Please Don't Call That Device "Smart"

Something occurred to me this morning while I was sitting at my desktop computer playing Kenny G through my headphones and playing FreeCell on my screen.  My entire life is old school, as those who know me as a person already know.

I was apparently taking just a little too long to make my strategy choice in the FreeCell game, and it started blinking a hint at me.  I almost yelled at the computer to slow down and let me think for myself.  And yet this is the kind of outburst that makes others label me "crazy."  

I'm not crazy.  I'm not stupid, either!

I'm also not old yet, and I'm not irrelevant yet.  My recent acquisition of an honest-to-God full-time job with great benefits has proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt to almost everyone, except that little voice in my own brain.  Self-doubt has cost me more than one job over the past six years.

There are times, however, when it's all too easy to feel old and irrelevant when you're a sensitive human being who doesn't move at the speed of a computer, or even at the speed of a young person.  One of those times, for me, is when someone or some THING is trying to force me to hurry up and do something.  

Tomorrow is "Black Friday," which is arguably my least favorite day of the year.  It's a day to hurry up and buy everything you can possibly grab, even if it means trampling human beings in the process.  I personally remember many a day after Thanksgiving, even back in the 1980's, as a day when I got in my car to try to do some innocent errand only to get stuck in hideous gridlock.  So for me, it's a day to stay put and stay calm.  

In this short-attention-span time, it's hard to do anything online without something blinking, dancing, flashing, or twitching to take your mind away from what you're trying to do.  

I was brought up not to trust anyone or anything screaming "hey, look at me!" (even a large print ad in a yellow book). When I was tempted, the ensuing discussion went something like this:

Me: "But Dad, it's such a good buy!"

Dad:  "It sure is.  It's goodbye, money!"

The best wisdom I know comes from human beings who, while no longer physically living, will never be irrelevant in my mind.

I'm always telling every younger person I know not to trust technology.  Why not, they always ask.  Because computer programs are developed by very smart human beings who are trying to make money.  Whether they're simply seeking "enough" or trying to be celebrity-level rich is not important.  The bottom line is, someone is usually trying to separate you from your money.

I know this about technology because I used to develop mainframe computer programs for my living.  In 2008, the large insurance company for which I worked at the time decided that my job could be done better (or at least cheaper) by someone in a developing country overseas.  After a brief and expensive attempt to regain career relevance, I gave up and opted out of Information Technology entirely.

Even if our family budget might allow a "Smart Phone," I don't particularly want one.  

This is where everyone demands to know why not.  Like everything with me, it's not a short or simple story.

I'll cut to the chase and simply say that I'm easily distracted (and often frightened) by anything sudden: noises, flashing lights, vibrations.  The day that a device in my car suddenly makes a noise I'm not expecting while I'm white-knuckle driving through North Saint Louis County traffic could be the day my life becomes just one more sad local fatality.

I value my life and I value my intelligence.  I love my family, friends, and coworkers.

I prefer to use my own brains whenever possible.  I believe over-dependence on devices can make us lazy, complacent, and unwilling (or just unlikely if in a hurry) to think for ourselves.  I'm concerned about future generations following blindly to the tune of technology du jour like lemmings to their bankruptcy or even death.

If this sounds like a lecture, so be it.  I may not be young, but I'm very relevant.

Have a great Thanksgiving today, and be calm and safe.  I care.

Why Increasing Minimum Wage Isn't The Answer

It often seems to me that the political battles waging nowadays between the two major parties in this country are rarely as simple as right versus wrong.  There are so many subtle and delicate psychological nuances at work behind the scenes.

I’m fortunate to be in a sort of unique situation these days and able to see and understand the traditional stances of the loud, angry voices of both parties.  I come from a very traditional and conservative upbringing where rules were to be followed unquestioningly by children in order to succeed.  And yet, tolerance for those less fortunate was not only condoned but lived and demonstrated through action and donation.

Way back before this recession, when I was making-- well, let’s just say substantially more than minimum wage, and leave it at that-- I rarely gave the minimum wage more than a passing thought.  Pre-recession I was truly blessed in the sense of wages and benefits.  I was very busy and didn’t have a lot of spare energy to do anything other than struggling to and from work and doing the other things in my life that needed doing.

