So, what you are telling me is that you think that if fast food workers get paid $15 an hour that everyone else’s wages would stay the same.
This line of thinking requires a lack of understanding of economics. That just isn’t how it works. If an EMT can quit and make the same money “flipping burgers” most of those EMT’s would leave their much more stressful jobs and go work for a fast food company.
But EMT’s are still needed, Hospitals would lose massive revenues if there is no one to treat people on the way to the hospital. If the patient dies on the way to the hospital, they will have a hard time billing for treatments, since they cannot give any. As the number of EMT’s drops, it would become necessary for companies to pay EMT’s more so that they could attract and/or keep EMT’s. In turn, the wages for EMT’s would rise.
I have answered an ask similar to this in the past, so I am just going to quote myself:
“We have made huge gains in productivity in this country on the backs of middle class and lower class workers. These gains in productivity mean that a current minimum wage worker has to be doing more fiscally productive work throughout their shift than they had to 45+ years ago.
So why is it, that when adjusted for inflation, we are paying minimum wage workers less than their counterparts 45+ years ago made. They are doing more work and creating more in profits than their past counterparts, why do they deserve less?
These facts lead me to some interesting questions you might want to consider.
If the wealthy have been taking almost $14 per hour of work from each minimum wage worker, how much do you think they take from you?
If the minimum wage was $21.72 an hour, how much more do you think you would be compensated now if your boss knew you could go get a job flipping burgers for over $45,000 a year?
See when you argue that others people’s wages should be kept below a living wage, or below productivity increases, all you are doing is arguing for a lower wage for yourself.
Those minimum wage jobs act as competition for workers time. If they are paying enough to lure away good prospects from other jobs, the compensation for those other jobs must be raised if other companies want to retain the talent they have or to acquire new talent.
As a consumer, options are good for you. The more options you have for work, the higher your wages are going to be. The more options you have in product choice, the lower you will pay for a good.
These are simple economic truths.
But if you want to still argue that all of our wages should be kept down because minimum wage workers don’t “deserve” $15 an hour, by all means, go ahead.”
More than 80% of the US federal government’s budget comes from payroll and income taxes. The National Priorities Project is dedicated to helping Americans understand how that money is spent. Above is the data for 2016.
The highest individual income “top” tax rate in history was 94%; that was the rate at which any income above 200,000 was taxed in 1945, equivalent to almost 2.8 million today. Today it’s 39.6%. The Nobel laureate Peter Diamond and economist Emmanuel Saez argue that the top tax rate should optimally be 73%.
Last year corporate taxes made up only about 11% of the federal government’s revenue; this is down from a historic high of almost 40% in 1943. This is partly because of a low tax rate of 35% and partly because of legal loopholes. According to the Project’s 7 Tax Facts for 2017, 100 of the 258 most profitable Fortune 500 companies paid zero in taxes for at least one of the last eight years. General Electric, Priceline, and PG&E haven’t paid a penny in taxes for almost a decade.
This commercial is the worst type of propaganda. It tricks you into thinking social problems can be resolved if only people tolerate their oppression just a LITTLE while longer. It pushes the idea that bigotry, sexism, and transphobia are just differences of opinion that are up for debate, and deserving of civil discourse and equal consideration.
Earlier this week, Congressional Democrats introduced the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act of 2017, a bill that would ban anti-LGBTQ conversion therapy nationwide. About 70 members of Congress said they support the bill.
The bill would classify conversion therapy and those practitioners who offer it as fraudulent. As you know, it’s been shown many times that conversion therapy does not work and is actually deeply harmful.
“The bill is very simple,” Lieu told The Washington Post. “It says it is fraud if you treat someone for a condition that doesn’t exist and there’s no medical condition known as being gay. LGBTQ people were born perfect; there is nothing to treat them for. And by calling this what it should be, which is fraud, it would effectively shut down most of the organizations.”
