The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Recently, there has been some public discourse about poverty and the minimum wage in this country. It is impossible to exhaustively cover this topic with limited time and space, but with your permission, I would like to add a few thoughts to the ongoing conversation.

Poverty is defined as lacking the means of providing material needs or comforts; unproductiveness, a deficiency of needed resources.

There was a time in this country when being born in poverty was a stimulus to get up, work hard and do better for yourself, not perpetuate the cycle of poverty by poor choices. Young people have had access to virtually free education and healthcare for over 40 years in this country, but a significant number of the unmotivated, squandered those opportunities, inflated their self worth in the market place and expected employers to pay what they think they are worth. This is nonsense! Our political systems have added to the problems by destroying the notion of personal responsibility and through social welfare programmes have made many indolent and dependent on the state for their survival. Many programmes that are started to offer assistance to the indigent soon become entitlements, at the taxpayers expense, that are maintained to keep certain voters happy. This is a major part of the problem.

The first thing people need to understand is that money is only one part of the equation to address poverty, for a fool and his money soon part ways. Another thing many don’t seem to understand is that having a job is a privilege and not a right. Nobody has to hire you, because you can become a self employed person. It is the individuals responsibility to make themselves hireable, and you do that by preparing to enter the workforce! People who make themselves hireable will inevitably be paid more than those who have not. Most people who enter the workforce do so out of high school after not having taken advantage of the education they got there, are ill prepared and as a result will not be well paid. This is why so many seek government jobs. Barring extreme extenuating circumstances, these individuals alone are responsible for the trajectory of their lives, but will they accept responsibility for it?

Most people generally fall into one of two categories, those who choose a vocation or career path and those who fall into a job. Those who choose a career path are generally more intentional about their future than those who do not. They may take certain courses in high school, go to college or a vocational school or work and save to go to college to pursue their dreams. These persons usually become self employed, employers or decently paid employees. Those who are not as focused on the future usually have a different outcome. While I would never disparage any kind of honest work, nobody truly desires to work on a garbage truck or as a security officer, maid, cashier, street vendor, gas pump attendant or other such jobs that make up the majority of our workforce; these are the kinds of jobs that people fall into. People who fall into jobs usually do so because they have poor role models or they did not take the advice given to steer them in the right direction. In many instances, they come from broken dysfunctional homes where education is not a priority! I know people who have spent $400 for a weave or cellphone, but will not buy a book to learn financial literacy!

Once many of these young people have children they find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle where their supply of cash does not equal the demands of their lives. Many become disgruntled workers who believe their pay should reflect the burden of their personal responsibilities. They do not understand that in the real world an employer pays what a position is worth to the business, not based on an employees personal expenses! The sheer volume of low skilled entry level workers that are produced in this dysfunctional society will make employers not want to pay more since workers can easily be replaced. Increasing the minimum wage will only increase unemployment in entry level jobs and increase employee abuses on the job. Employees who “can’t afford to lose their jobs” will be taken advantage of by unscrupulous employers who will make them work longer hours for the same pay after laying off other employees.

A better solution might be to improve the quality of workers entering or currently in the workforce, since any reasonable businessperson will pay more for competent help. To this end, every union should be working to make their members more educationally and financially literate to keep them employable. We can start by addressing several other kinds of poverty that are rampant in this country.

Poverty of morality and by extension poverty of character are huge problems in this country in every level of society and it contributes to economic poverty. People must learn to be more honest, punctual and effective in the workplace. Stop calling in sick when you are not, stay off your cellphone when at work and do the job you are being paid to do. How hard is that?

A Brookings Institute study found that three things are likely to keep a person in poverty: not getting at least a high school education (this is more than just showing up at school and eating lunch), being a single parent before 30 and not being married. If 75% of children are born out of wedlock in this country to a vast number of high school graduates with a D or worse average, why are we surprised at the increasing rates of poverty!! It is this choice and its unforeseen implications that widens the gulf between the “haves and have nots”, increases crime and will eventually cause foreign direct investments to dry up!

People need to learn to live within their means, stop having children without an education, stop sleeping around like animals and get in a stable marital relationship. In other words, try to confirm the person you are going to be intimate with is sensible and has goals, get married and work together to accomplish them. Far too many people bring children in this world to suffer needlessly and deepen their own poverty while creating another cycle of poverty with the child. People then need to learn to plan their lives and become more financially literate. Raising the minimum wage will not address any of these issues, but will simply transfer that increase in pay to the liquor and numbers merchants or the malls in South Florida, because the financially illiterate do not save or invest, they simply spend!

JB

Nassau,

August 23, 2019.