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The best gift for fathers

By ROBYN E. BLUMNER
Published June 19, 2005

According to Hallmark, the best way to commemorate Father's Day is by sending Dad a card. One can choose a sentimental message, thanking Dad for his guiding hand and loving devotion. Or, one can good-naturedly chide Dad for his universal father foibles, such as never stopping to ask directions, hogging the remote control or reading on the john.

But I think Father's Day should have a broader outlook. It should be a day when we reflect on all the ways our government conspires to make fathers an endangered species.

Responsible fatherhood has been a mantra of the political right in recent years. The federal government and various states have launched a myriad of "fatherhood" initiatives, spending millions of dollars trying to make fathers in the poorest communities pay child support, re-engage emotionally with their children and marry their children's mother. The underlying assumption is that the epidemic of absent fathers - 27 percent of children now grow up in single-parent homes - is caused by individual moral failings. The proposed antidote is to threaten and punish fathers into doing what's right or Bible-thump and support-group them into mending their ways.

I say: It's the jobs, stupid.

You want fathers to stick around? Give them good jobs that pay a living wage and offer decent benefits and real hope for advancement - jobs that give the wage-earner dignity and stature within the family. Maybe then we'll see the return of the engaged Dad.

Over the last 30 years, our economy has supremely rewarded those at the top, while those in the middle and at the bottom have seen their relative position eroded. Most of the modest financial gains for working families over that time have come from women entering the work force and employees putting in more hours. Wages themselves have not risen much after adjusting for inflation, and good manufacturing jobs are now phantoms of a bygone era.

Those consigned to low-skilled, nonunion jobs constantly struggle for economic security. Anyone who has read Barbara Ehrenreich's book Nickel and Dimed or seen the episode of the new cable show 30 Days, in which Morgan Spurlock, the star of Super Size Me, tried to survive on minimum wages for a month, knows that living on such a pittance is a daily hardship. The resentment and stress this kind of privation breeds are corrosive to families. Spurlock mentioned a telling statistic: Couples that make less than $25,000 are twice as likely to divorce as those making $50,000.

Humiliation is a powerful force within the human psyche. To escape it, people may be motivated to do all sorts of things, including abandon their obligations. Fathers who operate on the economic margins can't come close to meeting their children's needs, never mind their wants. These dads may leave as their only way to feel like less of a failure. That's not to condone shirking, just to understand it.

I put a big slice of the blame for the loss of dignity for the American worker on government and its reckless policies that make life harder for Bottom-Rung Joe.

Stuck at $5.15 an hour since 1997, the stagnant federal minimum wage has acted as a drag for those at the bottom. Its inflation-adjusted value is more than 25 percent lower today than in 1979. But Republicans in Congress have actively opposed any hike. Allowing the exploitation of workers must be one of those family values the right wing is always touting.

Then add the demise of unions - hastened (though not caused) by the federal government's long-running hostility to labor organizing. In the past, unions have demanded that low-level workers and not just executives and stockholders share in productivity gains. Even companies without unions would keep up with wage hikes as a way to discourage workers from joining one. Now, though, with the threat of unionization remote, profits head to Wall Street and into obscene executive compensation.

But it is the hypocrisy of the federal government on illegal immigration that has had the most damaging impact on America's low-skilled work force. Here, despite any "official" stance, Republican and Democratic leaders alike conspire to ignore the problem of illegal migration that is now estimated at 10-million souls. If this limitless source of cheap, exploitable workers was not readily available, employers would have to start raising wages and adding benefits to entice a labor pool.

If the Bush administration really wanted to celebrate America's fathers, it would start vigilantly enforcing sanctions against employers for hiring illegal aliens - the only effective way to stanch the inflow of illegal aliens. Maybe then low-skilled dads would gain some leverage in the labor market.

That would surely be one happy Father's Day.

[Last modified June 18, 2005, 01:36:03]