WEBVTT - Stepping Stone 0:00:03.140 --> 0:00:07.880 This is Red Pilled America. This episode was originally broadcast 0:00:07.940 --> 0:00:14.160 on May 28th, 2021. For decades, we've been hearing about 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:20.210 a thing called a living wage. It's what they call 0:00:20.230 --> 0:00:23.530 the minimum salary someone requires to pay for their basic needs, 0:00:23.790 --> 0:00:27.510 like food, clothing, and shelter. Many people think employers should 0:00:27.550 --> 0:00:30.070 be forced to pay this living wage. 0:00:30.070 --> 0:00:33.430 $ 15 minimum wage is an economic and moral imperative for 0:00:33.510 --> 0:00:36.350 our nation so that moms and dads don't have to 0:00:36.430 --> 0:00:40.330 choose between asthma inhalers and rent and can put food 0:00:40.409 --> 0:00:43.130 on the table. The Democrats are vowing to continue to 0:00:43.190 --> 0:00:45.750 push to raise the minimum wage, which has not increased 0:00:45.790 --> 0:00:46.750 in more than a decade. 0:00:47.110 --> 0:00:47.710 But should they? 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:59.760 Should employers be forced to pay a living wage? I'm 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:00.580 Patrick Karelchi. 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:02.320 And I'm Adriana Cortez. 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:05.840 And this is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show. 0:01:06.979 --> 0:01:09.410 This is not another talk show covering the day's news. 0:01:09.870 --> 0:01:11.470 We are all about telling stories. 0:01:12.310 --> 0:01:13.930 Stories Hollywood doesn't want you to hear. 0:01:14.830 --> 0:01:19.130 Stories the media mocks. Stories about everyday Americans that the 0:01:19.170 --> 0:01:20.170 globalists ignore. 0:01:20.980 --> 0:01:23.620 You could think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries, 0:01:23.740 --> 0:01:33.419 and we promise only one thing. The truth. Welcome to 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:45.050 Red Pilled America. For decades, people have been arguing about 0:01:45.130 --> 0:01:47.990 raising the minimum wage, and that every employer should be 0:01:48.090 --> 0:01:51.120 forced to pay a full-time employee... enough to meet their 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.720 basic needs. But should employers be forced to pay this 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:57.910 so-called living wage? To find the answer, we're going to 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:00.630 tell the story about our time working minimum wage jobs 0:02:01.030 --> 0:02:10.669 and what we learned about them along the way. As 0:02:10.769 --> 0:02:13.770 I stood there with hot grease dripping down my head, 0:02:14.510 --> 0:02:17.669 staring at the manager blocking my escape, all I could 0:02:17.710 --> 0:02:20.210 think of was, how am I going to explain this 0:02:20.270 --> 0:02:23.250 to mom? It wasn't going to be an easy conversation, 0:02:23.550 --> 0:02:25.970 because I guess technically what I was attempting to do 0:02:26.410 --> 0:02:29.750 could be categorized as a crime, perhaps the most ridiculous 0:02:29.830 --> 0:02:32.490 form imaginable, but I'll let you be the judge of that. 0:02:33.690 --> 0:02:36.750 It all stemmed from an odd infatuation I acquired as 0:02:36.790 --> 0:02:40.000 a young boy. It was around my early elementary school 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:42.820 days that my parents started taking our family to a 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:47.560 Mexican restaurant called Tijuana Inn. We'd frequent this Gardena establishment 0:02:47.780 --> 0:02:50.079 every few weeks and it was there that I was 0:02:50.180 --> 0:02:58.440 introduced to my first love, salsa. Tijuana Inn had the 0:02:58.540 --> 0:03:01.750 best chips and salsa my young palate had ever tasted, 0:03:02.310 --> 0:03:06.309 and I couldn't get enough, literally. Every time we went 0:03:06.330 --> 0:03:09.650 to Tijuana Inn, like clockwork, my mom would cap my 0:03:09.730 --> 0:03:12.970 intake about ten minutes after the basket and jar hit 0:03:13.010 --> 0:03:17.080 the table. Patrick, that's your last one until dinner, she'd say. 