The Job Crisis

The big news last week was the fact that Herm Edwards lost his job as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, followed by the buzz and excitement that he will be replaced by Mike Shannahan, who was fired as coach of the Denver Broncos. Last year, the Kansas City School District fired Anthony Amato, who had served as superintendant for just one year, after having been fired from holding the same position in New Orleans. In that same time Sprint fired its CEO, and he later became chancellor of the University of Missouri. And finally, in the news today we see that a gentlemen who was fired from H&R Block for overseeing their subprime loan division is now working for the IRS.

Do you see a pattern here? In the world of the rich, you can be as incompetent as you want to be, and you'll still be able to find a high paying job. These sorts of professions do a pretty good job of recycling the trash and rewarding failure. However, if you are in a lower income bracket, you are afforded no such grace. When a lower class person is fired, they are in serious trouble. They are likely to lose their home to foreclosure. They are likely to lose their health insurance for themselves and their family. They are likely to require assistance from the government or other agencies. In short, when the poor lose their jobs it is a more permanent reality for them.

All of what is said above is to call attention to another layer of inequality in our society. I'm not calling for accepting failure across the board, nor am I saying that we not give people a second chance. What I am saying is that the opportunity for a second chance should apply to all fairly. I am also saying that there are different degrees of failure. If a poor person makes a mistake at their job, the economic result for the company or customer is relatively small. However, when CEO's, superintendants of school districts, and the like fail, it results in catastrophic economic consequences that affect the lives of many people and sometimes the economy of the entire country.

Large corporations have argued for many years that the compensation packages for CEO's need to be high in order to attract talent and reward performance. That argument is fine as long as the idea is applied evenly to failure. What ramifications are there for CEO's who destroy a company and affect the economy of many people? Being fired and finding another cushy job just doesn't seem to be proportionate when the poor person who is fired for failure has no such recourse very often.

In ancient Israel, God demanded more of the king who was a son of God and protector of his people. When punishment came, the prophets addressed God's wrath to the king who was responsible for the calamity of the people. Jesus said, "It is inevitable that scandals should come, but woe to him who has caused such scandal." May we be good stewards of the people entrusted to us, and may be work toward correcting the injustice of unequal expectations and rewards.