Maximum Effort Minimum Pay

As the nation grapples with what a living wage should live like $15 an hour is the number that most people are shooting for.  

It's not an unreasonable wage considering the cost of living in most places in the America.  
Average apartment rent is $1500 a month, bills when factoring in phone and internet costs usually come out to $200 or more a month, groceries on average $300 a month.   And that does no factor in the costs of transportation, clothing costs, and other necessities that are required to get through the average month. 

So, if you figure that $2000 is the average cost of base living expenses and a $15 an hour minimum wage working 40 hours a week comes out to a grand total of $2400 a month or an income of $28,000 a year. 

Think about that $28,000 a year when your monthly costs average $2000 a year, leaves $8000 a year to cover other expenses such as child care, education, vehicle costs (which according to AAA is roughly 700 a month is insurance, fuel, and maintenance) then $28,000 a year just barely covers the costs of housing, food, and transportation for a single worker without dependence.

One of the big arguments that people have been throwing arounds that if $15 an hour became the new minimum then there would simply be a cutting back of jobs.   
To which I say fine. 
Let's look at this from a family stand point. 
Currently it takes two incomes bringing in over $50,000 a year to cover basic costs for themselves and a, singular, child.  That's still requiring both individuals to work full time or more at an average of $15 or more.  
Two full time workers at $15 an hour to raise a child and that doesn't even realistically cover the costs of child care for those parents to be able to work full time.   Usually for a family raising a child you need a singular income of $50,000 so that one person can work part time to cover child care and supplement their own time and energy to cover the costs. 

So, the argument is that there would be fewer jobs because of how expensive it would be to employee people at a $15 an hour minimum wage is arguably moot.   

From the less jobs stand point most people living or working on minimum wage are having to piece  together two or three jobs plus side gigs just to pay the bills.  If they only had to work one job and be able to pay the bills I don't think they'll complain too much about one of their three jobs not being there anymore. 
Let alone those living on fixed incomes needing to continue to work  would be able to work less in order to maintain basic standards of living and better address the issues that have them living on a fixed income to begin with. .

From the stand point of small business, yes, there would be what would feel like an exponential rise in the operating costs of employees.  However, if small businesses were offered tax incentives for maintaining employees rather than being charged to have employees there could be some work arounds done. 

I'd also argue that small business employment could be a supplemented by unemployment programs through application to a program similar to the PPP program used during the pandemic. So that if a small business (10 or fewer employees) is unable to cover the cost of those employees after all of the over head is paid. ( or maximum of $280,000 + operating costs) then the salary of those employees could be supplemented through unemployment benefits and allowing the small business the ability to get through applicable financial hardships like pandemics, catastrophes, or dissolvements but protect the employees incomes for the work they are doing.  

The other thing that people don't consider about minimum wage work is that if minimum wage were in fact livable many of the tax supplemented low income programs would see a huge drop in need and operating costs. 

Raising the minimum wage isn't an argument of how it will impact a flagging economy.  Raising the minimum wage is a reflection of the  rise in costs and life with dignity.   
The short of it is, if the minimum standard of working is not capable of offering a worker to to do with dignity then is it really a standard at all? 

News to Me

One of the things that has had a very bumpy ride into the digital age is the news.  
News papers fail to get support as people move to online sources like twitter.  Ads and subscriptions put things behind paywalls that many people choose not to scale in favor of sticking to the "sources" on platforms like Facebook.  

About the only news source that hasn't changed much is the public news sources.  

As part of my work and research over the years following the news across multiple platforms and checking in with multiple sources has not just been a practice, but has been required because of the mixture of editorial and commentary being billed as news.  

Which brings me back to the pay wall.  
The best news is often behind a subscription and arguably it should be part of platforms financial distributions.   

Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, google, etc.  disseminate a lot of news and are the platforms that many people turn to.  Twitter is a bit different because many of the reporters and editors are on the platform as part of their every day already.    

Independent news has been demonized as fake news by sources that are backed and steered by political parties.
Because of the way that State News sources have been turned into propaganda machines by governments that would use the news as a way of controlling the populace.  

