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$30.00-per-hour minimum wage combined with 3-day/24-hour work week for higher prosperity and happiness for 100% of the population.
The 1% may have the money, but they do not have the happiness and feeling of security that the money was supposed to cause. By converting to a 3-day/24-hour work week and a $30.00-per-hour minimum wage, we can immediately reflect current productivity of the workforce, cause increasing productivity and catapult human well-being and happiness for 100% of the population. Let's not be patient. Let's just do it. Everyone has everything to gain.
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Rhona Pavis 50+
I presume you are aware of the changes in income distribution over recent decades. I hope you believe that equity should be a factor in the market place. Consider the income curves of the 1% and the 99%. Consider the quantity of children living in poverty now compared with 10 years ago.
Krisztián Pintér 200+
productivity does not increase in the US. neither does income.
Rhona Pavis 50+
http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/press-and-media-centre/news/WCMS_083976/lang--en/index.htm
Krisztián Pintér 200+
on the contrary, india, china, brazil and other countries were at very bad position 50 years ago, and now growing fast.
Rhona Pavis 50+
Krisztián Pintér 200+
wage and wellbeing of the workers are related to their productivity. free market capitalism is known to be the most effective way to increase these. it was proven many times and many places in history. contrary to the popular belief, during the industrial revolution, the conditions of the average man improved enormously. capitalism transformed the barefoot peasant to a mass consumer that got proper clothing, medical care, abundance of food in a hundred years.
since 1800, average income increased 25-fold. today, average people in the US have car, cellphone, air conditioning, computer. they have an expected lifetime almost twice as high as back then.
equal distribution is a holy grail that gives us nothing. i don't even understand why would equal distribution any better. if i have more than my neighbor, he can take mine? why? i'm working overtime to get the extra. i'm not willing to give it away to anyone. except for example the acumen fund and kiva, but that is my decision.
Rhona Pavis 50+
Kris, I agree with much of what you have stated here. Every system needs to be fine-tuned as things change. Things do change. Productivity of workers has greatly changed since the 1940s and neither the hours nor the salaries and wages reflect those improvements in productivity of the labor force, since the 40-hour work week was instituted.
In the olden days people worked 10 to 16 hours a day (and more) for 6 or 7 days-per-week. In the 1940s in the USA we finally got the 40 hour work week. It is now 2012. It's time to move forward into a more humane society, just as we have been doing over the history of our wonderful, dynamic nation. Why cling to things as they are? We can continuously improve. Positive change should be welcomed, not feared.
Krisztián Pintér 200+
equitable is hard. what does that mean? i think that if both the employer and the employee mutually agreed on the wage, it is fair. if force is used, it is not fair.
i like change. for example today the government tells you how long the working week is, and has many laws regarding to wages. for the change, i recommend a system in which government does not enforce any special rules on that. abolish every labor law altogether. and then people can decide how much they are willing to work, and for what wage. government officials should get out of this.
Rhona Pavis 50+
Krisztián Pintér 200+
second, do you think that with minimum wage, their situation is better? minimum wage prevents some negotiations. if the guy is willing to work for 10 an hour, your minimum wage stands in the way. granted, in some cases it might raise the offer from $29 to $30. but if the worker is unable to contribute that much, and his productivity is only $25 an hour, no employer will employ him. in effect, minimum wage leads to unemployment.
but there is an insidious little fact here. if you enact a minimum wage, wages indeed tend to rise in the short run. entrepreneurs need time to figure out how to rearrange production. but then they figure out sooner or later. they will manage to automatize some tasks, stop doing others, layoff here, outsource there. at the end we have rising unemployment, and nobody understands why.
pat gilbert 50+
What is commonly misunderstood is that the U.S. is the largest manufacturer in the world by. Because China misreports their numbers egregiously I would venture a guess that U.S. manufacturing is probably triple China's.
Keep in mind that China is making the low value stuff the U.S. is making aircraft, heavy construction equipment, high tech stuff.
Will it stay that way nope, China graduates many times as many engineers as the U.S.
The income stagnation is actually grossly misreported and in actual has not changed in 30yr. I know it seems like it has but statistically speaking it has not. The reasons would take longer to explain than I have time for but in a nutshell it has to do with politician's wanting your vote which requires a straw man.
part of it is that they use household income as proof but what they fail to mention is that the reason house hold income has gone down is that the divorce rate has skyrocketed in the past 30yr.
economists Piketty (France) and Saez (Berkeley) about 6 years ago. They reported that the top 1% of taxpayers accounted for 16.1% of REPORTED tax return income in 2004.
But the reason for this was a change in the tax law that encouraged rich guys to pay their income tax as personal rather than as a corporation, this made it look like their income has gone up but actually it didn't change.
I could say more but your eyes would glaze over
Rhona Pavis 50+
pat gilbert 50+
The true data on economics is easy to obtain with the internet and libraries. It is not easy to understand and takes some effort. If you are really interested I recommend Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. It will change your perspective on life.
Big business has raised the standard of living of everyone on this planet.
I think the biggest thing is to look for yourself.
Rhona Pavis 50+
pat gilbert 50+
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.
'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.' Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bi ll the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four
continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began tocompare their savings.
'I only got a dollar out of the $20 declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, 'but he got $10!'
pat gilbert 50+
'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $ 10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'
'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, ladies and gentlemen, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.
Rhona Pavis 50+
pat gilbert 50+
I highly recommend looking at things as they are, other wise your constantly torturing yourself with it isn't fair, it shouldn't be that way, that doesn't make sense.
There has always been inequality and there always will be.
Capitalism is an economic system and a political system as is Communism, where would you rather live in Eastern Germany or Western Germany, would you rather live in North Korea or South Korea
Here is the bottom line politicians get reelected by creating problems to fix they are always pointing to a straw-man. The problem with the thinking that you espouse is that someone is to blame. The problem with blame is that it puts them in the drivers seat and you in the back seat. If nothing else figure out how not to blame anyone but yourself. If you do nothing else do this.
Rhona Pavis 50+
pat gilbert 50+
The one thing that has improved the standard of living of the world is the free market.
The minimum wage law has been more damaging to blacks than anyone else, the last thing it does is raise the standard of living for the people it is supposed to protect. Here is a couple of very intelligent black economists saying how this is the way it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jv1Zae0sgo