To bring back financial stability and put the unemployed to work we must raise the wages to at least $15 to $18 an hour, but there is an even quicker way to matching aggregate supply and demand and this is the most important role of the government fiscal policy that is make sure the U.S. has the $16 trillion in purchasing power to buy the $16 trillion in goods and services that we produce each year.
For a little more than one-third of the military budget we could have full employment of the 11 million people in the U.S. The fastest way yet is to do what the Swiss will be voting on this fall and that is to pay its citizens $2,800 a month regardless if they work or not. This campaign for a Europe-wide basic income is gaining ground. This would be full employment, which would give workers much greater bargaining power for wages, childcare, eldercare, hiring disabled workers and a much higher standard of living with pensions and healthcare when too old to work anymore.
Those who want to work will be encouraged to do so, but those who don’t want to do will have money to provide for themselves and their families while circulating money in the economy. By giving people money it creates jobs in the production side, but also in the administration of the funds. Not everyone can handle money and some need assistance in money management, which can be done privately as well as by a government agency. These agencies, both private and governmental, already exist.
This is also good for business for they will get people who want to work, younger workers with hope and a brighter future. There are many more ways to solve the low wage problem and full employment such as shorter hours, work sharing, shorter work weeks. Most of these ideas are band-aides that will only work for a while. The guaranteed income offers compensation for all those engaged in the kinds of activities that promote the business that employers make use of, but never pay for and it offers a better way to distribute income.
These are the best choices for the workers and the capitalist consumer system. The other will be decided in the streets here and the rest of the working world. Now is the time. We still have a chance by using the people power and the vote, which is much better than the alternative of rioting in the streets. Just look at Rio de Janeiro, Taipei, Venezuela, Ukraine, South Korea, and the steel workers in Pittsburg, P.A., and the list goes on.
These countries are on the brink of the tipping point, but we have the answers as mentioned above we just need the will.
Yes, they are coming for us. Workers need to have one another’s backs because no one else will. Neither the broader labor movement nor the Democratic party are prepared to meet the urgency of this moment. So it’s going to fall upon the rest of us to mount a real resistance against Trump’s authoritarian takeover. We’re going to have to get our hands dirty. I don’t care if you have a good, well-paying union job and you are in the middle class now—if you see a worker being dragged out of his workplace regardless of how skilled the job and potentially taken to another country, you should be ready to be there for that worker. When I.C.E. shows up, gather around and shame them into leaving. It has worked in other places. America is sleep walking into authoritarianism, and if there’s anyone out there who is a member of a labor union that is safe—at this point— and doesn’t think this applies to them. Understand that they just haven’t gotten to you yet. They’re coming for all of us. There are ...
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