Dr. Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett, a paediatrician, speaks of treating
a dangerously unhealthy child suffering from serious neglect. He asked the
child’s mother question after question about basics every parent should know.
Again and again the mother had no answers. She just did not know the condition
and activities of her child.
As Kwan-Gett spoke, his voice rose in cold fury, his face
flushed with anger at the callousness of this awful excuse for a parent.
Finally, he said he asked the mother directly how she could be so uncaring.
Abruptly, the doctor’s voice turned soft as he recounted the
mother’s response. She and her husband worked such long hours at such
below-minimum-wage pay that they were always desperate for sleep. They were
barely able to pay the rent. Their choice was between neglecting their child
and living on the streets, where life is nasty, brutish and often short.
“My anger,” Kwan-Gett said softly, “turned to sympathy.”
His words brought home the hidden and future costs of our
callous mistreatment of tens of millions of workers whose incomes keep falling
even as the economy recovers from the recession.
The price we pay today for low wages is as big as it is easy
not to notice. Unless we change our public policies, that price will explode as
a significant number of children grow up without proper care and diet, and with
no reason to believe their own initiative will make their lives any better.
Where did this take place? Prosperous America. But there are many examples closer to home. When I was Vicar of Caia Park, I frequently encountered families when Mum would do the day shift and Dad the night shift at ASDA, both earning the minimum wage and with results similar to the above story.
A Living Wage is part of the answer but changes to our tax and benefits systems are required as well. One of the biggest challenges we should be presenting to politicians as we move towards a general election is how they are intending to treat the working poor.
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