Center on Capital & Social Equity

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Couch potato plays "Debt Ceiling Doom," new video game inspired by Congress and the White House. World capitalism on the brink.

McCarthy & Co. offer themselves up on the cross to help motivate lazy poor people back to work - Karl Polzer

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Thanks to the Washington Post for running our letter:

"Letting Americans Down"

"How can House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), President Biden and Senate leaders claim to represent the working class and poor when Medicaid work requirements are a focal point in the debt ceiling standoff and the Trump-era tax cuts are not? According to the Congressional Budget Office, the work requirements in the Limit, Save, Grow Act would have a tiny impact (about $5.6 billion in fiscal 2025) on the nation’s $31.4 trillion national debt, but they would increase the number of uninsured and state costs and have no effect on hours worked by Medicaid recipients.

"In contrast, ending the Trump-era tax cuts, which disproportionately benefit the wealthy, could put a major dent in the national debt...."

Because most of this site's readers won't be able to get through the newspaper's pay gate, here's the draft of the letter sent to the Post:

Debt ceiling negotiators focus on a ‘speck’ in benefits for the poor, ignore the ‘logs’ in their own eyes.

The Post ran the letter next to this op-ed:

The poor are being held hostage in the debt ceiling standoff - E.J. Dionne

Statistic: Difference between the inflation rate and growth of wages in the United States from January 2020 to April 2023 | Statista

Find more statistics at Statista

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China’s Youth Unemployment Problem - Nancy Qian/Project Syndicate

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The European capital where rent is triple the minimum wage - BBC

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Wesfarmers CEO issues wages and jobs warning - Financial Review

"Unions are pushing for minimum and award wages to rise by about 7 per cent in line with inflation, while the Albanese government has said it doesn’t want the lowest paid workers going backwards in real terms."

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The UK’s world beating minimum wage is not as good as it appears - Guardian

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'Treat humans like humans': Amazon drivers file 16-page lawsuit alleging inhumane working conditions - Alternet

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Have profit margins risen to a permanently high plateau? - msn

"To appreciate how bearish it would be for profit margins to return to this 6.4% average, assume that everything else stays constant—GDP, corporate sales, price/earnings multiples, and so forth. If profits’ share of GDP were to decline to 6.4%, the stock market would have to fall more than 40%."

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A theory of the rise and fall of economic leadership: Review of Bas van Bavel’s “The Invisible Hand?” - Global Inequality+

"Van Bavel distinguishes three stages: market economy (output markets and security of property), accumulation (wage labor, capital accumulation, and growth), capitalism (dominance of the financial sector, use of the state by capitalists, monopolization)."

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The graph above shows how small wage pressure has been (red block) compared to energy (dark blue) and food prices (light blue), supply shortages (yellow) and initial macroeconomic conditions (grey).

The two Bs on inflation - Michael Roberts

As has been written here before, the current run of inflation has many fathers.

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Not Buying Central Banks’ Favorite Excuse - Raghuram Rajan/Project Syndicate

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US dollar dominance to persist for decades despite challenges - Moody's

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Debt Ceiling Agreement Reflects Improvements Over House Bill, Harmful Provisions Remain - CBPP

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Biden and McCarthy's tentative deal raises debt ceiling until 2025 - WaExaminer

World capitalism can breathe a sigh of relief - at least for the weekend. The U.S. government will still be there to feed it. But couch potatoes on Medicaid might have more trouble getting free chips...On to Congress for more tough love.

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Israeli agents conducted raid against militants in civilian area, killing a child - WaPost

"Videos from a March 16 raid in Jenin show increasingly deadly tactics by Israeli officers"

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A Democratic Tipping Point in Israel - CAP panel discussion

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Racist chants and clashes as tens of thousands march in Old City for Jerusalem Day - Jerusalem Times

"Turnout for Flag March estimated at 70,000; some chant ‘death to Arabs’ and ‘may your villages burn’; over 60 arrests; Palestinians, Israelis fight with rocks, pepper spray."

Wonder if the Biden/McCarthy budget deal includes a few billion for this racist government. Would the U.S. public tolerate a white mob marching through an African-American neighborhood on July 4 chanting the "n" word?

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Sunday, May 28, 2023

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"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"

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Pope sends Vatican official to Bolivia as abuse allegations escalate - AP

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Texas nuns sue Catholic bishop who accuses one of adultery - msn

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$7.25/Hour No Longer Enough: Survey Shows What Americans Want As Minimum Wage Amid Tough Times - Benziga

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Just Because You Think You Are Tipping a Service Worker Doesn’t Mean You Are - Capital & Main

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What is the highest-paying job? Spoiler: It's in medicine. - USA Today

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Using ERISA as a Transparency Sword, Not a Shield - Thomas Miller/AEI

No surprises from the DC swamp: Federal hospital pricing transparency requirements are largely not being followed or enforced. As a result, patients remain at financial risk.

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94-year-old grandmother gets big win at Supreme Court - Fox

'The taxpayer must render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, but no more,' said Chief Justice John Roberts in Tyler v. Hennepin County

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Stalingrad (1943)

Putingrad (2023)

Russia captured Bakhmut, but it cost thousands of troops and now its remaining soldiers are exhausted - Business Insider

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This Is How the Rich Pass on Property Without Paying Huge Amounts in Taxes - Motley Fool

Anything in here that could reduce the national debt?

