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: …
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 development of increasingly resilient crops, which are better at enduring the slings and arrows of outrageous climate. As long observed, healthier plants are less vulnerable to insect infestations.
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.
"What exactly is a "robot"? We might envision a Star Wars-like robot in the vein of R2-D2 or C-3PO, but a robot is any device or algorithm that does what humans once did, from mechanical combines and thermostats to dishwashers and airfare search sites." - Scott A. Wolla (2018) Will Robots Take Our Jobs?
Regret is the recognition that one made a mistake and that an alternative action was possible. Regret requires consideration of what might have been, aka "counterfactual reasoning". In a phrase: coulda, shoulda, didn't.
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
…Here's a theory: one can have causal intuitions about trade-offs and long-term effects. Moral intuitions that seriously incorporate causal intuitions about trade-offs and long-term outcomes are "cooler" than moral intuitions that rely on the causal intuitions about localized and immediate effects. …But is one's level of "compassion" best measured by the warmth of the feeling?
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.
The narrative of victimhood (Us) runs parallel to the narrative of strength (Them), which functions to control dissent within the victim group. Don't sympathize or associate with the enemy - they are powerful and will use you to justify their oppression. If given the chance, they will subvert our cause. If you soft-peddle the harm they have done us, you are a traitor.