Full Employment Is A Hoax!

 

Poor people are the hardest working people in this country.  Most of the jobs held by the hard working population require physical work that taxes the body and are often paid less. These jobs tend to be the lower paying jobs, the minimum wage jobs.  CBS posted an article in June entitled Minimum wage doesn’t cover the rent anywhere in the U.S. The article noted the much decried minimum wage increase of $15 an hour will not be enough to pay rent.  On average, per the article, one would need to make $17.90 an hour to rent a one bedroom place and at least $22.10 an hour to maintain a two bedroom place.  

How then, can the spending power of Black people in the U.S. amount to $1.3 trillion?  This is not to say most minimum wage jobs are held by Black people but many of these jobs are in fact held by Black people.  We must question this idea of “Black spending power”.  The idea of Black spending power leads to the notion that if Black people would simply spend and/or invest properly we would lift ourselves out of poverty.  This smacks of blame the victim (for lack of a better word) rather than considering the circumstances that led to the economic inequality Black people face in the U.S.

As president 45 brags about the jobs he has created wages lag far behind and he surely does not address this.  The cost of living surpasses the amount of money people make leaving the average employee in a monthly deficit.  This again brings back the question how can Black spending power be $1.3 trillion?  People operating in a deficit can, in no way, be considered to have the funds that would equal to some small countries.  This idea gives a false sense of pride, a false sense of guilt and a false sense that one can simply raise themselves up by their boot straps.  As the great Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King once said “A bootless man cannot lift himself by his boots”.