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U.S. debt default could hit Social Security payments first - WaPost

"A possible lapse in Social Security payments means the oldest beneficiaries — those over 88 — and the disabled could be among the first to suffer."

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White House says it won't compromise on these four things in debt ceiling deal - WaExaminer

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'Work requirements' emerge as flashpoint in debt ceiling, spending talks - ABC

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Event: 2023 State of Homelessness Report: Homelessness Trends in the United States - May 24 - 2-3 pm

"Continuums of Care conduct a Point-in-Time (PIT) count of people experiencing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness on a single night in January. They also take an inventory of beds and units that serve people experiencing homelessness in their Housing Inventory Counts (HIC). The Alliance’s annual State of Homelessness Report leverages both to analyze trends in homelessness across the United States. It provides systems, providers, advocates, policymakers, and others with information to help shape their work (for example, calculations of bed utilization and unmet need). Please join us for our webinar in which we will share our findings from our 2023 State of Homelessness Report."

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Pittsburgh’s mayor asked for expert advice on homelessness. Here’s what the mayor — and you — should know - PublicSource

"With homeless shelters full and warming weather, some street outreach workers are calling the situation in Pittsburgh a crisis and expect the number of people living outside to increase by up to 50%."

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U.S. Money Supply Is Doing Something Truly Historic, and It May Foreshadow a Big Move for the Stock Market - Motley Fool

"M2 has been trending higher since 1959, which is as far back as the data from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve goes. However, it really skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The issuance of multiple rounds of stimulus checks, coupled with the nation's central bank purchasing Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities (collectively known as quantitative easing (QE)), sent M2 screaming higher by 26% on a year-over-year basis. This was, by far, the fastest increase in U.S. money supply on record.

"Now we're witnessing the opposite. As of March 2023, reported M2 data showed a 4.1% year-over-year decline...

"...if M2 is declining and inflation is still above historic norms, there may not be enough money for discretionary purchases or other goods and services. Declining M2 may signal deflationary pressures to come that could lead to lower corporate earnings and a recession."

M2 Definition and Meaning in the Money Supply - Investopedia

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Here’s How Much Americans Have in Their Savings Accounts in 2023 - msn

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Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2022, May 2023

"The survey, which was fielded in October 2022, found that self-reported financial well-being fell sharply and was among the lowest observed since 2016.

"Similarly, the share of adults who said that they spent less than their income in the month before the survey fell in 2022 from the prior year, while the share who said that their credit card debt increased rose. Among adults who were not retired, the survey also showed a decline in the share who felt that their retirement savings plan was on track, suggesting
that individuals had concerns about their future financial security. The declines in financial well-being across these measures provide an indication of how families were affected by broader economic conditions in 2022, such as inflation and stock market declines."

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GOP is pushing work requirements in debt-limit talks — but experts say they don't work - CBS

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Bankruptcies are skyrocketing — and that’s only half the story - The Hill

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Low-income tenants lack options as old mobile home parks are razed - AP/msn

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America’s Poverty Is Built by Design - Politico

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Mormon whistleblower: Church’s investment firm masquerades as charity | 60 Minutes

Question: What percent of the tithes that Churches ask from their members should the Church spend on helping people in need? How much on itself?

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Sunday, May 21, 2023

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AGE OF EASY MONEY - Frontline

"...the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates and pulling back on its epic monetary experiment that started with the Great Financial Crisis...

**"The two-hour documentary Age of Easy Money investigates how the Fed’s experiment has changed the American economy and what it means that the era may be over."**

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Missing in this year’s debt-ceiling talks: Democratic demands for new taxes - WaPost

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Biden Is Considering Selling Out Poor Americans to Get a Debt Ceiling Deal - Slate

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GOP is pushing work requirements in debt-limit talks — but experts say they don't work - CBS

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Denials of health-insurance claims are rising — and getting weirder - WaPost

Has the US health insurance industry found a novel use of AI to increase cash flow and profits: replacing human claim reviewers with algorithms programmed to be blind, deaf, ignorant, lazy, stupid, obstinate, and randomly erroneous?

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Claims Denials and Appeals in ACA Marketplace Plans in 2021 - KFF

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Martin Shkreli Was Too Honest - Matt Stoller/BIG

"FTC Chair Lina Khan just put the business model of big pharma on trial with a challenge to a merger of Amgen and Horizon Therapeutics. And Wall Street is freaking out."

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Number of manufacturing protests recorded in the CLB Strike Map (October 2022 - March 2023)

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Why is a GOP senator pushing a massive tax hike on the working class? - WaExaminer

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In Louisiana, Rock-Bottom Minimum Wage Is Becoming a Liability for Republicans - truthout

"Republicans stubbornly defend $7.25 an hour in a state where more than one in four children live in poverty."

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Minimum Wage by State 2022 and 2023 Increases - Paycor

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Sanders Unveils Bill Guaranteeing Up to 7 Days of Paid Sick Leave for US Workers - truthout

"The U.S. is the only wealthy country in the world without universal paid sick leave...

