A friend posted this morning on Facebook that he would like certain [insert racial and political characteristics associated with particular Congressmen] to avoid certain behaviors and start passing legislation that would put people back to work. First, I’m not convinced that any Congressmen fitting his description would be convinced that their moral behavior–or lack thereof–keeps them from performing their legislative duties. This is not to comment on my opinion regarding their moral behavior and what it says about their trustworthiness in the performance of those duties. But I do think that most men consider their sex lives private and manage to pull themselves together and get to their job sites; and they would be of the opinion that they are performing their duties. Furthermore, I believe that if we were to examine sexual performance of Congressmen, we would probably find that lack of morals extends to all parties and across the board from highly conservative to strongly liberal, and likewise faithfulness extends across the board in the same manner.
Now, a few comments on the issue of job legislation… It is certainly a laudable goal to pass legislation that would increase the availability of jobs in this country and the working conditions for low-wage employees. I have my own thoughts in response to this idea; but you’ll have to read through the legislation part in order to get to them. If you want to play the legislation game in order to get jobs and good working conditions, here is what I propose in order to fix the economy.
I would like to see a livable minimum wage. A single parent should be able to provide adequately for themselves and one child (meaning they could get to and from a job, provide child care and insurance, and feed and clothe themselves and the child and meet basic living expenses with some money left to use as needed because things do come up). Right now that is not really possible for a person making $7/hour–sometimes less. She cannot put gas in a car, take the child to a child care center early in the morning, get to work, get to work, probably remain on her feet all day, and come home at night and adequately care for the child without extra assistance. If you comment and mention public transit, I will comment back and suggest that you try using it for a month–it is not time-efficient for these tasks, and in many towns it is nonexistent or limited in its availablity. The parent who works a night job could not use it.
If she is uneducated and needs to maintain two jobs in order to achieve barely adequate living conditions, she will never study enough to earn her GED and hope to educate herself and work her way out of poverty. For her child, the poverty cycle is probably set in motion–there is no college fund, and that child will require full scholarships or excessive student loans in order to educate herself well enough in the future. This is certainly not how we address poverty in America.
I would like to see severe penalties placed on companies (e.g. large telecommunications companies, banks, student loan companies, etc.) who outsource their call center jobs. These jobs could be brought back into the United States and could become significant stimulus for our economy and are jobs that many people who are currently unemployed could do. In fact, until the outsourcing boom, call center jobs were a significant source of employment for people with disabilities. If companies used software that was accessible with screen readers, these jobs could still be good jobs for people with disabilities and anyone else.
Call center workers were once professionals, paid well and required to have the ability to think creatively and solve problems. Now they are expected only to follow a script. If the machine does not respond to the script… Well, the problem must be caused by some other component that this company does not support, or else you didn’t do what we told you. I say bring back the respected call center workers, and pay them accordingly. It would boost the economy and the employee morale, too.
I would like to see legislation limiting the use of machines for jobs that humans can do. I have been on flights where a recording plays the instructions for what to do in case of emergency. I have gotten phone calls in which a recording tells me that someone is trying to reach me, and then the lines are busy. If a job is truly dangerous and it is necessary to get it done, let a machine do it. If it is urgent to communicate a message and a human cannot do it all (e.g. calling hundreds of numbers in a state of emergency), let a machine do it. Otherwise, the machine-performed jobs are a convenience and are saving money at the expense of humans who are suffering the lack of income that results from our greed. Lose the machines and bring back the humans. It is the humane and right thing to do.
Finally, I would like to see an audit into nonprofit companies regarding what their CEOs make vs. what their least-paid staff make. Often I hear things like, “We must compensate our employees for their great value,” etc. I never hear this said regarding cleaning staff or kitchen staff, who work harder physically than any CEO or financial manager ever does. Yes, a CEO has more school debt; but he also bought a couple of nice houses, a boat, etc. Those kitchen staff are very humble people, and the probably have untreated medical conditions they never talk about. The organization would not survive without the work they do. They are as indispensable, if not more, than the high-paid staff. I would love to see a little financial restructuring.
If this sounds like too much government, my response is that it is. And it wouldn’t work. You cannot legislate good attitudes or proper practices, no matter how hard you try. A case in point…
In 1990, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act. It was designed to ensure that people with disabilities did not experience discrimination in public programs or spaces; and it was designed to ensure that people with disabilities were given fair consideration in the hiring process.
Despite the passage of the ADA, 70 percent of people who are blind remain unemployed today, nearly 25 years later. Most of those who are employed are employed by government entities, blindness-related agencies, or in jobs created by partnerships with agencies that train people who are blind. A survey conducted by National Industries for the Blind last year revealed that human resource professionals still hold incorrect beliefs about the abilities of people who are blind to perform job duties. The ADA could not address those beliefs.
Legislation does not create jobs. People hiring people creates jobs. Legislation does not fix the economy. People doing the right thing and addressing economic hurts fixes the economy. Some of us need to give more. Some of us need to take the risk and keep trying to get the jobs, even when we get rejected a thousand times. Some of us need to admit to those with the ability to help that we do not have the resources we need. We must all do our part. It will not be without pain.
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I couldn’t agree with you more regarding the payment of CEO’s. I’ve heard the CEO of my previous place of employment was paid $300,000 one year. The person has a luxury car, nice house, and travels frequently. Compare that to the people who work in manufacturing. I don’t know how much people in manufacturing are paid at this agency, but certainly not an adequate wage. In fact, when I was told my starting salary at ASU, I was incredulous because it was much more than what I was making at this organization. Minus taxes, I was still taking home a whole lot more pay than at my previous job.