Tag: Minimum Wage

An Alternative To The $15 Minimum Wage

Well that big thing is the proposal for a $15 minimum wage….and of course the GOP is having a stroke at the idea.

They preach the same crap every time….that it will cost jobs and drive corporations overseas…..To this I say BS to the first accusation and to the second then let the cowards go as long as they pay a fat tax for leaving.

Contrary to popular support…..Two-thirds of Americans (67%) support raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, including 41% who say they strongly favor such an increase, according to a Pew Research Center survey…..although a majority of the American public support this idea…..it is a doomed proposal.

The $15 thing will NEVER fly in the Senate…..even though the Dems have a slim majority they also have a couple of conservs in the party that hate seeing humans make a descent living….not to mention any name….Manchin and Sinema…..

Maybe there is a couple of things that could be done that would actually make a difference in people’s lives…..

The government could make it a more just society but they are afraid to slap around the wealthy that take from society and give nothing in return…..afraid the cash cow will dry up for their re-election funds.

Just my idea to help if you cannot manage to raise the minimum wage…..since food seems to suck up the cash on hand along with shelter, utilities…..why not use a tool, that is at hand?

Price controls.

The government could step in and make life easier for those that are struggling especially these days of lockdowns and unemployment….

Government price controls are situations where the government sets prices for particular goods and services.

Types of price controls

  • Minimum prices – Prices can’t be set lower (but can be set above)
  • Maximum price – Limit to how much prices can be raised (e.g. market rent)
  • Buffer stocks – Where government keep prices within a certain band
  • Limiting price increases – In a privatised monopoly (e.g. electricity, gas, water – where there is no competition) the government regulator may play a role in limiting how much prices can be increased. In the UK, regulators use a formula like RPI-X.
  • Direct price setting – In a command economy, prices of goods may be set by the government.

Since food seems to continue in a never ending spiral upward to the point where people have to decide between food or rent the government should step in and help.

It is not like this has not taken place in the past…..

Signed on August 15, 1970, during the administration of Richard Nixon, the Economic Stabilization Act gave the president power to impose wage and price controls to stem inflation caused by federal efforts to finance its operations. It extended a law that had provided the executive with similar authority during the Korean War; the earlier law, in turn, had precedents in controls imposed during World Wars I and II.

For those that would like to know more about this law then I can help…..

https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=3158&context=caselrev

Not to worry this will NEVER happen because Congress is well paid by lobbyist to keep anything good from ever taking place.

Politicians play to a base and the rest of us be damned….people go hungry and people become homeless and yet NO ONE gives a shit.

You may not like my idea but for now it would help those that need it the most.

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Is The Minimum Wage Dead?

The pandemic bill passed the House and included a $15 minimum wage section….and then it went to the chamber of rich f*cks known as the US Senate…..and like all other good ideas…..it dead.

The Dems caved to the cowards in the party…..and here are those COWARDS for all to see…..

Image

Remember their names for their next election…..

The political drama began with that idiot Ron Johnson of Wisconsin that wanted the bill read aloud for the record……

Before President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill can be voted on by the Senate, all 628 pages had to be read aloud by clerks. That was Republican Sen. Ron Johnson’s idea, USA Today reports. He said he doesn’t like much of what’s in the bill, so it’s important to delay the vote so Americans can learn its contents. “So often we rush these massive bills,” Johnson said. Polls show broad public support for the bill, so Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer said reading the provisions aloud, which began Thursday at 3:21pm, per the New York Times, was fine with him and that there would eventually be a vote. “No matter how long it takes, the Senate is going to stay in session to finish the bill this week,” the majority leader said, per the Washington Post. The vote might not take place until the weekend. So how long did it take? Fox News reports the reading concluded at 2:05am Friday.

At least Bernie tried to save the $15 but as usual the Dems made the difference…..it failed…..

