FC NOW: The Fast Company Weblog
June 21, 2005
Waging War
A certain show has been stuck in my head. Morgan Spurlock, the man behind 'Super Size Me' now has a television show on FX called '30 Days.' The series is more a group of mini-documentaries than a reality show. The first episode, the one that's stayed with me, has Morgan and his fiancee living on minimum wage for a month. They moved to Ohio which doesn't have a state minimum wage. Morgan worked odd-jobs through an agency, his fiancee Alex did dishes at a cafe. He interviewed others at the agency, including one 22-year old who had children to feed on minimum wage. Morgan barely got by and ended the month in debt due to medical bills.
Why haven't they raised the federal minimum wage? Many say that will stifle growth and cause difficulties for small businesses. I consider that short-sighted. Any owners of business are probably living better than their workers who support themselves on minimum wage. Their employees' happiness will probably increase productivity. The owners will get something for the higher wages. Are the states with higher wages suffering compared to those with lower wages?
Even if you disagree with me, Spurlock's show will get you talking. Tomorrow's episode of '30 Days' involves a man going on an exercise and pharmaceutical regime to get healthy and resist aging. I hope this episode will be as provocative and create discussion like the last one. What topics would you like to see explored?
Posted by Kevin Ohannessian at June 21, 2005 11:06 AM | Category: arts + entertainment |
4 Comments
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How about taking "Super Size Me" to the other end of the spectrum and do a show about natural medicine and how powerful the 100 year old pharmaceutical companies are to dope up our country, while bashing the medical wisdom of thousands of years?
For example, talk to Jordan Rubin of best-seller "The Makers Diet," an extremist on natural health.
Even if the natural guys seem a bit mystical and tough to believe, there seem to be more "before and after" successes there than with drugs. In fact, I'm trying to recall any drug company successes that aren't doing more than fix true medical emergencies.
As a small business owner, I can say that raising the minimum wage won't do anything to help the lower wage worker. Business owners don't just absorb the extra costs of an increased wage. No, they pass it on to the customers, many of whom are those minimum wage workers. So is someone really benefiting from increased wages when they have to pay more for goods
and services?
Minimum wage workers should take the initiative to make their skills more valuable in the marketplace. There's plenty of opportunity in today's knowlege based economy.
Jonathan:
As a fellow small business owner, I understand all about the importance of controlling (and the problems of passing on) cost to the customer.
However, I'm tired of this exact short-sighted, horrid attitude and circular argument and can only hope at least one person is enlightened by this response.
FACT: Your business IS your employees. End of story. Take care of them, they take care of YOU, AND YOUR BOTTOM LINE. Don't take my word for it, look at the 3M case study and many others.
Your attiude is very short-sighted and will limit your success.
You and many others that choose to limit your success with such short-sightedness continue to make the argument that higher wages=higher costs=harming the customer/employee. The unwritten assumption you have, of course, is that your employees will BUY YOUR PRODUCTS. They don't. They buy OTHER people's products. But here's the reality- IF, and this is a BIG if...other companys take the long-sighted approach and ALSO pay their employees well- THEY WILL BUY YOUR PRODUCTS TOO. See that? Everybody gets business in the end. Everybody is happy. And you have already gone a long way toward ensuring your long term-success with happier and MORE PRODUCTIVE employees.
Your mentality is self-defeating. I challenge you to ask what your employees think of their jobs.- I'd bet its not good.
(Do you have any employees? Probably not, with your attitude.)
And the big lesson? You ARE your employees. 'Nuff said. Think about it.
I love this show. I doubt if all of the episodes will be as socially challenging as the premier "Minimum wage" show but the episode tonight is of a regular guy in the US living as a muslim for 30 days. Should be interesting. What would be cool, but impossible would be a episode "Incarcerated for 30 days" or "fat for 30 days". Maybe "ugly" or "good looking for 30 days". What's the saying...
"...until you walk a mile in another man's shoes..."