Perhaps following Jesus...Rights, part 4

The basic premise for this series of blog entries is as follows.  Perhaps following Jesus is just as likely to lead us to lay down our rights as it is to lead us to fight for them. 

As with anything else, there is of course a flip side to the growing movement of people who are choosing to live downwardly mobile lives.  There are still quite a few people who seem determined to fight for their rights in relation to keeping as much money as possible without any thought of how someone living in poverty is effected by a low national minimum wage.  I specifically remember listening to a podcast by a group named Crown Financial and the host interviewing a guy about the state of the economy.  The economist assured the host that if Obama and the Democrats were successful in raising the rates of the super rich back to where they were pre Bush tax cuts; that it would result in a significant increase in overall tax revenue.

In response to this, the host assured the guest economist that many of his listeners didn’t share the same opinion.  They believed instead in broadening the tax base by getting more people to work.  I definitely agree with getting more people to work and broadening the tax base, but if you take a small percentage of many people living at minimum wage as opposed to taking a bigger percentage of people who have extreme levels of income, then the comparison and economics simply don’t compare. 

I remember seeing a clip of Jon Stewart on the Daily Show interviewing Mitt Romney when he was running for president.  Stewart asked Romney how he felt about the fact that he paid the same tax rate of someone making $50,000 compared to his million-dollar plus a year income.  Romney responded that Jon surely wouldn’t want a president who paid more taxes than what he owed.  Jon quickly quipped back that while he doesn’t want a president who paid more taxes than he owed that he would like to see a president who sees a problem with that fact.

All that to say, I’ve listened to Crown Financial Ministries podcast and the Dave Ramsey show podcast for at least 3 years at this point, and I have yet to hear one single caller complaining about how the minimum wage and average wage for the average worker hasn’t increased since the 80’s in terms of actual buying power.  Granted, Crown no longer does a 25 minute show and hasn’t for over a year probably, but surely you get the idea that I’m trying to prove here, right?  That’s not to say it hasn’t crossed any listener’s minds as I’m almost positive or at least would hope that it has surely done so by now.  If they were truly concerned with putting others’ rights ahead of their own though, don’t you think that might come up in conversation somewhere along the way?

I understand the whole argument that America is a land of opportunity and that’s what makes this country great and all of that and agree with it for the most part you might be surprised to learn.  The part that I struggle with is the extreme levels of inequality in terms of pay that we now see in multi-national corporations in particular.  The average wage of a CEO in the 80’s was 30-40 times greater than the average wage of the factory worker.  Since then that number has increased to 300 to 400 times greater.  How is that even possible?  Some might argue that the CEO has earned his income because he worked hard to get where he is.  Isn’t there some point where we have to say enough is enough though?  My dad is a CEO and has assured me repeatedly he makes no more than 10 times his factory worker.  My dad has never shared his salary but I can assure you he is doing just fine financially speaking.  

In light of this, is there any solid justification for a CEO making 300-400 times as much as his/her factory worker?  I don’t want to sound like a socialist or anything and want to be very careful here, but didn’t God Himself talk about how managers need to pay their workers their due wages?  Not to mention the whole Year of Jubilee thing as an obvious example of, God forbid these words from exiting my mind onto a word document, redistributing wealth.  With that in mind, the Israelites are reported as having never actually practiced this command.  That doesn’t take away from the fact that it was God’s idea, does it? 

Yes, I agree that shouldn’t be left up to the government necessarily, but I would say that we need to help certain CEO’s do some heart checking to see if they’re paying their workers a fair amount and how much they’re paying their workers in relation to their salaries.  If it’s not even in the same ballpark that should probably be a fairly strong indicator of a misaligned heart in regards to God’s purposes for that person’s wealth.  How much money does one person need?  Whether that be a CEO or a pro athlete at the top of their respective sport, just how much money can one person possibly desire to have?  When does it become enough to satisfy their hunger for more and more?

The drive to succeed and make money is perhaps one of the best motivators out there that we have available today.  Capitalism can even be criticized as being a system based on people’s inherit greed.  With that in mind, we need to develop stronger motivations than what motivates people around us.  Work as if working for the Lord, those kinds of things.  If you do those things, you will likely succeed and climb the corporate ladder to the top eventually.  When you get there and I sincerely hope you do, don’t forget where you started and how hard it is to make a living when you’re on the bottom of the ladder so to speak.  Pay your employees a fair wage and be generous with your remaining income.