The Minimum Wage and the War on Poverty It may not be much by today’s standards, but $1.40/ hour—minimum wage then—seemed like a lot to a college student in the ‘70’s. I was going to a private college in middle America (whose tuition was a whopping $2,500.00 per semester!) so a job rolling pizzas at a local Pizza Hut seemed reasonable to me. I only worked 20 hours per week—the most I felt my academic schedule could afford—and was trying to pay the last half of my tuition for the semester (I got half paid through an academic scholarship and some work I had done for a Y-Camp during the summer). I often walked to work, going down the same road that other students drove to their jobs. Their laughing and waving at me when they drove past my outstretched thumb made me determine to give needy students a ride … if I ever got a car. From my dorm room to my place of employment was only four miles, but it took me almost an hour at a pretty good walking pace. When I met Frank Sullivan—an old high school friend—on my hall early in the semester and he talked about his place of employment being in a hiring mood, I thought for sure it was an answer to prayer. I interviewed and got offered the job as a waiter—next door to the Pizza Hut—and was happy to learn that I got to keep all the tips. Although at that time there was no minimum wage paid to waiters, I never made less than six or seven dollars per hour, a huge sum in those days. When I left that college for married life in 1974, I only owed $500.00 in school loans and it didn’t take me long to pay them off. Today, there is almost a universal acceptance of the concept of a minimum wage … and periodically a huge push to increase it because of the latest definition of what is “poverty” in America. Contrary to popular opinion, anytime you mess with the work/reward system of human nature—also known as the principle of sowing and reaping (Gal. 6:7)—you do not have a good outcome. Here’s how it works: The Killing of the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg 1. Congress sets (or increases) the minimum wage 2. This results in an increase of costs to the employer of wages. If it’s a significant increase … say, more than 5% … since the employer cannot absorb such a loss, he passes it on to the consumer in the form of a product price increase; if the cost of the increase is too much, the consumer buys less of the employer’s product; this only results in further increases in price (as the increase must be spread over fewer consumers) resulting in further declines in sales … and so forth. 3. In time, with sufficient raises of both wages and costs of goods, the employer goes out of business—the goose is dead. The other potential consequences are even less desirable. The employer could decide that he can no longer afford to hire part-time workers, unskilled labor, temporary laborers, or other entry-level positions, so he lays off those that fall in those categories and decides not to hire any more that might. Translated: No expansion—No experience gained by the inexperienced—No taxes paid by new workers. The “War on Poverty,” begun under President Johnson in his State of the Union address, but perpetuated by both parties, was really just the natural outgrowth of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and his January 8, 1941 addresses Four Freedoms: • Freedom of Speech • Freedom of Worship • Freedom from Want • Freedom of Fear I have no problem with the first two, granted in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. But the second two are more relative; one man’s definition of want or fear is not another man’s. Today, with nearly fifty million receiving food stamps and the government providing free cell phones for those not able to afford them, we live in an entitlement society. We have children suing their parents for not providing them the money for a college education at a private school and congressmen voting themselves perks while the government they manage is almost 20 trillion dollars in debt! Where does it all lead? Bankruptcy! Both moral and financial. Minimum Wage, by a combination of what many dictionaries say, is defined as the lowest legal wages for a worker. Set by the government, an increase in the minimum wage, can adversely affect the labor market or the cost of goods and services produced. The law of supply and demand will govern the marketplace in a free market economy. Labor unions make a true free market economy rare. Minimum wage laws and labor unions are attempts at controlling the greed of corporate owners. Just weeks after the assignation or President Kennedy, President Lyndon Johnson declared War on Poverty. Used to determine who gets federal assistance, the Federal Poverty Level is currently (2014) $23, 850.00 for a family of four (add or subtract $4,060.00 per addition or fewer members). Although starting at 19% in 1964, 50 years has not seen that much change (according to the Census Bureau for 2010, 12% of Americans live below it—varying from 7.8% for New Hampshire to 21.2% for Mississippi). During that time, Medicare, Medicaid, and Food Stamps have been added (along with a number of other federal programs). Are the Minimum Wage and the War on Poverty biblical? Doesn’t guaranteeing someone a minimum wage keep employers from taking advantage of poor workers? What about poverty—doesn’t the Scripture mandate helping the poor? Isn’t poverty a choice? These and other questions thinking Christian ought to answer. Answering questions: 1. Are the Minimum Wage and the War on Poverty biblical? In a sense, yes. The Scriptures are full of references to help the poor (Ex. 23:11; Lev.19:10; Deut. 15:11; Ps. 9:18; Ps. 69:33; Prov. 14:31; Prov. 19:17; Mt. 11:5; and these are just the more prominent ones!). Even the concept of chivalry, which was prevalent during the Middle Ages, has given us the term “noblesse oblige.”