I live in the fairly wealthy Denton/Collin County area in Texas. Using their calculator, I checked the living wage necessary for a household of one adult and two children in Collin County: $52,790.
That is $25.38/hour. Minimum wage: $7.25/hour. Using the same 40 hour/52 week assumption, the minimum wage yearly income is $15,800, not even a third of what is necessary for decent but spare living. And there is no way a single parent has time to purchase the least expensive food and prepare it all at home.
Even two working parents, both at minimum wage, can’t make this work–that only puts them at $32,600/year. With no sick days. And two children? Right.
No wonder people are increasingly desperate. Our economic models have no place for the least among us, and almost no way to enter a more healthy way of living for those who have been long and systematically excluded.
And pastors and other church leaders, take note: there’s nothing in this budget for a 10% tithe. Or even a 1% giving option.
As much as these folks need the church, spiritual and social support, a place for their children to be with other children and be loved and taught well, they cannot give financially and will have little time for volunteer work. Remember, they have to cook all their own meals after shopping for the lowest cost foods.
You want to heal society? Then start addressing the economic realities of those living on the absolute margins.
In a longer post written right after the Dallas tragedy, I summarized what we must do if we are actually going to bring about some healing:
- We must remember to take care of the least among us in a way that offers the dignity of useful and adequate employment, not the disgrace that currently confronts those who have no economic hope.
- We must do something about the disastrous state of education in our inner-city schools.
- We must provide absolutely top-class day care for all who need it, particularly single mothers. We need this far more than we need free tuition to universities. Without a good start in the earliest of infancy, higher education is useless.
- We’ve got to figure out a way to manage health-care so it is actually affordable and accessible. Poor health, especially when caused by poor diets, so strain the body and soul that the achievement of any sense of hope in anything is nearly impossible.
- And we need churches filled with motivated individuals who understand basic economics, who are willing to do mission that is less, “I will come and build something for you” and more, “let me listen to you and learn your world so we can figure out what you need and how we can tap into your creative energies to make it happen.”
So, folks, go and pray. I’ve done my share of it. My 2 am wakefulness hit hard last night, leading to a long season of fervent prayer.
But I’ve got to do more than pray and walk away. And so do you.
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