I normally try to avoid getting caught up in political discussions on facebook, but I ran across one today that hit me where I’m passionate. It was regarding whether raising the minimum wage would end poverty. My quick answer was; “No, it would increase poverty!” I’m not going to go into all the reasons I believe that to be true, because there is a bigger issue than what the “legal minimum wage” happens to be.
To me the larger issue is having entire generations believing that they need the government to force employers to pay wages higher than the skill level value. I worked minimum wage as a teen-ager and decided not to stay there. I learned some more valuable skills and was employed and paid accordingly. When my skills became obsolete, I found myself again working a minimum wage job at a restaurant at age 40 with a family of five to provide for. Did I stay there? No! I didn’t pine over the fact that I was making minimum wage and somebody should do something about it! a.k.a. the government (or even my employer for that matter) They basically needed unskilled labor and I fit the bill.
My solution was to learn anew skill where there was a corresponding demand. I actually spent several months trying to decide what skills I even wanted to learn. A wonderful thing happened during that time. I realized that no matter what skills I learned, I would always be competing for jobs with younger and smarter people with better skills and more energy and ambition. Sooner or later I would likely find myself obsolete again.
I decided to make “Wealth Creation” my full-time career! I started my new career while still working for minimum wage. I believed this country still holds the best opportunities in the world. While working, I began studying what skills wealth creators possessed that I lacked. It took a little while to start comprehending this. Eight short years after I started, we topped the millionaire mark. The funny thing is that I am not competing for a good paying job and there is no limit to how much wealth one can create.
I spent months trying to decide what I wanted to pursue, I spent probably two years trying to take the first steps toward my wealth creation goal. All the while, never really being able to explain what was going on in my head and why I felt the way I did. A few days I ran across a short 3 minute video that put it into words that are clear and concise. You can watch it here. It explains how we largely have become a consumer society rather than a producer society. Our identity is more closely related to what we own or have bought rather than what we produce, create or build.
I believe the point in the video can even be taken another step and say that even if we have jobs producing or creating something, we are only doing that as a means to satisfy our consuming identity. Most of us simply work to exchange our time for dollars. When we are paid a market wage to provide a market service, the wage will always be a disappointment. It’s because the focus is not on the value we bring to the market but because of the fact that the market never seems to value our skills enough to provide what we need to support our consumer wants, needs or desires. When we focus on raising our wages without raising our skills comparably, we simply are saying “I want more than the market believes my skills are worth.
Anyone dissatisfied with their wage, whether it’s the minimum wage or whether it’s $50 per hour needs to ask themselves the following question. Am I a consumer or a producer? Then, am I simply trading my time for dollars to support my consuming lifestyle or am I producing something of value that the world is willing to pay for?
Choosing to trade time for dollars will always leave you competing with others who have better and more marketable skills. If you choose to pursue life on those terms, then sharpen up the value of your skills. If you want to completely remove the glass ceiling on earning capability, Learn to produce something the world demands!
Want some of my tips on wealth creation? Go to Millionaire On Deck!
The Pursuit Of The Investing Lifestyle 