"Lawmakers also called for Congress to pass universal paid family leave, which is not included in the bill, at the press conference."

Decoupling the demand for paid sick days, which mainly would benefit low-income workers, from paid family leave, which is more expensive and more likely to benefit higher-income workers, would be an important policy shift for progressives.

See:

All Workers Should Have A Few Paid Sick Days. The President And Congress Can Make It Happen - HealthAffairs

"Despite the clear benefits and minimal costs of requiring a few days of paid sick leave, the opportunity to pass this legislation will likely slip by again once the 116th Congress gets to work. This is because neither major party puts enough priority on the needs of low-paid workers. Although Democrats are supportive of paid sick leave, they give far more emphasis to the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act, which would mandate 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave funded by a payroll tax. Paid family leave will be a much heavier lift. While the payroll tax funding family leave would fall on all workers, it may be of greater benefit to higher-income families, especially if political bargaining results in exceptions for smaller businesses."

Congress must ensure national social insurance programs don't stiff low-wage workers - op-ed

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Report Details How Rich CEOs Avoid Taxes on Retirement Funds as Their Employees Struggle - Common Dreams

"Nothing but the power of corporate leaders to rig rules in their favor can explain this double standard."

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Biden can’t ignore the Constitution and give himself unilateral power to raise the debt ceiling - WaExaminer

Question: If the Administration exceeded the debt limit, what enforcement mechanisms could Congress, or the Supreme Court, deploy to enforce compliance? How long would it take to litigate noncompliance and remedies?

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House Republicans’ Agriculture Appropriations Bill Would Cut WIC Benefits for 5 Million Participants, Put SNAP Benefits at Risk for 1 Million Older Adults - CBPP

Have intel that contractors that would profit from administering federal/state work requirements are lobbying Congress to impose them on Medicaid and SNAP benefits.

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Dear Speaker McCarthy, President Biden, and Senate leaders:

How can any of you claim to represent the working class and poor when Medicaid work requirements are a focal point in the debt ceiling standoff and the Trump tax cuts are not? According to CBO, work requirements in HR 2811 would have a tiny impact on the nation's $25 trillion national debt (about $5.6 billion in FY 2025), while increasing the number of uninsured and state costs, and having no effect on hours worked by Medicaid recipients.

In contrast, ending the Trump cuts, which disproportionately boost the wealthy, could make a major difference in the nation's finances. Lawmakers could either do this now or wait a couple years and be gridlocked when some of the tax cuts expire.

In 2018, CBO estimated "that the tax act would increase the primary deficit (that is, the deficit excluding the costs of servicing debt) by $1.843 trillion over the 2018–2028 period...When debt-service costs were added, the increase in the total deficit came to $2.314 trillion." Adjusting those figures for inflation would equal a substantial chunk of today's national debt.

CBO recently cited JCT estimates that extending individual income tax provisions of the 2017 tax act would increase deficits by $2.5 trillion over the 2024–2033 period -- or by $2.66 trillion including debt service costs. Most of the effects would occur after 2026.

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After Decades of Costly, Regressive, and Ineffective Tax Cuts, a New Course Is Needed - CBPP

Low-Income Parents at Significant Risk Under the House-Passed Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements in Debt Ceiling Bill - Georgetown Health Policy Institute

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How to Use the Debt Ceiling to Inflict Cruelty on the Poor - NY Times

Biden Is Considering Selling Out Poor Americans to Get a Debt Ceiling Deal - Slate

Biden pushes back at tougher work requirements for welfare sought by Republicans in debt-ceiling talks - USA Today

So, which is it?

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Robert Lucas: the rationality of capitalism - Michael Roberts

Is it rational for a woman and a man to produce and raise children? Costs and benefits?

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Fertility rates are collapsing – and it’s not ‘backward’ to be concerned - Telegra ph/msn

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In pictures: The surge at the US-Mexico border - CNN

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The bipartisan immigration policy that helps rural Americans get access to local physicians - Niskanen Center

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U.S. Sanctions on Venezuela & Cuba Fuel Migration Even as Biden Restricts Asylum Seekers at Border - Democracy Now!

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Evidence shows immigration reduces wages significantly - WaExaminer

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Is the working-class black vote up for grabs?:

Democrats throwing black voters under bus for new progressive agenda - NY Post

While there's truth in this argument, the GOP can't offer a viable alternative until it supports concrete policies that advance the economic interests of working-class Americans. That would include higher wages and better benefits.

We've suggested this approach on raising the minimum wage:

Analysis: Ways To Raise the U.S. Minimum Wage To Help Workers, Families, While Minimizing Negative Impacts

Op-ed: Yes, raise the minimum wage, but don't stop there

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“Chicago Is Leading the Way in Advancing a Real Political Alternative” - Jacobin/msn

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A group of Arab refugees walks along a road from Jerusalem to Lebanon, carrying their belongings with them on Nov. 9, 1948. The group was driven from their homes by attacks in Galilee. For the first time, the United Nations will officially commemorate the flight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from what is now Israel on the 75th anniversary of their exodus, an action stemming from the U.N.’s partition of British-ruled Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle, File)

Abbas urges UN to suspend Israel during first commemoration of 1948 flight of the Palestinians - AP

Palestinian leader urges UN to ban Israel, says US, UK caused Nakba to ‘get rid of their Jews - Times of Israel

It's impossible to know all of President Truman's motives for supporting the creation of Israel. Here's what he said in support of immigration of displaced Jews to Palestine in 1946:

Statement by the President Following the Adjournment of the Palestine
Conference in London (1946)

Hypothetical question: If the Netanyahu government was forced to leave the country, where would it be welcome?