The Washington Post article linked above provides a really good history of conversion therapy, from its earliest opponents to its documented harmful effects to the politicians who still won’t say whether or not they’d support a ban. Give it a read this morning, and cross your fingers for positive change.
Unbiased journalism is not pretending both sides are equally valid. Unbiased journalism is reporting the facts even if those facts include that one side is irredeemably awful. False neutrality is propaganda.
Repeated for emphasis: False neutrality is propaganda.
if 99 experts say one thing, and 1 expert says another, presenting both sides as equal is misinformation
Years ago I went to a lecture by a science journalist, who talked about why so much science reporting is terrible, and this was the crux of his argument. Science reporters aren’t scientists, so they try to be “unbiased” and end up validating bad science in the interest of “giving both sides of the story.”
But this is no longer just a problem for science journalists. When the media doesn’t take a stand on what is factual, or at least supported by evidence, it contributes to its own implosion and the destruction of critical thought and democracy. I am not even joking here. False “let’s heard from both sides” neutrality contributes to the idea that there are no facts, only different kinds of spin.
Guaranteed basic income to every citizen, whether or not they are employed to ensure their survival and that they live in a dignified, humane way, preventing poverty, illness, homelessness, reducing crime, encouraging higher education and learning vocations as well as helping society become more prosperous as a whole.
Wow. Forget raising the minimum wage. This is much much better idea.
The minimum wage could actually drop if we had basic income.
But Americans would never go for it. Miserably slogging through 12 hour days and having businesses open 24/7 is too engrained in our culture.
“BUT WHERE WILL THE GOVERNMENT GET THE MONEY?” screamed Joe Schmoe, slamming a meaty fist onto the table and getting mouth-froth all over the front of his greying tank top. “You libt*rds all think money grows on TREES!! HAHA!”
“But where will people get the incentive to work?!” Mindy Bindy cried, flapping her hands in front of her face. She’d had a fear of the unemployed lollygagging about ever since she was a child and her mother told her to be afraid of the unemployed lollygagging about. “You think people should get paid for nothing? I work hard for my money!”
“But who will serve me?” grumbled Marty McMoneybags. “Who will make me feel important? Who will do my laundry and cook my food and stand in front of me wearing a plastic smile while I take out all my stress—because I do have a lot of stress, you know, being this rich is stressful—on them?” He paused and straightened out the piles of hundred dollar bills on the desk in front of him, then raised his two watery, outraged eyes up to the Heavens. “Lord, if there are no poor people, how will I know that I’m rich??”
I laughed. This is perfect! Well said!
The thing is, while I’m sure you could scrape up a few people who’d be willing to just float by on a guaranteed minimum income? For most people the choice to work would be a no-brainer. “Hmmm. I can get by on 33k a year, or I can take that part time job and make 48k… enough to move to a better apartment, maybe take the family on vacation. Sold.” Hell, most people would want to work simply because it gives one a sense of dignity and something to do with one’s time. (Speaking as someone who’s been unemployed, on extended sick leave, etc. in her time, the boredom and sense of isolation that comes with not having a job is almost as bad as the humiliation of having to depend on other people for one’s survival.)
And with this system, part-time jobs and “non-skilled” jobs would be much more readily available because nobody would need to work two or three jobs just to stay afloat!
Which would ALSO mean that employers and customers couldn’t shamelessly exploit employees the way they can today, because if losing a job weren’t necessarily a financial disaster, more people would be willing to walk out on jobs where they weren’t being treated with dignity.
And if this also applies to students (and it should) then student loans would become much less of a problem, and fewer people would flunk out of school because of having to juggle studies and work.
Far fewer people would be forced to stay with abusive partners, parents or roommates because they couldn’t afford to move out.
And the thing is, all those people who suddenly had money? They’d be spending it. They’d be getting all the stuff they can’t afford now – new clothes, books, toys, locally-produced food, car repairs – and with each purchase money would flow BACK to the government, because VAT, also income tax.