Sen. Bernie Sanders tried again for a $15 federal minimum wage Friday but was undercut by a handful of Democrats. On a 58-42 vote—though the final count could change—the Senate rejected an attempt to slip the minimum wage increase into President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, the Hill reports. (Sanders was trying to find a way around this decision by the Senate parliamentarian.) After falling two votes short, Sanders said he’ll try something else. “If anybody thinks that we’re giving up on this issue, they are sorely mistaken,” he said. “The American people understand that we cannot continue to have millions of people working for starvation wages.” Sen. Joe Manchin, who’s in position to decided the fate of a lot of legislation, was among the Democrats who voted against Sanders’ measure.

The others were Sens. Chris Coons, Kyrsten Sinema, Jon Tester, Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassan, and Tom Carper. Independent Angus King sided with them. Sinema said she backs raising the minimum wage but wants it debated on its own, apart from pandemic relief, per Politico. A spokesman for the organization Justice Democrats criticized the group of senators for telling “millions of essential workers earning poverty wages that they are ‘heroes’ but they don’t deserve a $15 minimum wage.” A Senate candidate in next year’s election, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, said “every single senator who voted against a $15 minimum wage today should be forced to live on $7.25 an hour so that they can demonstrate to all of us how it’s possible.

Remember their names!

For those that want more depth analysis…..https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/03/05/here-are-8-democrats-who-just-joined-gop-vote-down-sanders-15-minimum-wage-amendment

I am sure that with this failure Bernie will lead the way for future attempts…..

Sad that a pack of rabid idiots that have more money than most of us….cannot bring themselves to help out working families.

Maybe these twats should have to work for $15 an hour for six months……time to rid ourselves of the Senate and go to a unicameral system……maybe then progress can be made to move this country forward.

Any Thoughts?

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How To Strengthen Social Security

For years we have been bombarded by the narrative the the Social Security system is broke and will eventually fail….this has been a Repub narrative for as long as I can remember….and yet SS goes on and on….

But if you want to sure up the system then maybe eliminating the cut-off point for paying into it….and everyone regardless pays into it.

Those are the simple ones…but those are unacceptable to politicians because the wealthy do not want to buy into the system.

Here is yet another way to help strengthen the system….

What does the minimum wage have to do with Social Security? On the surface, they might seem like unrelated issues. After all, the minimum wage is for workers and Social Security is for people who’ve stopped working due to old age or disability. But in fact, the two are closely linked—and raising the minimum wage to a $15/hour living wage would strengthen Social Security.

Social Security is extremely popular, effective, and efficient, but it has one major flaw—benefits are too low. Raising the minimum wage would be a big step towards fixing this problem. That’s because the more money workers pay into Social Security, the greater their future benefits. In other words, raising the minimum wage doesn’t just increase workers’ current compensation. It also increases their future compensation: Social Security.

In practice, this means that a $15 minimum wage will increase the future Social Security benefits of low-income workers by up to $5100 a year. That translates to millions of seniors and people with disabilities who won’t have to cut their medications in half in order to afford groceries.

Raising the minimum wage would also bolster the Social Security trust funds. When workers earn more, they contribute more into Social Security. A $15 minimum wage would generate over $130 billion for our Social Security system by 2035. But the same Republicans who endlessly demand cuts to Social Security so it doesn’t go “bankrupt” (which is impossible) refuse to support a living wage.

The benefits to Social Security are just one of many reasons why we need to update the minimum wage to $15. It will make millions of workers and their families more economically secure. It will pump billions of dollars into communities across the country. And it will save money on means-tested assistance programs.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/02/27/want-strengthen-social-security-raise-minimum-wage-and-do-it-now

One final thought……

If you are one of the struggling families during this pandemic…..these are the Reps that voted against you getting help…..remember their names in 2022 and send them packing…..

