All it Means is That I'm Earning Less and Less

Our illustrious Premier Ed Stalmach tossed us all a bone yesterday, raising the minimum wage in Alberta to 8 dollars per hour, up from the current rate of 7 dollars per hour. The change will come into effect in September. Furthermore, wages are to be re-evaluated annually in the future, and the minimum wage adjusted accordingly.

Now I would think raising the minimum wage should be a good thing, and I should be cheering on the Conservative government. Then, how can it be that I am about as tempered as a rabid dog right now, bent on biting the messenger?

Perhaps I can relate with a bit of history and personal experience. I am a [relatively] young punk. I am sure there are many of you who remember minimum wage being something like $1 per hour. Conversely, I began working when minimum wage was less than $5 per hour. When the minimum wage was raised to $5 per hour almost 15 years ago, was my salary adjusted accordingly? No.

Why? Because I was already making more than minimum wage. Not by much mind you, but enough for me to feel that sting from the realization that my salary was worth less, comparatively.

Obviously, I invested a great deal of my time and energy into earning a University degree, so I could get a "decent" job that would pay a "decent" salary, so that I could drive a "decent" car, and live in a "decent" house, raise a "decent" family, and if I was lucky, I could afford a "decent" pine box to put my ashes into at the end of it all.

In the five years since earning my Degree, I have yet to see any benefits from this "Economic Boom" that Alberta and (to a slightly lesser degree) the rest of the nation has endured. When I graduated I did get a job that showed potential. Sure, I took a salary hit due to my lack of experience, and settled on a training salary equivalent to twice that of the minimum wage offered at that time. It wasn't much, but it would allow me to gain some critical work experience, learn some skills, and as agreed with my employer, my salary would be adjusted as I gained experience.

What I have earned in wage adjustments over the years has hardly had any beneficiary effect on my standard of living. In fact, given the cost of living in this province, the rate of inflation, the prohibitive cost of housing, and the cost of fuel, I am actually earning considerably less than I did five years ago!

Minimum wage is completely arbitrary in Alberta, and has been for a couple years now. The employers that are offering minimum wage as a starting salary are obvious; just go to the job bank and see how many of these jobs are listed and relisted. Why? Because of two scenarios:

1. Nobody is applying for jobs that pay minimum wage, and
   
2. Whomever is earning minimum wage for unskilled labor are leaving their jobs for ones that are paying between $10 and $15 for similar duties.

What really gets my blood boiling is that there are high-school dropouts who are earning more than I, and all they have to do is ask "Would you like a donut with that large double-double?"

For $14 dollars an hour, I will ask unruly customers if they "want fries with that". It's a far easier job than what I currently put up with on a daily basis.

It blows my mind how the media thinks that there are all these "Big Money" jobs in Alberta. Unless you opt to risk your life and health in the Tar Sands or on a drilling rig, I haven't seen any good jobs being offered with equitable pay. With the average price of a home in Alberta approaching $400,000, I'd say that's an awful large amount of french fries to serve in order to pay off that mortgage.

So who are the true winners of this "Economic Boon" (misspelling intentional)? It's the wealthy. It's the business owners. It's those who hold property and the more they own, the more they are laughing their way to the bank. Liquid assets aren't paying off. Thanks to the high Canadian dollar, fueled by unprecedented economic growth, and the unstable price of oil, my Mutual Funds are in the tank. I'd get more out of my investment if I dropped it all into one of those Government-sponsored slot machines (thanks, Ralph!). At least it would pay out once in a thousand pulls.

So hats off to Ed Stalmach, for raising minimum wage in our province to $8.00 per hour. He'd better open up his eyes soon, as the least any of us are making over here is $10.00 per hour. But that could change tomorrow. It's not like it's going to affect my life any. My salary will not be adjusted accordingly, and when September rolls around, I can wake up knowing that the salary I earn is one step closer to what is better known as "unskilled labor".

While he's at it, maybe Ed can raise the minimum wage for working musicians in this province. We haven't seen a raise in over 25 years.

Freedom Dissertation, Part 2

[Ed note: This entry ended up becoming a continuation of a discussion that began with this post. Similar themes have been discussed in this blog, namely, these recent entries: One, Two, and Three.]

While I was slugging it away at the office this afternoon, I was paid a visit by the gentleman who works in the office next door. He has subcontracted the company I work for to do some environmental work on a property he owns, and he popped his head into our office with the intent of asking my boss a few questions with respect to environmental logistics, as it related to the property in question.

The reason why he came into our office is irrelevant to my entry; my boss was out in the field, and he ended up talking with me instead.

WM is a local entrepreneur. He has interests in an undisclosed number of businesses, plus he owns numerous properties in my city. He is worth millions. It would be difficult to speculate on his net worth, but I estimate it would likely be somewhere between ten and fifty million.

I enjoy speaking with him on occasion, as it is obvious that he is a successful businessman, and any free advice you can get out of a successful businessman is priceless. He ended up talking about a few of his business experiences, and I listened intently.

He said something that struck a real chord with me. It's likely related to something I have written a long time ago; it is definitely something I have given considerable thought to.

We were discussing how the scales of impartial law are often tipped by big money. For example, it's almost impossible to get a judge rule in your favor if you decide to go head-to-head and sue a major corporation. These mega-corporations are able to hire the best lawyers, and drag trials on for years. The "little guy" cannot compete with this, as their resources will likely be drained in the short term.

