Thank You to Pizza Drivers and other working Americans

[Bugshu]

Years ago, I left college with my tail between my legs. I owed money to the world. I owed money to the power company, the gas company, the apartment complex, the college, the government, 2 phone companies, credit card companies and more.....

Anyway, I got a short lived job delivering pizzas and was basically trading the value of my car for a few bucks delivering pizzas. The pizza owner paid us minimum wage plus $1 per delivery and minimum wage. The $1 barely paid for gas and that was years ago. Maintenence and vehicle costs were on me. Sometimes it amazed me that a waitress could deliver food a few feet and get 15% - 20% tips and I could drive 30 miles in my car and get stiffed but hey thats how life goes. I learned that money doesnt buy class. I delivered pizzas to the country club section of town and got stiffed and I delivered pizzas to hovels and was tipped handsomely. I had a drunk sic his pitbull on me and I dropped the pizza and the dog ate it. I had to pay for that pizza out of pocket and before I made it back to the shop the guy had called in a complaint on me. I was stiffed by churches and asked in for cookies and milk by little old ladies. One church, upon ordering $300 worth of pizzas for a youth party insisted that they were free because churches should get free pizza. We had a policy at our store that the driver paid for the pizzas before leaving the store and they were his responsibility. I would have been out a months pay if I had given away the pizzas for free and it saddened me to have to fight for their value.

I guess that I was a loser for not having a college degree and was delivering pizzas but I always felt like if you owed people money that you should pay it back. I had debts and I needed a job and the pizza place hired me. We had heroes that worked with us. One guy had a daughter with cancer and was delivering pizzas as a third job to help pay for treatment. I really admired the guy and wanted to get to know him better but he didnt have time for friends. Others supported families and paid taxes and had their reasons for wanting to work.

I have a simple solution for not tipping if you dont want to tip. Dont ask for service that you dont intend to reward. If you dont want to tip a waitress then go to Burger King. If you dont want to tip a Pizza driver then dont order a Pizza. Its pretty simple really. No need to make a fuss about it.

Ive known my share of heartbroken people that live desperate lives where finances were a struggle. Ive known people that struggled to find money to eat or who have given up on god because poverty overwhelmed their happiness. I have wonderful succesful friends and I am thrilled with their success and happiness and I have friends who are down and out and Im proud of all of them and happy to be of their acquaintance.

I want to take a minute and say thank you to those people with jobs who pay taxes. I have a friend who is a 15 year employee at Wal-mart and has never missed a day of work or had a bad job evaluation and is making $8 something per hour. Thank you Ellen for working for others. Id like to say thank you to the many waitresses that bring us food. Thank you to the cashiers that check us out. If you stock shelves so I can buy something in a store rather than having to drive 100 miles to get it then I thank you. If you plumb pipes and jockey trucks then you have my gratitude. If you punch cows or ride a tractor then thank you. If you pick up trash, fix a car, change oil, or design products then I thank you. If you stand watch for your country or wear a badge and deal with people I want to avoid or fight flames then I thank you. If you pound nails then I thank you. If you wash dishes or bus tables then I thank you. If you heal the sick or teach the children then I thank you. If you dig ditches and lay pipes then I thank you. If you shovel the goodstuff at a feedlot then I thank you.

Each and everyone of you that works for a living and does his best to pay taxes and support yourselves and contribute to this great country has my admiration. We have people in this society who take from others, and demand welfare, and dont work and want happiness given to them for nothing and you know what the Pizza drivers of the world are the least of our problems.

This country has been built by heroes and the heroes who have built it have all contributed by playing their small parts.

Id like to thank each of you that does your small part to make my life better so that our streets are clean and safe and we have stores to shop in and restaurants where we can eat and after a long hard day we dont ALWAYS have to cook for our selves and we can enjoy the small luxuries of life.

Again, Thank You for all that you do!!!!!


Happy Motoring All,

)

Bugshu

 

[TR3-2001SE]

Could not have said this better! These people are what makes America or any country for that matter great!

 

[Amkeer]

Great post!

 

[fuel tanker man]

Bugshu, great post--this needed to be said.

I get really tweaked at people who spew the mantra "Get a college degree or you'll end up flipping burgers at McDonalds!"

And just about everyone chimes in and echos that sentiment.

Of course it's wrong--many folks without college degrees do very well in life, and many folks who have degrees end up in dead end jobs with little pay.

But the thing that really bothers me is the "holier than thou" sentiment that goes along with impugning the folks who actually do flip the burgers.

These asinine jerks like to poke fun at the folks who make the Big Macs and mop the floors--but let their portly sorry bellies start grumbling for a Quarter-Pounder and the self-righteous pieces of tripe darn well expect someone to make it for them, and they expect it to be made right. Someone--yeah, someone... one of "those" people.

I hate elitist bastards...

(rant over)

Dan

 

[frank2009]

great post Bugshu, thanks for taking the time to write it!

 

[pbm]

I want to take a minute and say thank you to those people with jobs who pay taxes.

What about those with jobs that don't pay taxes?

 

[eljefino]

Incidentally, McDonalds' complained bitterly when "McJob" found its way into the dictionary recently....

 

[TallPaul]

quote:

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Originally posted by fuel tanker man:
Of course it's wrong--many folks without college degrees do very well in life, and many folks who have degrees end up in dead end jobs with little pay.

---

Sometimes those who do well in college end up working for those who did not go to college. It is a lot of work to get through college, but it is a lot more work and a lot of risk to start your own business.

