Income Inequality, Hard Work and Rand Paul
By Dan Schmitt | August 15, 2015 A few years ago, I had a new roof put on the house. Watching the guy methodically but artfully rem...
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2015/08/income-inequality-hard-work-and-rand.html
By Dan Schmitt | August 15, 2015
A few years ago, I had a new roof put on the
house. Watching the guy methodically but
artfully remove the old roof and lay the new one during the swelter of our
Sacramento summer heat taught me one thing – roofing is damn hard work.
I got
thinking about the roofer recently as the Republican presidential candidates
wander the country discussing their solutions for what ails our nation. If you listen to these candidates, all aspects
of our country have been in a state of decay ever since Obama got himself
elected President.
I
don’t see it that way. Much of what is
being uttered by Republican hopefuls is nonsense, and I’m not just talking
about Donald Trump. Certainly, Trump
leads the pack in talking stupid. The Republican
frontrunner is nothing more than a wealthy schoolyard bully in a grown man’s
body, but he’s got good company when it comes to uttering nonsense. Scott Walker recently said we shouldn’t focus
on racial discord because it’ll only create more. That’s sort of like the married couple
attending therapy, and the therapist telling them they dare not talk about what
brought them to the couch in the first place! Therapy 101 suggests a problem can’t be fixed
if the causes aren’t identified and dealt with!
But it
was Senator Rand Paul’s take on income inequality that really got my
attention. According to Paul, “Income
inequality is the result of some Americans working harder than others, rather
than economic policies.”
Humm! It’s pretty easy to research jobs and
incomes, so I did. Here’s what I learned
about some average yearly incomes as of 2014:
- Hotel maid - $20,000
- Auto mechanic - $37,000
- Roofer - $39,000
- Public school teacher - $45,000
- Marriage counselor - $46,000
- Wine Maker - $108,000
- U.S. Senator - $174,000
Truthfully, I’m completely baffled with assessing how hard people in
varying professions work based on their income, but it’s clear Senator Rand has
it dialed in. In Paul’s world auto
mechanics work nearly twice as hard as hotel maids, but not quite as hard as
roofers. Public school teachers work
just a tad less hard then marriage counselors.
Wine makers work approximately two and a half times harder than marriage
counselors, but none of the people listed above work nearly as hard as U.S.
Senators! I’ll bet Senator Paul a six-pack of Bud Light (now there’s a hard-working person’s brewski)
that he’s never spent a minute cleaning hotel rooms, repairing automobiles,
roofing a house, or teaching children. I
bet he’s never thought about the people working in those professions either. But he thinks he knows the monetary value of
hard work!
He
doesn’t. Paul has created his own
delusional take on the connection between hard work and income inequality. It’s wrong on many levels and disrespects the
integrity of millions of Americans who toil every day at their jobs for wages
considerably lower than those of people like Paul who have “made it financially”
Take
the retail business for example. I do a
fair amount of shopping at Target and Costco. There’s no difference in the work ethic of employees at the two box
stores. They’re efficient, respectful,
and helpful, just what they get paid to do. One huge difference, however, is the average yearly income for their
full-time employees: Target store workers earn about$19,000; Costco employees
make around $43,000. Costco employees
don’t work harder than Target employees, but they do work for an owner who
understands the value of paying employees a living wage. Even if the Target employees could work
harder, it wouldn’t matter. The mindset
of the corporate elite dictates low wages for their rank-and-file worker.
And
what about the hotel maid who enjoys and takes pride in her job despite the low
wages? Senator Paul spends lots of nights in hotels while crisscrossing the
country trying to garner popularity. I’m
sure he enjoys a nicely made bed, clean sheets, clean towels, and clean
toilets. I doubt, however, if he or others of his mental ilk, have ever thought
about how difficult the job is and how little it pays, and how important it is,
and how those who choose to work cleaning hotel rooms deserve respect for a job
well done and the dignity of a living wage.
1 comment
Low paying jobs are a result of supply and demand. There is a large supply of people who can remove a roof, I did it for years. Not nearly as many people who can engineer one, hence the variance in wages.
Go ahead and pay a roofer an engineers wage as see how much incentive the roofer has left to go to school and get a better job.
I'm thankful I was able to learn hard work by doing construction for several years to pay my way through junior college and make myself more valuable so I can do what I love to do.
I am sure in the spirit of fairness and equality you made the difference up and paid your roofer the wage you believed he deserved, for that I commend you.
Nate
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