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:20.650 So to feed my craving, I came up with a workaround. 0:03:21.430 --> 0:03:23.850 Shortly after I caught on to my mom's routine, I'd 0:03:23.930 --> 0:03:26.850 ask to go to the bathroom. And why? Well, my 0:03:26.930 --> 0:03:30.290 six-year-old brain realized that when people were done with their 0:03:30.330 --> 0:03:33.690 dinner and left, they'd leave their uneaten basket of chips 0:03:33.750 --> 0:03:36.410 on the table. So as I marched my way down 0:03:36.450 --> 0:03:39.670 to the banyo, I'd swipe chips from these baskets all 0:03:39.750 --> 0:03:42.630 along the way. I figured that people had already eaten, 0:03:42.990 --> 0:03:45.570 they'd left the basket of chips behind, so it wasn't 0:03:45.740 --> 0:03:48.410 really stealing. Who was I hurting? I mean, it was 0:03:48.650 --> 0:03:53.230 almost praiseworthy. As children were starving in Africa, I refused 0:03:53.270 --> 0:03:57.650 to let food go to waste. I thought I had 0:03:57.690 --> 0:03:59.970 it all worked out, but the problem was that I 0:04:00.070 --> 0:04:03.450 hadn't yet learned about discretion. On one of these chip 0:04:03.510 --> 0:04:07.360 excavation trips, my mom caught me red-handed grabbing some of 0:04:07.380 --> 0:04:10.540 them from a recently vacated table. I was of course 0:04:10.620 --> 0:04:13.680 swiftly grounded, but by then, my love for that salsa 0:04:13.700 --> 0:04:16.830 had blossomed into a full-blown addiction. So I came up 0:04:16.890 --> 0:04:20.310 with another tactic. It went something like this. During my 0:04:20.330 --> 0:04:24.200 10-minute snacking grace period, I'd have unlimited access to chips 0:04:24.260 --> 0:04:27.260 and salsa. So I took advantage of it. Every time 0:04:27.300 --> 0:04:29.820 I put my hand in the basket, I'd snag two chips. 0:04:30.300 --> 0:04:32.540 One would go into the salsa as a parental diversion. 0:04:32.900 --> 0:04:35.540 The other would be stealthily stored in one of my socks. 0:04:36.060 --> 0:04:38.909 That way, when mom imposed her chip prohibition, my socks 0:04:38.950 --> 0:04:41.930 would already have a nice stockpile. Then as they got 0:04:41.990 --> 0:04:44.990 lost in conversation, I'd pull out a chip from my stash. 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:47.849 I'm not sure if I actually tricked them, or they'd 0:04:47.930 --> 0:04:50.910 just given me a pass for ingenuity. Either way, the 0:04:50.950 --> 0:04:54.529 scheme worked for years until my mom's prohibition phase was repealed. 0:04:59.970 --> 0:05:02.130 By the time I reached 14 years old, we moved 0:05:02.180 --> 0:05:05.779 to Torrance, and the relocation put Tijuana Inn a little 0:05:06.020 --> 0:05:08.820 out of the way. At first, the excitement of the 0:05:08.860 --> 0:05:11.380 move clouded that fact, and I didn't really miss my 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:15.950 favorite spicy-crunch combination. but its absence made the heart grow fonder. 0:05:16.550 --> 0:05:19.150 Every time I got a whiff of Mexican food, Tijuana 0:05:19.290 --> 0:05:22.349 Inn's chips and salsa would come drifting back into my mind. 0:05:22.910 --> 0:05:25.050 And for a minute, a moment of innocence in my 0:05:25.130 --> 0:05:31.250 life seemed lost. But that didn't last too long. You see, 0:05:31.350 --> 0:05:33.670 as luck would have it, we soon figured out that 0:05:33.750 --> 0:05:37.270 Torrance had its own salsa connoisseur, a little hole in 0:05:37.290 --> 0:05:41.070 the wall called Romero's. Romero's was practically walking distance from 0:05:41.110 --> 0:05:43.469 my house, and my mom would take us there whenever 0:05:43.550 --> 0:05:46.400 she could afford to. But the problem with that was 0:05:46.700 --> 0:05:49.719 that it wasn't as often as my craving demanded. And 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:53.100 so in 1986, when I became old enough to legally work, 0:05:53.460 --> 0:05:55.900 I applied for a job at Romero's, and they hired me. 