Minimum Wage

Beowulf: Notes on the Miniwage

Joseph M. Firestone — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 00:57:19 -0400

Marshall Auerback recently posted in support of raising the minimum wage, joining Jamie Galbraith in advocating for it. This caused some disagreement among bloggers sympathetic to Modern Monetary Theory (MMT).

In particular, Rodger Malcolm Mitchell expressed his disagreement with Marshall in a straightforward critique, proposing an alternative and much more comprehensive initiative designed to move the economy toward the 5 goals Marshall set out in his post. The dispute received a very good discussion at Mike Norman's site, with the main point being that everyone would favor Rodger's alternative if it could be passed, but that Marshall's proposal was much easier to get passed.

To this point, beowulf, a blogger and commenter much respected in MMT and Modern Monetary realism (MMR) circles, added a number of lively comments about the desirability of raising the minimum wage that I think are worth blogging here. He said:

“Minimum wage laws are like hummingbird wings. In theory they shouldn't work at all, in the real world they work pretty well.

Australia's minimum wage was just bumped to A$15.96 an hour, US$16.84.hr at today's exchange rate. Unemployment rate is 5.2%.

Think about that, their U3 rate is three points lower AND their minimum wage is more than double ours. Either the Coriolis effect makes neoclassical economics work backwards in the Southern hemisphere, or mainstream economists are a bunch of astrologers who think they're Carl Sagan.

$16.84/hr is high enough that a full time worker making that here would be means-tested out of food stamps, section 8 and other income security programs.

So what's going on is Australia puts the cost of a living wage for the working poor on their employers instead of taxpayers, enabling govt spending to be focused on other needs-- like universal Medicare and a Social Security system so broad it would impress even Rodger Mitchell.

Then later on he added:

“One other thing, this John Stossel post last month may be the most mendacious thing I've read all year.

"Statists say that Australia is proof that minimum wage laws help workers. They point to Australia's 5.1% unemployment rate... But statists ignore the details.

"Most people who earn minimum wage are young, unskilled workers. How are they doing in Australia?

"In June, Australia's unemployment rate for workers age 15 to 19 was 16.5%."

"That's digging pretty deep for an unemployment stat. Curious that Stossel neglected to mention the comparable US stat (for workers 16 to 19). In June, their unemployment rate was...26.6%.

That Coriolis effect is CRAZY."

And then he added a bit more:

”OK, this is really the last one...

"According to the Heritage Foundation/WSJ "2011 Index of Economic Freedom", Australia's "government spending as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP)" is less than that of the United States; 34.3% vs 38.9%.

"Stop and think about that... universal Medicare (with dental!), a jumbo size Social Security system, a defense policy of jumping into the same wars we do (including Vietnam and Iraq) and Australia still spends less on government than we do. At risk of sounding hyperbolic, I"d say that Coriolis effect is strong enough to move hurricanes (and cyclones). :o)”

These are great comments, and I'll draw out their implications a little further.

-- First, Australia is one of many nations with minimum wage rates way above our own. They're no exception. Internationally, they're closer to the rule; and among major nations, we are the shameful exception.

-- Second, a recent Credit Suisse study shows the United States is 24th in the world in Median Wealth per adult. One of the reasons for this certainly can be the sad state of the minimum wage rate compared to other nations.

-- Third, when a prediction is correct in theory, but not in the real world; then the most likely explanation is that the theory that says it won't work is wrong. Capish? And

-- Fourth, when will American legislators, politicians and political parties treat American citizens and their constituents at least as well as the legislators, politicians, and political parties of other democracies?

That is the question that has been blowin' in the wind for at least 35 years now. Time to retire this group of bozos, crooks, and corporate ideologues.

And while we're at it, let's not forget the Justices of the Supreme Court. At least five of them need impeachment badly before they complete the turnover of this country to the corporations!

(Cross-posted from Correntewire.com.)

The Minimum Wage Is So Low That It's Immoral - and Foolish

Richard Eskow — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 13:27:01 -0400

Economic issues make some people's eyes glaze over, so we'll put this plainly: Today's minimum wage is epic in its injustice and Dickensian in its cruelty. It's a shame that Dickens himself isn't here to write about it.

