Two Men on a Corner
A few days ago I drove through a busy intersection in Olympia. The intersection is really busy because it has major consumer shops on every corner, connects the freeway to the mall, and connects the rest of Olympia to the auto mall. It's a big intersection.
The corner regularly has guys holding signs reading "anything helps", "traveling broke", and one that made me look twice said "my wife got her wings now help me bury her". That was a new one.
The other day there were two guys on one corner! I was curious how that was playing out until I saw that one guy was holding a sign asking for money and the other was holding a sign advertising $5 pizza at Little Caesar.
The minimum wage in Washington State is $9.19. Lets just assume the pizza guy works 3 hours. That is $27.57 before taxes. I'm guessing if you only make $27.57 you don't pay taxes.
The point to my little word problem is this: who makes more on the corner? The guy simply begging or the guy working?
I'd like to think the guy working but I'm really not sure.
I'd like to think that the beggar would rather be a worker but I'm not sure about that either.
I'd also like to think that it is possible for the beggar to be the worker but I'm not sure about that either. After filling out my own job applications and volunteer applications, I can see how challenging it may be for someone who doesn't have any references or maybe even a home address to try and get a job somewhere.
Things I think about when I drive.
The corner regularly has guys holding signs reading "anything helps", "traveling broke", and one that made me look twice said "my wife got her wings now help me bury her". That was a new one.
The other day there were two guys on one corner! I was curious how that was playing out until I saw that one guy was holding a sign asking for money and the other was holding a sign advertising $5 pizza at Little Caesar.
The minimum wage in Washington State is $9.19. Lets just assume the pizza guy works 3 hours. That is $27.57 before taxes. I'm guessing if you only make $27.57 you don't pay taxes.
The point to my little word problem is this: who makes more on the corner? The guy simply begging or the guy working?
I'd like to think the guy working but I'm really not sure.
I'd like to think that the beggar would rather be a worker but I'm not sure about that either.
I'd also like to think that it is possible for the beggar to be the worker but I'm not sure about that either. After filling out my own job applications and volunteer applications, I can see how challenging it may be for someone who doesn't have any references or maybe even a home address to try and get a job somewhere.
Things I think about when I drive.
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