The Joy of Having (Enough) Wealth

In one or two of my prior blogs I wrote that wealth is needed for every child, youth, adult and senior.
What do I mean by that. Here's some thoughts:

For children: The first condition of true wealth is having loving, caring and supportive parents, or at least parent, as in my growing up years. These days grandmothers and relatives, even adoptive and foster parents also fill that role. Without this strong foundation of love and support, well . . . . It's like one of my favorite quotes from Alexander Pope, "... just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." Bad habits are picked up quickly, along with bad influences. Also, if the foundation isn't strong, the house will fall, to paraphrase Jesus Christ.

You need wealth, for the child and the parents/caregiver, in order to provide that strong foundation. Number one is enough wealth for food, shelter, clothing AND HEALTH CARE (including mental health). Extended families, companies, government and society have obligations in this regard.

Also, for children all the way to senior, education is needed. The full quote from Pope is, "'Tis education forms the common mind; just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." We pay education lip service, especially in this age of competitiveness and technology, when we need highly skilled, specialized workers. (Visas anyone?) And education is the key that solves all problems. All problems. One idea can change the world, if it can be executed. For that, knowledge and heart are needed.

And I don't mean just college education. Definitely not. My days at Mercer County Community College, for as much as I enjoyed them,  didn't teach me how to run a 120v line in my house, or stop a toilet from leaking. But, what are we nuts? Yes, yes, book learning and experience are the foundations of education, fine, but give me shop class, automotive class if I'm so inclined, plumbing and electrical classes as well, even home economics (home finance is making a comeback). These used to be standard in the large high schools. Now they're few and far between. Not everyone will be a bond trader, or doctor, software engineer or CPA, all valuable of course, but college is not the only path to a successful job and career. Yet its made out to be our savior. We also need carpenters, electricians, masons, plumbers, mechanics and the rest. Honorable professions all. 

And speaking of education, especially here in the U.S., what superintendent came up the bright idea to make all their school principals equally responsible for facilities management? 40% of energy used in this country is for buildings. These school buildings need fully trained, certified facilities managers, especially, especially, for the decrepit shape most of our school buildings are in.  Forget the posh schools with new roofs who can lease solar panels. That's not a tenth of what facilities management means. So we task the principals? Just to save a buck? To kill a needed payroll position? To keep the mass of taxpaying seniors happy so their school tax doesn't rise a few cents? (Seniors and income is a whole other issue entirely, coming soon.)

For youth: No wonder we say "lost generation," "me generation" and other terms. Where can they go? What have they to do to keep them out of idleness and trouble? Does society build YMCA centers? I loved the Trenton Y pool, elevated track, and Jujitsu classes when I was a kid, and I quicky got over my em-barr-ass-ment swimming naked.  In the fifties when I was growing up I also remember the Boys Club on Centre St. and its pool table. Now its Boys & Girls Clubs of America. How do we build more?

We may not have to build more. Do a hundred thousand empty school buildings provide any kind of safe haven for youth on nights and weekends? Example, our local Hamilton Township Free Public Library just started free "Movie nights." I'm going to see Skyfall next week. Why can't we have movie nights in these empty school auditoriums, or, let the boys (and girls) use the courts at night? Or boys, girls and families use the school swim pool on weekends? And this when cities like Trenton are closing their public pools in the summer because of revenue shortfalls? Again, what's so difficult about this? Lack of a paid lifeguard? Lack of a janitor to unlock, lock and clean up? I'll bet you could find thousands of parents available to organize and monitor these extracurricular activities. Are these taxpayer paid for facilities or not? Shouldn't we be using them for the  youth (and their families) by having Family Movie and Pool Nights'? I'm sure we can think of other wholesome activities as well . . . .

What would we rather do, give our youth socially acceptable things to enjoy and do in safe surroundings? Or watch them join gangs and roam the streets?

For youth and adults: Jobs, jobs, jobs. I mean it must be true that our salary scales are totally out of whack if Chinese materials and manufacturing and packaging and shipping across the ocean over 6,000 miles costs less than we can make it for here. Okay, its not that simple. The standard of living and living costs are 50% less in China than the U.S., and Chinese factory wages are one-tenth that of Americans. And they don't get health care like they should, and they work in unsafe and deplorable conditions, including getting killed -- all things that shouldn't be accepted anywhere. In fact, until countries provide health care and safe working conditions, companies should be forbidden to do business with them, regardless of what the consumer demands.

And what about young adult internships. All unpaid internships must be criminalized. It's merely a nice term for slavery and patently unjust and unfair. We have a minimum wage for a reason. I agree its not perfect. Its unfair because everyone, McDonald's drive-thru window order taker like my son Jesse in high school, or clerk typist typing 40 wpm, or retail clerk, or gas station attendant, all get the same minimum wages. Unfair. 

The guild system recognized different levels of skills and talents, and so should we. But we shouldn't add corruption and "buying" a position like the guilders did. Maybe if unions changed their name to guilds there wouldn't be so much animosity towards them, or on the other extreme, fear of unreasonable demands and inflexibility. Unions serve a legitimate purpose and that is to balance workers rights with management rights, that's why we need fair labor laws and 100% independent Arbitration Boards with legally binding pronouncements. And these boards should be set up and run independently by the government and not paid for by corrupt companies, nor use up the life savings of an employee who loses a case.

Take "At Will" employees for example. How would you like to go to work knowing that if you didn't do what you were told, shady or not, you could be handed an empty cardboard box? That's why state workers have civil service and administrative law judges, for management to justify its actions. Nor on the other hand, should supervisors and managers be afraid to write up and fire unqualified, unproductive or lazy workers. Hey, somebody else could do terrifically at that job. No entitlements either.

So back to my point: everyone needs a certain amount of wealth -- a caring loving family, and a caring, nurturing society; health care; education; and a job leading hopefully to a career. Easy for me to say right? I had all those things right? Yes, by my mother's hard work, by chance, my hardwork, more chance, and more hardwork.
I'm a lucky one. And because I got lucky I want others to share in that luck if they can work hard and work good, whether with their caregivers, their teachers, their spouses or their bosses.

And then? You guessed it! Retirement in sunny Florida. I'm still in Jersey, still in the top ten most expensive states to live in (the Northeast is generally), but maybe we'll visit Disney World one of these days. That would be a nice bonus. 

By Rodney Richards, NJ