More stuff

I have to write this somewhere, so a blog post.



I am having a moment of indignation, people worrying having to give something to people who don't have a job, or pay a higher minimum wage.  Well, I sat down and tried to figure it out, what it for someone to live a pretty basic life in America.  From my figures, it takes a wage of about $15 per hour to have an apartment, car, clothing, utilities, fast food once a week, a movie every couple of months, buy and occasional gift, etc.  It won't pay for a family or a sitter if you have children -- just a pretty basic life. 



And here is the thing, we voted with our pocket books for just this situation, when we sent our jobs overseas.  Then American workers with a decent wage had to compete with workers making $10 a DAY (some less), with no healthcare, and no workers' rights, with billions and billions of people wanting wealth.  We said yes to Free Trade so our factories had to compete with factories who had no safety requirements, where they could spew endless amounts of pollutants into the the water and the air, some subsidized by governments who charged tariffs on American made products.  We said we wanted our products made somewhere where paints can have lead in them and inspections are sporadic.



With our pocketbooks we said,  I'd rather be able to have 10 t-shirts instead of 8, and 10 pairs of shoes instead of five, than have my neighbor working.  Give me cheap so I can have more.  Let that person who waits on me at Walmart make next to nothing as long as I get my pile of stuff.  I have my smartphone, and my cars, and my computers. 



The truth is that there isn't enough work for everyone, if we just looked at supplying people's needs, food, clothing, even a basic car.  So growth and greater wealth has to be based on making more stuff so we can buy more stuff, made by more desperate people who have no stuff. 



Yes, there are people who abuse our system and take advantage.  But there are many more who feel hopeless.  There are many more who know that they will never have a decent job paying a decent wage.  You should look at how many of the recently created jobs are at the bottom of the pay scale.  You could have two of them and still be scraping the bottom.  I know because I was out there fighting for a job, with a college degree and many years of experience, being offered $10/hour for jobs that required someone with skills.  And business were offering that because they could.  There are lots of desperate people, who will need two of those low paying jobs.



Here is how anyone manages their money.  They look at what's available and what is more important.   We need to ask ourselves with each purchase whether it is more important to have more stuff, or if it more important to see our neighbors working.