The Rich, They Are Different

One of the big problems with our system of federal government taxation is that the super-rich do NOT take a big salary. They use trickery to avoid taxes. It's legal, but the laws should change to make sure all their "compensation" is taxed.

Watch this short video to hear a nice simple explanation. It's a "short" on YouTube.

https://youtube.com/shorts/f3-EKY7CBds?feature=share

For someone making $50,000 a year and paying taxes, this is unbelievable and unacceptable.

Warning to Washington: Don't give CA Investment Banks to Wall St.

If Washington lets Wall St. banks take over CA investment banking, they
will control the ups and downs of CA and a lot of the well-being of the
Democratic Party. The octopus will have its tentacles into too many
parts of the U.S. economy and politicians will be trapped. Already most
investment goes to a small part of the country and it divides America
into "fly over country" and power centers. We need greater diversity in
America and a fuller coverage of the map for investment and ideas.

Diversify is a word used to divide the interests and sources of debt or
incomes. It reduces your overall risks. Letting Wall St. banks take over
too much of the US economy would be the worst outcome of the SVB collapse.

It's Time to Raise the Minimum Wage

Worker productivity is up! I borrowed a couple of graphs from Kevin Drum's blog to show it and to use that as strong evidence the federal minimum wage should be increased.

My source:  https://jabberwocking.com/chart-of-the-day-productivity-was-up-in-final-quarter-of-2022/

Can corporations afford to pay better wages? It would appear so.

My source:  https://jabberwocking.com/war-profiteering-how-about-pandemic-profiteering/

How much should wages go up for minimum wage earners? It seems $13.00 / hour is pretty common (from chatter on reddit.com) and the current minimum wage is at $7.25, so maybe $10.00 would be good.

Since 2010 it appears wages have gone up about 12% while the minimum wage (last set in 2006) is still $7.25 / hour. Raising that wage rate 12% would be $8.12, but it hasn't been raised since about 2006 and productivity has gone up rather a lot since then.

What's the longer-term trend?

Labor productivity has gone up dramatically from 1973 - about 2008 and slowed a bit. Hourly compensation began rising at a slower rate around 1998. This indicates that if the common wage is around $13.00 / hour and hourly compensation hasn't kept up with labor productivity increases then the hourly rate should perhaps be more like $15.00 / hour. But, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 and a large increase from $7.25 to $11.00 (for example) is nearly a 50% increase and that may be too sudden and too much. Many would even argue that from $7.25 up to $10.00 is too much, but the minimum wage has increased several times at a 50% increase and $7.25 x 1.50 is $10.86. (nearly $11 / hour). So, any increase would be appropriate from up to $11.00 / hour. I suggest $10.00.