All countries are only as good as their people. They are the engines of any country. The engines should be as powerful as possible in order to do this we need the best educational system, which should be free up to the bachelor’s degree, or an apprenticeship of four to five years for a trade, and a free healthcare system. The workers must have the wages to be able to save for a good pension when they retire, which would mean they would be productive on a volunteer basis. The workers must be paid a good living wage, starting at $15 to $18 an hour.
Paying people well for their work would release funds for government assets, which could be used for the cost of free education and healthcare. Also, the workers would be tax payers, instead of being like the Walmart stores in Minnesota with its 20,997 employees, which creates a public burden of $92.7 million a year in government assistance for these employees. Most workers are 35 years old and 88 percent are 20 years or older.
This is just what one low-wage paying corporation in one state costs the tax payers. I think this money could be better spent to make our country’s working engine better instead of giving the money to supplement large corporations that do nothing but improve their profits over interests of its workers and widens the income inequality.
The large, low-paying corporations like Burger King, McDonald’s, Walmart, Target, and Taco Bell. Then we have the temporary worker agencies, which force workers onto government assistance. This is like pouring sugar into a gas tank, which ruins the engine. We need to start pouring more gas and stop the sugar. The gas would be the $15 to $18 an hour, free education, healthcare and pensions.
Watch how the new Bad Boss Tax, that is about taxing low-wage paying corporations, like Walmart, which is the country’s largest beneficiary of food stamp dollars for its employees, which, ironically, many of these dollars are coming from Walmart workers. We need to hold corporations accountable when they ask to form corporations. The states are the agencies that give corporations the permissions to incorporate. At the time a business wants to incorporate in a state, we could at that time force corporation to pay a living wage with benefits, just like when the state or city allows corporations to get away with paying chump change for wages to its workers in the promise that the corporations will provide jobs.
I hope that I am wrong, but what I see at this time is our unions are going to be in the fight of their existence. This is the most perilous time of our life. The life we had is threatened like never before. Unions are the largest organized group of people who can save our country if things keep going the way they are heading at this time. We need to all stand together for power, but we each must prepare and plan to take care of ourselves and our families. We can fight the big fight and not be distracted by worry about things that can and should already be taken care of. For instance, stashing at least one month’s pay and at least a month or even a year’s worth of food, whether the food is staples (pasta, rice, canned goods) and meat or chicken in the freezer. Keep your vehicles' tanks full and if possible a gas can full. It’s in your best interest to also save money for house or rent payments plus extra. This is not new thinking for us old trade workers who had to prepare when...
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