Am I missing a zero somewhere?

Interesting article over on the libertarian news website. I dont agree with everything there but apparently it would cost 6 trillion dollars for the government to give every American 20K/year to cover living expense. And thats about how much we bring in with our pathetically low taxes. If we raised taxes on the wealth horders we could cover this and still have a budget to play with. 20k isnt much but since it does include babies and 100yos..I think it would be big net gain in quality of living for the majority. More people could escape the fight for basic survive and take a ride on that land of opportunity bus the rich are always talking about.

Living wage calculator

Mother Jones magazine put together handy calculator to determine whether the minimum wage job in your area pays a living wage. Basically there is no point in working a minimum wage job if you live anywhere near an urban area because your basic living expenses will exceed your income. Unfortunately people really dont have a choice since the social service net is as holey as swiss cheese. You cant depend on government support and you cant depend on goverment to force companies to offer a living wage. Recently Obama proposed a raise in the minimum wage to 9-something an hour. 9 dollars? 9$ is not anywhere near a living wage. The president argues that if he proposed anything hire the corporations would rebel, fire people, and raise prices and nothing would pass. Which just goes to show what a weak, terrible leader he really he. Walmart already tried this and The D.C. city council called their bluff. My biggest issue with this whole debate is the unfairness of wages. I'm sure the corporations know their businesses, know their customer and know costs. They are prob telling the truth that prices would go up. But they are saying that while paying their top executives millions of dollars a year. No one person "needs" a multi million dollar salary to survive. And we are talking about basic survival needs at the minimum wage level. We need a new minimum wage and a maximum wage and they should be tied together so that one is not grossly out of proportion to the other.

Living wage at Costco?

Here is the math. Stating wage there is $11/hr. Much better than 7$ fed minimum. 50% of Costco workers are part time. I would argue the concept of a "part time " worker is just a corporate gimmick to avoid giving this people benefits, since a large number of the part time workers need all the hours they can get and end up taking as many hours or more than a full time. But they are suppose to be part time so let say they work 30 hours and end up with 1400 at the end of the month before taxes and fees. My research has found that if you want a basic apartment and you dont get any asstiance (wait list for section 8 is 2 year and counting) you are going to pay 800/month and another 100 for water/power/garbage. Lat leaves barely 600 bucks a month for food/entertainment. On top of that Americans need a car to get to work so there is gas, insurance and a car payment to pay, unless they find a bus route that goes to Costco, which is rare because Costco are not in the same areas low costs apartments tend to be.And forget about saving any money for a rain day.This really doesnt seem to be a sustainable wage in this economy unless you are leaning heavily of public assistance. And if you have other mouths to feed you are totally screwed.

Meanwhile the white collar executives get 4-8x an hourly employees yearly salary PER MONTH. A man can work an entire year and not make what another makes in a month of work. It just seems wrong. Especiall for one of the most profitable corprotations in america. Yes they are better than walmart. They are very good at making that point. But that doesnt make the unbalanced division of profits reasonable. Who sets their goal at beating the absolute worst? I've worked in the warehouses and I've worked in the corporate office. The warehouse workers work a lot harder more demanding jobs, both physically and socially dealing with members. Yet the meaningful, enough to better yourself living wage salaries go people with a desk job.

Wealth distribution in America

Interesting video. I dont care if you are the nicest, most generous rich person in the world; if you contribute and take part in a system that pays you 10, 100, 500 times more than your fellow employees then you are a stealing from those who are paid inequitably.

Obama's poet is Cuban American

I've never been one for poetry but I was driving along and heard the Inauguration Poem over the radio and I thought it was really good. This Robert Blanco guy is another story of how you can be anything in this country if you work hard and make it yours.
The most powerful quality of our country is that each day is full of a million possibilities: We are a country of fierce individualism, which invites me to shape my life as I see fit. As I reflect on this, I see how the American story is in many ways my story -- a country still trying to negotiate its own identity, caught between the paradise of its founding ideals and the realities of its history, trying to figure it out, trying to "become" even today -- the word "hope" as fresh on our tongues as it ever was.
 