Oh, and we almost forgot: Keeping it this low isn't very smart, either.

A new report provides a good opportunity to revisit the subject, which leads to an inescapable conclusion: Raising the minimum wage isn't just the right thing to do. It's also economic common sense.

Sen. Tom Harkin and Rep. George Miller have a new minimum-wage proposal that's worth fighting for. Here's why:

Most low-wage workers work for large corporations, not Mom-and-Pop businesses.

Many people assume that most minimum-wage employees work for small, family-owned businesses. But a new Data Brief from the National Employment Law Project finds that 66 percent of low-wage employees work for companies with more than 100 employees. That includes a handful of very large corporations which collectively employ nearly 8 million low-wage employees.

The largest of those mega-corporations is, unsurprisingly, Wal-Mart, with 1,400,000 employees. The next-largest is Yumi Foods, which owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC. After Yumi Foods comes McDonald's.

(And after that, one assumes, comes Alka-Seltzer.)

Also on the list is Staples, Inc., the corporation where Mitt Romney boasts that he "created jobs" before his retroactive resignation from Bain Capital. (Can he retroactively give out some raises, too?)

These employers are "job takers," not "job creators."

Staples, like Wal-Mart and most other corporations on the low-wage list, doesn't really "create" jobs. Smaller enterprises of all kinds are crowded out by the unchecked growth of mega-corporations, which often use their volume to undercut the locals on price until they're driven out of business.

Then they raise them again.

In other words, Staples and the other giant corporations are taking those jobs from other businesses - those entrepreneurial Mom and Pop shops which will soon vanish into American folklore unless we do something.

They're "marking everything down" - including people.

As Dave Johnson explains, corporations like Staples are masters at "marking down" the value of their employees. "Average Staples salaries for job postings nationwide are 51% lower than average salaries for all job postings," he writes.

And remember: Staples doesn't just hire entry-level or unskilled workers. It employs sales people, accountants, purchasing directors, and IT people, as well as managers at the store, local, regional, state, and national levels.

Among those employees, you'll probably find the "Moms" and "Pops" which Staples put out of business - that is, if Mom and Pop have jobs at all.

The minimum wage has dropped 30 percent - almost a third - since 1968. So where are the jobs?

As the NELP project notes, today's minimum wage has 30 percent less purchasing power than it did in 1968.

Corporate defenders say that raising the minimum wage will hurt employment. What does the evidence say?

We checked: The official US unemployment rate in 1968 was 3.6 percent. Today that figure is 8.2 percent. (The real employment figures, including discouraged workers and the under-employed, are even worse.)

A weak minimum wage increases poverty and shatters families.

What does this mean in real life? Let's go back to Staples, where a jobs website reports that cashiers make $8.17 per hour, so-called "Easy Techs" make from $8.76 to $9.08 per hour, and the highest paid reported job ("Easy Tech Expert") pays an average of $10.28 per hour. If these employees work full time (not all of them do) they earn anywhere from $16.340 to $20,960 annually.

The poverty line for a family of four is $23,050, according to Federal guidelines.

Some people are chastising Yahoo's pregnant new CEO for planning to work during her maternity leave and her child's early years. Some of them are the same politicians who are making it impossible for employees at companies like Staples to do anything but working during these years - and without CEO-level childcare.

Under current wage levels, neither parent has the option of taking care of the children at home. To do so would be to to doom them to a life of poverty - a life which, among other things, has been shown to damage both their health and their earning ability for life. Sometimes both parents are working and the family is trapped in poverty anyway.

America's large corporations: They're Ebenezer Scrooge, rebranded and publicly traded. The life they've decreed for their workers would be all too familiar to the Cratchit family - especially Tiny Tim.

They've got the dough.

The NELP reports notes that 92 percent of the 50 largest low‐wage employers in the country were profitable last year. And they've more than recovered from the recession: 75 percent are collecting more revenue, 63 percent are earning higher profits, and 73 percent have higher cash holdings.

They've got the money. They just don't want to spend it.

Like other large corporations, Wal-Mart came through the recession with flying colors while most of us continue to struggle. Its profits grew by 23 percent.