The only news, at least in the U.S. that has stayed both objective and solid is Public Broadcasting.   PBS and NPR.  Once these two sources of news were funded by tax grants and revenue and then supplemented by donations and things.   But during the early 2000's they were defunded, largely because many of the people in political authority viewed objective and educational news and entertainment that refused to be swayed by political hierarchies didn't need to be receiving funds.  

Luckily they have received a lot of support from independent donors and their broadcasts have become like the radio shows of old where the commercials of corporate donors play as part of the broadcast.   

Though, unlike many other news sources one of the things they always state when talking about a company or individual that donates large sums of money to them is that they note it in the article or news story.   And, again, thank the powers that be for Public broadcastings and Public Radios unwavering journalistic integrity over the past 20 years, they still pull no punches regardless of the size of donor. 

"We'll take your money and we'll use it to do the news but that doesn't buy you fluff and nutter reporting when you or your company get  up to shenanigan's."  Is not what they say but it's good and damn well implied. 
The only downside to this is that these are national news aggregates, NPR and PBS, which makes it difficult for local news to be disseminated in such a way as news papers slowly fade and local news fights for recognition as streaming and national sources start to interject.  

NPR One though.   

Yeah, I admit I'm a public broadcasting fanboy, but the model is solid.  

Through the app you get all of the national news and podcasts and then select your local station to get the local broadcasts. 
But funding. 
Nationally they're pretty well funded because of the big donors and the local stations paying in to the kiddy to be able to broadcasts but getting the local news the funding it needs to shine lights is the issue that we need to work out.

So...
I say, as I work on a tax restructuring plan to be proposed on a national, and then world, scale is this.  Fund them, out of the taxes.  Fully recognize them as the fourth estate in the government. 
 
The  Legislative Branch is responsible for writing laws
The Executive Branch is responsible for enacting laws
The Judicial for reviewing and Evaluating.  

The News and Media is, in modern democracy, already recognized as the "disseminators of the actions and information's of the other three.  
Why not make it official.  
Make sure they're funded, almost like a military branch.
Or exactly like a military branch.  
Formally charged with the responsibility of investigating and consolidating issues, laws, and happenings with the highest standards of journalistic integrity and without the push and pull of political bandying.   
CSPAN was a good start, cameras in the rooms where laws and things are being debated.   But many people working and doing all of the things required of life can't keep up with everything that goes on.  
So, tax subsidized Associated Press offices at a State Level and communities and counties with populations of 20,000 or more be assigned an Associated Press office with the responsibility of compiling a weekly, physical news paper of events to be delivered by mail.  
Ahhh, the idea has merit and I think I've already written about this before

But the break down would work about like this. 
   $100,000 annual budget and 2 editor/reporters
per 20,000 citizens.  

So, roughly $5 a year per citizen in a community.

i.e. 100,000 citizens would be a $1,000,000 annual budget and 10 person staff and then they become, essentially a wing of the existing public broadcasting structure

Their task would be to curate 

A daily news letter with local events and government meetings and public works projects 
 A weekly summery of the government actions and funding decisions.
A monthly report on community services, need to know contact and summery of those services, and available grant/scholarships/tax incentives/subsidies programs.

To be made available digitally through text that can be printed from the website.
Audio versions
And mailed to those that wish to opt in for a daily, weekly, or monthly paper. 

All hiring, coordination, and supplemental historical articles for the paper managed by the Library of Congress and local historical societies.  
It's a dream. 

But I like it. 

A lot of this comes on the back of the pandemic. 
Finding ways to get reliable information about the vaccines and emergency situations taking place. 
Making sure there is a news source just reporting the facts as well as making sure that people have concrete information on what to do, where to go, and who to talk to when things like this are happening. 

Like I said, it's all part of a larger tax plan.  
Shoot, let me be honest. 
I'm trying to rebuild our nation from the ground up and find some way of balancing a capitalist free market with a government structure that will keep our basic infrastructure needs like emergency services, utilities, and communications on rock solid foundations.
Trying to work out the logistics of what a truly balanced employment and housing situations look like.

A nation that provides opportunity for those that can and will work for it while providing safety and security to those that can not.
A representative democracy where there is Truth and Justice for all.  