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:01.750 This was a game changer. Not only was I getting 0:06:01.820 --> 0:06:04.930 paid to bus tables, I'd have complete access to a 0:06:04.990 --> 0:06:08.950 salsa that was a cut above my beloved Tijuana Inn. Now, 0:06:08.990 --> 0:06:11.830 Romero's was my first real job. I mean, I did 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:13.900 have a paper route for about a year, but this 0:06:13.940 --> 0:06:16.860 was the first time I'd ever clocked in and hustled 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:19.260 in an adult way. And I learned a lot about 0:06:19.300 --> 0:06:21.820 what it meant to work. You have to be on time. 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.370 You have to be courteous to clients. You have to 0:06:24.410 --> 0:06:27.789 be committed to succeed. But even if you did all that, 0:06:28.070 --> 0:06:30.970 you're still expendable. If you didn't have a skill, any 0:06:31.050 --> 0:06:33.130 bum on the street could come and take that minimum 0:06:33.170 --> 0:06:36.060 wage position, and the machine would keep moving as if 0:06:36.100 --> 0:06:40.310 you'd never existed. I also learned about how employers treated 0:06:40.350 --> 0:06:42.970 their employees. At Romero's, we were allowed to have a 0:06:43.050 --> 0:06:45.830 full meal before our shift started and after it ended. 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:48.450 At the time, I probably would have chosen that fringe 0:06:48.500 --> 0:06:52.140 benefit over health care. We also got a 10-minute rest 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:55.419 break for every four-hour shift. I was told it was 0:06:55.500 --> 0:06:58.219 the law. I didn't often take the break because we 0:06:58.260 --> 0:07:00.900 were busy and it didn't seem necessary. But on the 0:07:01.020 --> 0:07:03.419 rare occasion that I did, I'd scarf down all the 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:06.040 chips and salsa I could in those 10 minutes, just 0:07:06.140 --> 0:07:09.130 like the old days at Tijuana Inn. It was heaven. 0:07:09.690 --> 0:07:14.740 But all good things come to an end. It's time 0:07:14.780 --> 0:07:18.240 to treat yourself to the licorice guy. 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What 0:07:46.750 --> 0:07:49.210 I also love about The Licorice Guy is that it's 0:07:49.250 --> 0:07:52.670 an American family-owned business. It's made right here in the 0:07:52.710 --> 0:07:53.550 beautiful U.S. 0:07:53.590 --> 0:07:53.890 Of A. 0:07:54.110 --> 0:07:57.630 We are big proponents of buying American and supporting American workers. 0:07:57.850 --> 0:08:01.510 Right now, Red Pilled America listeners... Get 15% off when 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:08.239 you enter RPA15 at checkout. Visit LicoriceGuy.com and enter RPA15 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:12.320 at checkout. That's LicoriceGuy.com. They ship daily. Treat yourself and 0:08:12.340 --> 0:08:17.330 those you love and taste the difference. Welcome back to 0:08:17.370 --> 0:08:20.309 Red Pilled America. So I had a great time working 0:08:20.350 --> 0:08:23.530 as a busboy at the Mexican restaurant Romero's. During my 0:08:23.550 --> 0:08:26.740 10-minute break, I'd scarf down as much of their incredible 0:08:26.770 --> 0:08:29.710 chips and salsa as possible. just like the old days 0:08:29.770 --> 0:08:33.890 of Tijuana Inn. It was heaven. But all good things 0:08:34.069 --> 0:08:37.240 eventually come to an end. The owner's daughter had it 0:08:37.290 --> 0:08:40.580 out for me and accused me of stealing alcohol. I hadn't, 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:42.760 I saw the dishwasher do it, but I didn't have 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:45.880 any evidence. So the accusation kind of lingered like a 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:48.820 dark cloud over my head. My only shield was that 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:51.199 the owner liked me. But then one night, one of 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:53.860 my oldest and best friends, Mike, came by to pick 0:08:53.900 --> 0:08:56.520 me up, and as he waited, instead of using our 0:08:56.580 --> 0:09:00.480 restaurant bathroom, he decided to urinate just outside the front 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:03.260 door of the restaurant. The owner's daughter found her opening 0:09:03.580 --> 0:09:06.140 and fired me the next day. It was a big bummer. 