For years now, American political leaders have pushed narratives that fail to stand up to the slightest bit scrutiny.
In the following posts, I will point out a few of the most obvious ones and provide a reason or reasons why they simply don't hold water. In my book, "Solutions: Enough complaining. Let's fix America!" sold here https://www.miksonsentertainment.com/books on Amazon and other retailers, I juxtapose the words uttered by national figures with the reality that most American citizens experience daily. I wrote the book mentioned above as a means to promote an, albeit anecdotal, approach for the Public to not only compare and contrast the words and actions of their leader(s) of choice, but to compare and contrast those leader's words and actions with the reality lived by the Masses, so let's get started.
The first issue I would like to address is minimum wage. Indoing so, I would like to point out how odd it took a Pandemic to do what politicians have failed to do for decades. I personally feel a sense of irony when considering the fact that something like COVID-19, which threatened all aspects of Human existence on Earth actually forced the Capitalists to improve the lives of those they employed by paying something closer to a living wage which brings me to my first contradiction.
For decades now, the American citizenry has been told that raising the minimum wage would raise the cost of everything. While this may sound reasonable, it goes against the actual trend seen in reality. In the decades in which this claim has been made, prices have increased while the minimum wage has remained relatively stagnant. Just look at any purchase you want and you will discover that a minimum wage of $5.00 per hour in 1979 bought a lot more than the Federal minimum wage of today which is $7.25 dollars per hour. https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/minimumwage
"WHAT!"
While states do have discretion over what their minimum wages is, it's not much better in any of them, because the cost of living in those states outpaces the minimum wage by leaps and bounds. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/state#ca and worst still is that in at least one of those states the minimum wage is less than the Federal minimum wage. In Georgia the minimum wage is $5.15/hour which means that working 40 hours per week, a single individual wanting to rent an apartment and pay no more than 50% of their gross income towards that their housing in Georgia would have to find a place that costs no more $412 per month (again, that's half of their GROSS income). The problem is that there seem not to be any one (1) bedroom apartments in Georgia (at least in cities like, Alpharetta, Marietta and Atlanta) as listed on Zillow for less than $800 a month and there was only one place listed at that price. Don't believe me, look it up for yourself. To get any listing other than the one I found for $800/month, I had to bump the cost up to $1,200 dollars monthly which is 150% of what that individual making $5.15/hr earns every month in gross pay. That renter would need a roommate to cover the shortfall and that roommate would have to pay all of the other household expenses like food, electricity, gas, water, FOOD. I know I listed food twice, but food is important and I like food.
So is there anywhere in America where someone could live comfortably on their own when earning minimum wage? It doesn't appear so, but this is in essence the business model of the United States of America. Companies are allowed to pay the masses in this country so little as to keep many in poverty or in unsustainable debt. Maybe that's why America's debt is currently over $30 trillions dollars... That's 30,000,000,000,000. Wow, I almost ran out of zeroes on my keyboard. Again, don't trust me, look it up for yourself. Here is a link to the U.S. Debt clock. Don't watch those numbers clicking by too close. It will either trigger you or is will make you dizzy.
Well, I've got to go, but don't worry, I will have more of these comparisons soon. I do, after all have to work and feed the machine. Next time, I think I will discuss, "Job Creators" and why that's a myth that has been pushed on us for far too long, or maybe I'll ponder why oil companies need subsidies when we already give them a resource they had no hand in creating. If Earth created oil over millions of years, shouldn't oil belong to all of us? Why then do oil companies get it for free? Oy maybe I'll question why a single rate tax would be beneficial and why it will never happen. Check back in and find out which of these topics I will break down next.
The Regaining American Democracy (RAD) dictionary word or phrase of the day is;
Sinnick - A person who believes mankind's sins will return and haunt Humanity NOTE - Not necessarily associated with religious beliefs
This image is old, because America's current total debt is over 31 trillion. It changes so fast, no one could keep up with it. Maybe it's time for a debt jubilee.
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