 

[moribundman]

While I am one of those people who usually does make his own pie (like Kramer!) and bakes his own pizza, I do tip according to the common, local rules.

We had a few incidents with delivery drivers being beaten and robbed, while one, a foreign student, was actually murdered last year while delivering a pizza.

 

[moribundman]

quote:

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What about those with jobs that don't pay taxes?

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Like the paperboy?

 

[Pablo]

Interesting post.

Back when I started as a bus boy in 1975, we got $1.65/hr AND the waitresses did NOT share tips with us. It was a job and I worked hard. Knott's Berry Farm Steak House.

Now I am unemployed.

I am not complaining about either situation - we walk down the path of our choosing.

 

[Gary Allan]

For anyone who believes that people get what they deserve ..and thoroughly assures that they are well informed of that condition at every available opportunity...


Sure there are going to be greater and lesser people than you. There always will be. Luckily for many of us, there is a vast diversity in potential and ability as well as ambition. We can't use this as the soul tenet for success or the "worthyness" of reward. Suppose every one of us was Newton ..or Einstein ..or whomever (insert icon of brilliance) ..which one would collect the trash? Which one would flip the burgers? Which one would fill the available slot to deliver the pizza?

So, although many appear to get what they deserve, don't confuse what someone does for a living..with what they are as a human being.

 

[Pablo]

quote:

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don't confuse what someone does for a living..with what they are as a human being

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True wisdom to live by.

 

[Shannow]

Bugshu, great post.

 

[Drew99GT]

Kum by ya.......Kum by ya. Kum by ya........kum by ya. Great post Bugshu. Way to represent the little folk out there, cause without them, the big folk don't have **** (and they know it!)!

 

[OMCWankel]

Great post Bugshu

Great replies from Fuel Tanker Man, Gary Allan, and others

ALL jobs are worthwhile. I started my work history as a janitor. My sister works at Wal-Mart. The work ethic is alive and well in America.

Many of us have had to take at some point in our life. Those who continue to take, and do not even TRY to contribute, are the real problem.

 

[JHZR2]

exactly. All jobs are worthwhile. While I disagree that unskilled laborers should make as much as well educated professionals, and I have some gripes with organizes labor (though Im not really against unions, etc), one man's 40 hours shouldnt be THAT much less than another's.

Unfortunately many of us think we have more in common with the CEO of some company or the president or some other high-society person than with the common GED wal-mart worker. Unfortunately it is very much the opposite for most everyone. Im an advanced degree engineer: well educated, and Ive worked hard to know and do what I do. But Im closer to being poor than I am to being rich, and even if I save and invest every dime forever, buy and own my home, have a two-income family, never finance a car, be supar frugal, etc., etc., Ill never be rich like those folks.

I have to feel bad for those who earn a low wage and get screwed by greedy management and people who profit off the sweat of the unappreciated laborers' brows.

At the same time, some people dont have much work ethic, are kind of lazy, and feel that they deserve more than their attempts are. I dont have much sympathy for them.

All in all, I appreciate all people who try to give me some 'value added' whether its the helpful auto store clerk, the waiter/waitress who tries extra hard, the college student trying to reduce their student loans and have a few spending dollars by delivering pizzas, the high school kid coming around to shovel my sidewalk, etc. People who try to make things nice and easier, and give me something good for my money.

I dont very much appreciate those who look inconvenienced when I use them to do some work, whatever it is, from be a waiter or a clerk who is supposed to check my groceries out at the store. I also dont appreciate those who think they deserve something extra (a tip, a higher wage, etc.) just because of the work they do.

Its a delicate balance though.

JMH

[ May 16, 2005, 06:57 PM: Message edited by: JHZR2 ]

 

[Toy4x4]

Great post, Bugshu and a great reply by fuel tanker man!!

I happen to be in the service industry (bellman for a 4 star resort, and previously at a 5 star) and rely on tips for a living and considering the state of some people's finances (degreed and not) I think I'm doing very well for myself. I happen to be one of those people who hasn't found what they want to do for a career, which is very frustrating. On the other hand, I do my job well and am rewarded in kind...with tips. Yes, there are those who aren't well traveled and tip poorly and those who are just cheap. It happens. There are those few who just don't have a clue and stiff. They don't know it is a CUSTOM. The same with pizza delivery...it is a custom in this country to tip the delivery person and should be respected otherwise don't use the service. One wouldn't walk into a house in Japan and refuse to take off their shoes if you were asked. It is their custom (correct me if I'm wrong).
Toy4x4

 

[andrews]

I would comment here, but the last post I tried to submit got deleted.
I must be on "the list"?

 

[moribundman]

quote:

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Of course it's wrong--many folks without college degrees do very well in life, and many folks who have degrees end up in dead end jobs with little pay.

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Fuel tanker man, I never saw getting higher education as only a means of getting a high(er) paying job later. I'm not saying you are implying that, but I want to point out my view anyway. People do have different priorities in life. For some it's money, for some it's fame, for other's it's the ability to go fishing. Anybody can lose his job, no matter what kind of job it is, but nobody can lose his education -- unless he fritters away his brain with daytime television and the good life, of course.

An education surely is not holding anybody back, but lack of education most often limits a person's options. That's why I get mad when I see an adult who reads at a 3rd grade level. As for that pizza delivery guy, he may well be a college student who makes that way 50 bucks a week to pay his lunch.