12 October 2012
The idiom ‘to give with one hand, and take away with the other’ finds its root in the story of Job in the Bible after he lost all his wealth and children in a brief moment of cockiness. We are told that the proud and prosperous Job tore his robe, shaved his head, fell to the ground and cried; “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away...”.
The expression ‘to give with one hand, and take away with the other’ has been re-packaged, re-arranged, and re-applied not just in religious context but in social interaction and political expediency; A great mentor once told me that adherence to self-serving means an ambitious politician guided by expediency rather than principle.
Recently, when the British Conservative Party proposed a Marriage Tax at the end of 2011, the Labour Party Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liam Byrne, called the proposal “an empty gesture” and suggested that the Conservatives “give with one hand, (and) they take away with the other”. And commenting on the same issue, Edward Balls said: “This is one of those typical Conservative policies which look good for about five minutes when you think it applies to you but in reality many people will miss out, because in fact the Tories will be giving with one hand to a few and taking it away from many families in cuts to child trust funds, tax credits, schools and children’s centres….It actually exposes the Conservatives as not being the party of the family at all.”
I can’t help but muse over the idea that John Key and the National Party may have taken a leaf out of David Cameron’s Conservative Party book; it seems our government has re-invented, re-packaged, and re-applied the ‘giving with one hand, and taking it away with the other’ routine. I have seen that trend since the present government came to power with their proposed handouts and cuts to welfare benefits, putting people into housing and then making it unaffordable to remain in those housing, creating employment and taking them away by allowing businesses to close, and telling New Zealanders their children’s education is a priority and then shutting down schools for cost cutting measures.
And the latest addition in the government’s ‘giveth and taketh away’ saga is the Youth Starting Out Wage proposed in the Minimum Wage (Starting-out Wage) Amendment Bill by the Labour Minister, Kate Wilkinson (and note, again, another one of Key’s fairies being put in the firing-line). The proposal is intended to “create demand for young people by giving employers a real incentive to take them on…(it) will help some of our youngest and most inexperienced workers get a much-needed foot in the door…”
For me personally, it is a proposal that has alot of merit from the point of view of young people who have struggled to land a job. It is also an incentive for young people to break the benefit cycle that has entrapped them for what seems to be a lifetime of seeking and not finding. But, the proposal, earmarked to take effect from April 1, 2013, has already ruffled the feathers of trade unionists as well as the political parties in opposition, especially Labour and the Greens. Grant it that both Labour and the Greens have valid arguments, but the ‘proof of the pudding is in the eating’ or, as the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in his masterpiece Don Quixote aptly puts it, “you will see it when you fry the eggs”. It means, the real test for the Youth Starting Out Wage is the outcome of what it is intended for; and that is pretty much within speculative territory.
One way to hypothesize an outcome is to consider the present economic crisis, and evaluate present government policies which focus on cost-cutting to save money at the expense of job lost, welfare benefit, housing shortages, education and school planning, and health services expenses. It quickly makes me realise that the Youth Starting Wage has a depressing outlook.
There are a couple of issues that really need to be taken seriously. On one hand, so to speak, the Youth Starting Wage is just another elaborate way of re-inventing and re-packaging the old idiom of ‘giving with one hand, and taking it away with the other hand’; or in the words of Liam Byrne, “an empty gesture”. Samoans have a saying, Aua le se’etia i le malu o le tai taeao (Don’t be deceived by the calmness of the morning sea); and it is with that idiom in mind, I proceed with caution.
In my view, the scheme will take money away from the legal minimum wages that should be paid by employers to employees, and put back into employers’ coffers. In my opinion, the creation of jobs will be very minimal, as employers take the opportunity to restore their profit margins. I only have to listen to the businesses and employers rhetoric over the proposal to concur that profit and staying in business, not job creation, is the real aim of the Youth Starting Wage. For instance, Louise Evans McDonald of the New Zealand Retailers Association supports the Youth Starting Wage because wages was the biggest expense for businesses to deal with. She disagrees with youths being exploited over the six months period, and also rejects any notion of an increase in unemployment because of the new proposal. The same sentiment is echoed by the New Zealand Hospitality Association, and the Employer and Manufacturing Association. But, no surprises there!
