Day 197: Minimum Wage Falls Short - What Can We Do?

The minimum wage in Washington, the state in which I reside, is $9.19, yet studies have found that almost double that is what would be required for individuals to actually make ends meet.

 

 

Washington’s minimum wage falls short, report says

A single, unmarried worker in Washington state needs a wage of $16.13 an hour to make ends meet, according to an organization that studies the so-called living wage level around the country.

In fact, several states for which the actual living wage was calculated, would need more than double their current minimum wage standards.

 

How is it that we have a minimum wage, which is supposed to cover the minimum wage that is required to live, and yet – it doesn't. Are we really that bad at basic math? It is quite obvious that it's not enough, because if it really was enough, then we wouldn't have employed people who can't make ends meet. We wouldn't have people deciding to go with state assistance and not being employed because why bother to work when you're still not going to have enough money and you're going to have to work all the time. This is why we have such a problem with welfare abuse, because employment isn't really much of a better deal.

Anyone who works a minimum wage job knows – it's not enough. Even if you have a wage that is a few dollars above the minimum wage, it's still not enough. This is quite a serious problem. I mean, who decided to make the minimum wage not be enough to live? And why did we let them hold a government position to make such a decision? Why do we go on day after day struggling and getting deeper in debt. It's like we forgot that the law system is supposed to Serve us, not Enslave us.

More from the article above, which I definitely suggest you read the whole thing:
Gail Hammer, an assistant professor at Gonzaga University School of Law who specializes in poverty and family law, said the minimum wage would be close to $16 if it had been allowed to rise with inflation over the years.
People working for less often struggle with housing, health care, food, transportation and even legal problems, she said. Low-income workers may develop an attitude that the system isn’t fair, which undermines social structure.
“I don’t think keeping people in poverty makes any sense at all,” Hammer said.

Many of us have experienced this reality, where you have to choose between which bills to pay, or have to forgo necessary health care due to lack of money, which eventually leads to even more extensive problems when things are left untreated. As the situation worsens, more and more will face this reality as well. How bad does it have to get, how many have to be suffering, before we'll realize there's a problem and correct it.

We have a tendency to not fix something until it really breaks. You hear a strange noise coming from your car (if you can afford one) and you tell yourself 'ah it's probably nothing' and make excuses and you let it go, and it's not until some part actually falls off your car or it stops working completely, that you realize 'ok, now I really have to take it to the shop and get it fixed'. And now it is really a mess and it's probably going to cost a lot more to fix it, and maybe even it is just too damaged that it cannot even be fixed. And we could have saved ourself a lot of consequence if we'd just tended to it when we first noticed the signs of a potential problem.

Well I would say we are well beyond the first signs of a problem as the signs are all around us and are in almost every single one of our daily lives, affecting each one of our lives, our children's lives, and will affect their children's lives, should they decide to even have any in a world that isn't going to effectively support them but may just throw them into poverty and a life of enslavement. And we really don't want to get to the point where things really collapse, as then it will likely be too late to do much about it as we'll be really taken to an extreme level of struggling to survive that you don't even want to imagine.

So, we're all aware of the problem, so – what do we Do about it?

Clearly we need to correct the law which is supposed to Serve and Support us to Actually Do So. We need to set the minimum wage to that which would afford a dignified life where one would have all your needs met, and have enough to do what one would like to do in life as well, because we are not working just to survive. There is no point to that. What are we just lifeless batteries to power the profit machine until we're used up and replaced? Or are we working and creating value through our labor which means we should be living lives of value.

One proposal that stipulates an effective minimum wage, is the Basic Income Guaranteed. This is not the same as the Basic Income Grant which has the same anacronym (BIG), but has different principles. In the Basic Income Guaranteed there are two forms of incomes, one which is a Basic Income which one receive when not working, which is like welfare, but it would actually be an amount that is sufficient to cover all one's basic needs, which includes things like proper housing and healthcare. 

The second type of income is a Minimum Wage which is suggested to be double the Basic Income, so that it provides enough for the luxuries of life. This way, no matter what your situation, every individual would be supported to live effectively, and those who would like to work to have more will actually get more from working. Work would be worthwhile, and not something done out of force out of the desperate need to survive, which ends up with people doing jobs they'd really rather not in conditions that are not preferable to abusive, where the worker has no choice because it's really a matter of life or death. 

The Basic Income Guaranteed would remove the survival threat from the situation so that we can make decisions freely for once as to what we'd like to do. Therefore, I definitely suggest to investigate this movement and support it's implementation on a local and national level, because we deserve a proper life and it's time we stand up for our worth and value ourselves, and not accept any less.