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It’s official: billionaires aren’t the brainboxes they like to believe - Guardian

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Debt and Dysfunction in America - Michael Strain/AEI

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THE CHILD CARE CRISIS - TIME

Characteristics of the Child Care Workforce - BPC

Childcare Workers - BLS

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For-Profit Child Care Chains See Opportunity to Monopolize Imperiled Industry - truthout

Though the hodge podge childcare industry is unlikely to become monopolized by capitalists, the story above provides interesting background and research.

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Three Big Ideas to Fix Child Care in the Time of COVID and Beyond - New America

Another idea: provide support for parents who forego paid work to care for their young kids. Canada, for example, does this by providing caregiver tax credits and counting childrearing in the national pension formula.

Something to avoid is the Biden Administration's childcare blueprint in the failed Build Back Better legislative package, which was wasteful, targeted too high up the income scale, and inflationary. Here are risks we foresaw:

"White House’s promised childcare subsidies face a host of ‘devils in the details’" - CCSE

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A California-based woman bought 3 abandoned houses in a Sicilian village for $3.30, cashing in on Italy's desperation to repopulate its fast-emptying ghost towns - Business Insider

A couple videos:

The Truth Behind Italy's $1 Homes

The Truth About 1-Euro Italian Houses

Heads up!

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Pope joins Meloni in urging Italians to have more kids, not pets - AP

"Meloni came to power last year on a pro-family campaign of 'God, family, fatherland' and her government has proposed a host of measures to try to encourage families to have more children, given Italy's fertility rate of 1.24 children per woman is among the lowest in the world. Numerous studies have pointed to a combination of factors that discourage women from having children, including a lack of affordable childcare spots, low salaries and precarious work contracts, and a tradition of women often bearing the burden of caring for older parents."

Funny. But, really, Papa and the Vatican brass should do more than talk and put their staff to work on this. Allowing Italy's 40K+ clergy to marry and encouraging them to produce children could have many positive impacts. Instead of being the international poster child for sex abuse, the Church could provide living examples of Biblically sanctioned copulation and wholesome family life. Legal costs might ease.

Allowing priests to marry also could rescue Italy's social security and welfare system and ease its financial stress. Premier Meloni could do her part by urging Italian women to ramp up their fertility. The current birth rate -- one and a quarter kid per woman -- is unacceptable. If today's workforce isn't up to the job, maybe it's time to allow women to enter the priesthood.

Requiring priests to be celibate was the result of politics about 1,000 years ago. It was not widespread during the early years of church:

A very brief history of priestly celibacy in the Catholic Church

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Sunday, May 14, 2023

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Grant Cardone Asks How Politicians That Make $100k Suddenly Become Multimillionaires — Here’s the Harsh Reality - msn

It could be worse. Venality and serial lying to voters is bad enough. What if 1 in 3 members of Congress had committed murder or other serious crimes? ...

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India’s Law-of-the-Jungle Raj - ASHOKA MODY/Project Syndicate

"By 2019, the share of Lok Sabha members charged with serious crimes had more than doubled, to 29%. The bad was driving out the good throughout the country. Even in a progressive state such as Tamil Nadu, a quarter of the state legislators in 2021 had outstanding charges of serious crimes."

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Israel denies the Nakba while perpetuating it - Al Jazeera

The bottom line is land acquisition by force. Compare and contrast with Russia/Ukraine today, Germany/Europe in the 20th century, and the US/Mexico/Indian lands in the middle of the 19th under the doctrine of "manifest destiny."

For a meticulously documented alternative to Israeli/US media accounts of history, read: "Under the Cover of War: The Zionist Expulsion of the Palestinians" by Rosemarie Esber.

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BTW, here's what U.S. Grant had to say about US seizure of Mexican territory:

Grant in Mexico: "One of the most unjust (wars) ever waged" - US Army

""For myself,' Grant wrote later about the United States war against Mexico, 'I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation.'

"The political, cultural and social era of the 1830s birthed a mission transcribed as Manifest Destiny, America's expansion westward into the lands occupied by native tribes and the Republic of Mexico. This national attitude was a major cause of the war with Mexico and had tragic results for many. Grant, though against the war personally, served to the best of his ability as a matter of duty."

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"We were sent to provoke a fight, but it was essential that Mexico should commence it." - excerpt from Grant's Personal Memoires, one of the greatest books written by an American.

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The Mexican-American War: Photos from the 1800s show a young nation's conflict - USA Today

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Hollywood Writers Have a Word for It: Inequality - Capital & Main

"From Cocaine Bear to Panda Express, the fight for a living wage is the same."

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Canadian doctors protest their own pay raises - CNBC

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Crossing the Border: Doctor Salary US vs. Canada - Dr. Bill

Compare incomes along with cost of training and malpractice liability. Also consider the social and economic culture of each country which is very different.

