I was having a discussion with my daughter yesterday prior to her returning to Atlanta. She had come home for a visit the week of her birthday. It was a good time for my wife and me, one of her last visits before she moves up to Virginia later this year to start a new job. And, as is common in our family, a lot of different topics got mixed together, from Magic cards to movies to life online. At one point, we turned briefly to the economy, and the idea of setting a minimum wage was broached. We don’t exactly see eye-to-eye on the subject, and that’s okay. I think we do a good job of being respectful to each other in these matters, even when our views don’t match up. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. But then she said something that made me sad:
“I’d like to believe that this country could come up with a way for everyone who worked sixteen hours a day to make ends meet.”*
Her words did not make me sad because I thought they were foolish or unrealistic or childish or sentimental or anything else in that vein. In fact, I think that the sentiment is, to borrow a British-ism, “spot on.” They made me sad because, for the most part, what regarded as so desirable is already true for the most part and she didn’t seem to realize it.
In her defense, not that she requires much defending, it isn’t as true as it once was. It’s certainly not as true as it was six years ago, and it’s likely to be even less true two years from now. Most of us know someone, or several someones, who is really out there trying, and giving it their all, and still struggling. But for the most part those who are willing to do what it takes, they will make it over time. It won’t be fun and it won’t be easy, but things will get better. That’s one of the big differences between the United States and a lot of places in the world: If you keep at it, it will get better.
The main reason that so many people don’t know these simple truths is that there are a lot of people out there who don’t want them to know. Many politicians and “community leaders” maintain their seats by telling their constituents that things are terrible and biased and unfair. So unfair, in fact, that there is no way that these constituents have a chance in life without these same leaders fighting on their behalf. The vast majority of college professors and administrators spread the doctrine as well, catering to feelings of misery and victimhood, telling all who will listen that life is a game rigged against them by the powerful. None of their problems are their responsibility. It is all the doing of others, the wealthy, the corporate, the system.
Less than a week ago, President Obama continued throwing fuel on a volatile nation, expressing the sentiment that those who actually succeed are nothing more than winners in “life’s lottery.” Hard work, delaying gratification, investing in skills: None of that matters in the eyes of our great leader. It’s all about luck. Honestly, I can almost forgive him having that view sometimes. As near as I can tell, that’s the only way he made it anywhere in life, but it’s still a lousy way to govern a nation.
Anyway, here are the facts: Most of the people who are willing to work hard and stick to it do well. I’m not saying that they will have the life they always wanted or get their dream job or can be “anything they want to be.” That’s a load of fairy-tale crap. Life is hard. Life is work. Life is pain. (Anyone who tells you differently is selling something.) There’s nothing that the government or Bill Gates or Wall Street can do about that. Few of us will get everything we want, and of those who do, a good percentage of those still won’t be happy with it. That’s the human condition. Deal with it.
While life has no guarantees, Dr. Thomas Sowell has developed a few simple rules that will go a long way to keeping you out of poverty, or getting you out if that’s where you are starting. Graduate from high school. When you complete your education, get “a” job. Get the best job you can, but get “a” job. Delay marriage until you can afford it. Delay children until after marriage. The vast majority of people who follow these rules escape or avoid poverty. The vast majority of people who break all of these rules end up in poverty. Simple, yes?
With respect to Dr. Sowell, I would add one more: Almost everyone in the U.S. gets four to six years after high school. Don’t waste them racking up a huge amount of debt getting a degree that will never pay. You will never get those years back. Yeah, college can be fun, and I can see the appeal of discussing medieval Spanish literature, but eventually the bills come due. There’s little satisfaction in being the most literate person in the homeless shelter.
Like many of us, I share the underlying sentiment expressed by my daughter. Paraphrasing her somewhat I too wish that everyone could have a comfortable life. I wish the cow would give some milk. I wish the walls were full of gold. I wish a lot of things. Wishing doesn’t cost anything. It also doesn’t get us anything. In life, people don’t hire workers who don’t have the skills to pay the cost of their salary and benefits. Each time you legally mandate higher salary and benefits, you reduce the number of people that others will hire, which means you reduce those gaining any salary or skills or experience. Or pride, or self-worth, or sense of empowerment.
What’s left over, well... we’ve seen a lot of that in the news lately. In Ferguson. In Baltimore. It’s not a great way to go, but that’s where we are headed. There’s where our leadership is taking us. If these don’t sound like great places to you, then take it upon yourself to choose a better way. Choose a different direction, and start working to get there. You may not may it as far as you would like, but chances are it will be so much better than where others will send you.
Either way, it’s your life. The decision is yours. All I really want to do in this posting is make sure that more people realize that the choice is there. That they, you, are not helpless in determining the outcome of your life and you don’t need government or Oprah or anyone else to attain something better. You need God and you, and the will to keep going.
Now choose.
*(A note to my daughter, and everyone else, at this point: The words may not be precise as shown above. My intention was to express it exactly and honestly, but my memory is less perfect on such things than it once was. I am very sure that the wording shown accurately captures the sentiment she conveyed. I consider accurately relaying the words and intentions of all others a matter of integrity. How much more so for one of my daughters?”)