Day 195: Why Don't You Get Paid Enough?

How is it that the vast majority of us go to jobs where the profit of our labor goes to someone else? Does that even make sense in any conceivable way? How could we have possibly accepted such a system? I mean, it is really bad mathematics. You should get out what you put in, therefore if you put in your labor, you should get out the benefit or the compensation for that, so how is it that the average worker at the ‘bottom’ of the job hierarchy, the ones that do the actual day to day labor which is the ‘backbone’ of the business itself, gets the least pay of all?

This shows that we’ve got a real malfunction with our value system. We’ve got individuals doing the labor, but the value goes to someone else, and really it goes to a minority, so that they can live lives of luxury, while those doing the actual labor aren’t paid enough to be able to cover all their basic needs. 

I mean, it is a really twisted and warped situation and when you take a step back and really look at the big picture, it is really quite psychotic to have most of us working so hard, just trying to survive, having to forgo many of our basic needs like proper healthcare, when the value of our labor which we created through our labor, goes…somewhere…else… It goes to someone else who did not do the labor, instead of to those who created the value in the first place.

What’s fascinating is that in working for a large corporation, at staff meetings, the equal importance of every employee position is professed – but then, why aren’t all positions equally valued – by being equally compensated for their equal importance? It’s the manager’s job to tell you that you are appreciated and the work you do for the company is appreciated, and it sure is, all the way to the bank by those who are profiting off of the labor of others. 

Talk is cheap, literally. We all know that we have collectively decided that the only thing in this reality that has value is – MONEY. You need it to buy your right to life – without it you die, and your life has no value. Thus to express appreciation and importance of employees is just empty words, because those words do not put food on the table, or provide you with an effective education, or proper healthcare. 

Now, within the Capitalist system, as we’ve accepted it, you need to have a job to get money to be able to live. So how is it, we allow jobs to exist which don’t provide adequate MONEY to ensure you are able to LIVE properly, and not just ‘getting by’ paycheck to paycheck or like many, going into credit card debt. Why would we allow this, it just doesn’t make sense. Because we know the job you have is how you make your living, so why would we deliberately allow some to have ‘less of a living’ than others? Certainly, no one needs LESS LIVING. No one needs a POOR quality of life. No one needs to suffer through ailments that could have been prevented because they can’t get the proper healthcare.  

Obviously, the only reason that so many are doing such jobs is that there isn’t a better option. I mean, it’s really simply math, to see how there simply isn’t enough jobs out there that pay properly for one to have a dignified living, and so the majority is going to get stuck with the inferior compensating jobs. I mean, take Costco for example, who pays their employees and average of $17 per hour. That is above and beyond what the majority of jobs out there pay. And you know what, the waiting list for applications to Costco, I was told when I applied, is three years long…

That’s no surprise is it? Because who wants the lesser paying job? Less pay means less quality of life. Nobody wants that. So why do we allow that? Is it necessary? No. Why is it not already so, that employees gets the value they create? Because the value the employees create, it is created, and it exists, and it goes somewhere. It goes into the hands of those at the top.

This is literally modern day slavery. Just because you get the tiniest possible portion of the value you create is enough to make you think you’re not a slave after all, because you’re being compensated, apparently. But this very basic simple math principle was not understood. If you’re creating X amount of value, how come you’re only getting a spec of that?

This problem is one that will be corrected within Equal Money Capitalism – compensation will be actual compensation to those who have actually done the labor. All aspects of a job will be equally compensated, because all are equally important, and everyone has the equal need to live and have their physical needs met and the highest possible quality of living, which is leaps and bounds above what is available to most but is available to the select few who have all the money. Profit that goes to the hands of a few to live lives of luxury while the rest suffer in survival will no longer exist, as it is a crime against life and humanity. 

The Result of this will be a great Reward where Stress from lack of Money will cease to exist – no more having to forgo proper healthcare because your low-minimum wage job doesn’t provide benefits while certainly not providing enough to buy benefits as an individual, leading to more and more health problems with lasting effects, which could have all been prevented with the proper care. I mean, how much do companies really value their employees if they don’t care if they remain in proper health? It doesn’t matter to the companies, because the low-wage jobs are also low-skilled jobs, and there is always plenty of individuals needing jobs that they can just hire another one when one employee gives out, and in this way, you’re literally used just like a battery, sucked dry until there’s nothing left, and then discarded and replaced with a ‘fresh’ one.

