What's the equivalent of putting Josef Mengele in charge of the Human Rights Commission? Making Andrew F. Puzder Secretary of Labor comes to mind.
In nominating Puzder, CEO of the Hardee's and Carl's Jr. restaurant chains, Tr*mp is not merely poking a stick into the eye of working people — he has opted for a hot poker. A virulent opponent of any increase in the minimum wage, Puzder welcomes increased automation because machines are "always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there's never a slip-and-fall or an age, sex, or race discrimination case." AFL-CIO President Richard Trumpka characterizes Puzder as "a man whose business record is defined by fighting against working people."
I strongly encourage anybody not already avoiding Hardee's and Carl's Jr. for the sake of avoiding the vast quantities of salt, fat, and calories that characterize the stores' menus to find alternative routes to obesity. A boycott of Puzder's grease mills can be one more signal to Tr*mp and his plutocratic entourage that Americans refuse to roll over and play dead.
Showing posts with label minimum wage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label minimum wage. Show all posts
Friday, December 9, 2016
Thursday, May 21, 2015
On the home front...
Opting Out
Opposition is growing to Arne Duncan's "data based" approach to "saving" American education by obsessively testing schoolchildren and using their scores to "evaluate" teachers and schools. Hooray for all those parents choosing to "opt out" of the testcapades for their kids. The children of poverty who are supposed to be the chief beneficiaries of the testing regimen will continue to score poorly, no matter how many "failing" schools are closed and no matter how many "incompetent" teachers are fired. The most important key to educational achievement is the security and predictability of a middle-class lifestyle, a lifestyle denied to more and more children as more and more Americans are pushed out of what used to be the American middle class.
Minimum Wage
More Americans can enjoy "middle-class" lives when more Americans are able to live comfortably on their earnings. Right now, our low-wage workers — even those lucky enough to have steady, full-time jobs — have to depend on food stamps and Medicaid just to scrape by. Too many are only one or two unpaid sick days away from financial catastrophe, and they know it. They and their children need and deserve real security. Raising the minimum wage to $15/hr is not enough to restore the American middle class, but at least it's a step in the right direction.
As I've said before, raising the minimum wage will not lead to lay-offs, because employers know they maximize profits by employing the smallest work force needed to get the job done. If forced to pay their workers more, employers must either accept lower profits or raise the prices of their products. The affluent will scarcely notice any price increases, and better paid workers will have more money to spend. Only the most poorly conceived and managed businesses will fail.
Democracy
To the extent it exists in the USofA, democracy doesn't work very well. People struggling to earn a living, or to claw their way to the next level of economic success, don't have a lot of time to peruse the "important issues" that are supposed to determine the outcomes of elections. Candidates win elections when they have the financing and skills to promulgate sufficiently convincing lies, or to distract our attention from political decisions that actually might have an impact on our lives.
The classic Clinton approach, "polling over principle," is endemic in our current system. We expect political candidates to say the things we want to hear. What they actually do once in office is unlikely to have more than cosmetic resemblance to what they say in order to win.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Just Wondering
Indiana
Just wondering: why would a gay couple insist on hiring a baker with strong religious objections to gay marriage to perch two grooms on top of their wedding cake, or an antagonistic photographer to record the happy event? One would not anticipate the yummiest fillings between the layers or the most flattering portraiture under such circumstances.
I haven't seen the text of Indiana's new "religious freedom" legislation, but I suspect it's just another example of political pandering; and I'm willing to give Mike Pence and the Indiana legislature a chance to "clarify" the "intent" of the law, and show us all that it's non-discriminatory. In the meanwhile, maybe everybody should relax a little, and just wait and see.
The Co-pilot
Just wondering: given that Andreas Lubitz was suicidal, why did he decide to take 149 others along with him instead of just crashing one of the gliders he liked to fly into the side of a mountain? Needless to say, I don't expect an answer to that question.
