When you hear about professional
athletes making $25 million a year, like Andrew Luck’s new contract, or what the
Yankees are being forced to pay on the final year of A-Rod’s contract (not as a
player, but as an “adviser”), does the average person really know what that
means? It’s a lot of money, but how much is a lot? $25 million could be broken
down in the following ways:
$1 million a year for 25 years
$500,000 a year for 50 years
$250,000 a year for 100 years
$100,000 a year for 250 years
$50,000 a year for 500 years
$25,000 a year for 1,000 years
We could break it down in other
ways, like how many unemployed people could be working or be paid a living wage
per year. Of course, we don’t want to begrudge anyone for simply taking
advantage of their “market value,” although it certainly is indicative of where
a society’s values and priorities lie. It is kind of like the differing reactions to
the deaths of Princess Diana and Mother Theresa within a few weeks of each
other; one was a media creation and basked in a royal life of leisure and privilege,
and the other spent lifetime among and attending to the needs of the desperately
poor in India. Yet whose life was the subject of unbalanced adoration?
Low-income people are often accused
by the wealthy and right-wing politicians and commentators of not paying taxes.
The state of Washington does not have a state income tax, but that doesn’t mean
the low-income don’t pay taxes. If you throw in the health care premiums which
I am required to pay per the ACA, 28 percent of my earnings are taken off the
top—and most millionaires and billionaires don’t pay half that percentage, and
that includes the Clintons, who the media has praised for paying a “high”
percentage on their net income after their tax dodges are deducted. And that
doesn’t even take into account the 10 percent in state sales taxes; that means
that my “net” income is 65 percent of the gross. If I wash pans for another
department for three weeks straight because they don’t have anybody “knows” how
to do it (and judging by the badly stained condition they are in, that is probably
true), do I have an expectation that I will at least be asked if I want to work
overtime? I thought I’d just throw that in there.
One problem with income,
especially for those on the lower end, is health care, and paying substantial premiums
that take a large chunk of their income seems little benefit (until actually
needed, of course). The current line is that “Obamacare” is in trouble, partly
because the 18-29 group has not as expected acquired health insurance, and
because of this and the fact that newly-insured people are actually using their
benefits, insurance companies claim that it is impossible to maintain profitability
under the ACA. This is plain denial, because before the ACA, health costs and
premiums were rocketing out of control, and individuals were denied health care
insurance even as their employers refused to offer group plans. This
prioritizing of profits over people should tell us that we should be moving
toward a single-payer system that cuts out the profit motive for all
involved—insurance companies, pharmaceuticals and even doctors. And down at the
worker level—more specifically for those already being paid at or near the
minimum wage—people should not be given a false indicator of their actual
earnings, meaning that businesses should pay 100 percent of premiums.
I confess that I’m not that
ambitious, save to write. The closest I ever came to doing anything
commensurate with my education, and was paid for it, was when I worked for the
college newspaper and was paid $3 per story. And that was after I had served my
country for seven years in the Army. But none of that means anything when you
“look” like someone’s negative stereotype. It is not to the same degree in
every workplace, and sometimes only within a particular ethnic clique, and the
best policy is to keep your head down and don’t say what is on your mind,
although that is sometimes hard to do.
People like me always start at
the bottom, regardless of education level. Whether it is washing pans—or
pushing a broom all day. Once me and a black partner were sent to a company
that made “aesthetic” table and overhead lamps. It is my perception that an
employer often hires based on their political or social beliefs; this place had
the “liberal” types, except as I mentioned recently, that can be “complicated”
in practice. I pushed a broom and vacuumed up dust all day for a week, until I
was allowed to do a little piece work to keep from becoming too bored;
eventually I was “promoted” to constructing bases and stems. I heard one employee
sarcastically say this was because the company was into “equality,” but I would
hardly say that; from what I could gather from its hiring practices, before I
arrived it apparently assumed only white people were capable of doing anything above the
intellectual capacity of a chimpanzee (OK, now I’m being sarcastic). The only
time I ever heard anyone tell me I was doing a “good” job was when I had a
broom back in my hand.
One day I observed that a white
male was brought in, who I assumed was a new hire, because he was immediately
trained in the construction of the lighting fixtures and was allowed to attend
company meetings, from which me and the black guy were deliberately excluded
from. It turned out that this new guy was a temp as well, but apparently a
friend or a cousin of one of the employees, and set on the fast track to
fulltime.
This also only confirmed for me
the company’s discriminatory hiring practices, and I quickly came to the
conclusion that there was no future for us there besides doing their “dirty”
work. My partner told me he had been driven away even from just viewing the
photos taken by the owner during his recent “showmobile” tour; so much for being
made to feel part of the “team.” Things came to a “head,” at least for me, when
me and my partner were taken outside for a private “chat” and questioned about
the smell of marijuana in a restroom, apparently upon the accusation of a
full-time employee who had skipped a company meeting because he needed to
“smoke,” and had denied he was responsible for the pot smell; we were likely
the responsible for that, because, after all, we the only minorities in the
place. I was of course outraged by this, and I stewed for a few weeks until I
decided I couldn’t work there anymore.
I had heard that the new Amazon
Fulfillment Center in Kent, which pays $12.75 an hour to start, was hiring, and
were actively seeking a “diverse” work force. Except that their human resources
department was taking it a little too seriously; by the looks of people coming
in and out of the place, it seems that Amazon has taken upon itself the social responsibility
of reducing the black unemployment rate. I had first heard that they were
hiring from a “brother” from among a group on a prison work release that an
employer at another job site had brought in on the cheap. His girlfriend had
done an on-line application for him, a just two days later she had told him
that Amazon had actually called him for an interview; I wonder if his current
“status” was discussed. What chance could a college-educated personal with a
long work history have over such “qualifications”? It took me about eight weeks
to find out: None, probably because I checked the “decline to say” box in the
race or ethnicity section, which was a whole page long.
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