Watching liberals and leftists who claim to support job creation push back on Oregon having workers pump gas is disheartening. A full employment economy doesn't mean that everyone is living educated white dream lives.
A full employment economy is one where people have jobs. For a lot of people with few skills and limited education, pumping gas is not a bad job. They get to chat with people, move around all day, etc. These are not horrible jobs.
Moreover, having people pump gas is a trivial addition to gas prices. Oregon prices are lower than Washington and California, New Jersey's are lower than most of the region.
The idea that people pumping gas is a "tax" on drivers time and money is a weak argument as well. First, full employment requires investment from everyone, including a bit of time from drivers. Second, when it's slow, it's because employers don't hire enough workers.
What the opposition from left/liberals to employees pumping gas really comes down to is people thinking it's absurd because they do it themselves. But that's a horrible reason to create policy. Yet it drives much of the talk about economic policy on the liberal/left.
Pumping gas in Oregon and New Jersey also tends to pay $1-$2 above minimum wage, creating a private sector drive to raise unskilled wages, which is good on its own.
I'm not claiming that Oregon and New Jersey have the greatest policy in the world by hiring people to pump gas. But I am distressed to see people on the left dismiss it because it's not the kind of job they value.
And I think people on the left dismiss pumping gas as a valued job because they often aren't connected with the real lives and options of working-class people for whom this is actually a valuable alternative.
And in an era where automation and deindustrialization have undermined job opportunities for the working class, pumping gas is an actual alternative, at least for some. Shouldn't be dismissed entirely.
I would strongly urge people to imagine what a full employment economy actually looks like in real world, not in dream "let's find jobs that fulfill us" world. For low-skilled, low-education workers, what would have them do?
Throughout American discourse on jobs, there is a frequent dismissal of the actual jobs held by low-skilled people. When it happens on the left and among liberals, this is even more disturbing.
