To the editor:
Re: Recognizing the importance of the menial task workers.
In early January of this year, I sent a letter to federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair stating that I was pleased to hear that he was suggesting the need to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
I pointed out that there needs to be more than just raising the minimum wage. Unfortunately, he lacked the courtesy of responding to my letter, a trait I notice practiced by many of our politicians.
I was also pleased to read in the March 18 edition of the Capital News that the BC Federation of Labour took the stand to support raising the minimum wage to a livable wage.
Shirley Bond, our provincial labour minister, is way out of touch with reality. I would suggest she should try living on an income wage of $10.65 an hour.
I do disagree with the suggestion that it’s important to strive for something more important in life than working in a fast-food place. There are many people who would be satisfied with working in such an environment if it provided them a livable wage.
It’s nice to be served by someone who recognizes regular customers, engages in cheerful conversation and enjoys what they are doing, rather than be treated by someone who has no interest in their work and treat it as a temporary job with no satisfaction or benefits.
We should recognize the importance of menial task workers. Where would the franchise stores, chain outlets and corporations be without these workers?
These workers are essential to any business and deserve to be paid a livable wage.
Those in opposition to raising the minimum wage claim that stores could not afford this. But try taking into account the high franchise fees or ridiculous salaries earned by corporation CEOs.
While food banks are a form of charity, supported by generous donors, and help in a pragmatic way people earning a low wage, it does nothing to remove the causes behind the need. Politicians encourage support of food banks but do little to eliminate the need for them.
I am opposed to capitalism, communism and to being ruled by the rich, a form of governing labeled timocracy. I am for democracy, entrepreneurship and allowing people to make an honest living without being exploited.
I would like to see a return of traditional family life, without the need for both parents having to work.
We need a taxation system that will eradicate the greed that is rampant today. We can be a self-sustainable country without soliciting trade with non-democratic countries and stop stripping away our natural resources.
Some who I have shared my views with respond to me that “I can’t think of a better country to live in.”
Well, neither can I.
But as US President Barack Obama stated: “There is nothing wrong with our country, it is the politics that need improvement.”
Can we not see the western world being drained of our resources and the ever expanding gap between the rich and the poor? Are we content to keep on exploiting the poor? To see our youth unable to own a home and become financially independent?
A.D.H. Ferguson,
West Kelowna
