Frankly, I do not like the way things are being done. I have sat on the sidelines and watched the last ten years develop, and have either scratched my head in disbelief, or gone crazy mad angry with the way things are being done. I'm not saying I'll have the answers, but I'd love to have a spot for people to discuss the direction of the coming decade.
This place is a forum. It is small potatoes, but I am really not comfortable with just sitting and watching. I hope you agree.
Every month, there will be a topic presented. What I am hoping for is some intelligent and thoughtful people who will contribute their thoughts and perspectives, either as experts or laymen. These thoughts will be compiled into solutions that seem reasonable which will then be sent to various leaders in the world through e-mail.
Like most things you start, what it winds up being at the end is fairly organic. Ideally, I'd like to break the discussion into yearly segments to see if a cohesive direction can be achieved.
For some old fashioned reason, I like the idea that each "book" would be published in paper and not just electronically. "Directing the Decade: 2010", "Directing the Decade: 2011", and so forth.
The First topic is:
Worldwide Minimum Wage
The disparity between lifestyles across the globe is source of many conflicts and resentments, and is fundamentally immoral. Who is to determine which people can afford shelter, food, and medicine, while others remain enslaved in impoverished conditions. Of course complete equity has never existed; however a worldwide minimum wage would ensure that certain essential needs would be met.
This is my concept on how this might work.
If you think of a minimum wage, it is a wage that should allow one to exist in a particular part of the world. To find an accurate measurement of what that amount per hour should be, it should be a number that would allow the person to have housing, food, clothing, and health care. These should be the essentials. Other factors, such as education, transportation, are difficult to gauge in a minimum wage concept, but, should be considered as a secondary cost. I realize that housing is a difficult number to assess. I would consider a factor of a 30 minute radius as can be travelled by bicycle, foot or public transportation. Use, as a minimum cost factor, a space in that region that is shared by 4 people. If you were to take the costs to live for a particular week: housing, food and health care and divide this number by 45. I think a 45 hour week is a good measure of a work week. This financial number is a minimum wage. This number would be vastly different if you compared rural China to downtown Seattle, Washington.
Would it matter to most consumers if their toothbrush cost an extra 25 cents? If the factory where they are made, the worker was paid a fair wage?
What would happen if... lets dream a little... that this happened? There is not question the extraordinarily inexpensive products we currently consume would cost more. How much more? Hard to say. I would venture a guess that two things would happen: the goods would cost more and the executives and possibly the stock holders would make less money... but still a very nice income, I am certain. They still want to sell their products, after all.
For the governments to actually adopt this is difficult to even imagine... but some smart company.... some forward thinking company... might use this as a marketing tool to differentiate its products for its competitors. If I compared two brands of toothbrushes, and one advertised it paid its workers/employees a W.W.I.... or World Wage Index... then I would certainly purchase that toothbrush.
