Work and the Earned Income Credit

The very best program for social uplift is a job. With the exception of persons dealing with severe, chronic disabilities, employment must be the central piece in any strategy to overcome poverty.

The basis for the highly successful Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) initiative is this fundamental belief in the supreme importance of work. Here at Central Dallas Ministries we have encouraged the low-income working men and women that we know to file a tax return to secure this credit. At one point, our public interest law firm secured a grant from the Internal Revenue Service that allowed us to do this work more effectively.

As a tax strategy to reduce poverty and its ill effects on the nation, the EITC was the idea of Richard Nixon, and was signed into law by Gerald Ford in March 1975. The program has received broad bipartisan support from its inception and has been expanded over the years.

The EITC provides a tax refund to all workers in poverty, who earn less than a certain amount annually--regardless of whether they pay income taxes. The EITC is designed to move people aware from federal welfare assistance and into lives of work. Bottom line: the EITC establishes a minimum annual salary for workers. If a worker earns less than the baseline minimum, she or he receives an earned income credit that raises annual earnings to the established minimum.


Ronald Reagan referred to the EITC as "the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress." He increased funding for the effort, as well as the minimum baseline several times. George H. W. Bush expanded the EITC as well.

Senator John McCain has been a consistent supporter of the EITC. Last Saturday (October 18, 2008), the Washington Post reported that, "In fact, in 1999, Mr. McCain opposed efforts to change the earned-income tax credit, which gives payments to the working poor, and called it a 'much-needed tax credit for working Americans.' And in this campaign, he has proposed to use the tax code to do more such 'wealth-spreading."

The Hoover Institute describes the EITC as: "...probably the most cost-effective anti-poverty program the federal government operates."

Using the federal tax code to incentivize work, lift families and promote economic growth is sound policy. The EITC has been supported by leaders from both major political parties. It is an effort that works, while rewarding work!


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Labor: Shift workers

Did you catch the duo performance featuring Kenny Chesney and George Strait during the recent CMA Awards show?

Chesney's new song, "Shiftwork" speaks to the soul of working people in every part of this country. Sadly, just because a person works hard every day, a job does not come with a guarantee that earnings keep pace with the rising cost of living. We see this reality on a daily basis here in inner city Dallas.

I suppose my experience here is why I find the music moving. Everyone who works hard should be able to earn enough to sustain at the very least a modest, workable life.

The song calls us to pay attention to labor. It is a good call.

Shiftwork

Shift work, hard work, tired bar
Blue-collar shirt and a baseball cap
Union made

He’s hot, sweat drops, ’round the clock
The door never locks
And the noise never stops
Night or day
Work-n seven To three
Three to eleven
Eleven to seven

Shift work, tough work, for the busy convenience store clerk
Two feet that hurt, going insane
She’s mad, at some lad
Drove off and didn’t pay for his gas and he won’t be the last
’round the clock pain
Work-n seven To three
Three to eleven
Eleven to seven

Talkin’ about a bunch of shift work
A big ol’ pile of shift work
Seven to three
Three to eleven
Eleven to seven

Well I worked, shift work,
Ten years man, I hated that work
Then I made a break, with the money I saved
It took me, to the beach, to have a beer by the edge of the sea
In this ’round a clock place
I drank my money away
We partied
Seven To three
Three to eleven
Eleven to seven

I’m talkin’ about a bunch of shift work
A big ol’ pile of shift work
Seven to three
Three to eleven
Eleven to seven

Talkin’ about a bunch of shift work
A big ol’ pile of shift work
Seven to three
Three to eleven
Eleven to seven
Eleven to seven
Seven to three
Three to eleven
Eleven to seven

[Title : SHIFTWORK Taken from Album : Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates]

Embracing duty

The phone woke me up at about 11:15 p.m. on Thursday night.

The voice on the other end was a young man who works at the independent living center where my mom resides.

He calmly identified himself—I recognized his very kind and reassuring voice, “Miss Mildred fell and she called for our help,” he reported.

I asked if anything was broken or if she was hurt badly. He reported that she couldn’t get up on her feet. I asked him to call 911 and told him I was on my way to her apartment. To make a long story short, we ended up in the hospital emergency room where, unfortunately, we discovered that she had a broken hip.

Later in the day I found our young friend. I stopped him to thank him for his help. As I reached for my wallet, he stopped me with these words:

“No, no, I don’t want anything. Thanks, but this is my job.”

His response reminded me of the words of Jesus when he told his friends on one occasion, “. . .when you have done all that you were instructed to do, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have done only what we ought to have done!'” (Luke 17:10).

It was strange, but as I made my way through the next couple of days, during which my mother had surgery to repair her hip, I heard several people say basically the same thing when others were expressing thanks for their kindness and their hard work. One man told someone, "No problem, this is what I'm here to do."

It’s a good way to look at life, work and day-to-day reality in any community. If more people embraced their duty with such a clear-headed focus and self-understanding, what a world it would be, don’t you think?

Without a genuine sense of obligation, duty and commitment to performance, community life fails, especially in the crucial moments of life.

I told our young friend that I understood what he was saying and that I appreciated both his professionalism and his obvious concern for my mother and everyone else in the community.

“I’m very grateful that you are here,” I told him.

I handed him a twenty, “Let me do this just because of my own feelings.”

He replied with a smile, “Thank you, but I’m just glad to do my job.”

I’m more than glad, as well.

And, my mom is doing well following her surgery.

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One-Minute Golf Lesson or Finding a Leader is Essential!

Leadership is beyond essential.

Most of us don't stop to consider or to understand just how essential.

Real leaders model new ways of being, new levels of performance. Leaders are consistent, hard working, diligent, tireless, disciplined.

I love this video.

When leadership disappears, everything slides back to "normal." And "normal" is seldom best.

Developing leaders must become a major priority for any person or group interested in community development or renewal.

Enjoy. . .and consider.

Work vs poverty

“If you work in this country, you should not be poor.”

--Barack Obama
Dallas, Texas
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Reunion Arena

Questions:

1) Is this true? Do you agree? Why or why not?

2) If it is true, what does this statement imply or suggest?

3) If it is not true, what does that say about work and its value in view of the traditional high regard with which we have always held it?

4) If you were making a speech on work and advancing economic progress among the poor, would you ever use such a line? Why or why not?

5) If you wouldn't, what line would you put in its place?

Just wondering.

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Perseverance

"My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging."

Hank Aaron