I found this on Reddit the other day, and it got me thinking:
“The concept of a living wage is how much one person needs to make just to survive in a community. In Victoria, BC the living wage was calculated to $20.50/hour or $42.6k.”
This amount was calculated including numerous day to day, monthly, and yearly expenses, including things like the possibility of needing a vehicle to commute to/from a job, what the minimum expenses for things like gas and maintenance etc. would be, and so on. I’m going to use that amount for this post, but for more current info see here: http://www.livingwageforfamilies.ca/2019_living_wages
Emphasis on “one person needs to make just to survive…” That’s the minimum needed to survive. That’s what “minimum wage” was originally implemented to be – the minimum pay a single person needed to make in order to survive. That means ANYTHING less than that is, by definition, poverty. That’s the real poverty line: $42.6k/year. Even if we drop that down just slightly to make it seem just above the poverty line, to make the poverty line an even $40,000 a year (as an example), then *everyone* making less than $40k a year now classifies as “in poverty” regardless of what you do for a living. Everyone. According to the 2016 census data, that’s 2,154,850 people in British Columbia alone.
Let me emphasize that: there are over 2.15M people in British Columbia that live BELOW the MINIMUM that is NEEDED just to SURVIVE, and that was the minimum back in 2016! That’s literally what poverty level income is – not meeting the minimum amount of income needed to survive. Too many people, not just in BC, have the false belief that if you have a job, no matter how little it pays, you’re not in poverty, and only people on any kind of income assistance are in poverty. This belief is false. The calculated “living wage” is the poverty line, regardless of what (or how many) jobs you have.
Now, I’m going to switch gears just slightly and talk about Billionaires. As long as poverty exists, there’s no reason or excuse for billionaires to exist. They should be creating so many jobs that either poverty gets eradicated, or they’re demoted to being just millionaires. There’s tons of work out there that could be done and needs to be done, and more than enough people capable of doing it or eager to learn how; there just aren’t enough jobs to pay people to do the work, and education is too expensive for most people. The problem is that the people with the money (especially those billionaires) are hoarding the money instead of creating jobs.
The top 10 billionaires in BC make more than the lowest 1.32M people in the entire province. (https://biv.com/article/2018/12/top-10-bc-billionaire-families-have-more-money-bottom-13-million-british-columbians) Combined, those 10 families make approx. $24.9 Billion. They make what equals to $11,555 for every single one of the 2.15M people below that $40,000 poverty line. That’s insane, that so few people hold so much wealth while so many people starve and struggle day after day after day. And this is just the billionaires; I haven’t even touched on the millionaires.
In the last few years, several studies have been done on how much income it takes before money can’t actually make your life any happier. This is info on the most recent one:
Also, there’s your middle class income info. Middle class income should be between $60,000 – $95,000 for an individual. Anyone between $40,000 to $60,000 is out of poverty, but still low income. Any individual making more than $95,000 a year is upper class and high income. This makes sense, and is logical conclusion based on actual scientific research. So why the hell does no one talk about this, and why is “middle class” still assumed by the general public to be lower than this? Why do people who, statistically and scientifically, live in poverty still consider themselves “middle class” despite struggling so hard?
Because the millionaires and billionaires control media and use it to goad and manipulate all of us into thinking we’re not struggling as we are, and pit us against each other so they can keep taking more of our money for themselves. This is why I hate the existence of billionaires. This is why I consider them the root cause of a majority of the social and economic problems in the world. Because, overall, they’re not adding to the economy or to jobs or anything. They’re just in a fight to rack up the highest score on their bank accounts, with our dollars being their points. Most of them didn’t even build their fortunes themselves; they were inherited. And all these billionaires in BC make more than enough money to increase wages of everyone under them up to at least be above that $40,000 poverty line. (https://www.policynote.ca/bc-billionaires/)
This has been circulating around the internet for the last several years:
There’s a lot of truth in that, but it’s just barely scratching the surface. I say we need to fight for way more than just a slightly higher minimum wage. I think the majority of the people in the whole province need to get their heads out of their asses and realize they’re not middle-class; they’re in poverty. We need to all come together and realize that nobody’s going to get anywhere by being selfish and fighting over what measly scraps the wealthy elite throw our way, tearing down and fighting against anyone assumed to be “lower class” from getting even just the bare minimum to survive. The rich have created a war against the poor with lies and propaganda, such as “you don’t need money to be happy,” and “poor people want things handed to them and if we give them anything they’ll just be lazy leeches.” It’s false, it’s lies, and it’s attacks on the poor.
A lot of the wealthy, both in and out of government, have attacked the poor and the idea of a minimum income for everybody. If the government suddenly decided to make enough changes to implement a minimum income system and I was getting even just the $40,000 poverty line minimum (not counting anything extra I’d need as a person with permanent disabilities), I know exactly what I’d do. There’s a ton I would do. I’d go back to school and get my BBA, then get my cabinetry apprenticeship, then I’d start saving up and putting together a business plan for something I’ve worked on since 2003 (I’ve mentioned it in previous blog entries, so won’t go into it here). I’d get a better place for my mom and I to share (assuming she was also getting the same $40,000 a year I was) that had enough space for me to have a workshop and I’d start making furniture to sell as a side business. Once I had my retail business up and running, I’d be creating jobs and promoting gaming and cosplay within the community, helping to sponsor conventions and events, etc. In about 5 years from when I started getting that minimum income, I’d look into buying a house, maybe getting married and starting a family. And I know lots of people on income assistance or who make less than $40,000 who have equally impressive dreams and goals. All these things would add to the economy overall, and would make more money for those billionaires, all while eradicating poverty in general; because people with money will spend that money, generating more tax dollars in the process. That’s how a healthy economy works.
So the real questions are – who’s with me, how do we make this a reality, and why the hell don’t we just do it?
Ramblings of an Opinionated "Gentleman" 