WM then spoke about an acquaintance of his (who happened to be a millionaire) who was arrested for murder. This sounded awfully like the infamous OJ Simpson case, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt, as it could have been any millionaire. This man claimed his innocence, and used his resources to hire the best defense he could afford. WM explained this murder suspect invested nearly a million dollars into his case, and eventually was able to prove, beyond any reasonable doubt, that he was not the murderer. The exonerated suspect then told WM that if he were poor, he would have been spending his life behind bars.

As I was listening to this tale, a sense of irony overcame me. We then discussed one of the most infamous criminal cases in Canadian Law History - the exoneration of David Milgaard. David served 22 years in prison, before he was able to prove via DNA evidence that he was not guilty in the rape and stabbing death of Gail Miller. Milgaard then filed a lawsuit against the Canadian Judicial System for his wrongful conviction and was awarded $10 million in restitution.

So the rich guy has to pay a million dollars to prove his innocence, while the poor guy does 22 years and then wins the lottery. It amazes me, in the strange ways the world works.

This got WM talking about the correctional system. "You hear them all [convicts] talking about freedom this, and freedom that. The freedom to do what you want to do; the freedom to go places, or to make choices," he began, "I don't know what these guys are complaining about, they get three square meals a day; they get exercise; the get to read, write, get an education or watch a bit to television."

By this time I knew exactly where he was going. "I've been running my businesses for thirty years," he continued, "I'm not free; I work seven days a week. The phone is ringing non-stop; I have meetings and emergencies to deal with on a daily basis. I don't get to do anything I want."

He left our office shortly thereafter, but I sensed a lot of truth in his words. When I examined my schedule, it amazed me that I had next to no free time; and when I did have a few spare hours, I was usually too tired to do much more than sleep.

I am working three jobs so I can make a living wage. I am trying to save whatever monies I can, just so one day I might be able to have a short, semi-comfortable retirement. Unfortunately, investing sixty to eighty hours per week in your job(s) will undoubtedly suck every ounce of enjoyment out of your life.

As long as we have to work our fingers to the bone in order to survive, we will never be free.

The First World

I, like almost every other person out there, has often wondered what their purpose is in life. This question is as old as time itself, and I suspect that the answer is beyond human comprehension. I often contemplate this question when I feel depressed, listless, exhausted, and more or less feeling like all I have been doing the last five years is spinning my wheels.

Why is it that countless citizens of the developed world are so miserable, that they take antidepressants like candy? Is it so that they forget their faults? Is it because they are preoccupied with their jobs that they neglect everything else? Or is it the fact that we are so conditioned that we actually believe that money buys happiness?

If we reflect back one hundred years, and view what the country (Canada) was like back then, I imagine we would be quite surprised. Surprised that is, on how much alike the living conditions were in comparison to today. There was oil, natural gas, electricity, and to some degree, plumbing. There was trade, mass transportation (train), a stock market, civilian transportation (horse-drawn), department stores (the Hudson's Bay Company existed even in the 17th Century), sports, theaters, and of course, hotels and taverns. The difference between today and a century ago is our reliance on commodities such as utilities and transportation for survival. Advances in medicine has also allowed us to live longer.

The cost of living back then was much less than what it is today. Inflation is a large contributing factor, but there are many other factors that have made it so much more expensive to live in the developed world. Taxes are first and foremost. At the turn of the Twentieth Century, income tax did not exist in Canada. There was no GST, or PST. Even today, there are so many hidden taxes in the things we buy, that often you do not notice that the money you are shelling out is going straight to the Government. The money you pay when you purchase alcohol, tobacco, and petroleum products are mostly government taxes. Chances are, these items weren't taxed a century ago. Even the food we buy often have hidden taxes and tariffs on them, depending on if they were imported from a foreign nation.

What would happen if it were possible to bring a person from the early 20th Century, and assimilate them into modern society? Would they be able to survive? Would they have an interest in commodities we consider 'essential"? Would they shy away from computers and the Internet? Would they see a need for more than one vehicle? What about television or cellular phones? Would they trust automated banking machines or credit cards? I would think if they saw the houses we live in today, they would consider them mansions.

They might marvel in our wondrous medical technology, conversely they might find it difficult to accept the fact that we put men on the moon, or that we harnessed the destructive power of the atom. One thing that they would find appalling, is the amount of debt that we, as citizens and as a country have. They would find it unrealistic that the average North American citizen lives between 15 and 30 percent beyond what they can afford. They would definitely find it prohibitively expensive to live in a country like Canada or the United States.

A generation ago, a person could graduate from high school, find a job, and expect to make enough money to support themselves and a family. This does not exist today. The demand for skilled labor, and heavy competition (even from foreign workers) have made it necessary for nearly every citizen to have a post-secondary education in order to make a living wage. What happens a generation from now? Will I expect to put my children through medical school in order from them to make a living wage? If so, I'd better win the lottery soon; I can't imagine what a post-secondary education would cost 25 years from now.

All I see is the cost of living in the First World to be spiraling out of control. I find this perplexing, as that countless families in the Third World often survive on less than one US dollar a day. The cost of living is much, much less, living conditions are much poorer, and medical care is almost non-existent. If I were given the chance, I would love to visit these poor families in select developing nations. I would bet my bankroll that these poor people are generally happier than us privileged North Americans. We have everything, and comparatively, they have nothing. Why is it that we are so miserable, and they live more fulfilling lives?

This was a question I had hoped to explore in this posting, however, it will have to wait for another entry.