Iheard a lot in the State of the Union Address that I have waited fouryears to hear. The primary flaws in the system are not beenaddressed now but they are not timely either. What is been addressedis actions set to reshape and encourage economic growth.
Expecta carbon tax system that speeds the conversion to natural gas and theexpansion of the internal US oil industry. We now know that this hasworked very well in Australia were wind is now the cheapest solution. Combined with a national initiative to rebuild infrastructure, buildhigh speed transport and a national superconducting power grid andthe smart grid that goes with it and we have a lot of importantnational investment.
Nowcomes the challenge of delivery.
Beyondthat the minimum wage hike was long overdue and linking it directlyto the inflation rate, not yet contemplated, is next up and willestablish the linkage to the idea of a living wage. It really needsto be this way and the core idea also needs to be improved and madeage sensitive to promote additional social agendas.
Againthe USA is also embarked in promoting a superior educationalinfrastructure and at least they are empowering the communities. Itis wonderful how a sharp lack of resources will focus the mind andcause centrists to distribute power and responsibility. And yeschildren, the party is over for the universities.
The USA needs to engage in a massive infrastructure replenishment to powerfully stimulate the economy and generate the high growth now needed for the next seven years.
The Case For higher minimum wage
Posted by James Downie onFebruary 13, 2013 at 2:02 pm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2013/02/13/obama-state-of-the-union-minimum-wage/
In PresidentObama’s State of the Union onTuesday, perhaps the most surprising inclusion was his call to raisethe minimum wage to $9 an hour by 2015 and index it to inflation. Itwasn’t an entirely new proposal from the president — in 2008, hecalled for raising it to $9.50 by 2011 — but this was the firsttime in years that Obama has pushedfor a minimum wage increase.Here are five reasons why he’s right to push this issue once again.
• Itwill help the economy. Anytime that Democrats suggest raising the minimum wage, Republicans andBig Business howl that it will hurt job creation. To be fair, thisseems intuitive, and indeed was conventional wisdom in economiccircles for many years, but empirical studies have found over andover again that this is not the case. Economist JaredBernstein writesthat this is “potentially because they increase employers’ability to attract, retain, and motivate workers. And theybenefit workers by increasing the reward to work.” Infact,recent studies suggestthat raising the minimum wage right now may have a small positiveeffect on the economy, with low-income workers spending at least someof their new wages immediately, boosting GDP growth andlowering unemployment slightly.
• Itreduces poverty and inequality. Recentstudies continueto suggest that the decline in the minimum wage over the last thirtyyears has contributed noticeably to the rise in economic inequality,a rise that continues apace in post-recession America. A higherminimum wage would help finally reverse this ever-more-dangeroustrend. And while Obama’s proposed increase still leaves manyAmericans (especially those with families) in poverty, it would stillpush millions above the poverty line. Overall, it would help 21million workers,according to the Economic Policy Institute’s Lawrence Mishel, andincrease wages by $22 billion. Increasing the minimum wage, ofcourse, is but one tool infighting inequality and poverty, but it remains an effective one.• Itreduces in the “wage gap” for women and minorities. Despitemaking up slightly less than half the workforce,womenhold more than 60% of all minimum wage jobs.Not surprisingly, then, women would disproportionately benefit fromthe increase,helping to shrink the “wage gap” at a timewhen HouseRepublicansrefuse to pass other measures, such as the Paycheck Fairness Act,that would close this gap. Similarly, Hispanics andAfrican-Americans wouldalso disproportionately benefit.
• Indexingthe minimum wage is, well, common sense. From1998 to 2006, the realvalueof the minimum wage declined 19 percent.This wasn’t because of any policy, but because the minimum wage isnot indexed to inflation, and so automatically declined in value whenit wasn’t raised by Congress. Indexing would ensure that workers donot get screwed over by congressional inaction. Ideally, the minimumwage in fact would be indexed to wages in general orproductivity, but pegging to inflation is a good first step.
• It’sconsistent with American values. Atthe 1912 Progressive Party, TheodoreRoosevelt told the attendees:
Westand for a living wage…enough to secure the elements of a normalstandard of living — a standard high enough to make moralitypossible, to provide for education andrecreation, to care for immature members of the family, to maintainthe family during periods of sickness, and to permit of reasonablesaving for old age.
Rooseveltunderstood that a living wage (which, it must be noted, would behigher in today’s America than what the president is calling for)carries out the commitment the Founders made in the Constitution to“promote the general welfare.” It is a commitment that goes allthe way back to the country’s beginnings, to the Puritans and JohnWinthrop,whoin his famous “City on a Hill” sermon (yes,the same one Ronald Reagan was so fond of), said “we must be knittogether, in this work, as one man…We must delight in each other;make other’s conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together,labour and suffer together, always having before our eyes ourcommission and community in the work, as members of the same body.”Obama’s push for a $9 minimum wage, while it doesn’t go farenough, is still an important step toward restoring that trulyAmerican community and its general welfare.
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