If I was a business owner and employer, I would heap praises upon the government and support the proposal that had just blessed me with a twenty percent increase in profit. But, it’s a natural response not to go against the government whom businesses depend on for survival or, as I am often reminded, ‘don’t bite the hand that feeds’. For me, this whole Youth Starting Wage is designed to pull the wool over the eyes of the poor and unemployed New Zealanders on one hand, as the government give businesses and employers a twenty percent profit initiative on the other hand. And why not? The government needs to inject some life (income) into New Zealand businesses; many have threatened to close down and head overseas for greener pastures, because the government’s earlier policies to create jobs through Job Opportunities and Community Max, Job Opportunities with Training, Limited Service Volunteers programme, the Government’s Youth Guarantee scheme, the Job Ops and Straight to Work scheme, together with the 90-days-trial-period initiative, has not fulfilled the government’s 2011 election promise because it has not achieved the purpose it was intended for – to create profits for businesses and employers.
The Youth Starting Wage initiative is the new plan to achieve that commitment to businesses and employers, especially those who have yet to drown in the present economic tides. The National government has suffered in the popularity polls recently because many businesses have closed down, and many more face bleak futures. And what better way to regain the confidence of the business community than by giving them a hefty twenty percent increase in profit at the expense of the youths who will be twenty percent cheaper to employ. Many believe the employers and businesses will have a field day in ‘hiring and firing’, so to speak, as they bathe in the ecstasy of an early Christmas present that had been planned, initiated, advocated, and made to order to raise revenue for the already greedy and wealthy businesses. There is no denying the hype among the Pacific communities over the likelihood of landing jobs through the Youth Starting Wage initiative; but there is also much apprehension.
Many Pacific Islanders are unskilled and have not been able to upgrade their education and skill level, and there is fear among the unemployed and benefit-driven poor Pacific communities, that jobs will go to the educated university students who only seek part-time work for the holidays as it will coincide with the six months term of employment suggested in the scheme; employers will pursue this option as it is advantageous to its employing strategy. Furthermore, the number of university students graduating at the end of this year will also push many of those who are already unemployed, and forced to be benefit-driven, to the bottom of the pecking order.
The concern of Pacific Islanders is that the scheme give the employers the right to choose who they want to hire, and for many unemployed Pacific Islanders, they are already disadvantage. The bottom line is, the Youth Starting Wage initiative not only reiterate but confirm to many youths seeking first time employment, and the already unemployed and benefit-driven families, that their lot in life is to live in poverty, and to continue the poverty cycle unless the government listen and target directly those in real need, rather than proposing schemes that increases the wealth of businesses and employers they, the government, need for political expediency.
John Key and the government should swallow their pride and listen to some sound advice, not only from Labour and the Green parties, but from the less-well-known minnows who have ears in the wall syndrome, and know the plights and the roots of the many problems in their communities.
The suggestions to alleviate poverty by the Children’s Commissioner and his team of experts, and the drive to introduce a basic Living Wage, are just a few of the wise submissions.
The current tongue-in-cheek whisper concerning the present government is that, ‘National giveth and National taketh’; it’s lampoon stuff! Perhaps, John Key should ponder upon Edward Balls comments to the British Prime Minister David Cameron that the Conservatives have “not been the party of the family at all”.
I am thinking that Job of the Bible (sorry folks not Steve Job from Apple) may have given many of us comfort when he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart,” if the present government continues to ‘give with one hand’ and then ‘take it away with the other’.
Now, more than ever, our government and our people need our prayer; and remember, continue to seek the peace and prosperity of this country to which God has given us to dwell. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper…Soifua.