This is what our lives have become, just like in the Matrix – batteries for the system, and as anyone with a low paying job knows and is going through, that is not really living. This isn’t what life should be like, or has to be like. All can have a dignified life, once we no longer allow the scam of profits being diverted into the hands of a few, and make sure the money is going where it is needed. Just like the human body – ensures that the blood travels to all parts, and distributes the resources the physical body requires to all its parts. Imagine – if the body did not do this, but functioned like our system does now, how long would that human body last? Not long, before it would start to fall apart. So in the human body we have a real example of how to effectively operate as a functioning whole that functions at optimum capacity, which is obviously when every part is provided what one needs and is supported to the utmost, to function and be the best that it can be.

Imagine – what kind of a humanity would we have then? Where what we do we do because of the value we create, not because it’s what we have to do because it’s the best we could get. I mean, that is slavery. Most of us are actually slaves, because we didn’t choose what we’re doing, we’re doing it because it’s our means to survival. Imagine when your survival is not at stake – when we have a system in place that ensure you are effectively supported, and even has a buffer system in place for those that would find themselves in between jobs for a moment, because, when that happens now it is like a great fear and uncertainty and most of us will do what we can to stay with the job we’ve got, and not take the risk of trying to find something else, because what if it doesn’t work out, could we get our old job back, who knows and then how will I pay my bills, because most of us can’t even miss a paycheck. I mean, is that any way for the companies that exist today to be treating their valued employees that do the labor for them? To allow them to be in such risk and uncertainty for their very survival? Obviously not, obviously the companies and corporations today that do not provide equal compensation for their employees are a disgrace. 

Imagine a life where what you do is actually what you like to do, you were able to choose, without fear of being broke and not being able to put food on the table. I mean, it’s really like we are living in the Dark Ages. We have never come out of that, and it’s in fact only gotten worse. We as humanity have every capability to exist where everyone is supported to have the best possible life, so it’s really quite evil that we have that capability and yet – haven’t put that into application. We’ve become so caught up into the ‘daily grind’ it’s like we’re on ‘auto-pilot’ just going through the motions, day in, day out, to Paranoid to consider change, because our situation is so unstable as it is, we don’t want it to get any worse. But – realize – it IS going to get worse UNLESS you stand up for a change, to make it BETTER, and sort out this system to ensure that it is functioning properly as an Economic system is Supposed to do – provide the best life possible for everyone – not just one or two here and there while the majority is enslaved to jobs that only exist for the sake of making profit and which are actually causing harm to our earth and ecosystem with no regard for life whatsoever. 

This can change, all it takes if for us to walk that change into reality. Get involved and start your process of self education of how reality could be when lived in common sense support of life:

Visit the Group Capitalism vs. Equal Money group on Facebook.

Read the Equal Money Wiki

Read Economist’s Journey to Life

Visit the Equal Life Foundation Page

To assist in breaking through the brainwashing that is behind why humanity has accepted such an abusive system:

Read Creation’s Journey to Life blog

Read Heaven’s Journey to Life blog

Read the 7 Year Journey to Life blogs

Day 65: The "I Hate Work" Character

Growing up I began to learn from my parents about work and money, and how money is required to live, and you must go out into the world/society to try and find a job from somewhere. What was missing within this education about how the world works currently, so you’re immediately presented with the perception that work/jobs/labor is something you ‘have to do’ to be able to survive in this world. 

So there is no actual choice, you’re not supported from day 1 to develop your self expression as what you’d like to be/become in this world, but rather you must learn how to do something that someone else will pay you for, according to how we’ve allowed one’s labor to be given a value within the current system, where we’ve given different jobs different values according to how profitable they are, regardless of whether the job has value to life or not or is actually harmful to life.

We’ve developed a massive resistance toward ‘working’ as we’ve always had to do it/been forced into it, and it’s generally presented and seen as something you don’t want to do but have to. Most jobs available do not even pay enough to actually have a dignified life and get all the things that one needs. Why is that? So that you have to work a lot, and that labor can be taken advantage of.  It’s not this way for everyone however, some are born into positions with money and never have to work to survive and so for them they have the opportunity to have choice in what they do, and have support from the get-go in developing skills to do what they like. When I realized this, in school where in the textbooks they show a picture of a pyramid and the different levels of class in society, basically the very poor, those able to have relative comfort, and the very small amount at the top who are very wealthy, and it’s just presented as if this is the way it is, and it’s totally normal and acceptable. When I realized that I was toward the bottom of that pyramid and that there was very little likelihood that I would ever be anywhere near the top of the pyramid, especially because the top is so very small and it’s obvious that the rest of the pyramid can’t fit in there, I was incredibly disheartened in that moment, as I realized that my life would always be a struggle.