Medical School Tuition in the US and Canada in 2023 - International Medical Aid

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The Poverty Paradox: why is there still so much economic hardship in the US? - Guardian

"In a new book, author Mark Rank looks at why one of the world’s wealthiest countries has such a high rate of poverty."

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Migrants crossing dense Darien jungle at Colombia-Panama border find increasingly organized route

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Title 42 has ended. Here’s what it did, and how US immigration policy is changing - AP

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'Why can't there be a system?': Tribe pushes to ease US border crossings for Native Americans - AP

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Staffing firm CEO says more US companies are 'nearshoring' less-expensive workers from Latin America - Business Insider/msn

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The Ugly Truth Behind “We Buy Ugly Houses” - Propublica

"HomeVestors of America, the self-proclaimed 'largest homebuyer in the U.S.,' trains its nearly 1,150 franchisees to zero in on homeowners’ desperation."

"The company’s training manual teaches franchisees to build relationships with those who interact with people in difficult situations: nursing home administrators, probate officers, divorce lawyers. It also instructs them to comb neighborhoods for clues of distress — water shutoff notices, police tape, boarded-up windows, burn scars — and pounce on signs of desperation. If a family’s belongings are on the curb, for example, the directive is clear: 'Quickly pursue the property where the trash pile indicates eviction .' ...

"'That cat piss smell, you know what that smell is?' he said with a chuckle. 'That’s money.'"

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Some States Open College Savings Accounts for Every Newborn - Stateline

"California in August formally launched CalKIDS, the nation’s largest children’s savings account program. CalKIDS will automatically set up college savings accounts with initial deposits of up to for every baby born in California on or after July 1, 2022. In addition, it will make a deposit up to $500 for each of the 3.4 million low-income public-school students in first through 12th grade."

What California is doing may be well-intentioned, but it's UNDERwhelming. While admirable to encourage low-income kids to go to college, the amount of money being invested is small and may not even cover ongoing inflation of university costs. If the state really wanted to help low-income kids, it could simply lower their tuition costs. The main beneficiary of the program is the state higher education establishment.

The small amount of money being invested by the state also is discriminatory against kids that don't end up going to college - which would be most low-income kids. Under CalKIDS program rules, if the money isn't used by age 26, it reverts to the state fund for use by kids that do go to college. A more equitable alternative would be to allow young people reaching a certain age (30?) to roll unspent CalKIDS funds into a Roth IRA so they can build wealth and prepare for retirement and old age.

Unspent funds from government baby bonds and education savings programs could be funneled into state (or federal) retirement savings programs or help provide money buying a home, upgrading job skills, or starting a business. Theycould dovetail with a universal retirement savings and investment system that CCSE proposes.

For example, Virginia's Sec. 529 college savings agency is expanding its mission to encourage retirement savings for workers without access to employer 401(k) programs. The state legislature approved RetirePath Virginia, a state-facilitated retirement savings program through which workers can invest a portion of their pay to a Roth individual retirement account. Aside from payroll deduction by the employer, however, the new program replicates what is already available in the marketplace through companies like Fidelity or Vanguard. RetirePath Virginia actually forbids employers to match employee contributions and offers no contributions from the state. Without matching contributions, RetirePath Virginia is another UNDERwhelming program. The Virginia program could benefit low-wage workers more by providing matching funds. Unspent funds from education accounts could be a source. The main intent of the program is to nudge workers and employers into starting job-based retirement savings.

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This simple way to fix the wealth gap between Blacks and Whites is far better than reparations - Juan Williams/Fox

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How the U.S. Retirement Saving System Magnifies Inequality – Karl Polzer/Society of Actuaries

The US Congress needs to organize a universal retirement savings system that includes all low-wage workers regardless of ethnic origin or color. The current system primarily covers and disproportionately subsidizes contributions for higher-income workers.

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Homelessness surges in D.C. suburbs, amid national crisis, study finds - WaPost

"The D.C. region joins a growing list of cities that are seeing similar spikes, which coincided with the end of pandemic relief programs and stubbornly high inflation. In recent weeks and months, Phoenix; Louisville; Tulsa; Spokane, Wash.; and Santa Monica, Calif., reported big increases in their homeless populations. Many jurisdictions such as New York City and Los Angeles have mounted aggressive plans for housing the homeless, but a shortage of affordable housing, mental health and substance abuse treatment options have frustrated many of those efforts, experts say."

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Phoenix begins clearing "The Zone," one of the nation's largest homeless encampments - Axios

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A California city is trying to block a Christian group from feeding homeless people. Now, the DOJ is weighing in. - USA Today

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How to build a mental-health system that saves people like Jordan Neely - NY Post

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HUD ALLOCATES $382 MILLION TO HELP STATES PRODUCE AFFORDABLE HOUSING - press release

"Housing Trust Fund Allocations will increase and preserve the supply of decent, safe, and sanitary affordable housing for extremely low- and very low-income households."

HUD Marks Important New Milestone in American Rescue Plan’s Emergency Housing Voucher Program - Fact Sheet

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How to Make Housing Less Affordable - WSJ

"An Energy rule for manufactured homes will hit low earners."