—a French term that has made it to our present-day vernacular—it means that those who are blessed with much have an obligation to help those less fortunate. Although there is no mention of a “minimum wage” or the “War on Poverty” per se, it is understood by the sense of Scripture that the poor are to be aided. However, it is also plain that work is rewarded proportionally (2 Thess. 3:10; Gal. 6:7) and that the War on Poverty is not winnable (Matt. 26:1l; Deut. 15:11). The bottom line is that some choose poverty (those that do so should be allowed the freedom to continue in their poverty), some are impoverished as a result of sin’s reward (to help them may be enabling), and some are truly victims of circumstance and should be helped. Of course, this is difficult for a church to do, let alone a government agency. The degree of knowledge to help those—and only those—that should be helped requires an intimacy that only an individual Christian neighbor can give. If every Christian would look to their left and right (and listen to the Lord) it would be obvious who needed help. 2. Doesn’t guaranteeing someone a minimum wage keep employers from taking advantage of poor workers? There was a time in our past (in America, prior to about 1960; although it differs for different industries) when collective bargaining, labor unions and strikes were the only way to get fairness of treatment for the average worker. That time, at least for the present and at least in America, is past. Today, the free market and a shortened news cycle has a tendency to keep employers honest—the free market always had the power to take care of inequities, but it just took too long. Anytime you guarantee anything you remove the incentive to compete, and competition is usually good for productivity. 3. What about poverty—doesn’t the Scripture mandate helping the poor? Sure, like I said before; but there is a difference between a hand-out and a hand-up. Except for those individuals that cannot work, everyone has a rise in self-esteem when work is done. When someone is fairly compensated for his work—and again, fairness is achieved when employers have to compete for skilled labor (the free market)—dignity is the result. 50 years of the “War on Poverty” has taught us that what costs us nothing is usually worth just that. The kick-stand never worked on the bike I got for Christmas, but it always worked on the bicycle I bought with my hard-earned lawn-mowing money! 4. Isn’t poverty a choice? True, as unbelievable as it seems, some choose poverty. For those people, it doesn’t matter how much help you give them, they will just take advantage of your generosity. It may assuage your guilt, but helping someone is not always simply done by writing out a check. Any help you give them may just enable their poverty mentality. That’s right; I said poverty mentality. Poverty is really only a state of mind. I’ve seen people living in luxury, but not appreciating the things they have surrounded themselves with … and I’ve seen people living without, but thankful and making the most of what little they had. It isn’t getting what you want, but wanting what you get. Across America, you can see “project housing”; rows of now-condemned apartment units that are too trashed to be safely occupied. They have been boarded up to keep their tenants from re-occupying. People have a tendency to make their outside environment like their inside. True help requires change on the inside. That is why a government program can never match an individual’s or a church’s. The latter just comes with more caring, accountability, re-training, and true lasting change (read “salvation.”). For the Christian, minimum wage is not a license to put out minimal effort. The old adage: “Good enough for who it’s for,” doesn’t apply here … at least not how the world views it. Everything is to be done “as unto the Lord” (Col. 3:23). This leaves little room for less than the best every time. Suggested Reading List: • Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development - Bryant L. Myers • To Live in Peace: Biblical Faith and the Changing Inner City – Mark R. Gornik Websites: yourhoustonnews/sugar_land/opinion/minimum-wage-kills-job FindLaw/Wage_Law csmonitor/.../2014/0220/Raise-the-minimum-wage
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 12:02:21 +0000
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