0:09:06.750 --> 0:09:09.690 All at once, I lost my job and all-you-can-eat access 0:09:09.730 --> 0:09:16.590 to the best salsa in town. Now around this time 0:09:16.809 --> 0:09:20.350 in 1986, another Mexican restaurant was spreading its wings in 0:09:20.390 --> 0:09:23.270 torrents and it had a unique variety of salsa that 0:09:23.290 --> 0:09:26.970 was hard to find anywhere else. The name of this 0:09:27.030 --> 0:09:29.770 new hot spot was called El Pollo Loco, and their 0:09:29.809 --> 0:09:32.350 salsa was what we'd call pico de gallo, a blend 0:09:32.390 --> 0:09:40.890 of tomatoes, onion, cilantro, lemon, and jalapenos. Man, at the time, 0:09:40.970 --> 0:09:43.970 there was nothing like El Pollo Loco anywhere in town. 0:09:44.610 --> 0:09:47.630 Its flamed cooked chicken was the perfect substrate to deliver 0:09:47.929 --> 0:09:51.000 their one-of-a-kind salsa. The first time I took a bite, 0:09:51.460 --> 0:09:54.390 I was smitten. And just like Romero's, I thought the 0:09:54.490 --> 0:09:56.400 best way to my true love was to be in 0:09:56.540 --> 0:09:59.280 close proximity to her. So I marched down to El 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:02.950 Pollo Loco, applied, and once they saw Romero's on my application, 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.059 it was a done deal. They hired me on the spot. 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:13.530 Now like most restaurants, El Pollo Loco had a uniform. 0:10:14.150 --> 0:10:17.010 But it wasn't that black polo shirt, black pants, and 0:10:17.050 --> 0:10:21.189 black baseball cap of today. Oh no. The mid-80s uniform 0:10:21.410 --> 0:10:23.990 had much more flair. We had to wear a tan 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:28.510 short-sleeved button-up, jeans, brown top-sider shoes, and the cherry on 0:10:28.530 --> 0:10:32.350 the top was a big 10-gallon cowboy hat. They basically 0:10:32.370 --> 0:10:35.750 had us dress like Mexican rancheros. Putting that thing on 0:10:35.790 --> 0:10:38.630 was profoundly humiliating, but I figured it was worth it 0:10:38.690 --> 0:10:41.730 for the paycheck and access to delicious food. And anyway, 0:10:42.030 --> 0:10:44.700 my friends never really ate there, so I thought they'd 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:49.240 never see me. On my first day of work, the 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:54.410 manager explained their pretty formulaic promotion process. I was told 0:10:54.429 --> 0:10:57.980 I'd start out as a general cleaner-upper. After about a month, 0:10:58.010 --> 0:11:01.679 I'd graduate to tortilla flipper. Two months after that, I'd 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:04.660 get my first raise and move up to chicken chopper. 0:11:05.100 --> 0:11:07.480 And if I'd made it that far, the ceiling was 0:11:07.540 --> 0:11:10.320 the limit. They'd either move me to the cashier, or 0:11:10.380 --> 0:11:13.140 I'd be one of the select few allowed to grill 0:11:13.179 --> 0:11:16.180 the chickens. After a few days of work, I thought 0:11:16.220 --> 0:11:19.300 the manager must have sensed greatness, because I skipped the 0:11:19.340 --> 0:11:22.870 cleaner-upper phase and went straight to the griddle to flip tortillas. 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:27.460 My job was to stand over a hot griddle and 0:11:27.500 --> 0:11:30.280 put rows and rows of corn and flour tortillas down 0:11:30.340 --> 0:11:32.520 on its hot surface, then after a few seconds I'd 0:11:32.540 --> 0:11:34.720 have to flip them by hand. Once they were soft, 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:37.020 I'd have to grab them off the griddle, throw them 0:11:37.059 --> 0:11:39.520 into a plastic baggie, and store them in a heated 0:11:39.580 --> 0:11:44.630 drawer below the griddle. This was surprisingly grueling. The pure 0:11:44.750 --> 0:11:47.550 volume of tortillas that went through that joint on Friday 0:11:47.590 --> 0:11:51.310 and Saturday nights was staggering. It didn't matter how hard 0:11:51.370 --> 0:11:53.910 I tried, every few minutes I'd burn the tips of 0:11:53.950 --> 0:11:56.109 my fingers on the griddle while trying to flip those 0:11:56.150 --> 0:11:58.740 bad boys. I remember going to school one day and 0:11:58.750 --> 0:12:00.959 complaining about it to one of my good friends, Ricky. 