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Never forget that during a global pandemic, in a nation that completely dropped the ball with regards to testing and containment, minimum wage employees were all of a sudden labeled "essential workers" and expected to continue their jobs as though nothing had changed
Decades of rhetoric aimed at casting minimum wage workers as lazy, stupid, incompetent, borderline worthless, but when the prospect of a world without anyone to cook you food or stock your shelves or keep your gas stations running became apparent, oh, now they're ESSENTIAL
Did it result in better wages or working conditions at least? FUCK no it didn't, of course it didn't. They got a paltry amount of hazard pay IF they were lucky, a round of applause, a bottle of hand sanitizer (maybe), and were sent back to work like nothing had changed
And has this resulted in a newfound wave of respect for these apparently "essential workers" in light of how essential they apparently are? Have the people who regularly treat minimum wage employees like worthless idiots undeserving of a living wage changed their tune any? Nah
My greatest as-yet unsung fantasy is to live to see the results of a general labor strike, to get to watch the dumb assholes who think "minimum wage is for teens in high school" twist and squirm when they can't get their fast food fix and their grocery store shelves are empty
Will they learn a valuable lesson even then? It's pretty unlikely! But a person can dream
