All posts by Jack

Politics

A minimum wage should be a living wage

1 Comment

In the US, the poverty level for a family of four is $26,500 in 2021.

Given that someone working 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, 2000 hours a year, should be earning, at least, a minimum, LIVING, wage, then a minimum hourly wage of $13.25 is justified. I suggest that this should be considered a minimum living wage for an individual-nationally. *

Now there is another factor to consider, location. HUD has a extremely-low-income category that it tracks.** Basically, it is 30% of the median income of a Metropolitan Area. (don’t forget, median means that half of the families in the area make more than the median and half make less)

Again, we will use the “family of four” as our baseline. In my home county of El Paso, Colorado, the Median Family income is $81,600. 30% of that is $24,500 (rounded to the nearest 100). Divide by 2000 hours, that would create a Minimum wage of $12.25. Since the National Minimum is higher, the higher one applies. Any Metro area with an median family income of less than $90,000 will use the national minimum wage. (rounding results to nearest $.25)

Metro Area Median Family IncMinimum Wage
New York City$78,700National Minimum
San Francisco$143,100$21.50
Boston$119,000$18.00
DC Metro$121,000$19.00
Chicago$91,000$13.50
Seattle$113,300$17.00
Los Angeles$77,300National Minimum
Metro Area Minimum Wages

Rather than going with a flat $15 an hour minimum wage that is being bandied about, I propose this model as one that will change as the local economy changes, growing as needed, rather than waiting for Congress do to anything. The current annual wage of a Congressman is $174,000, ~6.6 times the Poverty Level we are basing our minimum wage on. Why don’t we keep that ratio in place and tie the Congressional wages to 6.6 times the national poverty level for a family of four?

*note this applies to the lower 48 states. Alaska and Hawaii have higher baseline poverty levels.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/01/17/2020-00858/annual-update-of-the-hhs-poverty-guidelines

** The FY 2014 Consolidated Appropriations Act changed the definition of extremely low-income to be the greater of 30/50ths (60 percent) of the Section 8 very low-income limit or the poverty guideline as established by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), provided that this amount is not greater than the Section 8 50% very low-income limit. Consequently, the extremely low income limits may equal the very low (50%) income limits.

General

Tv Shows I am watching

  • His Dark Materials (HBO)
  • The Expanse (Amazon)
  • Doom Patrol (HBO)
  • American Gods (Starz)
  • The Great British Bake Off (Netflix)
  • Death in Paradise (Britbox)
  • Murder in France (MHz)
  • Perfect Murders(MHz)
  • Captain Marleau (MHz)
  • The Brokenwood Mysteries (Acorn)
  • Shakespeare and Hathaway (Britbox)
  • Mock the Week (Britbox)
  • Mystery Road (Acorn)
  • My Life is Murder (Acorn)

Politics

Civics Lesson

In light of the recent insurrection, where citizens invaded the Halls of Congress, disrupting the primary business of our democracy as it was happening, I would like to propose a law:

As a requirement to graduate from high school, or to enter government service, either in the military or civilian branches, you must be able to pass the same civics test new citizens are required to take.

There are 128 questions. You have to correctly answer 12 of 20. The test is broken down into three sections: American Government, American History, Symbols and Holidays. (The Radical Republicans released the latest version of the test in December, 2020 , and their influence is felt. )

I include the government service folks since many are required to swear to defend the Constitution and it would be useful for them to know what they are swearing to.

https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship-resource-center/the-2020-version-of-the-civics-test/128-civics-questions-and-answers-with-mp3-audio-2020-version

Preparing for the worst

Where to go?

An interesting call with family today. My brothers and sisters are scattered around the country, from Alaska to North Carolina (and Colorado, New Mexico, Maryland, California,and, maybe, Delaware). We are all getting to the age of “Where is the best place to retire?”

Several factors are to be considered, least of which is Politics. (We are, primarily, a blue family. I suppose we have some purple leaning folks as well.) General Weather is a prime consideration, along with potential future climate change directions.

