Wishing Others Earned Less = Bad Karma
Monday March 28, 2005
In a series of recent conversations with friends and even news stories in the media, I have realized that there is a large group of people that have a perception that some people are paid too much. Most of these cases have referred to hospital workers, janitorial workers, teachers, government employees, insurance reps and so forth. I would like to put this myth to rest. There are no overpaid jobs. (That’s right, while only a slight few may have excess, no one is overpaid.)
Globalization driven by neo-conservatives and neo-liberal corporations, politicians and diplomats have been a primary factor in driving down wages, especially in first world countries. While wages in pure number form may not have decreased, the wages of average people, especially average Canadians, have greatly declined when inflation and an increasing cost-of-living are included.
Purchasing power in Canada is measured by the Consumer Price Index. This is calculated in cooperation between the Bank of Canada and Statistics Canada. According to this index the cost of living from 1980 to 2005 increased by 150%! That means that a family that dished out $30,000 on goods and services in 1980 would today (2005) have to spend $75,000 to get those exact same goods and services. According to Statistics Canada the earnings of employed Canadians over a comparable period, 1980 to 2000, increased by only 7.9%. Educated couples only earned around 22% more in 2000 than they did in 1980. According to Statistics Canada, couples with high school education or less, salaries actually dropped by as much as 28%. With only modest increases and even decreases in earnings among employed Canadians, it should not be take a rocket scientist to realize that we are today earning much much less than our counterparts did in 1980 performing the same duties.
Over the last twenty years many working class jobs have disappeared, and many service jobs have become less valuable because of higher living expenses. As a result there has been increased scrutiny of higher paying jobs, especially higher paying jobs that do not appear to require a lot of skill or training. This scrutiny has combined with a drive for profits and increased international competition for employment to successfully drive down salaries.
This is absolutely horrendous for our Canadian society. As salaries decrease so disappears the middle class. With a disappearing middle class so disappears the purchasing power of a large percentage of
of the population thus causing further poverty and more people scrambling for fewer lower paid jobs – making it possible for people to be paid even less. The only people who benefit from this process are those who already hold large amounts of capital. This is how we have seen the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer on an international scale!
If you think there are people out there who should be earning less, then SHAME ON YOU. Your wishes, if granted, would drive our society into increased poverty. You should be ashamed of yourself for wishing that anyone have fewer resources available for their survival. It is nearly impossible to live on minimum wage and it is impossible to live decently on minimum wage. Your right to live should not be conditional according to the job you hold. Why are we wishing that certain people should have less when we should be demanding more for all of us?
The next time you say that someone deserves less, perhaps you should rethink your thoughts – chances are that you deserve more for what you do. I do not believe that individuals today are worth anything less than individuals were 30 or 40 years ago – if anything they should be worth more – average people should be demanding more from their jobs.
Read more about the cost of living index.
Earnings of Educated Versus Uneducated Couples.