Hi Brad,
Your paragraph which stated:
"If you take pride in your work: If you pursue doing the job *right*
for its own sake, then you have dignity, and you don't need to be paid
well."----has, I suspect, several different perspectives waiting for
comment.
First, the perspective of the individual performing the work with
pride. Yes, it feels good to go home at the end of an unfulfilling workday,
knowing that you have perfected a mundane series of tasks, and that you
might not lose your job because of something related to your performance. It
feels wonderful to know that perhaps you'll meet the rent, and the kids can
always get by on cheap white bread from the food bank that you are allowed
to collect once a month, though not to the tune of 30 loaves by any means,
or even anything close to the required amount set out by the Canada Food
Guide. Now, that's just bread, and crappy bread at that. Said proud worker
will sleep well not even giving a thought to the rest of the diet a family
requires just to survive, like real bread, fruits and veggies, milk, eggs,
oil and butter (whoops--that's marge for the poor) fish or foul, seeds and
may be some peanut butter and honey. Breakfast programmes for kids at school
are all but eliminated, and daycare is unaffordable too, but that poor mom
or dad have their pride and dignity to retain, and will surely benefit
society.
Which aspects of society does this pride end up benefiting? Why, the
owners of the business that she/he works for, of course, and the people who
can afford said services or goods, of course, and the economy, right? Oh,
may be not entirely.
Breaking this down, we have the employer who rations the slave wages
and usually pockets proportionately tens to hundreds to thousands of times
more return for their input to the workday. Now, you know I'm generalizing,
but we are talking minimum wage or thereabout. Most employers will have well
fed families, have a home or three, have cars, vacations and diamond rings
on their spouse's fingers, plus savings and investments to buy things they
will never need. This is all possible because their employees are being paid
minimum wage, and performing their tasks admirably. Giving up one diamond
tennis bracelet and one car to increase the living standard of the very
people who make this excess possible is out of the question because those
employees are damn lucky to even have a job, right? That's a standard wage.
Built the wealth of the western world. Made internet possible.
Society supposedly benefits by virtue of inexpensive produce or
services. Inexpensive to what sectors of society? Do these prices represent
reasonable and justifiable costs? Look at Microsoft, compare the cost of a
good used car with that of a trendy pair of sneakers, soft drinks vs. two
teaspoons of sugar and water. Value is really another topic, but whether or
not society benefits is highly debatable. Slave wages are rationed out
primarily in order for employers to produce overtly expensive produce or
services for things we don't really need. Today the need is created mostly
by manipulative marketing teams, oblivious to the individuals behind the
production, blind to the environmental impacts of the process involved in
created needs, and ignorant of the fact that it costs money to raise the
families that will buy these unnecessary things they dream up for masses not
yet born. Sadly, the impact of low wages results also in people never having
the time to create something of value, never having the energy to read to
their kids, or perhaps learn how to read to their kids, leaves no funds to
invest so that society doesn't have to dish out pension money and medicare
to heal their undernourished bodies or minds, results in greater incidence
of abuse, crime and because of a lack of education--pollution, addiction,
early pregnancies, and all the other things that the cycle of poverty
generates.
Much of the third point I will raise is cited in the above
paragraphs: impact on the individual's psyche. To come home to empty
cupboards, to regard the thin children, to see threadbare furniture, to know
that these kids are not likely going to get to college because you can't
save a dime and they will likely never have the confidence it takes nor the
nutrition required to have a fully functioning brain to get the elusive
scholarships, to think that your kids will likely resent you for being
unable to provide even the basics of survival, will really help one to get
ahead in their job at work. Not that that job actually has anywhere else to
go, but one can stay so alert at a mindless job with all these other factors
pressing down, and more to the point--be happy enough to continue with this
mindless job until retirement--because there will be no other options
available unless you lose your job due to downsizing or corporate
mismanagement.
The average salary for chief exec's is 7 million. Don't quote me.
That figure comes from a multi-billionaire (second to Bill Gates at about 65
billion) Warren Buffett, who finds the "stock-option fuelled salaries"
perverted.
Happy workers, those who are reasonably compensated for their tasks,
are the very people who will help a business to grow and diversify. Happy
workers take little sick time, produce a better product or service, and feel
a sense of worth that allows for creativity on the job as well as at home.
Kindness is generated by a sense of safety. Love is that safety, and an
employer who doesn't value their employee's well-being will miscreate a
business built upon the misfortune of others. They may donate to charities
of their choosing, mostly for show or tax purposes, but it will still be at
someone else's expense. And when they lose their fortunes because they did
not allow for employee input and well-being, they further insult the dignity
of everyone who made the initial wealth possible.
Come back with the argument of the small business owner unable to pay
much above minimum wage. That because of these, who comprise about 60% of
all businesses, employment of the masses is guaranteed, at least. Small
businesses are doomed to 35-50% failure, apart from lack of acumen, because
they can't keep happy employees. If they paid them better, all of the above
points would be realized. Theft would be reduced, discontent, absenteeism,
people looking for better jobs, time spent training new people for the jobs
left vacant due to firing or quitting. Big businesses all grow out of
smaller ones. It's chiefly the greed at the top that runs a business into
the ground. Cheaper produce is the short-cut to immediate cash. Producing a
good product is the road to a strong and happy business.
Dignity in the workplace generates from the inception of the business
itself, and must allow for equal flow back to that source for continued
stability.
Regards,
Natalia
----- Original Message -----
From: Brad McCormick, Ed.D. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, May 26, 2003 4:43 PM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] The Welfare and Minimum Wage Trap
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> > While obsessing about competition and markets we have forgotten about
> > dignity. And there is no one out there who is there to remind us about
it.
> > Not the advertisers not the politicians.
> [snip]
>
> This is not true.
>
> I distinctly remember where I worked in 1972, my manager
> had a poster on his office wall, which said that
> if you flip burgers, you should do the work so well
> that you would be proud to sign it ("This burger flipped
> by Me") -- like Leonardo da Vinci et al.
>
> (I found the poster offensive, especially since the
> manager was a kind of fundamentalist Christian, but
> he always went in the direction the wind was
> blowing: he always pushed in the direction he was
> being pushed the hardest.)
>
> In the same department, there was a group of managers
> who were rather "cynical". I still have the
> cover of one particular Zap comic book which I
> coveted and which the manager let me take from
> his desk drawer stash:
>
> http://www.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/jpg/Despair.jpg
>
> If you take pride in your work: If you pursue doing the
> job *right* for its own sake, then you have dignity and you
> don't need to be paid well.
>
> Cheers!
>
> \brad mccormick
>
> --
> Let your light so shine before men,
> that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
>
> Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
>
> <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
>
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