I brought up the WATER problem here along the Front Range of Colorado. This is a significant issue in the Mountain West and the Southwest in general. West of the Mississippi it is a major consideration except for the Pacific Northwest Coastal areas.

Colorado Springs has greatly ameliorated its water issues by diverting water from the Colorado River to the Arkansas River and drawing upon that water to feed Colorado Springs via the Southern Water Delivery System. It helps to have senior water rights to a river on the other side of the continental divide.

The West is basically an arid land. Amongst the seven western states along the Colorado River drainage region: California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming, Colorado gets the bulk (51.75%) of the half to the water designated to the northern states (7.5 Million acre-feet), in the 1922 Water Accord.

Unfortunately, evidently the 1910’s-1920’s were a very wet period in the Southwest and the values of allocated water resources may be based on excessive water availability for that decade.

Poor Mexico was supposed to receive at least 10% of the Colorado River flow and was lucky to receive anything . A 2013 Treaty says that Mexico should receive at least 10% of the water from the Colorado River (1.5 M Acre-feet). The Colorado River tributary in Mexico has dried up.

I HAVE DIGRESSED. The original topic of discussion was where to consider moving to in the next few years to enjoy retirement. Several of my sisters are looking to the Carolinas. Moderate weather most of the year , subject to hurricanes, may be getting hotter, even in the highlands. Biggest Problem, part of the Confederacy. Might be fine for white folks, not so sure about Americans.

I am happy in Colorado, though I note that when I moved here in the ’90’s we did not even think about getting a house with air-conditioning. We bought our latest house, about 6 miles east of our original house, and wouldn’t consider it without air-conditioning. (I note the 6 miles east because our old house was on the fault line of the front range and we are now well away from the mountains?) With the new water project, I think Colorado Springs is set for a reliable source of water for the next 50 years.

The rest of the Mountain West viability is really subject to water availability. I have driven up and down the Front Range and aside from Denver, Santa Fe, Colorado Spring and Albuquerque, there isn’t a lot of there, there. I suspect due to water issues more than anything else.

The Great Plains have weather extreme issues. They might be pleasant six months out of the year, but the other six are unbearable.

The New England states might be bearable once climate change becomes more established, but, right now, the extremes are extreme.

Alaska won’t be viable year-round for another 50 years or so. I have family living around Homer, and they really want to get out of Alaska in the winter.

The Eastern parts of Washington, Oregon, and California are part of the Mountain West. The Coastal parts of those States are most viable, at least north of Pebble Beach. They seem to have the temperate climates, water, and overall amenable living conditions. The only problem is whether you can afford to move there.

Some of my siblings are considering setting up family enclaves outside of the US. Costa Rica, Ireland, or, somewhere warm have been suggested. I don’t know. There are possibilities. Where is the best place to be in 20 years?

General, Preparing for the worst

Checking Facts

There are a number of fact-checking organizations out there, confirming or dismissing statements made on the internets. I think it would behoove the social media companies that provide the platforms to use these fact checking organizations to append a link when a social media item is noted in a fact check.

As an example, if a tweet is noted in a fact check, then Twitter should include a link to the fact-check with the tweet. If a tweet has been fact-checked, it probably has a long life.

Facebook may be more problematic, since a lot of Facebook posts may be corrupted through a daisy chain of shares and repostings, but Facebook has the computer power to tie the posts back to a common fact-checked source. ‘Shopped photos are one area Facebook could definitely be good at.

Other social media services will have their own fact-checking issues. I think faked pictures are probably the greatest threat, since they can jump across language barriers.

There is an International Network of Fact Checkers that has a code of principles for a fact-checking site to be accepted as a member. This might serve a a basis for finding checked fact and tying it to the social media item.

There are other fact-checking sites that that run the gamut of the political spectrum and truthfulness, and they have been identified by Media Bias/Fact Check.