Aderholt State:  Nay
Allen State: Nay
Amodei State: Nay
Armstrong State: Nay
Arrington State: Nay
Babin State: Nay
Bacon State: Nay
Baird State: Nay
Balderson State: Nay
Banks State: Nay
Barr State: Nay
Bentz State: Nay
Bergman State: Nay
Bice (OK) State: Nay
Biggs State: Nay
Bilirakis State: Nay
Bishop (NC) State: Nay
Boebert State:

Nay

 
Boebert State: Nay
Bost State: Not Voting
Brady State: Nay
Brooks State: Nay
Buchanan State: Nay
Buck State: Nay
Bucshon State: Nay
Budd State: Nay
Burchett State: Nay
Burgess State: Nay
Calvert State: Nay
Cammack State: Nay
Carl State: Nay
Carter (GA) State: Nay
Carter (TX) State: Nay
Cawthorn State: Nay
Chabot State: Nay
Cheney State: Nay
Cline State: Nay
Cloud State: Nay
Clyde State: Nay
Cole State: Nay
Comer State: Nay
Crawford State: Nay
Crenshaw State: Nay
Curtis State: Nay
Davidson State: Nay
Davis, Rodney State: Nay
DesJarlais State: Nay
Diaz-Balart State: Nay
Donalds State: Nay
Duncan State: Nay
Dunn State: Nay
Emmer State: Nay
Estes State: Nay
Fallon State: Nay
Feenstra State: Nay
Ferguson State: Nay
Fischbach State: Nay
Fitzgerald State: Nay
Fitzpatrick State: Nay
Fleischmann State: Nay
Fortenberry State: Nay
Foxx State: Nay
Franklin, C. Scott State: Nay
Fulcher State: Nay
Gaetz State: Nay
Gallagher State: Nay
Garbarino State: Nay
Garcia (CA) State: Nay
Gibbs State: Nay
Gimenez State: Nay
Gohmert State: Nay
Gonzales, Tony State: Nay
Gonzalez (OH) State: Nay
Good (VA) State: Nay
Gooden (TX) State: Nay
Gosar State: Nay
Granger State: Nay
Graves (LA) State: Nay
Graves (MO) State: Nay
Green (TN) State: Nay
Greene (GA) State: Nay
Griffith State: Nay
Grothman State: Nay
Guest State: Nay
Guthrie State: Nay
Hagedorn State: Nay
Harris State: Nay
Harshbarger State: Nay
Hartzler State: Nay
Hern State: Nay
Herrell State: Nay
Herrera Beutler State: Nay
Hice (GA) State: Nay
Higgins (LA) State: Nay
Hill State: Nay
Hinson State: Nay
Hollingsworth State: Nay
Hudson State: Nay
Huizenga State: Nay
Issa State: Nay
Jackson State: Nay
Jacobs (NY) State: Nay
Johnson (LA) State: Nay
Johnson (OH) State: Nay
Johnson (SD) State: Nay
Jordan State: Nay
Joyce (OH) State: Nay
Joyce (PA) State: Nay
Katko State: Nay
Keller State: Nay
Kelly (MS) State: Nay
Kelly (PA) State: Nay
Kim (CA) State: Nay
Kinzinger State: Nay
Kustoff State: Nay
LaHood State: Nay
LaMalfa State: Nay
Lamborn State: Nay
Latta State: Nay
LaTurner State: Nay
Lesko State: Nay
Long State: Nay
Loudermilk State: Nay
Lucas State: Nay
Luetkemeyer State: Nay
Mace State: Nay
Malliotakis State: Nay
Mann State: Nay
Massie State: Nay
Mast State: Nay
McCarthy State: Nay
McCaul State: Nay
McClain State: Nay
McClintock State: Nay
McHenry State: Nay
McKinley State: Nay
Meijer State: Nay
Meuser State: Nay
Miller (IL) State: Nay
Miller (WV) State: Nay
Miller-Meeks State: Nay
Moolenaar State: Nay
Mooney State: Nay
Moore (AL) State: Nay
Moore (UT) State: Nay
Mullin State: Nay
Murphy (NC) State: Nay
Nehls State: Nay
Newhouse State: Nay
Norman State: Nay
Nunes State: Nay
Obernolte State: Nay
Owens State: Nay
Palazzo State: Nay
Palmer State: Nay
Pence State: Nay
Perry State: Nay
Pfluger State: Nay
Posey State: Nay
Reed State: Nay
Reschenthaler State: Nay
Rice (SC) State: Nay
Rodgers (WA) State: Nay
Rogers (AL) State: Nay
Rogers (KY) State: Nay
Rose State: Nay
Rosendale State: Nay
Rouzer State: Nay
Roy State: Nay
Rutherford State: Nay
Salazar State: Nay
Scalise State: Nay
Schweikert State: Nay
Scott, Austin State: Nay
Sessions State: Nay
Simpson State: Nay
Smith (MO) State: Nay
Smith (NE) State: Nay
Smith (NJ) State: Nay
Smucker State: Nay
Spartz State: Nay
Stauber State: Nay
Steel State: Nay
Stefanik State: Nay
Steil State: Nay
Steube State: Nay
Stewart State: Nay
Stivers State: Nay
Taylor State: Nay
Tenney State: Nay
Thompson (PA) State: Nay
Tiffany State: Nay
Timmons State: Nay
Turner State: Nay
Upton State: Nay
Valadao State: Nay
Van Drew State: Nay
Van Duyne State: Nay
Wagner State: Nay
Walberg State: Nay
Walorski State: Nay
Waltz State: Nay
Weber (TX) State: Nay
Webster (FL) State: Nay
Wenstrup State: Nay
Westerman State: Nay
Williams (TX) State: Nay
Wilson (SC) State: Nay
Wittman State: Nay
Womack State: Nay
Young State: Nay
Zeldin State: Nay

