Re the voter Id issue. One of the points folks object to is out of state driver licenses can’t be used as ID for voting. Note that of course if you register to vote in an area you are saying you are a resident of that area and trigger a clock in terms of changing your driver license to the new state. Technically you could get a ticket for mismatched driver license and voting addresses.
Second in Tx at least if you are over 65 you can file an application to vote by mail (it is filed every year) No need for ID for this. (Of course the media does not report these two issues, the second of which means most older folks are not affected by the ID ban)
“Should elites assuage the anger of the working class with income redistribution, social insurance and other policies to help the poor? Should they try to make college degrees less important for finding work? Should they try to bring back manufacturing employment and/or routine manual tasks? “
Try making jobs still here pay $20/hr instead of $10/hr.
Hint: if fast food with 33% labor costs can pay $15/hr, then, Target and Best Buy with 10-15% labor costs should be able to pay $20/hr and Walmart with 7% labor costs could pay $25/hr.
Hint: the fed min wage was $11/hr in 1968 — double the per capita income since!
Core wage evaporation: bottom 45% share of overall income dropped from 20% to 10% over the generations — as average income doubled — leaving them in the same place in absolute terms — on the average. Workers at the bottom of the bottom 45% fell below the average. Hence $7.25/hr fed min wage.
Crazy cure (just to block out the scale): use EITC to transfer 10% of overall to 45%. Er, uh, $1.4 trillion (not today’s 70 billion). This would set the state in position of setting wages — with the resulting mish-mash of free market pricing.
Better: MAKE UNION BUSTING A FELONY (on a state by progressive state basis for starters)! No business should be in a position to muscle another business into penury via market power. Especially when the other businesses provide the majority of Americans their sole free market bargaining power — and with the total their political strength.
Late dean of the Washington press corps, David Broder, told a young reporter that when he came to DC all the lobbyists were union.
* * * * * *
Prices high enough to restore the bottom 45%’s 20% income share would cost what-I-call the mid 54%, 14% of their income in higher prices. The mid 54% wont be able to extract that back from the top 1% by raising their own labor prices. Only way back: confiscatory taxes (90% on incomes over $2 mil — like when I was a kid — and the pres was a four-star Republican).
Be much easier than a first glance to supply the will for this. Surely the bottom 45% (think fast food workers) would have no compunction and they will gladly push the mid 54% in that direction — they want mids to have more money for hamburgers. 🙂
* * * * * * “If the U.S. and the U.K. are really in the midst of dangerous populist revolts, there can be no delay.”
So, it’s just politics that worries you guys. Thought so (even if you don’t). Democrats start pushing criminalizing union busting — resetting the social structure in the country from top to bottom — and Republicans will have no place to hide.
Re the voter Id issue. One of the points folks object to is out of state driver licenses can’t be used as ID for voting. Note that of course if you register to vote in an area you are saying you are a resident of that area and trigger a clock in terms of changing your driver license to the new state. Technically you could get a ticket for mismatched driver license and voting addresses.
Second in Tx at least if you are over 65 you can file an application to vote by mail (it is filed every year) No need for ID for this. (Of course the media does not report these two issues, the second of which means most older folks are not affected by the ID ban)
RE: Working Class Has the Blues, and Elites Lack Answers
Those on the lower economic rungs aren’t a monolithic group. That makes it tough to devise coherent policies.
by Noah Smith May 12, 2017
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-05-12/working-class-has-the-blues-and-elites-lack-answers
“Should elites assuage the anger of the working class with income redistribution, social insurance and other policies to help the poor? Should they try to make college degrees less important for finding work? Should they try to bring back manufacturing employment and/or routine manual tasks? “
Try making jobs still here pay $20/hr instead of $10/hr.
Hint: if fast food with 33% labor costs can pay $15/hr, then, Target and Best Buy with 10-15% labor costs should be able to pay $20/hr and Walmart with 7% labor costs could pay $25/hr.
Hint: the fed min wage was $11/hr in 1968 — double the per capita income since!
Core wage evaporation: bottom 45% share of overall income dropped from 20% to 10% over the generations — as average income doubled — leaving them in the same place in absolute terms — on the average. Workers at the bottom of the bottom 45% fell below the average. Hence $7.25/hr fed min wage.
Crazy cure (just to block out the scale): use EITC to transfer 10% of overall to 45%. Er, uh, $1.4 trillion (not today’s 70 billion). This would set the state in position of setting wages — with the resulting mish-mash of free market pricing.
Better: MAKE UNION BUSTING A FELONY (on a state by progressive state basis for starters)! No business should be in a position to muscle another business into penury via market power. Especially when the other businesses provide the majority of Americans their sole free market bargaining power — and with the total their political strength.
Late dean of the Washington press corps, David Broder, told a young reporter that when he came to DC all the lobbyists were union.
* * * * * *
Prices high enough to restore the bottom 45%’s 20% income share would cost what-I-call the mid 54%, 14% of their income in higher prices. The mid 54% wont be able to extract that back from the top 1% by raising their own labor prices. Only way back: confiscatory taxes (90% on incomes over $2 mil — like when I was a kid — and the pres was a four-star Republican).
Be much easier than a first glance to supply the will for this. Surely the bottom 45% (think fast food workers) would have no compunction and they will gladly push the mid 54% in that direction — they want mids to have more money for hamburgers. 🙂
* * * * * *
“If the U.S. and the U.K. are really in the midst of dangerous populist revolts, there can be no delay.”
So, it’s just politics that worries you guys. Thought so (even if you don’t). Democrats start pushing criminalizing union busting — resetting the social structure in the country from top to bottom — and Republicans will have no place to hide.