0:12:01.380 --> 0:12:04.980 He responded, loud enough for everyone to hear, So you 0:12:05.059 --> 0:12:09.969 Flipper de Tortilla? Patrick Flipper de Tortilla! That became my 0:12:10.020 --> 0:12:14.089 new nickname, Flipper de Tortilla. It was not my greatest moment. 0:12:18.010 --> 0:12:21.370 Unlike Romero's, about halfway through my El Pollo Loco shifts, 0:12:21.710 --> 0:12:24.030 I was in need of a break. It was hot, 0:12:24.380 --> 0:12:27.120 chicken juice was flying everywhere, and we were fielding a 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:30.640 constant barrage of customers. However, when I went to take 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:33.479 that break, I was asked what I was doing. Just 0:12:33.580 --> 0:12:36.720 taking my 10 minutes, I responded in a matter-of-fact tone. 0:12:37.260 --> 0:12:39.660 We don't do that here, I was told by the manager. 0:12:40.340 --> 0:12:43.600 It was kind of shocking. I had learned from Romero's 0:12:43.620 --> 0:12:46.740 that it was actually the law, but at this El 0:12:46.780 --> 0:12:51.290 Pollo Loco, They were apparently ignoring it. Well, I got 0:12:51.370 --> 0:12:53.730 up and got back to work, but after some time 0:12:53.750 --> 0:12:56.530 I got curious about this policy and looked around for 0:12:56.590 --> 0:12:59.690 someone to talk to about it. And that's when things 0:12:59.770 --> 0:13:05.340 started to come into focus. I'm sure you're all familiar 0:13:05.380 --> 0:13:08.160 with those art posters that look like nothing but a 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:10.959 bunch of colored dots. But if you give your eyes 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:14.100 time to adjust, all of a sudden an image pops 0:13:14.260 --> 0:13:17.020 out of them. Once you see that image, it's hard 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:19.859 to look at the artwork again without it immediately popping 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:22.679 into focus. Well, that is the best way to describe 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:25.640 this moment. When I looked around to talk to someone 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:29.140 about El Pollo Loco's rest break policy, I noticed that 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:31.990 the only people that really spoke English well were the 0:13:32.020 --> 0:13:36.689 manager and one white girl named Tracy. So when there 0:13:36.730 --> 0:13:39.070 was a lull in orders, I pulled Tracy to the 0:13:39.110 --> 0:13:41.890 side and asked, why won't they give us a break? 0:13:42.470 --> 0:13:44.310 She'd been there long enough to be a cashier, So 0:13:44.350 --> 0:13:47.510 I figured she'd know. Well, look around you, she said. 0:13:48.130 --> 0:13:50.890 I don't think any of them have papers. And that's 0:13:50.950 --> 0:13:53.580 when the hidden image in the artwork came into focus. 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:57.000 Most of the people working with us were illegal aliens, 0:13:57.500 --> 0:14:00.819 Tracy added. They don't give us breaks because everyone else 0:14:00.900 --> 0:14:07.890 here can't complain. I think this was really my first 0:14:08.030 --> 0:14:11.330 true red pill moment. Sure, there'd been other times when 0:14:11.390 --> 0:14:14.450 reality didn't quite align with what I'd heard from experts. 0:14:14.910 --> 0:14:17.929 But this was the first time that realization whipped me 0:14:18.010 --> 0:14:22.410 into a new level of consciousness. You see, it was 1986, 0:14:22.410 --> 0:14:24.600 and Ronald Reagan was on the verge of giving amnesty 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:27.940 to illegal aliens. So many of them were flooding low-skilled 0:14:27.980 --> 0:14:30.600 workplaces like El Pollo Loco, waiting for the Gipper to 0:14:30.620 --> 0:14:33.860 make them citizens. In the meantime, their presence made it 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:37.100 easy for companies to flout labor laws. As a result, 0:14:37.380 --> 0:14:42.020 working conditions were lowered for everyone. including heat-exhausted tortilla flippers. 