Let us not forget the two cowards in the Democratic Party that voted against the bill…..The two Democrats who sided with the GOP were Rep. Jared Golden, who represents Maine’s 2nd District, and Rep. Kurt Shrader, who represents Oregon’s 5th District.

Please keep these names handy and vote their worthless asses out of Congress….they do not deserve you respect or support because they do either for you.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Minimum Wage Update

The decision has been made by the Parliamentarian on whether the $15 minimum wage can be added to the Cocid-19 recovery bill…..

Looks like the coronavirus relief bill will not include a minimum wage hike. The Senate parliamentarian on Thursday ruled against the inclusion, saying it goes against budget rules. Every provision in the $1.9 trillion bill must comply with budget rules since Democrats are attempting to use the fast-track budget reconciliation process to get the bill passed with a simple majority, the Hill explains. But Nancy Pelosi says the House will leave the $15 minimum wage item in the bill when it votes Friday, despite the fact that it will almost certainly be removed from the Senate bill. The only way it wouldn’t would involve Vice President Kamala Harris basically eschewing the parliamentarian’s ruling, which the White House said it does not support; Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin also says he wouldn’t support bypassing budget rules.

“What are we supposed to tell voters in 2 years before the midterms? Sorry, we couldn’t pass the $15 minimum wage that we promised you because the Senate parliamentarian advised against it?” Rep. Pramila Jayapal tweeted. “Two-thirds of voters want this done. Time to deliver.” As the Week reports, Bernie Sanders quickly unveiled his “plan B,” saying he’s working on an amendment he wants included in the bill that will eliminate tax deductions for “large, profitable corporations that don’t pay workers at least $15 an hour” and also give smaller businesses incentives to increase wages. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, similarly, said he’s “looking at a tax penalty for mega-corporations that refuse to pay a living wage.” Sources tell CNN the minimum wage hike’s removal will likely make it easier for the Senate to pass the bill, as Democrats can avoid infighting over its inclusion—moderates like Manchin are not in favor.

As usual there will be other avenues to travel for this policy.

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“lego ergo scribo”

The Minimum Wage Debate

The biggest debate since the new president too his throne in the ivory tower is that of a raise in the minimum age to $15…..Arkansas’ senator wants to scale it back to $10 per hour….but in Arkansas the minimum wage is $11….so is he trying to back peddle the wage for all including those in his home state of Arkansas.

There are some spineless Democrats that will not go along with people earning a decent wage…..

