Garth George writes that workers in our low-wage economy struggle just to pay the bills, let alone contribute to KiwiSaver.
I could write what I know about finance, economics and business on one of my thumbnails, and still have room to spare.
So as our economic situation seems to become more and more out of control, there are a number of things that confuse me.
For instance, I had to
laugh this week when I read that Prime Minister John Key (and that means the National-led Government) was considering making KiwiSaver some sort of compulsory superannuation.
It amused me because these are the same men and women who told us before the last election that it wasn't the government's responsibility to tell us how to spend our money but our privilege to decide for ourselves.
For more than a decade we have heard constant moans from ministers that we are spending too much and not saving enough and that this, apparently, is contributing somehow to our already huge overseas debt.
Well, if I wanted to improve savings I would ensure that there was a real incentive to do so and the first thing I would do is remove the double-dip tax on interest on savings.
I can think of nothing more "incentivising" than to know that I would receive the full amount of interest on whatever money I was able to put aside for a rainy day.
But as it is, the tax I pay on the interest I receive for what little money I have saved - money for which I have already paid income tax - amounts to some 20 per cent every year.
So surely I can be excused if I decide to spend that money to make every day a sunny day and to live on credit if, by some misfortune, I run out.
Another thing that seems to escape those who would improve our level of savings is that in a low-wage economy, in which hundreds of thousands of people live hand to mouth, there isn't any money left to save.
What mum and dad both working and sometimes at two or three jobs just to provide shelter, food, clothing, warmth, transport and education for their families could give even a passing thought to putting a bit aside?
Or what youngster, slaving away for next to nothing for a fast-food or retail corporation, is going to deny him or herself the pleasure of spending the money they earn on whatever takes their fancy?
In the manner of youth everywhere, they reckon the future is something for older folk to worry about.
What makes it worse is that our low-wage workers have little power these days to change their conditions because a series of political, economic and corporate decisions over the past 25 years or so have taken away the bargaining power of workers, especially those on lower pay scales.
Those decisions included deregulating industries that were once strongly unionised, economic policies focused almost solely on maintaining low inflation and a corporate ideological shift that eliminated the social contract with workers and replaced it with a single-minded emphasis on maximising profits and pleasing shareholders.
As we all know only too well, those decisions have made conditions worse in low-wage jobs and made the gap between rich and poor into a yawning chasm.
Major employers - these days owned mostly by overseas corporations - pay their managers and executives large salaries while their service workers struggle just to exist.
They spend millions on renovating buildings that don't need it and indulge in a host of other costly, non-essential activities, yet they don't pay decent wages.
The welfare of workers should be of highest priority in every business and industry.
We hear ad nauseam about the need to increase investment and productivity, yet our biggest employers treat their employees as a bum on a seat, a mind and a pair of hands to be exploited, rather than as a person.
They all have "human resources" rather than personnel departments - redolent of the Marxist definition of workers as "economic units" - and see their employees as a liability rather than an asset.
So I reckon that if we want to increase our productivity hugely and quickly, factories, retailers, banks, restaurant chains, petrol stations and all other businesses that employ low-paid workers should increase the hourly wages of those workers substantially.
It is said that you can't buy loyalty but it seems obvious to me that if a worker is shown to be valued, both financially and as a human being, he or she will work more willingly, longer and harder and produce more goods and more profits.
And they will give a second boost to the economy by spending more and saving more and creating more jobs.
A third boon to the economy would be to ease the social welfare burden.
Well-paid, well-looked-after workers are unlikely to chuck in their jobs to go on the dole and higher wages would give those on the dole more incentive to find work.
garth.george@hotmail.com