0:14:48.290 --> 0:14:51.170 As time went by, there were other policies that seemed screwy. 0:14:52.030 --> 0:14:54.890 Unlike Romero's, there was no free meal before or even 0:14:55.130 --> 0:14:58.080 after work. You had to pay full price for everything. 0:14:58.510 --> 0:15:01.460 Not a smart policy, but not illegal. However, what was 0:15:01.500 --> 0:15:04.580 perhaps even more off-putting was that at the end of 0:15:04.620 --> 0:15:07.400 the night, any unsold chickens that were left on the 0:15:10.630 --> 0:15:14.830 Employees couldn't even pick at those carcasses. Their rationale was 0:15:14.870 --> 0:15:18.100 that workers could create excess food every night by just 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:20.940 throwing extra chickens on the grill. So we were told 0:15:20.980 --> 0:15:23.680 to throw any unsold chicken into the garbage to ensure 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:27.260 they wrung every cent of profit out of us. That 0:15:27.380 --> 0:15:31.530 was an eye-opener. Apparently my frustration with their policies wasn't 0:15:31.550 --> 0:15:35.190 affecting my work because they fast-tracked me. After less than 0:15:35.250 --> 0:15:37.710 two months, I moved one rung up their corporate ladder. 0:15:38.150 --> 0:15:41.530 I became a chicken chopper. Shortly after my promotion, my 0:15:41.590 --> 0:15:45.960 pal Ricky jokingly ribbed me. What's up, Flippity Tortilla? And 0:15:46.030 --> 0:15:50.180 like a dumbass, I responded, Wrong, Ricky. I'm chopping chicken now. 0:15:51.380 --> 0:15:55.240 I might as well have gif-wrapped his response. You choppa 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:59.840 da chicken? Patrick choppa da chicken? My new nickname was born. 0:15:59.860 --> 0:16:02.520 The End. 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:10.000 As time went along, the only thing that was really 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:14.020 keeping me at El Pollo Loco was the often-talked-about three-month raise. 0:16:14.580 --> 0:16:17.120 I mean, I was working like an animal, with no breaks, 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:19.340 no free food, and to top it off, my acne 0:16:19.380 --> 0:16:22.340 was at an all-time high. I mean, I had zits 0:16:22.380 --> 0:16:25.800 that resembled tumors. The chicken juice was more than my 0:16:25.830 --> 0:16:29.030 16-year-old pores could handle. And I also wasn't making crap. 0:16:29.510 --> 0:16:31.210 With a minimum wage at $ 3. 35 an hour, my two-week 0:16:31.230 --> 0:16:37.040 paycheck was never over $ 100. 00. so I rarely had any 0:16:37.100 --> 0:16:39.680 money in my pocket. But it was that three-month raised 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:43.950 carrot they dangled that kept me coming back. Working at 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:47.470 Opoyo Loco also started creating more problems than it solved. 0:16:47.790 --> 0:16:49.610 You see, since my job was at a food place, 0:16:49.850 --> 0:16:51.770 my mom would often ask me to bring chicken home 0:16:51.810 --> 0:16:55.290 for my little brother Casey. On one instance, I forgot 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:58.060 to bring money to work, so I came home empty-handed. 0:16:58.620 --> 0:17:00.960 Why couldn't they just give you the chicken, for Christ's sakes? 0:17:00.980 --> 0:17:04.210 You work there, my mom asked, a bit annoyed. So 0:17:04.230 --> 0:17:06.730 when I forgot money the second time, I had a 0:17:06.810 --> 0:17:09.400 real problem. I was either going to go home with 0:17:09.500 --> 0:17:12.520 nothing again and disappoint mom, or I had to figure 0:17:12.580 --> 0:17:15.500 out a way to take some chicken home, free of charge. 0:17:21.930 --> 0:17:24.790 Now you have to remember, El Pollo Loco was jipping 0:17:24.830 --> 0:17:28.129 me on my legally required paid rest break for months. 0:17:28.530 --> 0:17:31.190 They easily owed me a few hours of back pay. 0:17:31.740 --> 0:17:34.139 So I figured, rather than take my case to the 0:17:34.180 --> 0:17:37.560 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, I'd simply take payment and chicken. 