Egalitarian

by Eric "Travis" Wilson

There's been some renewed blah-blah lately about the complaint that someone flipping burgers "doesn't deserve the same pay as me." Presumably, because I have a job that is somehow above burger flipping in status and prestige. Advocates for an increase in the minimum wage (of which I am one) point out how the minimum wage hasn't risen in a very long time, whilst the cost of living and inflation continue their steady climb. People on the other side, many of them business owners, boo-hoo about how they wouldn't be able to operate their business if they were forced to pay a higher minimum wage.

The working class counters with, "You can suffer with one less Lamborghini," the executive class counters with, "This ain't communist China - no free money for you!" There's also a lot of bloviating about stifling entrepreneurship and free-market economy and whatnot.

Here's the real crux of the problem: here in America, everybody loves oppression.

This happens at both ends of the economic spectrum, and at all points in between. At the top end, if CEO #1 hears that CEO #2 was not able to escape a certain financial defeat, they are happy. Because in that rarefied atmosphere of corporate competition, you look for any weakness in your competitors and you exploit it. That makes you win. CEO #1 is also very happy when unions are crushed, when wages are low, and when the market desperately needs the gizmo they manufacture, and is willing to pay an artificially high price. CEO #1 loves oppression.

Dude Sleeping In Cardboard Box #1 is kind of happy when Dude Sleeping In Cardboard Box #2 gets rousted by the police, or when Box #2 collapses. He gets a leg up. Maybe he moves to the better street corner when Dude #2 is hauled off to jail for vagrancy. Because in that downtrodden atmosphere of street survival, you look for any weakness in your competitors and you exploit it. Dude #1 loves oppression.

But most importantly, Average Joe likes it when Burger Flipper is underpaid. Burger Flipper's poverty wage is a validation of Average Joe's position in life. He won against somebody. He's a better human. BF's oppression is a celebration of AJ's comparative success. You take that away, and what have you got? Well, apart from a more equitable society, lower crime, less strain on social services, reduced anger and frustration in the general public, and the aquaduct, you also get no more reason to celebrate your imagined superiority over someone who has a harder life than you.

Sorry, the aquaduct was the Romans. Not the result of better wages in America.

Anyway, here in America, everyone loves oppression. They love it when the other guy is the victim of it, and they love to bleat about how they are the victim of it. Don't be too angry at people who feel this way - it's a result of the survival instinct, the "them-or-me" philosophy of getting ahead in life. It's why White supremacists rejoice in the oppression of minorities, it's why Karen yells at the Starbucks barista, and it's also why we rejoice when we beat the other driver through the stoplight, and they have to wait, while we sail merrily forward.

A decent federally mandated living wage comes with a surprise, though. It makes you a little prouder of your country. Think of it as "trickle-up economics." Without all that government money (that's your money, BTW) bailing out financially destitute working-class people with unemployment payments, emergency room costs, and a host of other social services (which "fiscal conservatives" hate), you could end up with a country that has less poverty, less associated crime, reduced anger and frustration (and by extension, less road rage, domestic abuse, and public violence), and American social values could be the envy of the free world. All for a little minimum wage hike.

I mean...unless you're really fond of that oppression thing after all.

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