Why Work is the Primary Source for Social Impact

By Deanna Hart

Jobs are the primary positive social impact that we expect from businesses, apart from creating products and services. It is the way that people are expected to engage in the economy. One gets a job to make money to spend on the products and services one wants and needs.

Imagine a person on the corner with a sign asking for help, and somebody yells at that person, “Get a job you lazy slob!”. Imagine the person with the sign says, “Good idea!”, drops the sign and gets a job. It does not seem to play out that way.

Why?

Don’t we have a choice to participate in the system as active workers who earn and spend money?

Let’s dig deeper with some facts and perspectives.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Oregon unemployment has been steadily going down all year from 4.1% in January to 3.8% in August, meaning that 3.8% of people who want jobs have jobs. Actual unemployment rates are much higher because it does not count those who are too young, retired, or gave up on trying to find jobs.

Who would give up on finding a job? Are they crazy or lazy?

Some think the welfare state is to blame for encouraging people not to work. Some think that giving people assistance in purchasing food (SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or Food Stamps as it used to be called) gives people less reason to work. They may think that any assistance creates “learned dependency”.

Do you think starvation, desperation, shame, or homelessness encourage people to go look for a job? If it does, do you think those people suffering from starvation, desperation, shame, or homelessness are in a position to compete for jobs? Are they disadvantaged in the competition? Is the working world not made for them?

I sat down with Sky McLeod, a filmmaker in Portland, Oregon. She explained something really important ~ We have disabilities only in the ways that the world around us is not accessible to us.

Let’s play with that concept.

If our society required everyone to climb from one floor to another without stairs, then many more of us would be considered disabled and wouldn’t qualify to work anywhere except the ground level. In the other direction, if every building and vehicle was designed to be wheelchair accessible, then being a wheelchair user would not be disabling. Because reading and writing (i.e. literacy) are so often required for jobs in our society, you can consider being illiterate a disability. Our working world is designed for readers and writers, thereby creating a disability in all those who cannot read or write.

If the job market was accessible to everyone, and if all jobs paid enough to live on, then we would not need welfare to provide food, shelter, and money for products and services.

Is that possible for businesses to provide living wage jobs for all?

So far, business has been falling short of creating living wage jobs in many common industries, like grocery and retail industries. Some businesses may not be able to afford to pay all their workers living wages, and if they raise prices to make more money to pay workers, then the customers may shop somewhere else and the whole business fails. This is especially true of stores who have low income customers who could not afford price increases. Many businesses can only exist because they can pay their employees far less than needed to live on. How can their employees live with low paying jobs? Welfare gives them the little extra they need to keep eating and have a place to live. Welfare, in this way, subsidizes businesses who can not or will not pay their employees enough to live on. One could say that welfare is good for business in this way.

Here is a great movie to watch for the job seeker perspective. While it is talking about the blind perspective, it can apply to anyone with any disadvantages in competing for jobs.

Thanks to Sky McLeod and the whole cast and crew of Going In Blind for creating this video.

Support Going In Blind in creating videos for the blind.

More on employment services in coming posts.

About Deanna

Deanna Hart is a Writer & Consultant serving the Portland, Oregon area with creative consulting for start-ups, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and nonprofits, she writes about the topics these clients struggle with using a social impact lens and entrepreneurial solutions. She comes with a diversified background that feeds her creative problem solving and perspectives: from fundamentalist Christian to Buddhist to atheist, urban to rural to urban again, northwest, southwest to southeast to northwest US again, trained in 10 industries, experienced in 7, managing in 4, creating fine and performance art, singer, songwriter, married 3 times, and raising 1 child.

Connect with her: contact@deannahart.com

Learn more about her: www.DeannaHart.com

Originally published at www.monkeybusinesspdx.com.