(no subject)
Last night was glorious.
I stole liquor from three minors.
I can see this becoming an addiction.
Why?
Because it's insulting to my intelligence and the intelligence of others.
When I was underage, yes I drank. All such things are well and fine, too, because I wasn't so frigging stupid about it when I was a minor.
How so, you may ask?
Well, for starters, I didn't hang out outside a liquor store asking people I didn't know to buy me booze. I had systems in place. I didn't put anyone in a position to catch me, or my person of legal age, exchanging money in a public place, outside of the NSLC. That's how you get caught.
When you get caught, it's expensive.
How is that?
Well, for minors, you could just lose your booze. In BC, however, you can get fined up to $230. That sucks. I wish they'd hand out more of those fines.
But you minors nowadays don't seem to understand the risks that other people have to take in order for there to be drunk 18 and under folk out there. You might think it's not a big deal, but it actually is.
Because who ever is buying for you can get a fine also. And a fine for someone who is not a minor (whose woes get put on the back burner when they turn of age, in a lot of cases) is actually quite a little black mark. Lots of places scan IDs now. Despite how you feel about scanning IDs, it doesn't matter, because when a black mark is on it, you can get refused entrance into places, like bars or pubs or clubs.
But that's a minor inconvenience. Because the fines associated with booting are around that $200 mark, also.
I make a shit average of less than $12 an hour between both of my jobs. That's approximately 20 hours worth of work. Actually, a little more than that when you consider that the government takes it's share each dollar that one makes. That's about three days work down the drain for little old me if I get a fine.
Take someone who makes the minimum wage in BC of what... $9.50, that's closer to 25 hours work, which is more than three days.
That's a lot of work down the drain for no real benefit to myself, were I to choose to boot for you.
But then there is this other aspect that you might not be thinking about. It's the liquor stores themselves. See, we have this HUGE responsibility to make decisions every time someone walks in the door, whether or not to serve them. In fact, we're bound by contract to do make these decisions with our workplace and with our training (serving it right).
As and employee at a liquor store, we can get fined if our booze goes out the door, straight into the hands of minors. Even if it happens around the corner and out of sight. That's right, the employee. Who usually makes $9.50, maybe $10 an hour.
THEN, the establishment can get a fine. If said establishment gets a fine, said employee might be looking at a black mark themselves, and may get shit canned.
But it gets worse, because said establishment can also get shut down for in some cases up to 10 days.
That's 10 days of an entire store of people being out of work. There's no EI to cover that shit. That's lost wages, to people who don't make a whole hell of a lot of money to begin with. On top of a fine, on top of job risk.
Something that is a very real risk for a liquor store employee. Something that we get paid way to little to do, but sometimes have little other choice, thanks.
So you may not get it now, but someday when you're at a liquor store working balls as a second job to pay off your student loans, and you see someone booting for minors you'll look back on the day when you were once a minor. And you won't give a shit.
I stole liquor from three minors.
I can see this becoming an addiction.
Why?
Because it's insulting to my intelligence and the intelligence of others.
When I was underage, yes I drank. All such things are well and fine, too, because I wasn't so frigging stupid about it when I was a minor.
How so, you may ask?
Well, for starters, I didn't hang out outside a liquor store asking people I didn't know to buy me booze. I had systems in place. I didn't put anyone in a position to catch me, or my person of legal age, exchanging money in a public place, outside of the NSLC. That's how you get caught.
When you get caught, it's expensive.
How is that?
Well, for minors, you could just lose your booze. In BC, however, you can get fined up to $230. That sucks. I wish they'd hand out more of those fines.
But you minors nowadays don't seem to understand the risks that other people have to take in order for there to be drunk 18 and under folk out there. You might think it's not a big deal, but it actually is.
Because who ever is buying for you can get a fine also. And a fine for someone who is not a minor (whose woes get put on the back burner when they turn of age, in a lot of cases) is actually quite a little black mark. Lots of places scan IDs now. Despite how you feel about scanning IDs, it doesn't matter, because when a black mark is on it, you can get refused entrance into places, like bars or pubs or clubs.
But that's a minor inconvenience. Because the fines associated with booting are around that $200 mark, also.
I make a shit average of less than $12 an hour between both of my jobs. That's approximately 20 hours worth of work. Actually, a little more than that when you consider that the government takes it's share each dollar that one makes. That's about three days work down the drain for little old me if I get a fine.
Take someone who makes the minimum wage in BC of what... $9.50, that's closer to 25 hours work, which is more than three days.
That's a lot of work down the drain for no real benefit to myself, were I to choose to boot for you.
But then there is this other aspect that you might not be thinking about. It's the liquor stores themselves. See, we have this HUGE responsibility to make decisions every time someone walks in the door, whether or not to serve them. In fact, we're bound by contract to do make these decisions with our workplace and with our training (serving it right).
As and employee at a liquor store, we can get fined if our booze goes out the door, straight into the hands of minors. Even if it happens around the corner and out of sight. That's right, the employee. Who usually makes $9.50, maybe $10 an hour.
THEN, the establishment can get a fine. If said establishment gets a fine, said employee might be looking at a black mark themselves, and may get shit canned.
But it gets worse, because said establishment can also get shut down for in some cases up to 10 days.
That's 10 days of an entire store of people being out of work. There's no EI to cover that shit. That's lost wages, to people who don't make a whole hell of a lot of money to begin with. On top of a fine, on top of job risk.
Something that is a very real risk for a liquor store employee. Something that we get paid way to little to do, but sometimes have little other choice, thanks.
So you may not get it now, but someday when you're at a liquor store working balls as a second job to pay off your student loans, and you see someone booting for minors you'll look back on the day when you were once a minor. And you won't give a shit.