever stays. That’s how one of my friends got his current position as a GM at a hotel. He outlasted his fellow employees.

There’s also the unfortunate truth that for us in the working class: one job simply is not enough. Unless you go live in the middle of nowhere in a commune off the grid and you all share your shower and underwear- nowhere is affordable off of one job’s salary.

Working multiple jobs should be factored into the job hopping situation as well. Unless the second (or third, or fourth) job is seasonal or at-will, there inevitably comes a point where the highest paying job wins the fight for your hours.

I guess it is a privilege to work.
If you plan it right you can have one job at a hotel where you can make yourself a master key and sleep in an empty room, then get up and go to your restaurant job where you can cook for yourself and not have to pay for it.

It’s a privilege to learn how to show up to work high and not get caught. It’s a privilege to have sex with coworkers and try to keep it a secret even though everybody knows.

How bad is your job, really?