You're kidding me, right?

I normally avoid topics like religion and politics, but I can't keep my mouth shut on this.  This whole push for a $15/hour minimum wage is getting ludicrous.  While yes, the cost of living is going up, that doesn't mean that someone who works form McDonald's asking "Do you want fries with that" deserves to make $15 an hour.  That's not that specialized of a job.  Uniquely qualified.  I used to work for McDonald's.  Started in the drive-thru and trained up to a Certified Swing Manager.

I keep seeing memes like this.  While most of the information is quite accurate, the mathematical figures are not.  Allow me to walk you through the ACCURATE figures...

Annual Salaries - Minimum wage vs Military

• Minimum wage @ $15/hr, 40 hours a week = $31,200.00
• E1 (Private) = $18,378.00
• E5 (Sergeant) = $26,172.00 (<=2 yrs exp) - $37,137.60 (top of pay, achieved at 14 years exp)
• E7 (Sergeant First Class) = $33,030.00 (<=2 yrs exp) - $59,360.40 (top of pay achieved at 26 years exp)
• E9 Special (Sergeant Major of the Army - top rank for enlisted personnel) = $58,042.80 (>10 years experience) - $90,115.20 (top of pay, achieved at >38 years exp)
• W1 (Warrant Officer) = $34,077.00 (<=2 years exp) - $58,881.60 (top of pay, achieved at >20 years exp)
• W5 (Chief Warrant Officer 5 - top rank for Warrant personnel) = $85,420.80 (>=20 yrs exp) - $111,780.00 (top of pay, achieved at >38 years exp)
• O1 (Second Lieutenant) = $34,862.40 (<=2 yrs exp) - $43,866.00 (top of pay, achieved at >3 years exp)
• O5 (Lieutenant Colonel) = $61,279.20 (<=2 yrs exp) - $104,108.40 (top of pay, achieved at >22 years exp)
• O10 (General) = $192,866.40 (>20 yrs exp) - $237,150.00 (top of pay, achieved at >38 years exp)

As you can see, to make BARELY more than the equivalent of minimum wage, you must be an E7 (SFC (Sergeant First Class) - US Army; CPO (Chief Petty Officer) - US Navy; MSgt (Master Sergeant) - USAF (US Air Force); GySgt (Gunnery Sergeant) - USMC (US Marine Corps)) or higher.  Just to be an E1, you have to go through 10 weeks of very physical, intensive "training".  To work in a restaurant for minimum wage?  1 week.  Why should someone flipping a fucking burger make more than a person trained to use weapons most of us can only dream of?

Most minimum wage workers travel no more than 6 miles to work.  While on deployment, our Military personnel can travel up to 8,094 miles.  That's 1,349 times as far.  While flipping a burger, the worst thing that could happen to you is slipping and falling or burning yourself.  While on deployment, the worst thing that could happen to you is death.  I think death is a little more severe (and permanent) than a fucking grease burn.

All of that being said, don't get me wrong.  No job is "easy."  Every job has it's hazards.  But, some jobs are FAR more hazardous than others.  Personally, I blame this whole "My job is so hard" mentality on Kanye West.  He's the window licker who said that his career as a musician was harder and more dangerous than the military.  He's also an egotistical, self-centered fuck who thinks he is the greatest musician, or even human being for that matter, to walk this Earth.  The same dipshit who named his kid after a fucking airpline.  Hey, Kanye!  Your career is more dangerous than the military?  When was the last time a deranged fan launched an RPG at you?  Or set up a roadside bomb to kill you?    That's right...NEVER.  It never happened, and it never will.  You're a rapper.  Not a good one, but still a rapper.  The hardest thing you have to deal with now is if your braindead, no-talent hack of a wife's ass is getting to small, and when your kid gets their ass kicked for being named after a fucking airline.  Get over yourself.  You shit the same way I do, you wipe your ass the same way I do, and when you die you'll decompose the same way I will.

I realize that $7.25 an hour isn't enough to make ends meet for the average American.  But $15 an hour?  Y'all are a special kind of stupid, aren't you?  I make ends meet on the equivalent of $11 an hour.  I refuse to have my taxes going to some fucker who stands there, chawing gum like it's fucking cud, looking at me like I interrupted their lives so they can go buy their rims and Gucci.  Yes, I know that sounds quite racist.  I'm sorry if that offends anyone.  Should minimum wage go up?  Sure.  Should it jump $7.75 an hour?  No.  I could see $8.50 an hour.  Maybe $9.  Most jobs start you at about that any way.  There is no reason why someone who is in no way, shape or form in danger of loss of life or limb make more money than someone who is.

In conclusion...I'm going to go smoke a cigarette.  This type of stupidity pisses me off.  Stupidity at this level should be ridiculously painful.