Paid What We're Worth?

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Several times this week, I heard people assert that you are worth what someone is willing to pay you. I have several problems with this false premise. I bet you do too. For some people, I think this is used as a crutch, and for others, I think it's a grouse, but whatever camp in which you fall, I think it misunderstands the fact that things are not equal. There is really only one way for men to always be equal, and that is to be miserable, poor, and enslaved. The contest that animates life is one of struggle and work. That's what God told Adam to expect- by the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread all the days of thy life.

If we buy the premise that pay equates with value, we ignore history. Besides the sordid episode in American history during which the British instituted slavery in what became the United States, slavery has existed for millenia. Even last week, some Nigerians kidnapped young girls intending to sell them into slavery. They will sell for a small and probably paltry price, and by this faulty logic, that's all they are worth. Historically, most money was concentrated in the aristocracy and with the powermongers because they were willing to pillage and raid in order to take what others had. Pirates might have been rich, but they are not the most worthy of us. The crusades enriched the Vatican, but many of those who pillaged Jerusalem became godless by committing atrocities. Highwaymen are not noble or sexy, and as much as women wanted to sleep with King John Lackland, it was more about power than about virtue. Your wage has never really equated with your true value.

If we buy the premise that pay equates with value, we ignore the present. Many of you probably fall into the camp that insists that CEOs don't deserve that much money, that they should pay higher wages. However, many CEOs are paid because they enlarge the value of the company, which is actually their job. The rest are paid because they are part of the GOBNet. People rise to positions of power and then reward their friends for helping them get there. I was rejected two years ago for a job in favor of a man of lesser demonstrable ability and credentials who now earns more than I do. Almost all of my coworkers outearn me. If I assumed that my paycheck equated with my value, then I would have to conclude that I am not worth very much. We still have slavery today. How asinine to assume that if I can buy someone for 12 pounds sterling that they are worth only that, particularly in a nation such as this.

If we buy the premise that pay equates with value, we ignore the future. You have value because of two things beyond your control. First of all, you have value based on what influence your life leaves on other lives, and secondly you have value because you are the child of a God. When Thomas More encouraged Richard Rich to become a teacher instead, he did so on the persuasion that his students and his Maker would be influenced by him. Ultimately Rich still went into politics and testified against More at his trial for treason, but I found something last summer at some eatery I forgot that said, "Teachers are in it for the outcome rather than the income". Yesterday, I read that the moral of "Breaking Bad" is that teachers are underpaid. Yet, women continue to choose firemen and doctors and stock day traders over me because they earn more than I do. They bought the false premise that people are valuable based on their wages. Christ taught that the laborer is worthy of his hire, and at the end of the day, every man receives wages according to his employ. That day is not today for most people; for most of us, it will come when we metriculate to the next plane of existence and return to God's presence to reap what we sowed in this life. Justice will have its day, and if you enjoy today things you did not sow, you will eventually have to pay for them.

Milton Friedman discussed on the Phil Donahue show that society does not reward virtue. Society rewards cronyism. This world rewards people according to the world. It's a quid pro quo arrangement most of the time. You have all heard that 'it's not what you know but who you know', and if that's true, then you are not paid based on your worth. You are rewarded based on your associations rather than your accomplishments. At the same time, many of us talk about the Law of the Harvest and Karma, insisting that we deserve rewards while our enemies deserve punishments. If you rose with the GOBNet, you rose by accident of your birth and associations, not necessarily on your accomplishments.

Almost everyone I know entering today is "settling" for someone or something because they can't seem to get what they want. Faced with a poor job market and rising home prices, most young people cohabitate and "live in sin" or with multiple roommates because they barely eke by. Far too many young people are accepting whoever will have them because they think that's all they deserve. Perhaps you feel that nobody will want you because you are used, because you have failed, because you made a mistake. This is inconsistent with the principles espoused by Christ during His incarnation. Maybe you aren't worth ten cows, but you shouldn't have to pay someone else ten cows to take you. There are people who are still worth ten cows to me because I know who they are, what they offer, who they can be, and what they could deliver. I wait patiently in promise of future rewards. I trust people because I know their divine nature. You have value because you are you, because you are a child of God, not because someone else thinks they can squeeze golden eggs out of you. What you do with your life will return to you, and so if you don't like what you're sending out, now is the time to change it.

Even in science we teach that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you send out good, good returns. If you punish the virtuous in favor of your cronies, do not be surprised when a different person with different cronies punishes you. Historically, it has always been the wicked who punish the wicked, because the wicked gather up things worth stealing. I have very little worth taking or that is for the taking, and so I think people mostly leave me be. Then, I go to work and try very hard to help my students make something great of themselves. However well I may be doing financially, the numbers tell a different story. Nobody seems willing pay ten cows for me. I don't ingratiate myself with them and validate their worth. If you need it from outside, from a paycheck, from a trophy spouse, from a fancy car, or from a lofty title, then it isn't real. If you're not enough without it, you'll never be enough with it. Do something worthy. The universe will pay you even when men fall short. God will restore, repay, replenish, and reward. No matter what you do, for evil or for good, He who seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.