Kansas Crimson

ousdahl wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2019 12:51 pm I’ll reiterate my suggestion for economic policy:

1. An income tax rate based on an exponential curve. Everybody pays some, and the more you make, the more you pay. No loopholes and crap.

2. National sales tax. So we’re taxed not only based on income, but also on consumption. Rates could be lower for things like bread and milk, and higher for things like vacation homes and yachts.

jeepinjayhawk wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2019 2:25 pm No, just a tool in general.

So, I don't know that there are a significant amount of people in this country suffering because they can't earn a living wage?

That their children will likely suffer the same miserable existence?

That they are economically distressed and have no means of making their situations better?

DCHawk1 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2019 3:15 pm

jeepinjayhawk wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2019 2:25 pm No, just a tool in general.

So, I don't know that there are a significant amount of people in this country suffering because they can't earn a living wage?

That their children will likely suffer the same miserable existence?

That they are economically distressed and have no means of making their situations better?

No. You don't know that. You just think you do.

The majority of minimum wage workers are under 25. The largest age category of minimum wage earners is 16-19 year-olds. There are just 500,000 people in the country earning minimum wage, and the overwhelming majority are second or third earners in a household. A far greater number -- about 1.3 million people -- make LESS than minimum wage, but also earn gratuities. The largest share of minimum or below wage earners are in food service -- meaning that the largest group is comprised principally of servers -- which is to say people who make a larger percentage of their income on tips.

These are FACTS.

To answer AOC's question. Why does a croissant cost 7 bucks at the airport? Because that's what the market will bear. And the market will bear that, in large part because of restrictions on items that may be brought through security check points. These food service companies have a captive market. It also doesn't help that the minimum wage at New York's two airport's is $19/hr.

AOC -- like Trump and like a great many on this board -- thinks that her personal experiences translate directly into broader reality and thus into legislative solutions. But that's not how things work. To repeat myself, the plural of anecdote is NOT data. What you experience, what ousdahl experiences, what I experience -- all these things are legitimate case studies, but none constitutes the broader conditions in society in and of themselves.

I've already told you that I'm getting screwed over good and hard by a foreign government. I have also noted -- on previous boards -- that once upon a time I earned a good portion of my income in stock bonuses. I worked for a company for a good long time, earning good equity stakes. And then, one day, long after I left the company, the company went bankrupt and triggered a financial collapse. And all the stock that I hard earned, but couldn't sell because I was not yet "vested" -- that's to say, all the "money" that had been saved for kids' college education, retirement, etc. -- went to ZERO overnight.

I was pissed. I'm STILL pissed -- largely because I know now what they were doing that caused the bankruptcy.

But I don't expect the federal government to fight back against the foreign government currently killing me, and I don't expect it to pass laws to ensure that my equity stake in an employer can't go to zero.

That would be stoopid. My experiences are NOT representative of everyone's experiences. And to base policy on my shitty luck would be destructive.

DCHawk1 wrote: Cuz party of science.

Or something.

TraditionKU wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2019 3:32 pm

DCHawk1 wrote: Cuz party of science.

Or something.

better than being party of science-denial

jussayin’

jeepinjayhawk wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2019 3:21 pm
Sorry to hear of your shitty experience.

I lost everything in '08, so I know where you are coming from.

TraditionKU wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2019 7:14 pmcostco

TDub wrote: ↑Mon Jun 17, 2019 10:14 pm https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/17/business ... index.html

Shes an idiot.