The unemployed and/or disabled wouldn’t need special support any more – which would also mean the government could fire however many admins who are currently engaged in humiliating – *cough* making sure those people aren’t getting money they don’t deserve. Same for medical benefits and pensions. And I’m no legal scholar, but I somehow imagine less financial desperation would lead to less petty crime, and hence less need for police and security everywhere?
TL;DR Doomie thinks this is a good idea, laughs at those who protest.
reblogging for more top commentary
They tried something like this out in Canada as a sort of social experiment, called Mincome. What they found was that, on the whole, people continued to work about as much as they did before. Only new mothers and teenagers worked substantially less hours.
But wait, there’s more. Because parents were spending just a little more time at home and involved with their families, test scores increased. Because teens didn’t have to work to support their families, drop-out rates decreased. Crime rates, hospital visits, psychiatric hospitalizations and domestic abuse rates all dropped, as well. More adults pursued higher education. Those who continued to work reported more job flexibility and more opportunity to choose employment they preferred.
Basically, now you can go prove to your asshole family members that society won’t collapse without poor people for you to feel better than.
The picture is awesome, but read the commentary, that’s what I’m reblogging for.
brb becoming a Swiss citizen. I have ancestry in Switzerland…
Best part? The health of the economy is ALL ABOUT the flow of money. Not the hoarding of it, not the end result, but the FLOW, the exchange and transactions and the resulting trade/production/flow of goods and services it inspires.
A universal basic income is the equivalent of upgrading the pump and filtration system of a stagnant pool or pond by positioning some jets to better serve areas missed out by the old system.
Humans have needs, and giving money direct to humans will better enable them to provide for their needs and stimulate the economy with consumer demand than is the case when they are dependent on a work system that produces their poverty as a means of cost-cutting and/or social control.
This curse is particularly for people who have done harm in the past, and as such already known to be a potential threat. The idea is to keep the person from speaking to or approaching the one you’re trying to protect, and to make them feel watched and judged for their past actions.
You will need the following:
A jar big enough to hold a poppet
Some kind of poppet – I used a wooden one with the offender’s name written on the bottom. A photo could also be used
White out
A black candle
A mixture of black salt & cayenne pepper
A sigil of your own design meaning “You cannot touch [name or pronoun]”
A permanent marker
Light the candle and white out the mouth of your poppet. Roll the poppet in the mixture of black salt and cayenne pepper (black salt tends to stain so keep this in mind). Place it in the jar and seal the lid, leaving the poppet inside under the gaze of dozens of eyes. Write your sigil on the lid. During or after all of this, say the following aloud or think it to yourself (change pronouns accordingly):
You cannot touch her. You cannot speak to her. Think of her and bring this curse upon you. May your tongue catch in your throat if you dare to reach her. May you burn and ache if you come near. May you feel eyes upon your back each time you think her name. They’re watching. I’m watching. May you forever question the gaze of others – Do they know the things you’ve done? I do. I curse you. I bind you. You cannot touch her.
Stash the jar in a dark place, like a closet or a cabinet (I don’t recommend burying jars). Let the candle burn until it extinguishes itself.
So I did a WP post on this, but wanted to post some images here of a political version of this curse jar, just in case it was relevant to anyone…
Some images of the jar and poppet style that I used:
If you want a copy of the poppet to print out and use for yourself, you can go to the WP post to grab that.
For the wording, I modified it to this:
You cannot touch the marginalized people in our country.
You cannot hurt the marginalized people in our country.
Think of them and bring this curse upon you.
May your tongue catch in your throat if you dare to hurt the marginalized people in our country.
May you burn and ache if you come near.
May you feel eyes upon your back each time you think hurting anyone.
They’re watching. I’m watching. We’re all watching.
May you forever question the gaze of others –
Do they know the things you’ve done?
I do. I curse you. I bind you.
You cannot touch anyone.
lovingdread 