Elizabeth Warren on Debt and the Social Contract

1 Billion in Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, 2 trillion in wars, 1 trillion in a medicare give away to drug companies

You build a factory and you receive the benefit of the roads everyone else is paying for to transport the goods their, the benefit of the police and fire departments, the benefit of the schools that educated the workers, the benefit of the national defense so you don't have invading marauders, etc. 

Have a listen...

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GOP Wants to Repeal the 20th Century?

So as we look at what many of the GOP candidates are espousing, there is a massive laundy list of things they want to repeal:

1. Social Security
2. Medicare
3. the Federal Reserve
4. Clean Air Act
5. Clean Water Act
6. the EPA
7. the FDA
8. 16th Amendment
9. 17th Amendment
10. Darwin? 

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Race to the Bottom, Currencies and Wages

As you may be well aware, China has consistently devalued their currency for many years. This made the cost of the products from Chinese factories ultra cheap, ushering in the era of $30 DVD players and $300 big screen TVs.

Because the currency is so low, the prices people pay for goods from China is also very low, and with those low prices are extremely low wages compared with the wages we have here in America.  If you look at the chart below, you can see that US wages have declined, while Chinese wages have increased...

In the United States it has become a "buyer's market" for employers. With so many jobs going overseas (not just to China), there are fewer jobs available in the United States, so employers can demand lower wages. There have even been some calls to reduce or abandon the minimum wage in the United States. 

What we have seen in the last couple of decades is a "race to the bottom" when it comes to price of goods. Wal-mart used to have "Made in the USA" on their trucks, and that was replaced with the "Low Priced Leader". But one unfortunate side effect of low prices is low wages. By teaching people to choose the "cheapest" product, they are also choosing the product which has the smallest profit, which means there is less money to be paid out in wages.

Americans have been educated to think that the value of their life will be better by choosing the cheapest products, because they will have more money left over. Unfortunately, with fewer profits per product, employers must cut costs to compete, and they do this by either keeping wages flat, laying off people, or sending jobs overseas.

While this is a complex problem, I would suggest a few potential solutions:

1. Teach people to value quality. Help them understand how some more expensive goods will last longer, and save them money over time. By purchasing higher quality goods, it will also contribute to upward pressure on wages.
2. Increase competition to employ workers so it is not such a buyer's market. The government will need to hire people to build infrastructure.
3. Build infrastructure. One reason China has seen wages increase so much is they have invested massively in infrastructure with transportation systems to move workers to factories, and new buildings and equipment to produce goods more efficiently. 
4. End corporate income tax for businesses that do not import goods from overseas, and produce products in the United States. Favor those companies that help us most.
5. Improve education. Some of the highest paying jobs right now are in Silicon Valley, which also has one of the best school systems in the nation. We need to educate people to innovate and excel. Just teaching people enough to work in the service industry is a real disservice to people whose talents could be harnessed to do so much more.

I hope you will also leave your comments and suggested. 

Best Wishes,

David

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Bernie Sanders on Social Security

Social security has paid out what is due for over 75 years and has a $2.1 Trillion surplus, and would not run out for 25 years at the current rate. Sanders is first standing up against those who would seek to make cuts or increase the retirement age, and is instead proposing that we should drop the cap on the tax. Currently, only the first $106,500 of income is taxes, meaning the the super rich pay a very small percentage of their income to social security compared with the middle class. Sanders is proposing a bill that would tax all income the same, a flat tax if you will.

For those proponents of a flat tax, why not start with social security?

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Finding Democracy

I don't know of any President in which I loved everything they did, but when I find someone who disagrees with everything a President represents, I can see clearly they don't understand Democracy in which we vote together and live together. When someone disagrees with everything, it truly is more representative of what would be seen in a dictatorship or communist regime. This is a dangerous game.When people are taught to speak in a rhetoric that incites partisanship, and in a way that doesn't ask the important questions that lead us to better understand the issues together (even if we disagree), those same people have become pawns of the very system they believe they are protecting. I fear many of both parties have fallen prey to this. I say this with empathy, knowing that they probably don't even realize that I am frustrated too, and that we collectively have more in common than they realize now. I do hope people will at least try to learn more, as their service to this country will be more worthwhile.I've always had a desire to ask the right questions, and desire to find out what I have in common with others.

It is in that spirit that I hope others will also help to bring people together again. We are going through some difficult times in these United States. I have no desire to prove people wrong, or show how one party's ideas are better than the other. Instead, I do hope that people will begin to look for the questions that will help them work together with their fellow Americans. Then we will start to again realize what Democracy is all about.

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