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HOMEBUYING TRENDS IN METRO BOSTON CONTRIBUTE TO NEW LOCATIONS OF RACIAL SEGREGATION - Harvard JCHP

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Notes on the financial oligarchy: Jeffrey Epstein and the criminality of the ruling class - WSWS

"Almost four years after Epstein’s death, a series of articles last week in the Wall Street Journal have made it possible to peer further into this incestuous world of high finance and corporate-state power in which Epstein played a key intermediary role."

Victims’ testimony: how Ghislaine Maxwell lured girls into Epstein’s orbit - Guardian

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Good news on fixing Social Security from Sens. Cassidy and King (and not-so-good)

We recently shared our concerns with Sens. Cassidy and King that raising the Social Security retirement age again would be a major benefit cut particularly for low-income workers and states. Both offices responded that, contrary to previous reports, neither is now singling out raising the age as a preferred means to fix Social Security’s long-term financing. That’s good news for families struggling to make ends meet.

From Cassidy’s staff last week: “Senators Cassidy and King think the single most important part of any Social Security guarantee plan should be an investment component that solves much of the solvency problem and minimizes painful choices. Other than that, they and the others in their working group believe that everything should be up for debate. Research like yours will help them make informed decisions should Social Security ever gain more deliberate attention in Congress.”

From King’s staff this week: “Raising the retirement age never has been a preferred choice of Sen. King’s. He’s focused on preserving benefits and enhancing them for low-income workers. While talks are highly unlikely to result in a legislative product this Congress, the Senator thinks that continuing to engage on a bipartisan basis is the only way to avoid a 24 percent benefit cut when we reach insolvency in a decade or less. The longer we delay, the tougher the choices become. I appreciate your input.”

Both senators should be applauded for their leadership in seeking a bipartisan solution as soon as possible. The not-so-good news is that most of their colleagues in this Congress aren’t interested in engaging in the issue. So why bother with it now? As Sen. McConnell (who also represents another low-income state) might observe, financing Social Security is a “long game.” It makes sense to provide information ASAP to members of the Senate and House likely to be involved in w0rk on a solution down the road.

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Worker shortage was supposed to give people with no college degree opportunity. But has it? - USA Today

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A Taxi Driver's Daily Posts on Income is Vexing Italy's Most Vocal Lobby - Bloomberg

Is There Uber In Italy? - Roman Guy

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Railroad worker eviscerates Biden for pushing Middle East railway project: 'Slap in our face' - Fox

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Israeli Targeted Airstrikes Kill Thirteen in Gaza: 3 Militants and 10 Others, Including Children - TIME

US tax dollars at work?

Dear Joe, Chuck, Mitch, Kevin and friends: As Israel bombs Gaza, should US taxpayers be asking why funding for its military is a safer bet to survive the debt ceiling standoff and threat of economic meltdown than funding to provide health care, housing, or food for American citizens? Time to move a couple billion $$ from guns to butter?

Jordan, Egypt pan Israeli strikes in Gaza; UN envoy: Civilian deaths ‘unacceptable’ - Times of Israel

Is Gaza really like a concentration camp? - WaExaminer

Two Million People Are Imprisoned for 15 Years. The New Barrier Will Remain There Forever - Haaretz

Concentration camps in Gaza, 2021 - Veterans Today

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How Pundits’ Inflation and The Working Class - Lever

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A huge homeless camp will be cleared after neighbors sued. What happens to its vulnerable residents is an open question - CNN

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Georgia Takes a Stand on Homeless Policy - City Journal

"Legislators in the Peach State have joined a growing movement rejecting the failed approaches that have fostered urban anarchy elsewhere."

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An Indiana pizza shop owner says he's facing thousands of dollars in fines for letting a homeless man keep his tent between two dumpsters behind the restaurant - msn

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The Anarchism of the Catholic Worker - Nation

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News Blog - April 10 - May 8, 2023 - Click here

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America's rental nightmare, as map reveals 20 hardest markets to find a home - and it's bad news if you live in the Northeast - Daily Mail

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Republicans dismiss fears that their debt ceiling bill would make the housing crisis worse for 1 million families as 'scaremongering' - Business Insider

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Young adults in the U.S. are less likely than those in most of Europe to live in their parents’ home - PEW

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Israel demolishes Palestinian West Bank school - Reuters

Israel hands over bodies of 3 Palestinians killed in March - Big News Network

‘Scores settled’: IDF kills Palestinians who allegedly shot dead 3 Dee family members - Times of Israel

Israel’s military deliberately brings Palestinian conflict to boiling point - WSWS

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Early Morning Rain - Gordon Lightfoot

1938-2023

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I Pity the Poor Immigrant - Bob Dylan

Wiki

How John Steinbeck’s Final Novel Grappled With Immigration and Morality - LitHub

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source: "Hungry Cooks"- Economic Roundtable

Inequality You Can Taste: Low Wages and Unstable Employment Make Fast Food Workers Susceptible to Homelessness - Capital & Main

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Hollywood writers are on strike over an artificial intelligence threat some are warning is coming for you next - abc.net.aus

Power at Work weekly download

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Indigenous woman who stopped mining giant wins prize - BBC

"When I was a child, I had immense freedom. We fished in the rivers and the lakes, we collected fruits and the seeds we use to make our handicrafts. But starting in 2014, I saw these areas turned into deserts by diggers and other big machines." ...

