a trip

So beginith the rant:

I recently took a trip to Oklahoma to visit my family. This trip was long over due and I have recently found myself in a position to take a week long jaunt. My visiting of family and friends was great and recharged the batteries, if you will. The only downside, if you consider it a downside, is I chose to drive rather than fly. The drive is 13 to 15 hours depending on the method of driving and traffic, and takes me across 4 states.
On this drive I made one observation, which I will first context with this phrase, "If everyone is supposed to strive to be rich and famous we would have no janitors." I like this phrase. I can't remember where I heard it but I know I didn't come up with it. If I did then I'm pretty awesome, and have come up with a phrase that I often think about.
You see this phrase implies two things.
One, that not everyone will be rich and famous. Which is true. We will not all get fifteen minutes let alone fifteen seconds.
Two, if everyone strove to be rich and famous the jobs on the low end of glamor such as custodial work would be left vacant. Because we all know the best way to get noticed and become rich is to be scrubbing a toilet.
Why is this phrase significant? Why is it in my mind after two 14 hour road trips a week apart?
On my travels I stopped for gas three times coming and three times going. Each in a different area of the states I crossed. When on these short stops I generally like to do some jumping jacks, stretch my legs, and relieve myself. This has allowed me to see a cross section of bathrooms in truck stops. And one thing I can say is "Grrrmnthmmgag" that's my typing of the that dry heave noise we all make when we trigger our gag reflex.
I know that at times the rigors of being a gas station worker can be busy. Every now and then you'll have a rush of people and a line at the register that may even take 20 minutes to clear. I know this because I have worked at a convenience store. But the fowl condition of these restrooms rivaled any privy I may have had to use in the backwoods while camping. In more than one case I could smell the offending water closet before I could see the door. These dank urine soaked hell holes showed days of neglect, and no convenience store is so busy that a person can't find ten minutes to run a mop and broom, maybe even a rag and a cleaner.
The moral of this story is sometime in our society we have made it so stigmatizing to take pride in your job, even if its just a lowly gas station attendant whose responsibility could include the frequent mopping and cleaning of a bathroom, that those who find themselves in that position just provide a warm body to push buttons on a register and get offended if you ask them to print a gas receipt.
I guess what I'm going to wrap up with is this. Too many people just show up to work for their paycheck. They feel because they have graced the place with their presence they are entitled to pay and those paying are lucky that they did. This entitlement mindset keeps people from looking at where they work and thinking, "Wow, I'm lucky to even have a job. What can I do to make this place better and therefore my job better?"
Yes, I connected the filthiness of gas station bathrooms to the decline of the United States work ethic, and they both stink.

So endith the Rant.