Insight from Pope Francis: 'Minimum skills minuimum wages' --What's wrong with that? ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING

"Don't like it? Go home then," Pope Francis remarked on the throwaway culture of our world and how it impacts the lives of millions at the margins. His words are a wake-up call for all of us.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - How many times have we considered the low wages and long hours of the working poor and blamed them alone for their conditions? "If they don't like minimum wage jobs, they should go to school." "Minimum skills, minimum wages!" "It's their fault, not mine." "What am I supposed to do about it?"

It's easy to judge and subscribe to this perspective, especially in the United States where we are taught from birth that "America is the land of opportunity."

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However, this is arguably not the case, and our economics would not likely please Christ. Should He return, how many tables would be overturned?

This was the warning of Pope Francis as he remarked on the plight of the working poor in the world. Our political and social systems "seems fatally destined to suffocate hope and increase risks and threats."

Pope Francis blamed the constant hunger that the economic system puts many people in. "It's hunger, hunger that makes us accept what they give us," he explained. "You don't like it? Go home then," he said, repeating a common refrain for those who have little sympathy for the working poor.

Indeed, how easy it is for us to consign the legions of Wal-Mart and McDonald's employees to their fate as something they deserve, the fruits of their own sloth and poor choices.

Yet, study after study tells us that the popular myth of the poor kid who makes bad choices and is lucky to get a minimum wage job at McDonald's, or the myth of the teenager working for extra cash are just that - they are myths.

Furthermore, it isn't particularly Christlike to dismiss these thoughts and people from our mind.

"Well, I can't do anything about it," or "I can't help all of them."

These defeatist attitudes are the whispers of Satan, discouraging us from all good things.

It does not matter who is working where. At which point a person makes the honest effort to work, be they a teenager, an unskilled laborer, or even a former felon, they deserve the opportunity to enjoy gainful employment. They deserve enough pay to not have to join the ranks of the welfare rolls. If a business has the gall to ask a person to perform any task for 40 hours a week, then that person deserves enough pay to feed, clothe, and house themselves.

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People also need leisure time in which to attend church and to pray, to relax and recharge. They should not be devastated by an illness or have to choose between basic healthcare and financial ruin.

Yet, our attitude is often akin to that of the Pharisees that we have all earned our place and they should earn theirs. We did it, why cannot they? -But it is easier for some of us to fit through the eye of a needle than to stop judging, isn't it?

Such an attitude is inherently judgmental, and separates us from one another by creating an "us vs. them" mentality. More importantly, what separates us from our brothers and sisters, also separates us from Christ.

Unemployment, underemployment, poverty, expensive education, and a general lack of real opportunity plague people around the world. Underemployment forces many of the working poor to hold multiple jobs in order to make ends meet. They crowd together with others packed into cheap housing and attempt to rear their children while being unable to find better work or attend school because their schedules vary.

It could be this life is their fault. It could be they made poor choices so this is the bed they must lie in. But this is not what Jesus Christ or Pope Francis tells us we ought to regard. Instead, we are still our brother's keepers, regardless of anything else.

Instead of judging we should be looking for ways to create opportunities for others. Instead of disenfranchising, we should be seeking to include, to accept prodigal sons back into society.

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We should demand that private employers pay living wages, that all people should enjoy affordable healthcare and leisure time in which to meditate and pray and raise a family without the urgency of hustling to another job or trying to complete errands with the few minutes of freedom they have between other obligations.

It is not up to us to worry about why these people live the way they do. It is up to us to find and support ways to improve their condition, without judging them.

Henceforth, ask yourself only this question: Am I judging, or am I helping?

1 Timothy 5:1-2

John 13:34-35

Luke 10:30-37

Matthew 25:40

Leviticus 19:18

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