Lubitz notwithstanding, commercial flight remains extremely safe, albeit uncomfortable and often demeaning. Should rules be changed? Perhaps, but sometimes changing the rules makes things worse rather than better. Let's give overheated heads a chance to cool a bit before taking action.
New York's Budget
Just wondering: why did Andrew Cuomo make little or no effort on behalf of State Senate candidates in the last election, when a bit more effort might have resulted in a Democratic majority in both houses of the legislature? Did he want a Republican Senate to restrain him from actions that might have been seen as too liberal to support his presidential aspirations?
New York might have had an increased minimum wage, real anti-corruption programs, and real improvement in public education. Now, alas, it looks like just more business as usual.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Stuff
Death in Oklahoma
If Clayton Lockett was guilty of the crime of which he was convicted, nobody deserved "cruel and unusual punishment" more than he did. On the other hand, if we really object to "cruel and unusual punishment," he got screwed.
I wonder how many death penalty nominees don't have a usable vein. I'm guessing there are quite a few. I guess putting them out in front of ten or fifteen sharpshooters aiming at their hearts (one, traditionally, but not necessarily accurately, shooting a blank) is just too brutal for modern sensibilities.
If you really want to kill them, I suggest, just fucking kill them. A single shot to the brain, delivered by the fucking governor, should do the trick.
The Climate Change Report
Why do Republicans deny human involvement in climate change? The usual answer: money.
Exxon-Mobil, Anadarko Petrolleum, Marathon Petroleum, Haliburton, and every major coal company give almost exclusively to Republican candidates. Oh, and let us not forget Koch Industries!
The Minimum Wage
I don't believe that anybody working full-time should have to depend on SNAP (aka food stamps). Raising the minimum wage pushes wages higher for all lower-wage workers, and if it means the loss of the dollar menu at Micky D's, who cares? Eaters of burgers and fries will be able to afford half a buck more for their carbs and grease.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Raising the Minimum Wage
Think of it like this: you own a business. How many workers are you going to hire? Too many? Too few? Of course not. You'll go for the "Goldilocks" point. You'll want "just right." You don't want too few to keep the customers content, nor so may that they're out back smoking dope when you're not around.
Perhaps you own a fast food joint — a franchise. The company tells you what to charge and what to pay. The minimum wage goes up — so what does the company do?
It either lets you pay your workers the new minimum wage, raise your menu prices, and stay in business, or it lets you go out of business, and lose whatever profits you earn for it. What's more likely?
So the dollar menu is up to a buck and a quarter. Will you lose customers? Maybe. The ten-year-old's allowance hasn't gone up, but your own workers, and workers employed by other sleazebags, now can afford to pay the buck and a quarter. They pay it.
You're still in business. The only difference is American taxpayers might not be subsidizing you by giving your workers SNAP (Food Stamps), nor quite so large an Earned Income Tax Credit.
Why in hell should American taxpayers be subsidizing Mickey D's or Wal-Mart or any of the other low-wage employers living off the fat of your ass?
Nobody working a full-time job should need government subsidies. Nobody working a full-time job should go hungry, or have to watch hungry children try to fall asleep.
$10.10 by whenever isn't enough. It should be fifteen or sixteen right about now. People should not go without heat, or food, or a roof over their heads.
Fuck the free markets. Fuck the Libertarians. Do the right thing.
Perhaps you own a fast food joint — a franchise. The company tells you what to charge and what to pay. The minimum wage goes up — so what does the company do?
It either lets you pay your workers the new minimum wage, raise your menu prices, and stay in business, or it lets you go out of business, and lose whatever profits you earn for it. What's more likely?
So the dollar menu is up to a buck and a quarter. Will you lose customers? Maybe. The ten-year-old's allowance hasn't gone up, but your own workers, and workers employed by other sleazebags, now can afford to pay the buck and a quarter. They pay it.