For the next largest corporations, Yumi Foods (which lost its greatest asset with the passing of Gidget the Dog) and McDonald's, those figures were 45 percent and 130 percent respectively - a rapid bloating which human beings can only achieve by consuming their products.

The rich get richer, chapter gazillion.

Some more useful figures from the NELP report:

Seriously? $20 million per year for managing KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut? There's nothing to say after that. (Except "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?" And that for all that money you'd think they'd figure out how to make pizzas that don't taste like cardboard.)

The minimum wage isn't automatically adjusted.

Some people are surprised to learn that, unlike some other government rates, the minimum wage isn't automatically adjusted for inflation. Bills which raise it have to be submitted by courageous politicians, and then other politicians must resist big-business interests to vote for it.

Guess how often that happens?

That's why the proposal by Sen. Harkin and Rep. Miller deserves, and needs, a lot of support.

A 35 percent wage increase doesn't mean it costs 35 percent more to hire or keep an employee.

The Harkin/Miller proposal would gradually increase the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.80 per hour, and would then index it to inflation. An increase of approximately 35 percent may strike some people as hefty, but it's a modest number which basically makes up for the ground lost between 1968 and the time it takes effect.

Those who are afraid it could corporate "sticker shock" should understand that increasing somebody's wages by 35 percent doesn't mean you're increasing the cost of employing them by 35 percent. While there are different cost structures in the corporate world, wages can be as low as one-third of an employee's total cost and are rarely more than half.

Why? Big corporations tack on a lot of overhead for their total employee costs - costs which includes those overpaid CEOs, along with their jets, and other perks, as well as more legitimate expenses for centralized corporate functions like purchasing, administration, and IT. There are also other fixed costs attached to employing someone, including insurance, physical housing, and utilities.

The less an employee makes, the lower their wages are likely to be as a percentage of the total employment cost. Raising the minimum wage by 35 percent won't increase Wal-Mart's or Yumi's cost of employing someone by nearly that much. And, as we were saying: They've got the money.

Raising the minimum wage can create jobs -- here's how.

Think of a minimum wage increase as an instant economic stimulus funded by the runaway profits of the major corporations.

People who are struggling to get by on minimum-wage jobs have a lot of pent-up demand - to fix or replace that broken-down car, to put decent groceries on the family table, or to purchase the necessities and tiny luxuries of life.

They're not going to put that money into hedge funds or Swiss bank accounts. They're going to buy stuff. When they do, local businesses are going to need people to sell them that stuff. That means there will be more jobs in the community. It also creates more revenue for the smaller businesses that employ low-wage workers, which will help revive real capitalism - the Mom and Pop kind.

As the demand for the stuff they're buying goes up, the companies that provide it are going to have to hire people to produce it for them. That creates even more jobs.

And every time another job is created, more people buy more stuff - which in turn creates more jobs. That's the cycle of economic growth. For a real-world example, look at this country's economic boom after World War II.

No Excuses

At least corporate executives can come up with some explanation for their behavior, however weak, since they're responsible for their corporation's finances. That doesn't excuse the political leaders who let this situation develop - or a society whose soul-sickness lets it turn a blind eye to the greed of some and the suffering of others.

And here's a suggestion: Politicians should be forbidden from using the phrase "family values" until they've voted to raise the minimum wage.

The cycle of growth has been choked off by the weeds of unrestrained greed. We help can get it started again by raising the minimum wage. It would also remove a moral stain from our national conscience. As Tiny Tim would say: "God bless us, every one."

(I can hear them on Fox now, can't you? "That kid talks like a socialist!")

No wimpiness.

There's something else about the Harkin/Miller proposal that makes it worth supporting: In drafting it they appear to have avoided contracting Democratic-itis, a disease which has reached pandemic proportions within their party's leadership.

Symptoms of Democratic-itis include a pronounced reluctance to take clear positions on any issue, rhetoric which presents two conflicting points of view, and a compulsion to weaken all policy proposals by presenting them alongside other policies which undercut its objective. (For a case study see "Jobs proposals conjoined with 'deficit reduction' packages erode party's base," from the Journal of Political Disorders.)