But she says that it was not easy to take on a leadership role in her community at first.

"In our culture, it's traditionally the men who take decisions, it's the men who go hunting and fishing. We women are supposed to stay in our realm, looking after the husband, the children, and the home."

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White House proposes a 30 percent tax on electricity used for crypto mining - msn

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Overinflated: The Journey of a Humble Tire Reveals Why Prices Are Still So High - ProPublica

"After Williams ran her card, Brown walked out to look at her new tires. They’d traveled more than 10,000 miles from a factory in Vietnam to the shop in Picayune. They’d traversed a pandemic, a volatile raw materials market, a consumer spending boom, a trade war, a supply chain crisis and a labor shortage. Now they sat on the rear axle of her Rogue, ready to do the thing they were destined to do."

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‘Poor people are not stupid’: I grew up in poverty, earned $14 an hour, and inherited $150,000. Here’s what I have learned from my windfall. - msn

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‘Workers now have their eye on the ball:’ Many employees are stressed, but also optimistic and focused on the future - msn

"It’s not surprising for workers to expect a pay increase forthcoming since the majority of workers worldwide (62%) received an increase in pay over the previous year. The rises in 2022 averaged 6.4% — under the International Monetary Fund’s global inflation forecast of 8.8%, which means, in real terms, workers received a slight pay cut.

"But Richardson says the wage increase staying below inflation is evidence that a wage-price spiral is not at hand. A wage-price spiral happens when wages and inflation feed each other to the point where inflation rises out of control."

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Mark Twain on schooling:

"God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board."

"I never let my schooling interfere with my education."

"Everything has its limit - iron ore cannot be educated into gold."

"All schools, all colleges, have two great functions: to confer, and to conceal valuable knowledge."

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The Boy Who Cried Marx -Robert Pondiscio/AEI

"American education lacks the rigor, focus, and self-discipline to march in lockstep on anything, let alone the commitment and perseverance required to whip schoolchildren into tiny Red Brigades, an American Komsomol. We can’t even agree on the rock-bottom basics: how to teach kids to read, or whether a student who assaults a teacher should be suspended or just needs a hug. Turn America’s 3.7 million teachers into ideologues committed to revolution? It would be easier to turn house cats into a synchronized-swimming team."

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Capitalism unchained:

Review of Krishnan Nayar's 'Liberal Capitalist Democracy: The God that Failed' - Branko Milanovic

"The question which is on everybody’s mind after having read Nayar’s book is, What next? Because if capitalism continues along the current trajectory that Nayar believes almost preordained, it must again produce instability and rejection."

Black shirts or brown?

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Why Socialism? - Albert Einstein - Monthly Review

This guy goes a bit deeper than screaming about the top 1% and taxing billionaires.

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Marx and modern microeconomics - CEPR/VoxEU

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Marx on Immigration: Workers, Wages, and Legal Status - Monthly Review

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Cities say shelters full, budgets hit by immigration uptick - AP

Biden Sending 1,500 Troops to Southern Border Ahead of Expected Migration Surge

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Film and TV writers go on strike, bringing production on many shows to a halt - CNN

Largest Nurses Strike in UK History – Chat GPT Workers Unionize in Africa – Some Canadians Union Settle While Others Continue Strike - Payday Report

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Arkansas Gets Medicaid Back to Normal: The Covid-19 public-health emergency expanded the rolls, reducing resources for low-income and disabled people. - Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders/WSJ

"Some also claim that Arkansas will see a spike in the number of uninsured people. That, too, is incorrect. Those who lose Medicaid coverage can get health insurance through their jobs or the healthcare marketplace."

How much of the state's motivation in speeding people off Medicaid is shifting costs from the state to the federal government (which subsidizes exchange coverage), employers, and individuals who will pay more for care through higher cost-sharing or by ending up uninsured? Provider lobbies may support the push for a variety of reasons. For some, it can result in higher payment rates. For others, like long-term care providers, it may free up state funds for Medicaid rate increases.

Gov. Huckabee says the state has added resources to help people losing Medicaid coverage:

Renew Arkansas - FAQ

Arkansas recently led a push for Medicaid work requirements. The demonstration program resulted in large-scale disenrollment and was halted by a federal court:

Medicaid Demonstrations and Impacts on Health Coverage: A Review of the Evidence - ASPE/HHS

"Arkansas was the first state to implement a work requirement as a condition of eligibility for its Medicaid program. In order to maintain eligibility for coverage, Medicaid beneficiaries subject to the requirement had to report completion of 80 hours per month of work or another approved community engagement activity or a qualifying exemption. Qualifying community engagement activities included job training, job search, education, and community service activities, while exemptions included pregnancy, certain caregiving activities, and experiencing certain medical conditions.