You're still in business. The only difference is American taxpayers might not be subsidizing you by giving your workers SNAP (Food Stamps), nor quite so large an Earned Income Tax Credit.
Why in hell should American taxpayers be subsidizing Mickey D's or Wal-Mart or any of the other low-wage employers living off the fat of your ass?
Nobody working a full-time job should need government subsidies. Nobody working a full-time job should go hungry, or have to watch hungry children try to fall asleep.
$10.10 by whenever isn't enough. It should be fifteen or sixteen right about now. People should not go without heat, or food, or a roof over their heads.
Fuck the free markets. Fuck the Libertarians. Do the right thing.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
$15/hr
They were out there again today, demanding fifteen bucks an hour to work in fast food. The restaurant industry is violently against it, of course, claiming it will raise the price of our burgers and "destroy jobs."
Let's just take a closer look. First of all, fast food workers, these days, probably are not high school students earning a little gas money. Lots of them are adults. Plenty are single mothers, fitting in whatever work they can while their kids are in school. They qualify for food stamps (SNAP) and Medicaid.
That means taxpayers are subsidizing McDonald's, Domino's, Burger King, and other multibillion dollar corporations that contribute to obesity, diabetes, and other conditions that elevate health care costs. If the dollar menu goes to a buck twenty-five, and that results in fewer sales to poor people, we all come out ahead.
Other retail workers are in the same situation. Wal-Mart actually helps its "associates" apply for food stamps and Medicaid; and who's paying for it? We are – the taxpayers.
I'm angry. Are you?
Let's just take a closer look. First of all, fast food workers, these days, probably are not high school students earning a little gas money. Lots of them are adults. Plenty are single mothers, fitting in whatever work they can while their kids are in school. They qualify for food stamps (SNAP) and Medicaid.
That means taxpayers are subsidizing McDonald's, Domino's, Burger King, and other multibillion dollar corporations that contribute to obesity, diabetes, and other conditions that elevate health care costs. If the dollar menu goes to a buck twenty-five, and that results in fewer sales to poor people, we all come out ahead.
Other retail workers are in the same situation. Wal-Mart actually helps its "associates" apply for food stamps and Medicaid; and who's paying for it? We are – the taxpayers.
I'm angry. Are you?
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Wages
The Prez has called for an increase in the minimum wage. Good for him, even if it's just a meaningless gesture to garner a drop of positive feeling from real liberals who are nauseated by his security state. Unless he has a secret plan to win back the House in 2014, it ain't gonna happen.
Anyway, what's really been pissing me off are those so-called "economists" (not to mention so called "job creators") blabbing about how raising the minimum wage will constrict the job market. No matter what low wage labor costs, employers always will employ the bare minimum number of workers they need to get the job done. They don't spend more than they have to on labor just because the labor is cheap... and don't even get me started on unpaid interns.
The argument that low wages mean more jobs sounds good if you're an idiot, I suppose. Also, I suppose there are a good number of idiots out there.
Anyway, what's really been pissing me off are those so-called "economists" (not to mention so called "job creators") blabbing about how raising the minimum wage will constrict the job market. No matter what low wage labor costs, employers always will employ the bare minimum number of workers they need to get the job done. They don't spend more than they have to on labor just because the labor is cheap... and don't even get me started on unpaid interns.
The argument that low wages mean more jobs sounds good if you're an idiot, I suppose. Also, I suppose there are a good number of idiots out there.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Wish List
The State of the Union address is always a wish list. Presidents get some of what they wish for, but most of their wishes go unanswered.
There were two item's on Obama's list that I consider especially important, but I have powerful doubts about getting them past Republicans in the House. The first is raising the minimum wage to $9 per hour, and indexing it to inflation so struggling to get future increases through Congress becomes unnecessary.
The second is universal preschool, which has just about as much chance of happening any time soon as a carbon tax, which we also need very badly. Preschool is the most powerful way to improve the lives of the poor, because children who attend preschool do better throughout their lives. They enter elementary school with the social and intellectual skills they need to succeed; they are more likely to go to college, and less likely to go to jail.