The Harkin/Miller proposal is refreshingly free of these symptoms. Besides, it would raise wages for 28 million American workers. Take two votes on it and call us in the morning.

Republicans Try to Convert America into Pottersville

Leo Gerard — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 08:20:41 -0500

In the iconic Christmas film, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” an angel offers the beleaguered main character, George Bailey, the stark choice between a hometown named for a cruel banker or one created by and for the middle class.

The banker’s town, Pottersville, is filled with bars, gambling dens and despair. The people’s town of Bedford Falls is made of hope, hard working middle class families, and their homes financed by the Bailey Brothers Building & Loan.

The film’s happy ending is the people of Bedford Falls banding together to rescue George Bailey and the Bailey Brothers Building & Loan that had given so many of them a leg up over the years. Republicans seek a different conclusion. They find middle class cooperation and community intolerable. They want the banker, Henry Potter, with his “every man for himself” philosophy to triumph. In the spirit of their self-centered mentor Ayn Rand, Republicans are trying to disfigure America so she resembles Pottersville.

A building and loan association, like the Bailey Brothers’, uses the savings of its members to provide mortgages to the depositors. Members essentially pool their money to give each other the opportunity to buy cars and homes. At one point in the film, George Bailey explains this concept to frightened depositors who are trying to withdraw their savings during the panic that led to bank runs in 1929.

Bailey urges the townspeople who had crowded into the building and loan office to withdraw only what they need, not empty their accounts. “We have got to stick together,” he tells them, “We have to do this together.” A building and loan doesn’t function without trust and cooperation.

It works well for Bedford Falls. The mortgages it provides help working people move out of the Potters Field slums and into Bailey Park, where homes well kept by their owners increase in value. Despite the success, Potter condemned this practice, saying it was based on “high ideals without common sense.” He criticized the Bailey Brothers Building & Loan for granting a taxi driver a mortgage after Potter’s bank had rejected his application. Potter scoffed at such practices, asking if the building and loan was a “business or a charity ward.”

This is exactly what Republicans do. They describe beloved American programs like Medicare and Social Security as charities – using the euphemism “entitlements.” Like mortgages from the Bailey Building & Loan, Medicare and Social Security are not charities. They’re the American people depositing and pooling their money for the benefit of the American community.

The GOP tries to destroy programs like these that aid the middle class, the vast majority of Americans – the 99 percent – while Republicans protect tax breaks and special perks for the rich – the one percent, the Henry Potters.

This time last year, Republicans demanded extension of tax breaks for the 1 percent, contending tax breaks stimulate the economy.

For the past three months, however, Republicans have fought extension of payroll tax cuts, contending a break benefiting 160 million middle class Americans did not stimulate the economy.

All year, Republicans have demanded an end to programs the middle class created to aid the majority, the 99 percent. The GOP wants to reverse the new banking regulations that were passed in an attempt to prevent another economic collapse caused by risky Wall Street practices. The GOP tried to to rescind the healthcare reform law that prevents insurance companies from terminating coverage when beneficiaries get sick and prohibits the practice of refusing coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

Influential Republicans this year have called for repealing laws forbidding child labor, laws guaranteeing minimum wage and laws protecting the environment. They’ve demanded elimination of federal funding for organizations like the Public Broadcasting System that educates preschoolers, Head Start, which provides opportunity to poor children, and Planned Parenthood, which uses 97 percent of its funds to provide general, obstetrical and gynecological medical care to women, many of whom are rural and poor.

Republicans have decided to be the party of Henry Potter, the “meanest man in the county,” a man about whom George Bailey’s father said: “he's a sick man, frustrated. Sick in his mind, sick in his soul, if he has one.”

Like Potter, Republicans deride compassion and community as character defects.

In the Republican world, where greed is good, it was appropriate for Henry Potter to keep the $8,000 in Bailey Building & Loan money that George Bailey’s uncle, Billy Bailey, accidently handed him.

Republicans are attempting to impose that selfish belief system on the selfless American people, people like the citizens of Bedford Falls who rush to the rescue of neighbors.

It won’t work, just like it didn’t in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Republicans will fail in their attempt to make America Pottersville because the 99 percent believe avarice is a sin, not a value. The GOP will fail because greed is not the American way.