Some sort of automated review of fact-checking sites for new social media postings would be most useful to help maintain the integrity of information in the shared mediaverse. The reviews need to be recurring as well, since the original post may not be fact-checked for some time after the posting.

And, of course, the satirical posts need to be readily highlighted. Especially a post taken from a satire site and reposted to a ‘legitimate’ site. The world has gotten so strange that it is hard to differentiate satire from reality, or malicious intent.

General, Liberating Thoughts, Politics

Happy New Year! 2020

Happy New Year! 2020 – the year of Hindsight! I hope it is your best one yet.

2019 wasn’t the best of years, though we did get a chance to visit Ireland, meet some cousins, and attend a Worldcon, as well as a brief visit to Iceland on the way back. Between travel and medical issues I only got to spend half a year on the golf course. The good news is that, medically, I am back in the pink for 2020. Physically, I need to continue the exercising and stretching I began last year with the Silver Sneakers program down at the gym. That should also help on the golf course.

As we enter the election year, I am conflicted. I support Bernie Sanders wholeheartedly. I believe his Democratic Socialism platform is the best for the US moving into the 21st century. Our own Constitution starts with “We the People” and mandates to:

  • form a more perfect union,
  • establish justice,
  • insure domestic tranquility,
  • provide for the common defense,
  • promote the general welfare,
  • secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our descendants,

if that’s not Socialism, I don’t know what would be. But, the man is 78 years old; I really believe he would not survive first first term. I wish he had a groomed successor in his 50’s ready to go, but the other Democrats in the running don’t seem ready to adopt his platform. This also means his VP pick will be critical and I expect that “politics” will give us a less than optimal successor. It will be an interesting year.

I do think it is time for Congress to take back its constitutional duties and to stop ceding them to the executive. Especially sending American sailors, marines and soldiers into combat at the whim of the executive. Congress opened the door about letting the Executive use military force without direct Congressional approval and the Executive has ripped the door off the hinges. Our military actions throughout the world over the past 70 years have not been the actions of a democratic republic promoting its ideals to the world.

What we do seem to be doing is making the world safe for business. Not safe for the people who patronize the businesses but the businesses themselves. And to add some confusion to the mix, businesses are becoming multi-national and and by making the world safer for business we are making it less safe for ourselves, since if the business is engaging in practices our country deems unsafe, they will just move to another country that doesn’t prohibit or limit those practices. The practices are still unsafe and continue to create a harmful environment; it is just at a remove from us. And we still protect the overall business that is engaging in these practices. Realistically, we need to ban/prohibit these businesses from doing business in our country if we find them engaging in practices that we prohibit here because they are harmful.

Business concentrates money, politics concentrates power, concentrated money buys concentrated power, concentrated power can intensify concentrated money. We need to break this cycle. Let’s start by diffusing the power. Let Representatives have a maximum number of constituents, say 100,000 per Representative. Triple the size of the Senate and let the top three vote-getters be seated in each Senatorial election. Set a restriction that a person cannot hold successive terms of office. A Congressional incumbent can not run for the same office, but they can run in the following election when they are not the incumbent.

Congress should also incorporate sunset timelines into every bill, say 20-25 years, then the bill/law expires. Of course Congress may just reaffirm all the sunsetting bills en mass, so we restrict that so no more than half of the sunsetting bills can be approved in a bundle. The rest must be approved on to case-by-case basis.

On the money side:

  • 90% estate taxes on estates in excess of $5,000,000 should help prevent the concentration of wealth.
  • Political contributions can only come from registered voters or Citizens. Get businesses out of politics.
  • All political contributions are publicly available for review.
  • 90% income tax on incomes over $5,000,000 should help as well.

Actually, I have a whole income taxing scheme that I will discuss in a later post.

Happy New Year! Let the Fun Begin!