Needless to say, universal preschool will be expensive, and will result in Republicans hopping around and yelping, "Free market! Free market!" Also, since it is a program that won't bear fruit for decades, it will be easy for deficit hawks to attack. Nevertheless, it would pay for itself in less crime, greater economic productivity, and fewer people relying on government assistance down the road.
There were two item's on Obama's list that I consider especially important, but I have powerful doubts about getting them past Republicans in the House. The first is raising the minimum wage to $9 per hour, and indexing it to inflation so struggling to get future increases through Congress becomes unnecessary.
The second is universal preschool, which has just about as much chance of happening any time soon as a carbon tax, which we also need very badly. Preschool is the most powerful way to improve the lives of the poor, because children who attend preschool do better throughout their lives. They enter elementary school with the social and intellectual skills they need to succeed; they are more likely to go to college, and less likely to go to jail.
Needless to say, universal preschool will be expensive, and will result in Republicans hopping around and yelping, "Free market! Free market!" Also, since it is a program that won't bear fruit for decades, it will be easy for deficit hawks to attack. Nevertheless, it would pay for itself in less crime, greater economic productivity, and fewer people relying on government assistance down the road.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
The Minimum Wage
According to yesterday's Times, there is some pressure building for an increase in the federal minimum wage. Yes, it makes for a nice election year issue; and yes, it stands no chance at all of passing in the House. As you would predict, the United States Chamber of Commerce says it would be a "job killer" in this time of economic weakness.
The Chamber, as usual, is lying. American productivity, at the moment, is the highest it's ever been — which is another way of saying that employers are squeezing as much work out of their employees as those employees conceivably can produce. If the employers want more work done, their only option is to hire more workers. It does not matter if they have to pay an extra two dollars an hour. If they need the work done, they'll hire workers to do it.
When the minimum wage is increased, all lower paid workers tend to earn higher salaries. Their buying power is increased, which creates more demand for goods and services. Business meets that demand by expanding, not by pulling back. Higher demand means more jobs, not fewer.
Might there be price increases due to higher labor costs? Possibly; or, profit margins might get smaller — and it's that second outcome that has the Chamber's knickers in a twist. What the business community (always) fails to see, though, is that smaller profit margins don't mean smaller profits if more product is being sold.
Also, as usual, the hue and cry is about the damage that would be done to "small businesses." Well, thanks to the new JOBS act, we finally know what a "small business" is — a business with revenues up to one billion dollars a year. I think they can survive; and if the local convenience store has to charge two-fifty for a can of Coke instead of two bucks, I think we all can survive that as well — especially if everybody is earning something closer to a living wage.
The Chamber, as usual, is lying. American productivity, at the moment, is the highest it's ever been — which is another way of saying that employers are squeezing as much work out of their employees as those employees conceivably can produce. If the employers want more work done, their only option is to hire more workers. It does not matter if they have to pay an extra two dollars an hour. If they need the work done, they'll hire workers to do it.
When the minimum wage is increased, all lower paid workers tend to earn higher salaries. Their buying power is increased, which creates more demand for goods and services. Business meets that demand by expanding, not by pulling back. Higher demand means more jobs, not fewer.
Might there be price increases due to higher labor costs? Possibly; or, profit margins might get smaller — and it's that second outcome that has the Chamber's knickers in a twist. What the business community (always) fails to see, though, is that smaller profit margins don't mean smaller profits if more product is being sold.
Also, as usual, the hue and cry is about the damage that would be done to "small businesses." Well, thanks to the new JOBS act, we finally know what a "small business" is — a business with revenues up to one billion dollars a year. I think they can survive; and if the local convenience store has to charge two-fifty for a can of Coke instead of two bucks, I think we all can survive that as well — especially if everybody is earning something closer to a living wage.
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