A while back, I was working at Davanni's (a local pizza place) when a customer told me we were out of ice. Ok, I said, I'll go refill it. I filled up a bucket with ice, and went to go get a ladder. I returned with it, only to have my employer tell me that due to the fact I wasn't 16, I couldn't step on a ladder. The godamn thing wasn't more than three feet tall, it was more of a stepstool than anything.
I read another article recently about yet more and more laws trying to be passed that will restrict and prohibit youth work and the environments they work in. One example they used was a kid working at a golf course that somehow managed to run a golf cart into the deck and puncture his heart, killing him. The mother sued the course and is supporting the legislation.
What pisses me off, is that kids like him and their parents shouldn't be able to play along with the legislators and make more laws we don't really need. I mean, did anyone ever consider that maybe the kid was just intensely stupid? How do you run a golf cart into a deck? Its not like they're easy to miss.
Its hard enough for minors to get jobs. The job market is terrible (no thanks to dubya), and more and more potential employers are turning us kids away, telling us we have to be 16 or 18 or even older than that, because some stupid kid who killed himself's mother sued the company for this 'n that. And even in the jobs we can get, they're almost always low-level, menial jobs. Sure, they've got no risk, but they've got no payoff, either, and giving up my weekend for $6.50 an hour doesn't really click in my mind. Why shouldn't we be able to perform higher level tasks? As long as we can do the job right, why the hell should it matter if we're 15 or 16 or 21?
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I'm sick of America restricting everything because Americans won't take responsibility. I wish I could have told my boss that if I somehow managed to slip and die on a three foot stepstool, I promised not to sue. But nobody can take the chance of that anymore because nobody wants to fess up and admit they did something wrong. Our legal system is bullshit and in a world where the German Cannibal can get off homicide charges, people like me are starting to lose faith.
I don't want to live in a country where for doctors, anything less than perfection means a lawsuit. I don't want to live in a country where a documentary can be on the verge of banned just because it pokes fun at the pres. I don't want to live in a country where lawyers are the largest and fastest growing profession, and can still find plenty of work. I want to be able to get up on that damn ladder and refill that ice, and not have my employer worry that I might slip and sue because it was somehow their fault I can't balance. That's all I want, really.
I read another article recently about yet more and more laws trying to be passed that will restrict and prohibit youth work and the environments they work in. One example they used was a kid working at a golf course that somehow managed to run a golf cart into the deck and puncture his heart, killing him. The mother sued the course and is supporting the legislation.
What pisses me off, is that kids like him and their parents shouldn't be able to play along with the legislators and make more laws we don't really need. I mean, did anyone ever consider that maybe the kid was just intensely stupid? How do you run a golf cart into a deck? Its not like they're easy to miss.
Its hard enough for minors to get jobs. The job market is terrible (no thanks to dubya), and more and more potential employers are turning us kids away, telling us we have to be 16 or 18 or even older than that, because some stupid kid who killed himself's mother sued the company for this 'n that. And even in the jobs we can get, they're almost always low-level, menial jobs. Sure, they've got no risk, but they've got no payoff, either, and giving up my weekend for $6.50 an hour doesn't really click in my mind. Why shouldn't we be able to perform higher level tasks? As long as we can do the job right, why the hell should it matter if we're 15 or 16 or 21?
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I'm sick of America restricting everything because Americans won't take responsibility. I wish I could have told my boss that if I somehow managed to slip and die on a three foot stepstool, I promised not to sue. But nobody can take the chance of that anymore because nobody wants to fess up and admit they did something wrong. Our legal system is bullshit and in a world where the German Cannibal can get off homicide charges, people like me are starting to lose faith.
I don't want to live in a country where for doctors, anything less than perfection means a lawsuit. I don't want to live in a country where a documentary can be on the verge of banned just because it pokes fun at the pres. I don't want to live in a country where lawyers are the largest and fastest growing profession, and can still find plenty of work. I want to be able to get up on that damn ladder and refill that ice, and not have my employer worry that I might slip and sue because it was somehow their fault I can't balance. That's all I want, really.
Almost needless to say, we don't think very highly of the population in general.
Comment