Senate Democrats are facing internal divisions over efforts to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, which could result in the proposal being watered down or jettisoned from the coronavirus relief bill.

The wage hike is part of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief proposal, and it has the support of powerful progressives in both chambers and members of leadership.

But because of the 50-50 Senate split, proponents need to win over every Senate Democrat. That’s setting up a fight over the wage increase as they craft the final version of the relief package.

“I support the increase in the federal minimum wage to the $15 level. I think it’s way overdue that we change it. And I think it would be a good thing to do. There may be other members, even on the Democratic side, who have some concerns about it,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.).

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/537464-minimum-wage-push-sparks-democratic-divisions

The whole minimum wage debate is fake….that simple…..

Capitalism’s “conservative” defenders yet again oppose raising the minimum wage. They fought raising it in the past much as they tried to prevent the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) that first mandated a U.S. minimum wage. The major argument opponents have used is this: setting or raising a minimum wage threatens small employers. They may collapse or else fire employees; either way, jobs are lost. What is conveniently assumed here is a necessary contradiction between minimum wages and small business jobs. That assumption enables opponents to claim that not setting a legal minimum wage, like not raising it, saves jobs. The system thus presents very poorly paid workers with this choice: low wages or no wages.

“Liberals” in the United States have mostly accepted the assumption of that contradiction, the necessity of that final choice. However, they try to demonstrate that the social gains from a higher minimum wage would exceed the social losses from the reduced employment they admit. Their idea, in effect, is that a higher minimum wage would increase demand for goods and services. Any workers fired because of the minimum wage would be rehired elsewhere to meet the rising demand. Countless empirical studies by conservatives and liberals yield, as usual, correspondingly conflicting conclusions.

The Fake Debate Over a Minimum Wage

With conservs like the Dem Manchin the raise could be in jeopardy…..so if this coward gets his way is there a Plan B to combat the corporate stoolies like Manchin?

The budget tool that Democrats are using to steer Biden’s plan through Congress without GOP support, known as reconciliation, is laden with thorny restrictions waiting to ensnare the $15 minimum wage boost they’ve added to the next tranche of coronavirus relief. The wage increase is also running into strong headwinds from two influential Senate Democratic centrists, Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who are both resistant to enacting the sweeping policy change through the powerful budget process.

The White House and Democratic leaders have been waiting to see how the Senate’s parliamentarian, its official adviser on procedural matters, opines on the wage increase. Both Democrats and Republicans are expected to meet with the parliamentarian on Wednesday to argue their case. Her ruling could follow soon after the arguments.

In the meantime, Democrats are already weighing several options to try to save the wage hike from fully imploding and make it more palatable for moderates in their own party — from whom congressional leaders need lockstep support in order to muscle the Covid-19 aid package through the Senate with a simple majority vote before unemployment benefits expire for millions of Americans in mid-March.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/22/democrats-minimum-wage-increase-plan-470860

I do not believe that a compromise should be had…..go big and demand people get a living wage….something the Dems have been promising for decades and never come through with a plan.

Now is the time!

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“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–29Mar19

I recall my first job as a teenager…..65 cents an hour at McDonalds….and after a month or so it went up to 75 cents…..

I walk down that memory lane because of something I read the other day…..

It seems that if minimum wage had kept pace with Wall Street bonuses then the minimum would be over $30 an hour…..read the story and listen to the video……

Wall Street employees saw their typical annual bonus slip by 17 percent last year to $153,700, according to new data from the New York State Comptroller. But don’t feel sorry for the banking set just yet — even including down years like 2018, bankers’ bonuses have jumped by 1,000 percent since 1985.

By comparison, the federal minimum wage has increased about 116 percent during the same period, according to an analysis from the Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning research center that used the comptroller’s latest data. If the minimum wage had grown at the same pace as Wall Street bonuses, fast-food workers and other low-wage workers would earn a baseline wage of $33.51 an hour, the group said.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/minimum-wage-would-be-33-today-if-it-grew-like-wall-street-bonuses-have/

If it had kept pace with the bonuses then the Middle Class would be in better shape than they are today.

