I used to work at a car part store and the majority of the staff was teenagers looking to get into the car world (either future mechanics, or car parts managers) but they WAY under paid us for the type of work. Repair shops looking for specialty parts that someone with mechanics experience should really be looking for, not some teenager asking "whats a brake rotor?". We had a revolving door of workers and our customers knew we were terrible and likely to get the wrong part. Getting screamed at by customers was daily because we had no idea what they were doing. However the exploitation was a trade off of, "I'll get a year experience and go to a dealership" or "I just need a filler job until I get a better job". It was ""exploitive"" but it was extremely helpful to me, it was the only job willing to let me be part time while in school that didn't involve hard physical labour. I did more exploitive jobs before, working 10+ hours hand shoveling snow in -40 for $10/hour. That company didn't last very long because they drained the whole city of potential employees and never knew who was gonna show the next day.
You can read this as dismissive, but it does show the strength of the drive to rationalize; which is one of my biggest problems with things like "rational skepticism". It's too easy to rationalize something you already believe, or a situation you just happen to find yourself in. It's too fun to 'debunk' things, and too much of a chore to actually change beliefs.
I realize the obvious counter "That's not real rational skepticism".
Whats your solution though? Strike? People will still apply and work there because it's bad, but not slave labour. Unionize? They'll entirely stop hiring people without experience and change their business model.
Their business model was to be the cheapest. Cheapest employees, cheapest parts. They filled the market share for people looking for cheap cheap parts. That involves crappy service.
If they raised their employee pay, the entire business model goes belly up. That means, no more cheap cheap parts for customers and no entry job positions for employees looking to break the field.
It was a delicate balance of ""exploitation"" and keeping them happy enough they are willing to stay.
If you have nothing to offer the company besides a pulse, you don't get to pick and choose. Why would that be fair to force a company to pay more for no reason? Sometimes you put up with bullshit for a couple years and then you get to be more picky.
