Month: February 2021

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Does a $15 Minimum Wage Make Sense?


No! Emphatically. At present, the federally mandated minimum wage is $7.25 which is $290 a week. Were the Biden administration get the desired $15 minimum wage, it will translate to $600. The annual change is from $15,080 to $31,200. The US Health and Human Services puts the poverty level at $26,200. But the problem with all these number is that they have no context.

In the 50 states and the District of Colombia, Alabama has the lowest cost of living whereas Hawaii has the highest. Other high cost-of-living states, such as Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut have set their state’s minimum wage at $12 or more already. Conversely, in the high cost of living states, Pennsylvania has an inordinately low minimum wage at the Federal minimum, and low cost of living South Dakota is at $9.45. The highest in the 50 states is California at $14. One state has divided its minimum wage in to three categories. Oregon designates metro Portland at $13.25, non-rural counties at $12 and rural counties at $11.50. Oregon seems to have come up with a good working solution. The cost of living in Oregon is the 4th highest in the union.

Raising the Federal minimum wage to $10 might make more sense with the provision that each state take the cost of living index and divide it up as Oregon has and using its national index to form a base line. In this manner, the rural counties of Tennessee, for example, will have a lower minimum wage than that of metro Nashville and Memphis. I mention this state because it is one of three states with no state mandated minimum wage. However, nine other states’ minimum wage is identical to the Federal minimum one of which is New Hampshire where its southern and eastern counties have a significantly higher cost of living than its northerly counties.

States like New York and California each needs a minimum wage of $20 for its densely populated areas while a much lower rate for its rural areas. The MacDonald’s worker in New York City needs a lot more income than his counterpart in Plattsburg. And this is true of all states.

Simply put, the Federal government and state governments need to re-think their minimum wages. A reasonable accomodate according to the cost-of-living in each area can be had if the political leadership will simply work towards that.

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The Shame of the Republican Party


Has the “Party of Lincoln” now become the “Party of Trump?” It would seem so.

President Trump started last summer by saying that if he were not re-elected it would be because the election was stolen from him. The seeds of misinformation were sown. But Trump was doing what totalitarian leaders throughout history have done. They make up a story and then portray that story as the truth even when absolute facts show otherwise.

Trump is not the first horrible president we have had. The two presidents to follow Lincoln, Johnson and Grant each failed the country with, in Johnson’s case, a total inability to work with Congress and Grant’s failed efforts with reconstruction. Then there was Harding who, had he not died in office, would not only have been removed from office but have been jailed. He had the most corrupt administration of all time. The other one worthy of mention is John Quincy Adams who simply did not know what to do in the office he held but redeemed himself when he left the presidency and became one of the early 19th century’s most effective politicians.

Even before he was elected, Trump was deemed to be a narcissist. A true narcissist is incapable of admitting wrong doing. It gets worse when they also believe that every word which leaves their mouth is an absolute truth. This showed up in 2016 when he proclaimed how overwhelmingly he defeated Clinton when in fact he lost the popular vote. And then in 2020 he said he got the most votes any Republican candidate has ever gotten, which is true, but fails to recognize that his opponent received 7 million votes more than he did. Losing is not a word found in a narcissist lexicon.

During his four year in office Trump defined his base not by naming them but by appealing to them. This bases is the far right wing, ultra-conservatives and worse, neo-nazis, white nationalist and other fringe groups and militias who can find no problem with violence against state governments and the federal government. This played out against the governor of Michigan who Trump has earlier called upon these extremists to take back their state, a blatant call to arms. Then he wound up the January 6th crowd to march upon the Capitol knowing full well that this group was full of armed extremists.

There are 50 republican senators in the senate and only 5 of them appear to have to courage of conviction to call out Trump on the ugliness he brought upon our country. And the other 45? A few of them can be categorized as extremists themselves but the others cowardly cower in fear of retribution from Trump loyalists which could cause them their seat in congress. This is cowardly behavior beyond the pale. Their first duty is to the country and not to any single person, regardless of the virtual power they ostensibly have. If 35 of more republicans simply said that Trump’s behavior is counter to what is best for our nation then the far right wingers would be seen as what they are, the minority and an extreme minority as well. But they, the senators and congressmen, fail to realize that they are allowing the tail to wag the dog. They are complicite in allowing homegrown terrorists to continue unchecked. They are unworthy of the position of trust to which they were elected.

Where are your morals? Where is your courage? Where is your alligence to the oath of office you took? All seem to be missing and your character is forever blackened.