We're getting there. 
We're closer than we were when the nation was founded to get away from imperialism in 1776. 
Closer than we were when Slavery was outlawed in 1865

Closer than we were at the beginning of the civil rights era in 1964

So my question is, how close can we be by 2063? 
How can we steer and shape our nation to more resemble the ideals it was founded on?

...and Beyond

 One of the things that keeps me up at night are the sacrifices I've made over the past few years.  By way of friendships, by way of loved ones...by way of time. 

The thing about being a person that will do anything for anyone is that many people do not know what anything really means.  

I have a job. 
A self appointed one, but a job none the less.  
One I volunteered for almost twenty years ago now and it is yet to be done.  
Not because of lack of doing or not doing but because jobs like this take much more than a weekend or a couple of weeks to accomplish. 

The thing about this job is that it has required a lot of research and a lot of digging  into things that people don't want dug into.  Asking questions that people don't want to answer.  Bringing into the light things that many people would prefer to stay in the past because it makes the present easier.  

But the thing about doing the job, solving the problem, is finding the roots.   

The world we live in is an ever growing, ever branching tree.  Intertwined branches sprouting a myriad of fruits and a leaves. The thing about this tree is that it started as many different seeds that grew together over time.  
Many think that doing the job and solving the problem means ripping the roots of one of the seeds out and that it will remove the rot, or the undesirable parts.  But to rip out one set of roots, as one examines further, will find that it hurts and damages the tree as a whole. Will create a void within in the structure and system and will cause the Tree to fall. 

The thing that will see the job done is not removing, but directing.   Propping up some branches so that they can get better light,  taking the fruit of some to help feed and reinforce new growth, while trimming the limbs of other sections to allow for healthy growth to occur. 

A few years ago I was faced with a choice. 
Rip my heart out and see the world safer for it and maybe be able to get my heart back later
or
Keep my heart where it was and let someone else worry about the problem.  

The decision I made was to do the job. 
Whatever that meant.  
To see the task done and maybe be able to get back to the life I loved after it was done
Or die trying.
The reason I chose to move forward, to put everything on the line is because the people in my life didn't know how or didn't want to help with the job.  And this job, as it is, will never make me rich or famous.   In fact the more recognition I receive the more dangerous it becomes....
Which makes it understandable as to why people are hesitant to work with me on this. 
Already, as things move forward I see the deaths of people that could have been prevented. 
People in harms way just because they are choosing to walk on the right path and that is a risk that they and I knew we were taking.  
But even though it has grown harder than many could have imagined and gone in directions that I, and others, only feared it would there are things about it that are giving hope.  
Long hardened enemies starting to see eye to eye as situations become clearer. 
Tasks that many thought could never be accomplished being completed because good, hardworking, people are showing that the impossible is only impossible if we believe it to be.  

I'll be honest.  It is hard to keep my hopes up sometimes.   Living in the isolation that I have over the past couple of years.   Feeling the dull ache where my heart used to live and not even knowing if it is still safe or not.  

But I keep on. 
I keep searching, keep working, keep developing. 
One thing that gives me hope though is that there has a been a earth shaking shift over these past few years a months.
One that has torn back a veil of secrecy and fear and shown the world in all of it's horrifying beauty. 
A shift that has been both painful and cathartic and even though it is hurting and hard for many now it will get better.   A wound that was under a rotting bandage finally being cleaned, stitched, and properly covered for the first time in over a hundred years.  
As anyone that has recovered from injuries and had to go through rehabilitation can tell you, the healing can hurt worse than the injury in a lot of ways.   But if we are willing to endure the pains of healing then we will be stronger and better prepared for when such pains if they come again. 

After all,

"We are in the business of breaking generational curses."
"That's why things do not come easy for us."
"We are who our bloodlines have been waiting for."
"Do not give up."
"We are almost there."
"We are geared for this."

"It's okay to not be okay."
"Do not give up."
"You are seen."
"You are heard."


That's the hard part sometimes. 
Remembering that even in isolation that we are not alone.
Remembering that there is a goal and that it is within reach.
And even if we do not get to fully enjoy the fruits of the labors we do know that things will be a little better than how we found them.  

Stay Safe
<3