The United States is the wealthiest nation on the face of the planet, and also the wealthiest nation in the history of mankind.
There is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON why a family who has at least one adult working full time every week should be below the poverty level. The Book of James, Chapter Five speaks very clearly to the tragedy of not "paying people a living wage."
This is not a liberal cause, and it is not a conservative cause. This is a human cause.
Now, I realize that some people have made some "poor choices" in their recent, and not-so-recent past--and now they are living with the dire consequences of those choices.
More than 30 million working Americans are living below the poverty level--and many of them have families they are attempting to support.
As much as I like TARGET and WALMART and HOME DEPOT, these companies must pay their workers a "living wage."
And so should every other business fortunate enough to operate in the United States of America.
And the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST must speak up about this tragedy. We have no problem speaking up about "gay marriage" and "abortions" and other societal ills--and we should speak up about them.
But we must realize that allowing poverty-level living when we can do something about it, is also immoral. At least that is what the Scriptures tell me. We must speak up, and then we must be about doing something. The "least of these" teaching of Christ from Matthew 25 comes into play here.
God requires no less of us.
2 comments:
I'm not sure what I think about this. Part of me says we ought to encourage people to get an education so they can get a better job. I do feel for those who work hard and get squat but many of those who work for min. wage treat people like they get paid that much.
Part of me agrees as well, but this issue is much deeper than just giving people more money. We fund education (public schools) and it doesn't get any better. I think that some of the money should be used for skill training and higher education.
If we just give more money, the trickle down effect will make everything more expensive. Ultimately the consumer will have to pay more for goods & services, so the extra money they make do to an increase will be eaten up by the cost increases that will follow.
Most problems, this one included, are deeper than just money problems.
Here is an interesting point to ponder...ever noticed that the minimum wage issues comes up every election year - that should put up a red flag!!!
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