Letters on minimum wage, school funding, modern-day slavery, God’s judgment, source of morality, ‘black lives matter’

Living wage will harm economy?

The articles about minimum wage rules were interesting and informative (Sept. 6 Eagle). Although one can make many cogent arguments concerning the possible effects on employees and employers of raising the minimum, it would seem that the answer to one question would suffice: What is a human being worth in the modern American economy?

To help answer that, we might consider that nonprofit Ascension Health, the parent company of Via Christi, paid its CEO more than $4,000 per hour in 2013, and that HCA, the parent company of Wesley Medical Center, paid its CEO $5,600 per hour in 2014. Though these companies are familiar to Wichitans for providing health care, there are numerous additional examples in all industries.

How long can we continue to argue that paying a human being a living wage will harm our economy when we think nothing of such rampant, egregious overcompensation?

$15 wage bad idea

What began as a grassroots debate in 2014 for a $15-per-hour minimum wage has spawned a national conversation on the merits of a wage increase as a solution to poverty. As reported in the Sept. 6 Eagle, there are compelling arguments both for and against raising the wage. The articles pointed to employees who have difficulty living on the minimum, as well as to employers that have difficulty absorbing increased labor costs.

Nationally, the leadership of some major cities has been unwilling to wait for federal action to raise the wage. In Seattle, the early effect of the wage increase is being measured in lost jobs. The economic data from January to June 2015 shows a loss of 1,300 jobs in Seattle’s restaurant sector compared with a 2,800 job increase just outside of the city.

As the other major cities implement their new minimum-wage rates, we should expect to see similar job-loss figures, as well as fewer hours offered to employees. We should also witness a significant increase in retail prices, making the problem of poverty worse, not better.

The solution to poverty lies not in an arbitrary increase to the minimum wage forced upon employers, but rather in increasing the opportunity for individuals to gain valuable skills and education. Earning a diploma, certificate or degree from a high school, technical or trade school, or university has shown to substantially increase the earning power of an individual across a lifetime. Only through increasing employees’ skills and knowledge will they truly be equipped to escape poverty permanently.

Morally bankrupt

My school-age grandchildren live in Olathe, and the impact of block-grant funding of Kansas school districts recently hit home. My grandchildren are soliciting donations from family and neighbors to help their grade school pay expenses. The suggested “quota” is $60 per pupil. If the school meets this goal, it can avoid cutting learning activities and cover the costs of increased enrollments.

It’s a new low for Kansas legislators to burden grade-school children with the need to personally fund their educations while business owners enjoy legal tax evasion. Our state has become morally bankrupt, and it’s our children who are paying the price.

End slavery

Secretary of State John Kerry released in July the 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report, which ranks 188 countries on their efforts to combat human trafficking, including the United States. The TIP Report is the world’s “gold standard” on the global crime of modern-day slavery.

It is incomprehensible that the world in which we live today is host to millions of people enslaved through bonded labor and commercial sexual exploitation – estimated from 21 million to 36 million. The latter estimate approaches the population of the state of California.

Where is the outrage? What do America’s leaders need to see happen before they will lead the charge against slavery around the world?

At least for the time being, a bipartisan group of senators has introduced the End Modern Slavery Initiative Act of 2015. The bill calls for $1.5 billion to create a nonprofit foundation to administer various types of grants to strengthen law enforcement, create slavery prevention programs and assist victims of slavery.

This act won’t solve the problem of slavery, but it’s a start. I hope our entire Kansas delegation will co-sponsor this bill and push for its passage.

God’s judgment

When I was in grade school in the early 1950s, a Gideon gave each of my classmates and me a New Testament. At the front of that book was a picture of the American flag over Proverbs 14:34: “Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” That’s how I first became aware that nations are accountable to God for whether they choose to follow His ways or not.

I had the impression then that most everyone believed that. It’s different now. People regard God as distant, or scorn Him and His ways as irrelevant to what they think and do. Teachers, professors, politicians, journalists, judges and corporate heads – even some church leaders – deny and distort this nation’s history, heritage and culture, leading all to think that truth is what one makes of it and that people are accountable only to themselves.

I say this because I fear America is too quickly conforming to the historical precedent that leads nations to fall because their people ignore God’s pattern for righteous living. For example, we have now given legal sanction to a lifestyle that is both abominable and detestable to Him.

We are accountable to God for whether we as a nation are just or unjust according to His laws and instructions. I believe He is giving us time to mend our ways, but unless we do, we will fall by His inevitable judgment against us.

Source of morality

Recent letters to The Eagle have discussed creation and the basis of belief in what is right and wrong. One letter writer implied that proof of the legitimacy of the Christian Bible is the fact that our society condemns stealing and lying while approving and encouraging altruistic acts (“Right, wrong?” Sept. 5 Letters to the Editor).

It is well-documented by sociology and anthropology that morals do not come from religion but from culture. Morality developed in human societies long before any religion we are aware of was invented, and is constantly changing. For example, before the American Civil War, “moral” Christians, and the nonreligious as well, owned African humans as property. This was not considered immoral by the majority of our population. The same concept today is abhorrent to all but a very tiny minority.

Religion is not a good source of moral values without the filter of culture. Owning slaves is not prohibited by the Bible, but we have stopped doing it because it is immoral.

Why controversy?

I am puzzled by all of the controversy about the catchphrase “black lives matter.” This seems quite tame and conciliatory, if you ask me.

Some people want to read more into it, such as “black lives matter, so others do not.” This is light-years away from the intention of the saying. If one wants to add unspoken words, just add the word “too.” Black lives matter, too.

We live in a nation with a bloody history of not valuing certain groups of people, including black people. They were once enslaved. Many have been killed for looking the wrong way at the wrong time. That others, including police officers, have been killed without justification does not detract from the fact that too many unarmed black men have been shot for no reason.

So when I hear the words “black lives matter,” I echo them in my heart. Like all lives, they matter. The shame is the need to remind ourselves of that.

This story was originally published September 12, 2015 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Letters on minimum wage, school funding, modern-day slavery, God’s judgment, source of morality, ‘black lives matter’."