Within this, I formed a relationship toward ‘working’ as ‘something I have to do but don’t want to’ and this is how most of those within my world acted toward work as well, and I accepted this example as valid, and especially within jobs that were very low paying, which is most jobs, there was the predominant mindset of ‘I may as well work as little as possible since I’m getting paid as little as possible’. At first I went along with that idea, within the mindset of ‘I don’t want to work really hard if I’m getting such low pay, as then I will be expected to work hard for such low pay’, like I will be saying, yes ok I’m fine with getting such low pay that I can barely afford to live and I will work hard as well. But eventually I realized, that within this I was actually teaching myself and my physical body to be lazy, as the more I participated in this form of laziness, the more tired I would generally feel, and I could see I was developing an actual physical resistance to doing things, and that was really not cool, because I may not have liked doing the job I had to do, but I liked to do other things, but those things became more difficult to do, the more I developed the pattern of laziness. So I decided to focus and do my job effectively, regardless of how much or how little I was getting paid, as this way I would not be developing myself and programming myself to be limited and to have an actual physical resistance to doing things. This had the effect of making me a ‘valuable’ worker and thus gave me some job security, as employers ‘liked me’ because I actually did the job, as employers in the current profit-based system are always looking for the most ‘profitable’ workers. 

Since there are more people who require jobs to work than there are jobs, you are in a position where you must please the employer or you will simply be fired and another person can easily be hired, so you learn that you must be obedient and do as the employer asks, and accept the position of being one that obeys with no actual ability to direct anything within your job, it is already worked out exactly what you’re to do and so you just walk into the job and follow the prescribed orders. 

Within this, you never really have the opportunity to develop self responsibility  to move yourself in this world, as you simply get slotted-in to whatever position you can get, into a predefined role. Thus one develops a relationship to ‘work’ where you’ll only do it out of necessity, and seek to otherwise avoid it. 

Yet what is possible if we worked as an expression of who we are, within doing the work that’s necessary to be done to provide ourselves with that which is actually needed to live, and in the most effective way possible, instead of limited roles as simply slave labor to create products and services that aren’t needed but just created to make profit. The labor required to provide ourselves with our needs would require one to work significantly less than one must work now in the current capitalist system, where we’ve allowed ourselves to become slaves to want and desire as consumerism and now must work day in and day out creating products to fulfill desires. Thus, if we weren’t busy with that, we’d have much more time to develop skills and abilities that are actually relevant to and supportive of life, where one would really have the time to get to know the actual physical reality here and explore what is possible to be done when we’re actually moving ourselves to be real participants in this reality.

What this requires is that we must actually correct and change the relationship to work within ourselves, as we’ve actually become and are living the relationship of separation toward ‘work’ wherein the resistance toward ‘working’ exists within ourselves, and thus we have to stand up from within what we’ve manifested as this current system of slave labor, and to literally transform it as ourselves into expression here, within investigating/discovering/researching what is really relevant here, what is it that we actually need, how to actually effectively utilize and distribute the resources of the earth in such a way that all have what they need and that everything we create is of the best quality. 

This can’t/won’t just happen by itself, and it’s not considered just what it’s going to take to change this relationship within and as ourselves, for example by such groups as Zeitgeist and the Venus Project, who see that we could be living this way, but do not understand the practical steps that’s required in actually transforming ourselves and our relationship toward ‘work’ and developing real actual self expression. Wherein we have to investigate ourselves in our day to day living and see how we live toward and as ‘work’ so that we can see what/how we’re living work to exist as, within not taking responsibility to actually be one and equal to that which we do, instead just resigning ourselves to following a leader and avoiding responsibility at all cost, within the perception/belief that we want to do as little as possible, and not considering how we sabotage ourself within that. 

Therefore, I will walk self forgiveness and corrective statements within the following post to assist and support with realizing the relationship we’ve come to exist as toward ‘work’ in separation of ourselves as self expression, and redefining our relationship toward ‘work’ to transform it into actual self expression, where we actually move ourselves to be real participants in this physical reality and explore the possibilities of our potential.

Part of this process includes actually changing the system that exists into one that will/can actually support ourselves to walk this process which is why the Equal Money System is being created, as the system wherein we realize the potential we have to live as equals here and no loner enslave ourselves and each other to a monetary system. Get involved with the formation of the Equal Money System, as it is open to all to participate within the goal of supporting life to the fullest potential.