Why Low Wages are Far From Good News

Anne Thompson — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:38:38 -0400

The Austin American-Statesman ran an op-ed Saturday under the head-spinning headline ”Low Texas Wages are Mostly Good News.” No joke.

American-Statesman staff writers Lori Taylor and Heather Gregory noted that Texas had the highest percentage of low-wage workers in the country in 2009 and 2010: more than a half a million workers in the state made the federal minimum wage or less. In this tough economy where so many Americans are struggling to provide their families with housing, food, education and health care, how is that good news?

Taylor and Gregory argue that Texas has a higher percentage of low-wage workers primarily because it is cheaper to live in Texas. “The biggest reason why Texas is a low-wage state,” they write, “is that we have a relatively low cost of living.” As a result, the authors argue that low-wages are sufficient for Texas workers and not a cause to worry.

Yet while Texas may have a lower cost of living than other states, the federal minimum wage is so woefully low and out-of-date that Texas workers making minimum wage are still mired in poverty. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, or roughly $15,000 a year for full-time work. That is more than $7,000 below the official poverty line for a family of four, and even farther below what a family requires to meet basic needs. The notion that $15,000 is enough to raise a family in any state in this nation is absurd.

But according to Taylor and Gregory, these low wages are acceptable to Texans, otherwise they would not be taking such poorly paid jobs. They write “Research demonstrates that workers are generally willing to accept lower wages in locations — like Texas — where the cost of living is low and there are local amenities that make it a desirable place to live.” According to the authors, it’s not that companies are offering lower wages and workers have little bargaining power to negotiate a better wage—it’s that workers willingly accepting lower pay because they don’t need higher wages.

Yet more than one in six Texans—or 17.2 percent of state residents— lived in poverty in Texas in 2009. That’s the 8th highest rate in the country. Mississippi, which tied Texas in 2010 for having the highest percentage of minimum wage workers, had the highest poverty rate in the nation in 2009. Texas also has the nation’s highest percentage of residents without health insurance; in 2009, more than one in four Texans had no health coverage.

Another reason that Taylor and Gregory say that lower wages in Texas are not a cause for concern is that the workforce is younger than in other states, and young workers’ wages will increase with age. They write, “Nationally, teenagers are five times more likely to earn the minimum wage than are hourly workers over the age of 25, and Texas has a lot of teenagers.” However, Census data show that teens make up an even smaller portion of wage earners in Texas than they do nationwide: nationally 4.1 percent of working people are teens while 4.05 percent of wage earners in Texas are teens. . In fact, it’s not a greater percentage of working teens that are driving low wages in Texas. That makes sense, because we know that while teens are more likely to make minimum wage, more than three quarters of minimum wage earners in the U.S. are adults over the age of 20. Contrary to stereotypes, the overwhelming majority of low-wage workers are adults who contribute a substantial portion of their households’ incomes.

Stepping back to look at the stalled economic recovery, the fact that low wages could be regarded as good news is stunning. As David Leonhardt detailed over the weekend, the main factor preventing an economic comeback is anemic consumer demand. With the bursting of the housing bubble and the disappearance of easy credit, wages play an even bigger role in spurring spending. The downward pressure on wages caused by the economic crisis make a stronger minimum wage even more important—both because even more families are depending on it, and because it is the floor for other wages across the bottom of the labor market.

As the below graph from the Bureau of Labor Statistics demonstrates, the number of Texans making at or below federal minimum wage has shot up since the recession. The number of jobs paying at or below the federal minimum wage in Texas increased by 76,000 in 2010.

With the disappearance of higher paying jobs, more and more families are depending on low-wage jobs to get by. A growing proportion of workers making minimum wage or near-minimum wage will make it harder for Main Street to recover from the severe economic hit they have already taken. This is anything but good news.

Anne Thompson is a Policy Analyst at the National Employment Law Project.

Busting the power of conservatives in both parties

Dennis Baer — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:51:32 -0500

From: http://www.democratz.org

Hello

I HAVE YOUR NON VIOLENT PROTEST HERE: Busting the power of the corporations and the conservatives in the Republiklan and Democratic Parties and My letter to President Obama. We do not need to go out in the streets. We merely decide to stop buying products from companies that give money to conservatives. We will not get arrested nor get ignored.