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:42.960 As we began to close up that night, I desperately 0:17:43.070 --> 0:17:44.850 tried to come up with a plan to slip a 0:17:44.890 --> 0:17:47.550 few pieces out the door, but I was drawing a blank. 0:17:48.150 --> 0:17:50.369 My shirt wasn't baggy, so there was no way to 0:17:50.410 --> 0:17:53.429 hide a bag there. My jeans were too tight, so 0:17:53.450 --> 0:17:55.429 my pockets were out of the question. I went to 0:17:55.470 --> 0:17:58.470 the bathroom to contemplate my situation, and when I looked 0:17:58.510 --> 0:18:01.419 at my reflection in the mirror, it hit me. I 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:05.720 had a cowboy hat on, a big, high-crowned chicken concealing 0:18:05.780 --> 0:18:07.899 mechanism sitting right there on the top of my head. 0:18:08.460 --> 0:18:12.270 I could hide the chicken in my hat. Now, unlike today, 0:18:12.290 --> 0:18:15.369 I had hair back then, and it was saturated with 0:18:15.430 --> 0:18:19.230 Joico gel. So placing this greasy chicken directly on top 0:18:19.270 --> 0:18:22.470 of my head would have been problematic. I needed a buffer. 0:18:23.070 --> 0:18:25.470 That's when another idea struck me. I could put a 0:18:25.590 --> 0:18:27.860 few bags of tortillas on the top of my head, 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:30.000 place a breast and a few wings on top of 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:33.750 the tortillas, then cram the cowboy hat over the entire combo. 0:18:34.070 --> 0:18:36.510 The only thing left would be to gingerly walk out 0:18:36.550 --> 0:18:39.090 of El Pollo Loco like those African women that balance 0:18:39.130 --> 0:18:42.090 baskets on their head. How hard could it be? So 0:18:42.130 --> 0:18:44.970 I put my plan into action. When no one was looking, 0:18:45.210 --> 0:18:47.230 I grabbed a breast and a few wings, then two 0:18:47.290 --> 0:18:50.149 baggies of corn tortillas, and rushed to the back. I 0:18:50.230 --> 0:18:52.960 placed the tortillas on top of my head, then the chicken, 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:56.540 then the hat. It sat kinda high, but it was working. 0:18:56.980 --> 0:18:58.580 The problem now was that I had to get out 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.830 of there pronto, because not only was my cargo hot, 0:19:02.150 --> 0:19:05.330 the chicken was juicy. So I made my way to 0:19:05.369 --> 0:19:08.770 the exit, walking with my neck and head as stiff 0:19:08.990 --> 0:19:11.950 as a board. As I crept from behind the counter 0:19:12.050 --> 0:19:14.520 and passed a few of the cleaner uppers, I felt 0:19:14.580 --> 0:19:17.540 grease dripping from the top of my head into my mullet. 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:20.139 It mixed with the Joico gel in my hair to 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:24.310 create almost a snowball effect. The goop was getting bigger 0:19:24.430 --> 0:19:27.290 and bigger as it slithered down the back of my head. 0:19:27.770 --> 0:19:30.490 The feeling was almost unbearable, but I had a clear 0:19:30.609 --> 0:19:32.740 shot for the front door, so I went for it, 0:19:33.230 --> 0:19:35.470 being careful not to tip my head to the side. 0:19:36.230 --> 0:19:38.850 As I approached the door, a feeling of relief swept 0:19:38.930 --> 0:19:42.770 over me. Man, that was easy, I thought. And just 0:19:42.830 --> 0:19:46.149 when I got comfortable, the El Pollo local manager stepped 0:19:46.170 --> 0:19:48.430 in front of me. He had a serious look on 0:19:48.470 --> 0:19:51.800 his face. Oh, man, I thought. 0:19:52.410 --> 0:19:52.889 I boss. 0:19:53.980 --> 0:19:56.360 This was not how I wanted to be caught with 0:19:56.420 --> 0:19:57.060 a hot chick. 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:06.900 Do you want to hear Red Pilled America stories ad-free? 0:20:07.350 --> 0:20:12.250 then become a backstage subscriber. Just log on to redpilledamerica.com 0:20:12.290 --> 0:20:15.179 and click join in the top menu. Join today and 0:20:15.220 --> 0:20:17.560 help us save America one story at a time. 