So how would this work out in the real world? Let’s take the case of an Amazon employee who receives food stamps, i.e., SNAP benefits. Here are SNAP’s gross income eligibility standards for Fiscal Year 2018: …
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Politics and Economics
The poor are also much more likely than the rich to go to church every single week and thus be asked for money in a public setting every single week. Talk about social pressure…
…The authors conclude that the rich are less generous than the poor because they are less compassionate, less trusting, and less egalitarian.
Ditto the results of a 2017 study: not a single a luxury sedan or sports car was among the top choices of high-income Americans. And then there's the complication that half the luxury cars in the US are bought by individuals with incomes of less than $100,000 a year (per the research firm Kantar Media TGI).
"Sanders plans to introduce a bill in the Senate on Sept. 5 that would impose a 100% tax on government benefits received by workers at companies with 500 or more employees. For example, if an Amazon employee receives $300 in food stamps, Amazon would be taxed $300." Thousands of Amazon workers get food stamps. Bernie Sanders wants Amazon to pay for them by Abha Bhattarai, The Washington Post Aug 24, 2018
Ok! The total TBI budget would be $567 billion, including 5% administration costs and based on an assumption that in any given year about 45 million Americans would avail themselves of the benefit. Here's where the money would come from…
It's important to remember that labor market participation isn't just the result of collective choices about whether to work or not to work but also about how much to work, e.g., part-time/full-time, seasonal/temp/year-round. These collective decisions also impact labor productivity and the vitality of the economy as a whole (not to mention the tax base).
These aren't necessarily occupations to avoid; they may be good starter jobs. An occupation that doesn't pay well may still be a good stepping stone to bigger and better things. But some people do get stuck in them, for lack of skills to qualify for anything better. My problem-solving mission is to figure out ways to help those who are stuck at the bottom to acquire the skills to move up in the world.
Just last month, the Census Bureau released a treasure trove of ACS data on over 500 occupations, including the median annual incomes for full-time workers in these occupations. Without further ado, here are the occupations with median annual incomes of at least $100,000 a year:
The Challenge:
Alleviate poverty
Incentivize skill development
Increase social mobility at lower-income levels
Increase labor market participation
All without raising taxes very much
What's up with France, which collects taxes up the wazoo but apparently not in the form of personal income tax. Where is all that tax revenue coming from? Maybe from taxing corporations? I've got a chart for that…
After Trump, what? We need a second political party to counter the Democrats, not because the Democrats are bad but because the competition of ideas is good. As John Stuart Mill said, "prevailing opinion and feeling" is a kind of tyranny to be resisted - or at least questioned. You can't think outside the box when the box is all you know.
Incorporating new technologies takes time, money, and a reliable revenue stream. Technical capability is not the same thing as economic feasibility. …Very often the new tasks assigned to workers whose jobs have been partly automatized are newly created tasks, not just a reassignment of what used to be done by other employees. That's because technology expands the realm of the doable. In other words, when more is possible, more will be done to exploit the possible.
Over the period of 2016-2026, employment in 647 occupations is projected to grow, while employment in 168 occupations is projected to decline. Overall employment is projected to increase by 11.5 million, an increase from 156.1 million to 167.6 million. US Bureau of Labor Statistics/Employment Projections: 2016-26 Summary
For instance, "cruel and unusual punishment" may be a legal concept but it is based on the moral principle of proportionality: that a punishment should fit the offense and not exceed what is needed to correct the behavior being punished.
Before you know what you’re doing, you don’t know what you’re doing. And other people see it. That’s why being a newbie on the job can be such an excruciating experience: if not in reality, at least in the imagination.
At the beginning of my entrepreneurial adventure, I was your standard-issue progressive, waxing poetic about social justice while looking down on"corporate America". Judged people if they "looked Republican". Wouldn't date men who were "right-wing". I was even a Democratic Socialist of America.
First, I want to acknowledge that Trump supporters are not a monolithic group. They may stand by their man, but that doesn't mean they agree with everything he's doing. For instance: tariffs. …That said…
…a 31% cut would get us to Denmark, which is good enough for me. The revised goal, then, would be to reduce annual healthcare spending to $2.3 trillion. In other words, we're looking for savings of a trillion dollars. Let the calculations begin!
…3. Increase federal and state budgets for the detection and prosecution of fraudulent medical billing, such as upcoding. 4. Greatly expand the number of nurse practitioners working as "full practice" primary care providers and gatekeepers, a status that allows them to work independently of a physician's clinical oversight. 5. Institute a no-fault medical malpractice system, much like the very successful one in Denmark. …