My dear friend the late speaker and author Peter Urs Bender used to suggest that life would be a lot simpler if everyone was paid $37.50 an hour no matter what they do.
Now before you start muttering phrases like "socialist commie pinko" there's a really interesting point here when it comes to how we value not only our own work, but the work of others. This came to mind while my wife and I were at the huge Arabian Horse Show here in Scottsdale, Arizona.
There are always hundreds of vendors in the exhibit area at these horse shows, each with amazing leather work, clothes, furniture or horse paraphernalia. We came across a booth with exquisite wood carvings. Hand carved furniture, gorgeous bowls and a huge carving of eight mustangs galloping across the plane with four mountain peaks in the background. It called my name. Really it did. Stopped me in my tracks.
Some guy had taken a slab of mahogany over five feet long, two feet high and ten inches thick, weighing 160 lbs. and over eight weeks carved away every piece of wood that didn't look like eight mustangs galloping across the plane. Each horse's muscles tensed for the run. Proud thick necks arched against the effort. Eight weeks. At week seven a slip of his chisel could turn it into fuel for the campfire. And those eight weeks didn't include the endless hours of fine sanding and the delicate finishing and polishing of the wood.
Now there's been too many times in my life when I've come across some one-of-a-kind thing of beauty, didn't get it because I was cheap and in lack mode and I've always ended up regretting it forever. "How much?" "$2,400." "Ouch," I thought. And then I heard Bender's "$37.50."
My wood carver friend would gladly take $37.50 an hour for all his labor. At $2,400 I doubt he made minimum wage for his intricate horse sculpture. Would I give a speech every day for eight weeks for $2,400? Are you out of your mind? But which of us works harder at what we do? Which of us is more gifted and talented? Whose work lasts the longest?
It's a strange economy really. We'd gladly pay a surgeon tens of thousands of dollars to muck around in our organs. And we gladly pay a mechanic $115 to put new brakes on the car. If either one messes up it could kill us. A surgical mistake could kill us more quickly, I suppose, but then a mechanical mistake could kill someone else. We'll pay a plumber $65 an hour to unplug the toilet but don't want to pay more than $10 an hour for a babysitter "just to" watch our kids. How come teachers, who in many cases will have more impact on what a child becomes than their own parents and consequently on our national economy, are paid so little? Why should a corporate CEO be paid a hundred times more than the woman on the assembly line actually making the product that generates the revenue? If the CEO is sick for a day no one cares. If the assembly line lady is sick stuff doesn't get made.
The whole illegal immigration thing is politically hot right now. "They do the jobs Americans won't do" is a phrase heard often; and that implies they do very menial work. But have you ever watched a Mexican laborer build one of those amazingly ornate curved brick ceilings? It's called a "boveda" ceiling and is the most ingenious integration of art and physics you've ever seen. What should we pay the man? Will $5 an hour do it? Americans won't do it because they haven't a clue how.
So what are people worth? What is what you and I do worth? The low hanging fruit of argument says that certain people spend more time learning how to do what they do - going to medical school or whatever - so they should be paid more. Maybe it's a matter of how complex an activity is. Or is it the rarity of the skill involved? Others will argue from a market perspective as in things being worth what the market will pay. Yet others will argue about 'commodities'; that when something becomes a commodity the lowest price wins.
When you start comparing various professions and roles against these criteria you'll find that none of them definitively answer why one function is worth $1,000 and another $1. And goodness knows I'm not smart enough to come up with an unarguable answer either.
In the etymology of the word worth are the concepts of "to become" and "to turn into." We are all becoming and turning into something that hopefully will make this world a better place. What are you turning into? That's what defines your worth.
I know most people think money is how we keep score and I absolutely believe knowing how to make money is a spiritual gift - if you're making the world a better place at the same time. We live in a world of abundance after all.
This article is a call to deeply appreciate and value all those
who make your world a better place, regardless of what they're paid. Chances
are they're worth far exceeds any money you give them.
And yes, I bought the carving of the mustangs and I bless that wood carver
every time I look at it.
Until next time, be purpose-full!
Ian