At the end of this message I have a plan to destroy the power of the conservative coalition of Democrats and Republican members in congress. Conservative Democrats and Republicans have thwarted an increase in the minimum wage to $10 an hour, EFCA, Health care and more. I urge people to boycott consumer products from some major companies that contribute money to conservatives in both parties and pressure these CEOs with the potential huge loss of income and force them to go to conservatives in congress and get us progressives the legislation we demand. If you like this then please consider spreading the word. Yes, we need elections and getting progressives elected BUT look what has happened even with Democratic majorities in both house and senate and a Democratic President. We have gotten thwarted and we need a strategy that will get us progressive legislation between elections and this strategy needs to get considered. What has worked to get us needed legislation that hasn't gotten watered down or stopped? Do you have a better way? If not then consider this.

Thank you.

I sent this letter to President Obama by fax the other day.

Dear President Obama

I come to you today to praise you and to criticize you and to petition you.

I want to tell you a true story which just happened a few days ago. I came into this world 4 years after World War II. When I grew up partly in New York City and Partly in Nassau Country New York, as a young boy I would watch Meet the Press. I watched this show as a boy of 6 or 7. I watched the people of the era talk about the issues. I also watched Mike Wallace's You are there as well. I recall seeing other programs about famous people. I saw newsreels of a man who wore a white sheet. NO! not that kind of white sheet! Mohandas Gandhi, wore a white sheet of cotton. Why did Gandhi wear white sheets? He wanted to set an example for his people to make their own cloth and not buy goods from his oppressors who occupied his country.

He appeared a modern day Moses, but of another religion. I have a number of heroes like Gandhi. Most of them died, except for Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu. Considering myself a Jewish person, I find that good that people from other religions and other people's can serve as examples for heroes as it tends to unite people of different backgrounds. Each of these heroes, Moses, Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, Nelson Mandela, Bishop Tutu eventually brought their oppressors down by not cooperating with their oppressors.

The other day, I spoke to the great grandson of Mohandas Gandhi. I had sought to speak to his father, the grandson of Mohandas Gandhi. I never expected to ever speak to anyone in this family of Gandhi. I told him that I thanked his great grandfather for his work and that he inspired me as I used to see newsreels of his great grandfather during the 1950's and 1960's and especially using boycotts to eventually uniting his people of India to eject their oppressors out of their country. I told Gandhi's great grandson of my electronic PAMPHLET on the web and again thanked him and said good day.

Now, I say to you Mr. President, that I want a real populist President similar to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and I and other people will make you do it, just like FDR told his supporters to make him do what they wanted him to do.

So in the tradition and inspiration of Moses and Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu and their people I say to you again we will make you do it.

How? By boycotting the products of those of your friends in corporations who donated money to you, and donated money to Republicans and to conservatives in the Democratic party who have led this country down a path to the second great depression. The only reason that we have not descended further appears that we had citizens back about 77 years ago who made FDR do it and had good regulations in place today that the conservatives in both parties want to repeal. So from now on I will no longer donate money to the Democratic party although I remain a member. Again I will not buy products from major companies that donate money to conservatives in both parties and I will demand progressive legislation that really helps the poor and middle class people instead of the undeserving wealthy at this point of crisis in our country, of the CEOs that run those companies and until that happens they will lose business from me and many other people such that we will put pressure on those CEOs to help get us the legislation that we want.

I agreed with the bailout of the banks and the partial nationalization of GM and Chrysler but now it appears OUR turn such that we get a $10 an hour minimum wage, a passage of the employee free choice act, a passage of the women's freedom of choice act, a passage of a compromise SINGLE PAYER PUBLIC OPTION paid for by general taxes which will allow private health insurance but in which those who choose this new single payer public option will have no premiums, no copayments, no yearly deductibles, no recisions, no rejection for preexisting conditions and cover everything: doctors visits, surgery, hospital stays, abortion, dentistry, eye care, nursing home and hospice care and home care and it will serve as a health insurance EXODUS so that the private health insurance companies will let our people go. We also need to end the war in Iraq and a way to end the war in Afghanistan but we need to help build Afghanistan up so the Taliban and Al Qaeda will no longer get the favor of some people in Afghanistan. We need other legislation that helps those less fortunate in our country.

