Republican Tax Cuts For The Rich And The Debt Crisis

Maybe you should consider what's happening to workers. In 1964, I made $3.05/hour working as a grocery clerk for Vons groceries in Southern California. That's $29.94 in April 2023. I made double-time on Sunday, $59.88 today.

https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

From Zip Recruiter:

How much does a Grocery Store make in Los Angeles, California?
As of May 26, 2023, the average annual pay for the Grocery Store jobs category in Los Angeles is $39,412 a year. Just in case you need a simple salary calculator, that works out to be approximately $18.95 an hour. This is the equivalent of $757/week or $3,284/month.

While ZipRecruiter is seeing salaries as high as $81,939 and as low as $18,384, the majority of salaries within the Grocery Store jobs category currently range between $27,312 (25th percentile) to $47,272 (75th percentile) with top earners (90th percentile) making $69,857 annually in Los Angeles.​

https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Grocery-Store-Salary-in-Los-Angeles,CA#Hourly

Clerks make two-thirds of what they did 59 years ago.

There are plenty of similar job stories. Our country is handing out money to people who can no longer put food on the table, a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs and get timely medical care. We're substituting government programs for the dignity of people earning their own way.

The Labor Force Participation Rate is higher today than it was before 1980 and about 3% less than it was at its peak 20 years ago.

Like I said, we're rolling out welfare programs to help people who can't earn a living wage.

 

if you cannot make a living wage with your current skills-then the solution is to gain more valuable skills.

 

Not sure how this is pertinent to the current situation. Back in '66 I worked as a busboy for $.99 an hour. My first real job was picking tomatoes in the San Joaquin valley ( I lasted about two weeks ) until the busboy job came along. A few months later a friend talked me into taking civic service test. Did well enough to get a job repairing electronic gear ******* back from Viet Nam. Parlayed that into four years paying for college. Then the draft came . . .

 

What in the hell does this mean? You think it's okay for grocery store clerks to make 2/3 of what they made 60 years ago? There are millions of jobs just like the grocery clerk.

We risk having people getting screwed turning their backs on the capitalist system. It's no mistake Trump is promising not to cut Social Security and Medicare, two programs Republicans have been trying to cut for years. He knows the support of the MAGA crowd is at risk.

Your boy Trump isn't going to fix the problem. Nor will Old Joe, anti-abortion religious types, or virtue signaling environmentalists. You know they won't because they don't even talk about it.

 

global economies are a reality these days. what is your solution? tax productive people more to make up for people who fail to obtain marketable skills?

 

I taught computers to older adults who hadn't been in school for years. Some really struggled.

Anyway, your solution works for some people, but everyone can win a better job when the economy doesn't have that many of them.

 

well that is not a justification to keep taking from those who are productive.

 

The skills they have are marketable--the grocery clerk job, for example. There are only so many high-pay jobs.

Like I said, your solution works for the few, not the many.

I would implement a negative income tax and reduce or eliminate the minimum wage.

 

i'd get rid of the income tax. if it has to remain, I 'd set a flat tax so everyone pays more if it is raised. More than half of the federal budget is absolute bullshit.

 

What will you do when AI puts millions out of work in 20 years. Are they supposed to pound sand, too?

 

well that's an interesting question that I really have no answer for, but I can tell you the least educated people tend to be the ones who have the most kids. productive successful people tend to delay having children till they are done with their residencies, post graduate education, or until they mark partner or upper management etc

 

You're either well-to-do or a victim. A flat tax will make poor people even poorer. We can have a VAT with rebates.

 

what a flat tax does is give those who currently aren't paying anything , the proper feedback as to government excess. if everyone has to pay more if the government raises taxes, that creates a powerful brake on big spenders. it also drastically cuts down the power of the federal government-which is my main goal.

 

I guess your point is that folks should set their sights higher than being a grocery store worker? Maybe they should get education and training for a better job? This is your point?

 

The real risk to the rich is that at some point too many people will believe that when the rich of a society keep getting richer off the labor of people seeing their wealth gains shrinking if any still exist the not rich will realize they are the majority by far. There's a great old saying lost on the rich of today, " Pay me now or pay much more later." Going as we are eventually the rich are going to lose and lose big unless they pay now.

 

There's no reason we can't have a society where young people have children.

 

We have far better educated grocery clerks today than we had when I was clerking 60 years ago.

We still need store clerks. A better education isn't going to greatly improve incomes for many workers. Horatio Alger could still end up working in Costco.

 

that's not the point-right now our society has too many people who cannot properly educate their children having too many children

 

This wouldn't even qualify as effective trolling.

Maybe they're smart enough to know they're working at a low-skill position and joining forces in a union works to their advantage.

Civilian life is different. People don't just take orders.

Teachers don't employ physical violence to intimidate people as you claim. If you push them too far, especially if you ask them to do things harmful to children, they will eventually refuse to participate.

So, now you have Chambers of Commerce assessing the "reliability" of their members?

They further the financial interests of their members. Too weak to make it on their own?

No Southern Baptist Convention for you? So, as a church member, you don't feel you're part of a mob of people who typically see themselves as too weak to stand on their own?

Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) members. Weaklings. Mob.

My kind of mob.

No, actually.

A majority of teachers are women and they have a long history of supporting family and friends. The teachers' union is a natural for women.

 

You're going to stop this how?

Maybe it would be better if we stopped reducing the pay for working class jobs so these folks can earn enough money to cover living expenses and have the dignity of looking after themselves. We replaced a living wage with welfare.

 

you do know that if US corporations are paying far more for the commodity known as labor than similarly situated firms using lower priced foreign labor, what will happen?

 

You could survive and get through school on what you could earn. It's not as true today. My last tuition at Long Beach State was $60/semester (February 1968, $532.22 (April 2023). Tuition for CA students is today $8,338.

 

Likely an accurate take and one many better off folks seem to ignore.

 

Yep, too much DEI overhead, and other non-teaching staff.

 

Students shouldn't be subsidizing the university by paying tuition greater than the value received.