Economics, Politics

Minimal Wage

Once again the discussion of minimum wage is coming to the forefront of political discussion. There is a lot of vocal support for a $15 an hour minimum wage. I think that is a few dollars more per hour than necessary for a national minimum wage.

A minimum wage should be able to provide the wage earner with a basic living wage. The national poverty level for a family of four is in the neighborhood of $24,000 a year. A person working full-time, 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year will work 2,000 hours a year. Using these numbers, $12 an hour is a reasonable minimum wage – nationally.

Now, within some urban areas (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) the effective poverty level for a family of four is much greater than national level and it would be very appropriate to tie the minimum wage to HUD’s Extremely Low Income for a family of four for an area, or to the national poverty level for a family of four, whichever is greater. Such that, in San Francisco, the ELI for a family of 4 is $44,000 so a minimum wage for that area should be $22 an hour. In Seattle, the ELI is $32,100, which would lead to a $16.50 per hour minimum wage. In the Bronx, the ELI is $31,300, which will lead to a $15.65 per hour minimum wage.

We have the facts and figures derived from the various government departments that track this data, such as the Census Bureau, HUD, Social Security, the Fed, HHS, etc. Let’s use this data responsibly and keep on top of the growing economy and the wage gap. And the numbers can change every year as the economy grows and we don’t strand people at an old wage for many years while the politicians pontificate.

Economics, Politics

Interesting view on the growth of wages

I came across this link to SSA income data. I see that the average salary/wage is growing faster than the median salary/wage. So this shows that the majority of the workers continue to get more and more relatively poorer than the “average” worker.

In the upper left of the SSA page is a link to yearly breakdowns of the annual wages. Here is a link the 2017 numbers. It shows the breakdown of the number of earners in each income band, up to 205 people who earned more than $50,000,000. The total of those 205 people was $19,954,445,874.88 for a average of $97,338,760.37 each.

In 2016, only 143 people earned more than $50M with an average of $100.7M each.And in 2015, it was 202 people with an average of $91.4M each. Looks like a lot of volatility at the top.

An interesting page to fiddle with to see where the inequity grows.

General

Cottages Galore

Back in 1986 or ‘87, Elaine asked me to get her a Fairytale Castle; she even pointed me at David Winter, an English sculptor who made cast sculptures of many English countryside buildings and a few fantasy castles as well. I began my quest going to some of the local stores which carried these sort of knick-knacks. While they had many different David Winter Cottages, I couldn’t find the Castle. But, I liked what I saw and picked up a few of the cottages whilst looking for the Castle. I even went to England in 1987 and searched the High Streets for the Fairytale Castle, but to no avail. And I continued to pick up a few pieces that intrigued me, such as the Green Dragon Pub and the Hogs Head Beer House.

The following year I finally found the Fairytale Castle and it joined the small collection I had started. Then I joined the David Winter Guild and started getting pieces regularly, and the collection grew. This continued for another 20 years until David retired in 2010.

In the Hay Creek house we had display cabinets to showcase many cottages and, if I remembered, we would rotate the stored cottages with the displayed cottages. We could display a fair number of cottages, maybe 20-30 at a time. Many of the cottages were small 2x3x4 sculptures, but some of them were massive. If you have a castle with a dragon sleeping around it, it is a big piece.

Then we decided to downsize. I inventoried the cottages as we were packing up and found that I have 184 David Winter Cottages (and Castles). Aaaargh. I can’t keep them all. We don’t have the display cabinets anymore. We have a mantle over the fireplace that can hold a few. Even if I were to religiously rotate them every month or so, we don’t have the space to store all the cottages not on display. (We are not going to fall into the suburban trap of renting a storage space. If it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t belong.)

My plan is to keep a few of the castles and the Christmas Cottages (and maybe a pub or two) and get rid of the rest. I’m not sure if it worth the hassle of putting them up on ebay. I don’t think the cottages command much of a market today. Maybe I should try a consignment shop?

This week I will organize the collection and figure out where to next.