Saturday Thoughts

Chick Fil-A is coming to Buffalo soon…it’s a controversial restaurant


People say their food is far better than that of other restaurants that serve chicken sandwiches. I had it once and yes, it was very good…but I don’t get the hype. They stay closed on Sundays for religious reasons as dictated by their founder…their choice. Not the best business idea but again, their choice. Their founder has a backwards view on gay marriage and can be categorized as a homophobic bigot. Sexuality is no more a choice than skin color. Maybe it’s even less so if that’s possible…lol…Michael Jackson ring a bell? To be in favor of depriving the legal rights of a person because of something that isn’t a choice isn’t Christian, it’s bigoted. Now, some are against Chick Fil-A because of those views of the founder. Me, while it’s nothing I’d go out of my way for, I don’t think it’s fair to punish employees who may not share those views.


People are lacking some facts where it comes to military pay. Currently, an E-2 makes $21,520.80 per year. I used E-2 as a baseline because when I was in the Air Force, I was only an E-1 for 6 months…while in Basic and in Tech School. Current NYS minimum wage is $10.40/hr, which adds up to $21,632 a year for 40 hour weeks. On the outset, that looks bad…that someone flipping burgers makes more than an E-2 in the military. However, that analysis is completely false and here’s why. In the military, housing and meals are completely covered when you live on base. If you’re making minimum wage in the private sector, you have to pay for meals, rent, and utilities that you don’t have to pay for if you’re in the military. Even if you get off-base housing, you get allowances to help cover housing and food costs. Also, if a military member is deployed into a hostile area, they get combat pay. This all isn’t to say the military is overpaid by any means, but to compare their pay to private citizens without all the facts is ignorant and/or dishonest. Put it this way…a few months before joining the service, I bought a new car with payments of about $270 a month…which I could never afford at my current pay. When I was in the service, I was not only able to afford that car payment, but I was frequently making double payments.