Bestiality Equals Higher Minimum Wage

The weekend begins and I was searching for something interesting for my readers….other than the mindless crap that the news produces daily…..something strange and unusual….something that would have my reader sitting there asking….WTF?

By George I think I found something…..and I ask any of my readers in Ohio that reads this and may have an inside track on this situation to clarify it for my other readers…..(I do attempt to be accurate)

Can you appreciate the games politicians play?  Their creativity is just amazing sometimes……

Most of my readers are aware of the movement to make $15 an hour the new minimum wage….of course most everyone in the GOP is having a stroke trying to find ways to avoid raising it…..

I believe that the good reps in Ohio have found a unique way to do so……

It is currently legal to have sex with an animal in nine states, but it seems Ohio may want off that list. The Guardian reports Ohio’s state legislature passed a bill this week that would outlaw bestiality and the selling of animals for sex. Gov. John Kasich has 10 days to sign or veto the bill. “The passage of animal sexual abuse legislation is a great victory for the animals of Ohio,” says a policy director at the Humane Society, which campaigned for the bill. The senators who sponsored the bill argued that sexually abusing animals can be a stepping stone to sexually abusing children.

But of course it’s not as simple as making it illegal to have sex with animals. WHIO reports the bill originally sought to stop local governments from regulating large-scale dog breeders, meaning animal-rights groups opposed it. Then Republican legislators added a section to the bill to stop cities like Cleveland and Cincinnati from raising the minimum wage, according to the New York Daily News. Now the bill was now also unpopular with workers’ rights groups. To make the controversial bill more palatable, Republican legislators then added the anti-bestiality legislation. And that’s how 40 legislators, mostly Democrats, ended up voting against making it illegal to screw animals while the state made it easier to keep screwing workers.

Ah!  The games our politicians play….how original of them.

Thoughts?

Who Said “People Power” Was Dead?

I recall my days as an activist and protestor….the big chant was “power to the people” and in recent years it has seemed that it was all but lost….people have been protesting lots of stuff….the bailout, Wall Street theft, immigration and abortion rights with little lasting effect…….now a story that resurrects my belief in the power of the people.

About here………. think Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart that economic giant that removes into a town and closes down all the “Mom and Pop” businesses with the promise of creating jobs……and those jobs are wages below the poverty level.

For a couple of years Wally World has been in the news on various times…..their anti-union stance, their pricing scams and so forth….but the one that got the most traction was the way they have treated their employees…..from the lack of health care to wages….there has been many protests about their wages……and finally they cave!

Walmart is spending $1 billion to make changes to how it pays and trains US hourly workers as the embattled retailer tries to reshape the image that its stores offer dead-end jobs. As part of its biggest investment in worker training and pay ever, Walmart says that within the next six months, it will give raises to about 500,000 workers, or nearly 40% of its 1.3 million US employees. “We are trying to create a meritocracy where you can start somewhere and end up just as high as your hard work and your capacity will enable you to go,” CEO Doug McMillon said during an AP interview this week at the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. The company’s average full-time wage will be $13 an hour, up from $12.85. For part-time workers, the hourly wage will be $10, up from $9.48.

The changes, which Walmart announced today as it reported stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter results, come at a time when there’s growing concern for the plight of the nation’s hourly workers. Thousands of US hourly workers and their supporters have staged protests across the country to call attention to their financial struggles, and business groups and politicians have jumped into the fray, debating a proposal by President Obama to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour. A new AP-GfK poll also found that most Americans support increasing the minimum wage. In addition to raises, Walmart said it also plans to make changes to how workers are scheduled and add training programs for sales staff so that employees can more easily map out their future at the company.

This is great news for their employees……though I believe it is more to end the negative PR than any genuine concern for their wage slaves.

Now if Wally World can do it…..so can all the thieves that pay a pittance of wages.

People Power is alive and well in the US…..PEOPLE!  use the power that you have….there are so many issues that need to be faced and NOW we know that the people can make a difference!

Take It To The Street!