Green New Deal

[Deleted User 89]

I’ll reiterate my suggestion for economic policy:

1. An income tax rate based on an exponential curve. Everybody pays some, and the more you make, the more you pay. No loopholes and crap.

2. National sales tax. So we’re taxed not only based on income, but also on consumption. Rates could be lower for things like bread and milk, and higher for things like vacation homes and yachts.

way too reasonable

[DCHawk1]

No, just a tool in general.

So, I don't know that there are a significant amount of people in this country suffering because they can't earn a living wage?

That their children will likely suffer the same miserable existence?

That they are economically distressed and have no means of making their situations better?

No. You don't know that. You just think you do.

The majority of minimum wage workers are under 25. The largest age category of minimum wage earners is 16-19 year-olds. There are just 500,000 people in the country earning minimum wage, and the overwhelming majority are second or third earners in a household. A far greater number -- about 1.3 million people -- make LESS than minimum wage, but also earn gratuities. The largest share of minimum or below wage earners are in food service -- meaning that the largest group is comprised principally of servers -- which is to say people who make a larger percentage of their income on tips.

These are FACTS.

To answer AOC's question. Why does a croissant cost 7 bucks at the airport? Because that's what the market will bear. And the market will bear that, in large part because of restrictions on items that may be brought through security check points. These food service companies have a captive market. It also doesn't help that the minimum wage at New York's two airports is $19/hr.

AOC -- like Trump and like a great many on this board -- thinks that her personal experiences translate directly into broader reality and thus into legislative solutions. But that's not how things work. To repeat myself, the plural of anecdote is NOT data. What you experience, what ousdahl experiences, what I experience -- all these things are legitimate case studies, but none constitutes the broader conditions in society in and of themselves.

I've already told you that I'm getting screwed over good and hard by a foreign government. I have also noted -- on previous boards -- that once upon a time I earned a good portion of my income in stock bonuses. I worked for a company for a good long time, earning good equity stakes. And then, one day, long after I left the company, the company went bankrupt and triggered a financial collapse. And all the stock that I hard earned, but couldn't sell because I was not yet "vested" -- that's to say, all the "money" that had been saved for kids' college education, retirement, etc. -- went to ZERO overnight.

I was pissed. I'm STILL pissed -- largely because I know now what they were doing that caused the bankruptcy.

But I don't expect the federal government to fight back against the foreign government currently killing me, and I don't expect it to pass laws to ensure that my equity stake in an employer can't go to zero.

That would be stoopid. My experiences are NOT representative of everyone's experiences. And to base policy on my shitty luck would be destructive.

[Deleted User 62]

No, just a tool in general.

So, I don't know that there are a significant amount of people in this country suffering because they can't earn a living wage?

That their children will likely suffer the same miserable existence?

That they are economically distressed and have no means of making their situations better?

No. You don't know that. You just think you do.

The majority of minimum wage workers are under 25. The largest age category of minimum wage earners is 16-19 year-olds. There are just 500,000 people in the country earning minimum wage, and the overwhelming majority are second or third earners in a household. A far greater number -- about 1.3 million people -- make LESS than minimum wage, but also earn gratuities. The largest share of minimum or below wage earners are in food service -- meaning that the largest group is comprised principally of servers -- which is to say people who make a larger percentage of their income on tips.

These are FACTS.

To answer AOC's question. Why does a croissant cost 7 bucks at the airport? Because that's what the market will bear. And the market will bear that, in large part because of restrictions on items that may be brought through security check points. These food service companies have a captive market. It also doesn't help that the minimum wage at New York's two airport's is $19/hr.

AOC -- like Trump and like a great many on this board -- thinks that her personal experiences translate directly into broader reality and thus into legislative solutions. But that's not how things work. To repeat myself, the plural of anecdote is NOT data. What you experience, what ousdahl experiences, what I experience -- all these things are legitimate case studies, but none constitutes the broader conditions in society in and of themselves.

I've already told you that I'm getting screwed over good and hard by a foreign government. I have also noted -- on previous boards -- that once upon a time I earned a good portion of my income in stock bonuses. I worked for a company for a good long time, earning good equity stakes. And then, one day, long after I left the company, the company went bankrupt and triggered a financial collapse. And all the stock that I hard earned, but couldn't sell because I was not yet "vested" -- that's to say, all the "money" that had been saved for kids' college education, retirement, etc. -- went to ZERO overnight.

I was pissed. I'm STILL pissed -- largely because I know now what they were doing that caused the bankruptcy.

But I don't expect the federal government to fight back against the foreign government currently killing me, and I don't expect it to pass laws to ensure that my equity stake in an employer can't go to zero.

That would be stoopid. My experiences are NOT representative of everyone's experiences. And to base policy on my shitty luck would be destructive.

Sorry to hear of your shitty experience.

I lost everything in '08, so I know where you are coming from.

[Deleted User 89]

Cuz party of science.

Or something.

better than being party of science-denial

jussayin’

[dolomite]

Cuz party of science.

Or something.

better than being party of science-denial

jussayin’

Ye gads Trad, you never give up do ya!

[DCHawk1]

Sorry to hear of your shitty experience.

I lost everything in '08, so I know where you are coming from.

I appreciate that. And I think we have talked about this before. And I'm sorry you lost what you did. It sucked...and sucks.

I'm also sorry I said that you don't know anybody in the position of struggling to raise a family on minimum wage. I don't doubt that you do. It's just that that population is relatively small. Given where you live, I'd guess there may be policy failures other than the minimum wage at work, or exacerbating things.

I think that's probably the case in many instances, but "minimum wage" is the easy solution.

[Deleted User 62]

Thanks DC.

Like PhD stated earlier, I also try to do business with people that compensate their employees fairly.

There can be a fine line between being profitable and exploiting.

I do business with a LOT of very wealthy people. You can definitely tell the ones who treat the people that they rely on fairly.

[Deleted User 89]

costco

[Shirley]

costco

^^^

Lowes >>> Home Depot, or, at least it used to be.

[Deleted User 89]

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/p ... rt-833035/

maybe some of these subsidies could be better spent elsewhere

[Shirley]

KUbandalum and republicans are right, clean air and water are overrated!

[Deleted User 89]

setting records for clean water...once it’s diluted

[Deleted User 266]

"Folks in a West Virginia woke up".
I live in an Illinois and woke up today.
Not so funny thing is Coal Grove isn't in West Virginia. It's in Ohio.
God bless anything associated with Fox that's called news.

[TDub]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/17/business ... index.html

Shes an idiot.

[Mjl]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/17/business ... index.html

Shes an idiot.

Agreed. Bernie's run gave this sect of the Democratic party a voice. There's a good reason the party tried to get rid of him.

Thoughts on Biden's quoted comment in there?

[TDub]

I think the theory behind bidens statement is reasonable. It seems too often all politicians speak to give soundbites but without the appropriate information to make their statements impactful.

[ousdahl]

Wait wait wait, but if we expect corporations to pay the same tax rate as fire fighters then how are they ever gonna create jobs again?! You guys really wanna rely on market demand to create the jobs or something?

[Deleted User 89]

i will say, amazon is much better than most

if she wanted to take aim at a major commercial employer, why didn’t she go after walmart?

[Geezer]

And it was only last year that Amazon went to 15 dollars.

[ousdahl]

15/hour is still only low $30k range annually, which although better than some retail jobs, isn’t exactly a comfortable living.

Anyone wanna take a stab at what the CEO to worker pay ratio is for Amazon?