Republicans only talk about freedom but they offer us no real solutions. These Republican corporate masters only offer us FIEFDOM and wage slavery and a kind of slavery to insurers where they exploit the economic conditions of those who don't have enough money to pay for their insurance and not freedom. These Republican corporate masters offer their middle class and even poor supporters FREEDUMB organizing them in a rabble of misnamed fake populist Tea partiers for which those Boston patriots of a few centuries ago would probably say, hey these Republican FREEDUMB lovers HAVE REPRESENTATION, so what excuse do they have for disrupting government town halls that we helped to establish?

Really Mr. President, those present day so called tea partiers appear a perversion of those real patriots that helped liberate our country a few centuries ago. Do these false tea partiers stand for a living wage? No. Do these false tea partiers stand for unions? No. Do these false tea partiers stand for helping those less fortunate in our country? No.

These Recruited Republican FREEDUMB lovers claim that they appear PATRIOTs.

I say NAY, those Recruited Republican rabble appear as

stand PAT RIOTers

disrupting government who attempt to help the less fortunate in our country. How many times have I seen or heard this Republican rabble express their contempt for the poor and less fortunate in the middle class? I have seen and heard such contempt by these conservatives for decades blaming most of the poor and less fortunate middle class for their own problems as an excuse to shift blame away from many corporations who disadvantage such people and also as an excuse to have government dissolve in the area of social justice.

These Republican rabble stand PAT RIOTers want us to stand pat for their corporate masters to continue to profit on the suffering of people in many areas and not just health care. They want us to stand pat and yell no more higher taxes deliberately wanting the American people to not see the way corporate governors want to PRIVATELY TAX people with low pay aka Cheap labor aka wage theft not giving workers in many cases the worth of their work that they do and suppressing the organization of people in unions. These corporate governors also tax people privately with high prices in a cartel working with other corporate governors in fixing prices so even though you have a few companies in a sector of products you really have a polyopoly keeping PRIVATE TAXES high in a lot of product sectors. Yes high prices and low wages function as a PRIVATE TAXATION system run by private government which the Republicans support and come from and they have their stooges in the stand PAT RIOT movement to pose as as populists. NAY!

So next time Republicans criticize our party for taxation in their miscommunications at election time we Democrats will remind the people that the Republicans continue to tax us PRIVATELY and raise these PRIVATE TAXES through POLYOPOLY, DUOPOLY, MONOPOLY, cheap labor and high prices and that Republicans need to get relieved of their power in government which they deliberately sabotage social programs through deliberate deficit creation through oil wars, unjust tax breaks for the wealthy and cutting of social programs. This deliberate deficit creation has gone on for 30 years now started by Ronald Reagan the miscommunicator and it has to stop. The Republicans create a huge deficit so when they get relieved of power then the Democrat has to clean up the mess and cannot or will not continue on the path of social justice or water it down such that supporters of Democrats get angry as they did in Bill Clinton's time and now yours!

So Mr. President, we will make you promote real social justice and not catering to corporations in the quest for social justice and eliminate these so called public private partnerships that these corporations take too much money from the poor and less fortunate that the Republicans have done in the past years and until this day and create regular government programs that do not allow these corporations to leech upon the public and profit to the detriment of middle class and poor people.

I have seen this in Medicare Part D and Medicare Disadvantage and now thanks to conservative Democrats we face this in the new health insurance and Pharmaceutical company enrichment act of 2010.

No more Mr. President. No More.

Help the middle class and the poor and until then, the Democratic party gets no money from me and in 2010 and 2012 I will go to the polls and only vote on referenda, meaning I will not vote for anyone for representative, senator and President. I will stay in the Democratic party and do what I can to rid us these conservatives in OUR party from power by peaceful means through boycotts of consumers products of their contributors that give them money and convince other Democrats to also boycott these contributors to conservatives in both parties and force these CEOs to go to congressional leaders and tell the leaders that hundreds of thousands of people will no longer buy from the CEOs companies until congress passes real progressive legislation that citizens want and have petitioned the CEOs for.

