The Bigsibling Blog

What I get vs. what is deserved

I listen to different radio programs depending on my mood.  Sometimes it is music, in the music area, I listen sometimes (ok, mostly) to country & western, sometimes to rock or blues or jazz.  My musical tastes pretty much cover the gambit.  Much of the time on my 75 mile drive to and from work is spent listening to talk radio.  Mostly it is NPR on KANU at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, many times it is KMBZ 980 news radio out of Kansas City.

The other day I found myself listening to Bill O’Reilly on KMAJ in Topeka.  O’Reilly was talking about the protest that occured in Washington, D.C. over the weekend of 27 January.  The one where the protesters were allowed to desecrate the capital building with spray paint and not be arrested by the capital police.  In his show, he played the audio clip from a fellow who sang a song that I suppose he wrote.  There was one line in that song that almost jumped out and slapped me in the face.  The line is:

“Mr. President, when are you going to give us a living wage.”

The song is obviously anti-Bush, but that isn’t what got me.  The song also is obviously pro-minimum wage increase, that is also not what got to me.  What got me were the words “give us a living wage”.  The song writer (presumably the same guy who was singing the song) did not ask when he would be paid a living wage, but rather, when would he be given a living wage.  The definition of “give” is “to present voluntarily and without expecting compensation; bestow.“  One might argue that what he said was not what he meant.  But I disagree.  Writing a song is not like talking in conversation off the cuff where one might speak before thinking the statement all the way through. In much the way John Kerry essentially stated that stupid people end up serving in the Iraq.  No, this song expressed exactly what the author wanted it to express.  He does not want to earn, but rather be given a living wage.  By what right?

By what right does the author demand to be given anything?  What has he done to deserve a living wage?  If he feels he writes music and that he should be compensated for it, fine, let the public decide what the compensation should be for the music he creates.   By what right does anyone demand gifts of another?  Where is the right that because the business man has extra, he is demanded to give it to the one that has less?  Did the business man not earn that money?  Did he not pour sweat and toil and his own blood to get to where he is?  What did the demanding poor man do to earn what he is demanding? 

These things bring to mind a caller on a local radio show last fall, as the election was drawing near and the subject was turned to the possible minimum wage increase.  The caller was very upset that businesses pay what the market bears, instead of what he believed to be a living wage.  Instead of paying people what they are worth, the caller felt that people should be paid based on some other criteria.  The caller made mention of his hourly rate (I do not remember at this time what it was), and host asked him why his employer paid him that much.  Instead of stating what service or activity he gave his employer for the compensation he received, he proudly stated that he earned what he earned because he was in a union.

This is all the same thing.  In the caller’s mind, he did not deserve, nor earn the compensation given him by his employer, rather, he received the compensation because of his union affiliation.  I had once thought about applying for job at a union facility, but I did not because I could not negotiate my own compensation.  I believed I was worth more, and had more to offer the company that what the union dictated as the salary for new hires.  For this, that company lost whatever value I could have brought to it. 

It is the premise of America that one is compensated based on what value they bring to their employer.  If the individual does $7 worth of work in an hour, why then, should they be paid $10 an hour?  Does the desire of an individual to better their position and lifestyle dictate that an employer should pay them more than they are worth?  I say no.  If an individual wants to increase his earnings, he needs to do something that is worthy of the extra income.

Tech Tags: minimum wage living wage income earn give deserve

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