The past 6 years have taught me a completely different mindset.  I’m now in that world where minimum wage plus a certain guaranteed number of hours per work can mean the difference between the bills getting paid and not.

During the first 7 months of 2013, I had an opportunity to earn that golden number that they always throw around during those minimum wage debates-- $15 an hour – working 35 hours a week.  There were no benefits, but coming from $0 income guaranteed, it certainly seemed like a Godsend until I could no longer stand the boss’s insults and erratic behavior.  And then I quit and thanked God for my freedom.

It was during the time I was working this job that people started saying that the US minimum wage should be $15 an hour.  And I was like, what?  I’m handling delicate human situations with confidentiality and mastering numerous cloud applications to bill insurance companies on the world’s oldest Dell computer, and I’m going to be making minimum wage?  Yeah, right.

This same opinion has come forth from other people I know, mostly women my age or older who have gotten knocked by the struggling economy into jobs that previously would have been way beneath them, and they’re struggling to keep those jobs and grateful for them.

I would most certainly not complain about a $15 per hour job now, assuming I was guaranteed at least 30 hours a week and didn’t have to miss a lot of work without pay due to some horrible debilitating health issue.  Doing the math would indicate a yearly income of about $22,500 before taxes under such a job, and yes, I could live on that.  

There are plenty of people out there now who have worked their way up to that $15 per hour over years of either life experience or job training who would justifiedly balk at suddenly making “minimum wage.”  And what would happen to them and their jobs?  Well, they could try to ask for a raise, but in this economy, frankly, it’s too easy for the boss to say “I know lots of people who would be happy for this money” and fire the asking employee after finding one of those people.

Let’s consider another angle on the same situation.  A teenager is nearing graduation from high school, and she has a really good part-time job making more than minimum wage already.  Her employer has offered her a promotion, but it would mean she can’t attend college full-time—something her parents strongly want her to do.  But college is expensive and scary.  Life has no guarantees.  So should she take the money now, or borrow the money to struggle through college for the hope of more money in four years?  Why not keep doing what she’s doing?

(I must note that this particular scenario was an actual situation from my own life back in the dark ages, by the way.  My parents, who thought I was just short of Einstein in mental ability, would not hear of my staying on as a secretary at the real estate firm over getting a four-year degree, and frankly, my boss was rooting for me to go to college and succeed, too.)

Imagine how much more tempting the promotion in place would be for a child from a truly poor family, perhaps less gifted in the IQ department, who was already helping support that family with her income. Then you’ll begin to understand why many people in this country never exceed minimum wage by very much.  

Now I’m really getting closer to the psychology of low wages, and what I originally set out to explain in this blog entry.  When a person can make a living wage by flipping burgers under the golden arches, why aspire to anything better?

And as far as those nice jobs with full benefits go, corporations are getting bigger and greedier, and if you mandate a higher minimum wage on them, they’ll simply cut jobs to equalize their expense.  The last large company for which I worked tried to squeeze more and more work out of fewer and fewer employees until we were screaming “uncle!” And this was before they ultimately decided to end my personal career as a mainframe programmer with overseas outsourcing.

Small businesses are already struggling to compete with the big conglomerate chains.  The proportionate burden of taxes and payroll and legal requirements on a small business owner, especially an honest one, often drives these owners to throw up their hands in despair and shutter their businesses forever.  And yes, I’ve been there and done that, too.

One small business owner with whom I interviewed for a clerical position recently was very frank with me about his inability to provide decent pay or benefits, or even many hours, for a temporary position that was to fill in while his regular clerk attended college so she could keep her job.  We parted agreeing amicably that his job was not for me.  Ironically, it turned out that he and I had graduated from high school the same year.

In this increasingly competitive world, where there simply aren’t enough resources for everyone to have everything they want (at least for most of us), only a select few of those in the lower income brackets will ever really rise into the ranks of the wealthy.  And on their part, that will require a lot of very hard work, a great deal of self-confidence and perseverance in spite of many obstacles, and more than a little bit of luck.

The answer is therefore not to increase, by law, the pay for the poorest among us.  Those poorest either believe they deserve to be there and settle for the status quo, or they aspire for something better and are working very hard towards it while keeping the bills paid.  It’s that second group that will eventually succeed, and it won’t be thanks to any mandated handouts.  Let them have the pride of knowing they made it on their own terms.