In the end, Mr. President we will get this done peacefully and we will do everything peaceful to make you help us.

In the tradition of Moses, Gandhi, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu, we will get this done for social Justice for the less fortunate in our country. I encourage other people reading this open letter to the President to organize and petition the government and the CEOs of corporations that aid meanspirited conservatives in both parties to go to my electric pamphlet at http://www.democratz.org and sign those petitions that you see best to accomplish social justice for the less fortunate in our country. Once you sign them, electronic letters will go out right away to congressional leaders and the Corporations that aid meanspirited conservatives. Do this for the less fortunate! Let our people grow and to meanspirited conservatives, let our people GO from your greed, high prices and wage slavery and private taxes and your religious oppression.

So let it get written so let it get done.

Sincerely,

http://www.democratz.org

I created these petitions for social justice. These petitions appear different from regular petitions. These petitions allow people to boycott conservative contributors that give money to conservatives in both parties.

I enthusiastically voted for Barack Obama in 2008. Now I appear disappointed that President Obama made deals with Big Pharma and the health insurance industry. This administration looks like Clinton II.

Please sign these NEW petitions for single payer health care HR676 as primary legislation or for HR676 as the public option.

http://bit.ly/public_option

http://bit.ly/traitorjoe

http://bit.ly/HR676

http://bit.ly/single_payer_snowe

http://bit.ly/single_payer_ross

http://bit.ly/single_payer_exxon

http://bit.ly/single_payer_california

http://bit.ly/drug_benefit

Also sign these petitions.

http://bit.ly/EFCA

http://bit.ly/10_an_hour_min_wage

http://bit.ly/women_freedom_of_choice_act

http://endthewars.democratz.org

We can stop the filibuster done by the Republiklan party and also get a bonus of the employee free choice act too enacted into law. You can help.

It appears very simple. Since Senator Mitch McConnell has nothing much to lose directly by pressuring him, we go after Brown Forman corporation of Kentucky who distributes Jack Daniels Whiskey and Southern Comfort Liquor, who by the way gives money to Mitch McConnell, the senate minority leader for his campaigns.

Go to http://bit.ly/STOPFILIBUSTERS which link will take you to a petition demanding the passage of the Employee Free Choice act and also for Mitch McConnell to halt any filibusters. Oh and when you sign the petition, emails go out right away to Mitch McConnell and Brown Forman Corporation from Kentucky. If you can’t pressure McConnell directly pressure his friends at Brown Forman by telling them you will boycott their products until they get McConnell to comply with our demands.

Also call Brown-Forman at 502-585-1100 and tell the person who answers to get the CEO to GET Mitch McConnell to execute no Republican filibusters for the duration of the Obama Administration and enact the Employee free choice act into law or you don't buy Jack Daniel's whiskey and Southern Comfort anymore!

So if you want to end the filibuster by Republicans, sign the petition now.

YOU HAVE THE POWER !!

Peter Namtvedt

Peter Namtvedt — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:15:09 -0400

Federal Minimum Wage Lags States

Armand Biroonak — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:01:32 -0400

After the federal minimum wage increases to $6.55, it will remain below the minimum rate in 23 states and the District of Columbia. And even when it reaches $7.25 in 2009 the federal wage will still be below the minimum rate in at least 11 states and the District of Columbia.

Minimum Wage Not Adjusted for Inflation

Armand Biroonak — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:56:31 -0400

If the minimum wage had been linked to the inflation rate in 1968, it would be over $8.60 today. If had been indexed to inflation in 1978, it would be nearly $8.00 today.

New Minimum Wage Still Falls Short

Armand Biroonak — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:49:44 -0400

The new minimum wage of $6.55 an hour still leaves millions of hard-working Americans in poverty.

A worker who is employed full-time at the new minimum wage still earns only about $13,600 per year—$4,000 below the federal poverty line for a family of three and $7,600 below poverty for a family of four.

Minimum Wage

Armand Biroonak — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:21:00 -0400