Thanks to Costco for making the effort

Props to Costco for offering interviews to the displaced employees. I'm not sure how many will take them up on the offer given they have the choice of not working and still being paid via unemployment, but at least Costco tried.

Wrong way to think about jobs

A story in the Orlando Sentinel today has all me riled up!

Nationwide, the defense industry could lose 1 million jobs, the study concluded.

Steve Jobs & Thomas Edison

I was reading this article tribute to Steve Jobs and I noticed the author made the following connection about the quality of genius :

Both had less formal schooling than most of their respective peers. Both possessed the ability to visualize projects on a grand scale. Both followed an inner voice when making decisions. And both had terrific tempers that could make their employees quake. 

I dont mean to toot my own horn but does that sound like anyone you might know? I would add this quote from Babylon 5 :

Greatness is never appreciated in youth, called pride in midlife, dismissed in old age and reconsidered in death. Because we cannot tolerate greatness in our midst we do all that we can to destroy it.

Btw like Bill Gates, and Christopher Columbus, etc etc Edison didnt come up with his ideas he just borrowed them from other people and marketed them better. In Edison case he was just a businessman who stole from an employee named Nikola Tesla. I understand the Tampa Bay Lighting are unveiling there new Tesla coil at an upcoming game

US has 5th most unequal wealth distribution in the world

Heads up folks living in 4 million dollar condos! Your greed and feeling of entitlement has officially driven our economy off the cliff of aristocracy. The US has the 5th most unequal wealth distribution in the world . Nice going guys...very responsible.

Jobs plan and gay soliders

I have a few comments on Obamas efforts of late to inspire the people who put him in office.

Two good ideas

The first is the website Kickstarter.com, which I found through this movie project. Kickstarter is basically a public grant website where you post your ideas and ask for funding. I guess it works because many projects seem to be fund and even way over their funding goals. I'm going to look into putting up my Shark's With Lasers hockey team for foster kids up there and see if anyone will fund it Or maybe ask for funding to purchase reform foster care advertisements on billboards from random stranger since I cant count on my own family.

The second good idea is a point Tobold raised. He suggested that if companies counted worker salaries as part of profits instead of expenses unemployment would be curbed and the world would be a better place. That seems to be a blatently obvious thing we should be doing already..so how to make it happen ? Maybe give a tax deduction equal to the amount paid in salary ?

Going out of business

The other day I drove all over town trying to find a store that sold incense supplies. My first stop was the Juno beach surf shop "lazydayz" which apparently is/was "authentic" as opposed to the numerous mass market swimming/beach supply stores. I was told after 30+ years lazydayz threw in the towel and went out of business. Bummer. I was advised to check out the local skate board shop "Modern culture", in Jupiter. Out of business as well. Juno/Jupiter isnt exactly a bastion of counter-culture so I'm not really surprised, but apparently Whole Foods is now the only supplier of incense supplies in the area. Damn giant corporate box stores killing local business.

Today I drove down to Boarders books in Boca to see if the next book in a series was cheaper there than the bit of literary greed that is Barnes and Noble.Boarders books - specifically the ONLY large sized Boarders store in the Miami area - is going out of business. They are apparently keeping their mall based waldenbooks stores but ditching the large scale stores. Damn shame. But I got a 20% close out discount.

I guess it does happen

In case you were wondering - employers do get jail time in the US for hiring illegals.

Dress for Success

Long have my parents pounded in the lessons of good appearance. I'd like to think that I've picked up many customs of cleanliness, as for example I often shower 2-3 times a day.  But I've never felt the need to "dress up". And in a broader context I've never understood people wearing suits to work..which I guess is a lost art. I was watching a ustream video of 2 highly credited video game developers and I gotta be honest it bugged me they looked like pissed off 14 years hanging out in their parents garage. They werent dressed crazy with piercing or whatever but they were very casual. Maybe I'm getting old but "proffessionals" - the people developing the next big thing - should not appear on "tv" in their slouch-around outfits.

The nekkid truth about "degree" programs

My mother is always telling me how I should "get a degree". I'm always tell her that "a degree" is worthless in an economy where boatloads of people with Masters degrees or 20+ experience are forced into taking low level jobs for extra money. Here is story about someone who got that degree and ended up stripping to make a living.

See the naked truth here