Month: January 2016

Paul Krugman’s op-ed today reminds us that “idealism” must include “realism”. The problem is: neither the former nor the latter can be described in a way that both progressives (idealists) and conservatives (realists) can agree on. To a progressive, Medicare for All is not in any way idealistic. It is, in fact, simply the most efficient and least costly way to deliver health care to an entire population. But to the conservative realist, it is a nonstarter as long as there is the slightest chance the “other side” would get any credit. A living wage is not only “ideal” but only the right thing to do. Conservatives will fight it all the way which makes it realistically difficult to achieve. Inequality is a curse that idealists are most hopeful can be some-what mitigated by a more progressive tax code. Realistic conservatives are perfectly happy the way things have been since the Reagan/Bush tax cuts, which are, by the way, the cause of both the increase in the national debt and the shameful inequality that has grown steadily worse since Reagan. If there is to be a choice between idealist and realist in this election, make it idealist. The scourge of conservative Reaganism has had its “realistic” hold on America long enough.

Harding McCrat (January 24, 2016) bemoans the likelihood that if we build more bike paths they will only fill up with more bikes the way wider highways soon fill up with more cars. Okay. But is that bad? Seems to me that every person who switches to the bike because new and better bike paths are built represents one less car on the road. And isn’t that what we want?

MYTH: “A higher minimum wage will cause low-level jobs to vanish.” FACT: ” There will always be work to be done by someone: hotel rooms to clean, lawns to mow, burgers to flip, etc.” So who will do these jobs? And how much should they be paid? Some will say “pay them as little as you can get away with. Their poverty is not our concern. A successful business requires all costs to be kept under control.” Others will say: “it’s not only immoral to squeeze the workers this way, it’s not even good business. A living wage not only attracts and keeps better employees, it cuts down on other unnecessary costs such as on-the-job injuries, pilferage, employee mistakes caused by fatigue when people are forced to work two or three jobs just to survive. What kind of staff would you prefer: well-intentioned, well-paid, and wide-awake; or resentful, struggling, and worn out?

People who object to the idea of a higher minimum wage all use of the same dodge: ” it will kill jobs.” You hear it primarily from those who traditionally hire people at coolie wages and charge prices that will produce the amount of profit they need to stay in business. I personally heard of a business man who declared that if there is any hike in the minimum wage, he will simply close up his business altogether. The question is: would he be missed? Other companies will continue to operate and will still have the same ( or possibly even more) customers to serve, and will need people to perform the work that creates the desired profit at that level of business. The question here is: how much will prices need to to be raised in order to stay in business? How much general inflation will occur? The answer is: nobody knows and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. All of the dire warnings and “chicken little” predictions are worthless speculation. The notion that low level jobs “will vanish overnight” assumes that there will be no more hotel rooms to clean, no burgers to flip, no lawns to mow, and you name it. Such an assumption is patently false. If McDonald’s disappeared overnight, where would their customers go?

As I listened to the State of the Union address on Tuesday, it was easy to visualize the current sad state of the rest of the world. The hideous, intractable, difficulty facing the world today is TRIBALISM. Tribalism in all its unfortunate manifestations has by now become so universal as to make constructive human interaction almost impossible. Sunni/Shiite, Tutsi/Hutu, commie/capitalist, you name it, like oil and water they just don’t want to mix, even if doing so would greatly benefit both sides. You see it in American politics where Republicans, in their zeal to discredit Democrats, consistently act in ways that do damage to everyone, including themselves. Tribal loyalty trumps (there’s that word again) the common good. Even the word “common” is anathema because it is too close to “communism”. We cannot do much about tribalism elsewhere, but if we don’t get the Republicans to start putting the common good ahead of their political agenda, things will only get worse for most Americans.

It is sad, indeed, when people like Tim Donnelly (January 11, 2016) feel that paying workers a living wage is moving “too close to communism.” Since the ‘80s, when the country became so infected with a particularly insidious disease now known as Reaganism, wages have been going steadily down to a point where today, too many millions of Americans, no matter how hard they work or how many jobs they hold down, cannot even afford what are the simplest, most essential, basics of life. The whole notion that higher wages cause runaway inflation is a myth used by the wealthy to “conserve” the shameful inequality of our current tax system. The single most significant effect of higher wages (as they were before Reaganism infected the country) is simply more money in circulation. Inflation “as an economist would describe it is: “more dollars chasing fewer goods”), and it is manageable. Hard times, as too many of our neighbors have found, is not.

“ Judge declines to halt work on soccer field”, meaning 1500 local young folks must give up their athletic activity for two months to benefit the multimillion-dollar enterprise known as the NFL. It is not as if the media has no place to set up their equipment or hang out before and after the event. Every media company, foreign or domestic, has field equipment they can deploy to any place on the globe to cover news as it happens. Where were the “media villages” for the previous 49 Super Bowls? Did they make 1500 young folks search all over town for fields on which to practice or compete? Let the media use their own location equipment parked on adjacent streets and parking lots, able to be set up and taken down on a moments notice. They do not need a “media village” to do their job. Judge Huber had a chance to do the right thing , and he fumbled. Big time!