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:23.080 Welcome back. So in desperation, I decided to hide chicken 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:26.580 and tortillas under my El Pollo Loco cowboy hat. But 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:28.889 as I made my way to the front door, a 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:31.750 manager stepped in front of me. He had a serious 0:20:31.810 --> 0:20:36.090 look on his face. Oh man, I thought, I'm busted. 0:20:36.820 --> 0:20:38.729 This was not how I wanted to be caught with 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:42.620 a hot chick. The manager looked at me for what 0:20:42.740 --> 0:20:46.860 seemed like minutes. Then finally, he opened his mouth. Patrick, 0:20:46.980 --> 0:20:50.100 we really appreciate your work here. Next week, I'm moving 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:53.860 you up to the cash register. Oh, that sounds great, 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:56.760 I answered, as the chicken juice reached the back of 0:20:56.820 --> 0:20:59.860 my neck. All right, see you next week. And with 0:20:59.900 --> 0:21:02.980 those last words, I did my best impersonation of an 0:21:03.140 --> 0:21:05.780 African head carrier and made my way to the car. 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:08.899 Once I got into my Datsun B210, I flipped my 0:21:08.940 --> 0:21:11.550 head down and pulled the cowboy hat off. The chicken 0:21:11.570 --> 0:21:15.369 and tortillas were still smoking. I'd gotten away with it, 0:21:15.869 --> 0:21:18.709 but I would pay dearly later. That weekend marked the 0:21:18.770 --> 0:21:24.670 worst acne breakout of my entire life. The following week, 0:21:24.730 --> 0:21:26.930 I showed up to work ready for my new position. 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:30.379 Manning the cash register meant no more sweating over the 0:21:30.420 --> 0:21:33.760 griddle and no more chicken juice drenching my face. My 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:36.639 hard work had paid off. but when I showed up 0:21:36.700 --> 0:21:42.179 to work that day, something unexpected happened. The drive-thru intercom malfunctioned. 0:21:42.780 --> 0:21:46.020 Now someone had to stand outside and take drive-thru orders, 0:21:46.420 --> 0:21:50.840 and that someone was the new cashier. Me. I'd been 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:54.120 avoiding being seen in my El Pollo local uniform since 0:21:54.260 --> 0:21:57.260 day one on the job, and now I had to 0:21:57.320 --> 0:21:59.820 stand outside in the public on one of the most 0:21:59.940 --> 0:22:04.929 trafficked intersections in North Torrance in a ranchero costume. As 0:22:05.010 --> 0:22:07.929 I walked outside, I just hoped that no one I 0:22:07.990 --> 0:22:11.280 knew drove by. But I wasn't taking orders for longer 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:14.520 than 15 minutes when I heard someone honking behind me. 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:17.200 As I turned around, I saw my buddy Ricky in 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:21.140 his blue Volvo. His car was packed. As he drove by, 0:22:21.220 --> 0:22:26.300 he yelled out the window, Flippity tortilla! Choppa da chicken! 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:32.659 The rest of the night was a blur. Music Now 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:34.659 this may come as a surprise, but I'm not the 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:37.500 only person that's had an embarrassing experience on a minimum 0:22:37.540 --> 0:22:38.280 wage job. 0:22:38.300 --> 0:22:42.590 Because I remember definitely being upset and embarrassed that night 0:22:43.350 --> 0:22:45.670 when I went home. I think I may have even cried. 0:22:46.369 --> 0:22:49.689 Of course, that's my lovely wife and co-host Adriana. Her 0:22:49.730 --> 0:22:52.010 first real job was working at the social hub of 0:22:52.050 --> 0:22:52.930 the MTV era. 0:22:55.950 --> 0:22:58.710 You know, malls were a big, big thing in the 80s. 0:22:59.680 --> 0:23:01.740 And the West Covina Mall was, it was a fun 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:05.060 hangout for my friends and I. You know, think of 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:07.460 80s movies where all the kids go to the mall. 0:23:07.850 --> 0:23:09.170