There’s a board at the Star Gospel Mission with pictures on it, and every day there’s less and less. Because, you see, there’s less days to work around the holidays for day laborers. It’s cold outside. It rains a lot. Many employers take time off—lots of it. So while Christmas carolers, donated food, hand knitted scarves and warm clothes pile into the Star Gospel, the men who can’t pay their rent anymore pass them on their way out.
This is a capitalistic Christmas, based on supply and demand. There’s less demand for laborers, and ironically more supply of needless crap (Forgive me for playing the role of God. It’s possible hearing “Silent Night” could inspire anyone to create a sequel to "The Pursuit of Happyness." We just can’t say for sure. And I really do like my scarf—it’s blue and green, and warm.).
There are a lot of loopholes to be sure (cigarettes, booze, drugs, prostitutes, completely unnecessary spending on a license to carry a concealed weapon), but if we could compartmentalize capitalism into claiming its own responsibility, could you make an argument that it lets these guys down? At any point? Man shows up to work every day, gets picked some days but not others, makes $48 a day on the days he does, uses this to pay for food and shelter and anything else. Then one week doesn’t get picked enough days to pay for both food and shelter, so picks one.
Is this some sort of manipulated capitalism? After all, employers do pay anywhere from $13-$20 an hour for day laborers, but the laborers lack the resources and organization to collect that wage themselves, and so instead they make minimum wage. Is it only capitalism if the pure supply and pure demand are exchanged fairly? What constitutes fair? Who decides?
Posts
Dwarkesh!
7 hours ago
My friends and I are planning on having a holiday football game later today. What's a fair price to offer day laborers to play the non-skill positions?
ReplyDeleteThat's the kind of witty repertoire I was hoping this blog would elicit Tyler.
ReplyDeleteYou ask a fair question Derek. I think we could argue the market is efficient - it allocates scarce resources to those who are willing to pay what they consider to be a reasonable cost, otherwise the transition would not take place. What's much more difficult is whether the market is equitable, which is really the thrust of your question. I'm not in a position to venture an intelligent statement on that, but I learned something new recently that gave me a different perspective on the job prospects of the homeless.
The director of the Spartanburg Rescue Mission came to speak to Center Court (outreach ministry to guys that live around my church, most of whom are black and either in high school or have dropped out). While the point of his talk was to warn the guys about temptations they may have faced or will face to enter a gang (he used Proverbs 1:8-19 to try and illustrate the Lord's depiction of gangs, it was really cool), he also mentioned that the guys he ministers to at the mission never thought they would live past 30. That struck me as such a huge point. These men never invested in themselves because they never thought they'd be around to realize the benefits of it. Do you run into the same mindset at the Star Gospel Mission Derek? How do you change that in men and women, so that they have the skills do function in the 21st century and earn a living wage?