I’ve never been an advocate for charities, because I see so few of them doing the right thing. Add that to the fact that charities are nothing more than a third party between you and the person who needs your donation.
That’s a fact, but beside the point. The point of this essay is that so many are coming forward with large and even mega donations for the Black Lives Matter movement. I think giving away money is just a way to assuage the guilt of not being a good human. Not being a good human, is this idea that “I have mine and you get yours, and if you don’t get yours, too bad”.
We Americans have been living like rugged individuals for hundreds of years. As Americans, we have not done the hard work that is involved in gaining equality for all. We have fallen far short of our forefathers goal: equality.
We have taken advantage of our myth of rugged individualism and have allowed all “others” to fall to the wayside. And let’s admit, we are at the wayside. The middle class is so small now as to be irrelevant.
What is the hard work of gaining equity for everyone and not just some? Well, let’s begin with economics. How have the large corporations and the legislature of this country been able to keep the minimum wage so low? It’s clear to everyone that the minimum wage is not a living wage.
All of the large corporations take advantage of the minimum wage laws. They may not pay the minimum, minimum, but they are paying so little that those who do these jobs cannot subsist. Take a look at McDonald’s, look at Walmart and look at Amazon. These are among the biggest employers in the United States. Not only are they taking advantage of the small wages, but the employee benefits are minimal as well.
The big employers play a game called “seasonal worker” or “temporary worker”. You can be a “seasonal worker” or a “temporary worker” for YEARS. Because you are a seasonal worker you can work forty hours and NOT be a full time employee. This allows the large employers to cheat you out of any benefits that you would be entitled to as a full time worker.
Papa John’s Pizza (the owner is a renowned racist) owns and lives in a 40,000 square feet house. He pays his staff $8.00 an hour with no benefits. This is an awful statement about our country. We have designed a country wherein it is okay to live on the backs of others, without compensating them.
Why haven’t we forced our legislature to increase the minimum wage to a livable wage? Why haven’t we done the work to make companies pay a living wage?
Why are Managed Care CEOs making millions and millions in bonuses when 80 million people cannot get health care? Regular people are fighting to keep health insurance companies in the mix. Why? Insurance companies have no goal except passing profits to shareholders. It’s an incongruent goal and doesn’t match with healthcare.
If eighty percent of the country is living paycheck to paycheck that is 264,000,000 people. How can this country be so ineffective? Where did we go wrong? We created a capitalist society whereby all the money goes to a very few, while millions suffer without support: no living wage, no health care and no access to education.
How is it even possible to be in a democratic society, when so few are being represented by our legislature? Our legislature seems to represent those who have money to donate to campaigns and no one else. This is a limited group of people.
This is what I mean by the work of this country. We live here, we owe it to ourselves and to our children to make this country a place of prosperity. We cannot afford to allow this country to be run by those few who have the money to pay for legislator’s campaigns. Because those with the money are not looking out for anyone else. That is why after three decades, the minimum wage has not changed very much.
We want to go back to running the country for the people. We’ll need to overhaul everything because it’s been too long. Virtually anything that benefits human beings has been done away with: living wage, education, health care and even banking.
America is not a country that has done well for its people. Charity and donations won’t help, we’ve gone too far in the wrong direction.
