Does this seem like a fair minimum wage to you?

Instead of a minimum wage, we should have an ELR (Employer of Last Resort) program in which the federal government hires any adult who is unemployed at (say) $10.00 per hour for a 40 hour week with full healthcare and other fringe benefits. These employees can then be put to work at zero cost by any federal, state, or local government office or by certified NGOs.

This establishes a minimum wage level that private enterprise must exceed. The result will be an increase in business costs and an increase of price and/or decrease of profit. But will it bring on inflation?

Before inflation rears its ugly head, many millions of Americans will be getting more income, spending it, decreasing inventory, increasing production, and getting hired away from ELR ranks by private enterprise. The question then becomes: will there be a shortage of goods or will the increased production level create enough goods to prevent inflation?

The answer lies in productivity, which brings us to the question of infrastructure. If we spend on infrastructure like we spent on World War II, we will have the world's best infrastructure and the world's highest productivity and there will be no harmful inflation and very low unemployment and the ELR ranks will thin out.

So the answer to the minimum wage question is federal spending: ELR and infrastructure. That brings up the last question: the budget.

Q1: Is our so-called “national debt” a serious debt, a burden that we must repay?

A1: No, It lacks both of those two essential qualities of a serious debt. It’s a “Debt In Name Only”, a “DINO” -

1. A serious debt is a burden. OUR DINO IS NOT NOW AND NEVER WILL BE THE TAXPAYER’S BURDEN.

The DINO is the total value of all issued and still maturing treasuries. By calling the DINO “unsustainable”, Wall Street con artists have panicked politicians, journalists, and the public with a hoax designed to privatize Social Security and Medicare and make a fortune in commissions. But, in a virtual rollover, it is the buyers of new issues, not the taxpayers, who pay for redemption of the mature treasuries. In every auction, more bonds are demanded than are available. Auction winners get the safest, most liquid US dollar instruments; the losers are stuck with bank risk. If it were ever necessary, the Fed could create an artificial demand for treasuries by buying large quantities in the open market with cost-free keystrokes. The taxpayer is NEVER burdened but almost all voters have swallowed the hoax!

Our Treasury does not borrow money like a home-buyer undertaking a mortgage. It is a custodian of funds, like a bank accepting money offered for certificates of deposit. While a bank with too many bad loans can certainly have too many maturing CDs, our non-lending Treasury cannot have too many maturing bonds unless its deficit spending is causing harmful inflation. And that happens ONLY in a war or emergency requiring rationing. It NEVER happens during a recession. During prosperity, banks are ALWAYS the main cause of inflation, creating over $6 of credit for every $1 of deficit spending. To curb inflation, let’s regulate the banks before restricting spending on infrastructure.

2. A serious debt must be repaid. OUR DINO WILL NEVER BE REPAID AND SHOULD NEVER BE REPAID.

Only a budget surplus can reduce the DINO. Since Truman, no President has reduced the DINO and no annual budget surplus is now in sight. Indeed, to supply enough treasuries, the ONLY risk-free instruments used for trade collateral, insurance, pensions, bank reserves, etc., OUR DINO MUST GROW WITH OUR ECONOMY. In fact, deflation and depression will hit us hard unless large budget deficits replace the cash that we are now exporting.

When cost of living is taken into account, poverty rate is higher in the Washington area

By Carol Morello, Published: November 6

The number of poor people in the Washington area is likely much higher than official poverty statistics show, largely because of the high cost of housing, according to an alternate measure of poverty released by the Census Bureau Wednesday.

Under the new calculation, a family living around Washington could earn almost $10,000 a year above the federal poverty level of $23,550 for a family of four and still be poor.

------------------

One person making $11.50 an hour would earn $460 gross, thus, more like around $300-$350 net per week, or $18,000 a year, well below even the minimum poverty line.

The economy does better when most people make good money, so that they can then spend it on all sorts of things beyond a bottom line apartment, and a 12 year old car. So yeah, if you want to improve the economy, raise working class wages.

No, this is why the minimum wage should be $80,000 a year with 5 weeks vacation, full health coverage, 2 weeks sick time off, and free commutes and no ability to be fired, on a 6 hour day, 4 days a week schedule. That way, no one has to worry about being productive at work which will reduce stress greatly and can therefore can enjoy life. Oh, and this should all be subsidized by taxing those evil rich white cons.

A person living alone cannot pay for housing, utilities, transportation and food for less than $18.00 an hour unless they are getting federal assistance of some sort or have special circumstances like an inherited home, etc. Do the math and don't throw some off the wall crazy, spaghetti eating family of four into the mix.