"Implemented in June 2018, Arkansas’ work requirement policy was in effect until March 2019, when a federal court halted it. During this period, approximately 18,000 beneficiaries were disenrolled from Medicaid due to noncompliance. A research study found a significant increase in the uninsured rate in the target population (low-income 30 to 49 year-olds), with no increase in employment or other community engagement activities. Overall, work requirements led to a reduction in the share of this population who had Medicaid coverage by 12 percentage points. While most coverage losses were reversed in 2019 when the policy was halted, the temporary loss of Medicaid coverage had adverse consequences. One study found that adults with chronic conditions in Arkansas were more likely to lose coverage, and another found that many who lost Medicaid coverage in 2018 experienced negative effects. Specific findings include:

 50 percent reported serious problems paying off medical bills;

 56 percent delayed seeking health care because of cost; and

 64 percent delayed taking medications because of cost."

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Taking a Closer Look at the CBO Estimates of Speaker McCarthy’s Damaging Medicaid Work Reporting Requirement - Georgetown Health Policy Institute

CBO’s Estimate of the Budgetary Effects of H.R. 2811, the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023

"Division C of the bill would establish new work requirements for Medicaid and expand work requirements for SNAP and TANF. CBO estimates that those provisions would reduce federal spending by $120 billion over the
2023–2033 period, consisting of reductions of $109 billion for Medicaid, $11 billion for SNAP, and $6 million for TANF."

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Public Comment: HUD should continue affirmatively furthering fair housing - Niskanen Center

"Exclusionary zoning and targeted growth controls on housing supply have long been the central policy tools furthering income and racial segregation."

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California sues Elk Grove over housing project for homeless - AP

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The multiple faces of inequality in India - Conversation

India’s economy is surging thanks to these three revolutions - Fareed Zakaria/WaPost

India economic outlook, April 2023 - Deloitte

"India will need a strong rebound in investments to attain sustainable growth. Global uncertainties will weigh on growth this year, but India is poised to grow by 6.5% in the medium term."

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The human toll of air pollution in India - Boston College

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Tata Nano Into Solar-Powered Vehicle: Innovative West Bengal Businessman Travels 100km For Only Rs 30 - India Times

Here's What Made The Cheerful Tata Nano The World’s Cheapest Car

"The cheapest car in the world turned out to be something that not many people actually wanted to own, and that tag turned out to be the Tata Nano's undoing. This despite the fact that the Nano car was actually the perfect city car, with a few shortcomings that weren't even dealbreakers."

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The Power of American Capitalism - David Brooks/NYT

"The American model of capitalism is under assault from the left, which rails against the supposed horrors of neoliberalism and globalization, and from Tucker Carlson-style populists, who often treat American capitalism as a great betrayal. But it has proved superior to all real world alternatives."

This simplistic article places everything American under the label of capitalism. The reality is that the US political economy is a mixture. Capitalism is a driving force but cannot confine the nation's spirit which flows beyond the confines of self-interest and money making. Yes, the US economy has been more dynamic than Europe's. But its current brand of capitalism is tame compared with faster growing parts of the world and as well as its own past.

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Bad News: The US life expectancy rate actually decreasing - msn

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The Leading Causes Of Death In Men Should Be A Wakeup Call To Everyone

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NICU Nurse Adopts 14-Year-Old Teen Patient with Triplets, to Keep Their Family Together - Good News Network

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Sunday, April 30, 2023

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Power at Work Blog - Weekly Download

"The Weekly Download is the place for ideas, features, research, and news coverage about workers, worker power, and unions — delivered to your inbox and the Power at Work Blog, every week. The Weekly Download hopes to promote the writing, research, and analysis that advances a discourse putting workers and their unions at the center of the national conversation."

Delta Workers, Labor and Community Allies Rally for Union Representation at Delta Air Lines - IAM

When We Organized At My Trader Joe’s - Progressive Magazine

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America Pays a High Price for Low Wages - WSJ/msn

"The low-wage/high-welfare system that Democrats and Republicans have supported since the late 20th century is not sustainable in the long run. The alternative is to try to achieve the long-standing aspiration of American workers and reformers: a living wage for all."

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The Fed admits some of the blame for Silicon Valley Bank's failure in scathing report - NPR

No Confidence in the Fed - Joseph Stiglitz/Project Syndicate

It turns out the Fed thinks it’s not very good at regulating banks. Maybe a better use for some of its 800 economists would be to put them in charge of US/Mexico border security policy — particularly those still influenced by Phillips curve theory. Supervisory incompetence at the border could lower wages, and thus inflation, by allowing a horde of unskilled workers into the US labor market. :)

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US prepares for more migrant crossings as border restrictions set to end -Reuters

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Inflation: causes and solutions - Michael Roberts

CCSE comment: Rather than a single cause, it's likely that the current run of inflation has many fathers. A big factor is years of monetary policy that drove equity prices up since the alternative was no interest on bonds. Investment capital was almost free due to low rates. People with capital had surplus savings. The working class didn’t benefit.

In the US, Covid stimulus spending reaching far too high up the income scale resulted in more extra cash. So, when supply constraints came, people with surplus savings could bid up prices of goods and services while those without mostly had to cut back on consumption. Corporations with monopoly leverage could squeeze more from those with money than they lost in volume at bottom….

Enter the Fed's attack on surplus demand focused on labor costs. The Phillips curve might have worked for a while in the 1950s when big union bargaining set the pace for overall wage increases — not now. So raising interest rates to slow economic growth and cool wages by the higher unemployment rates is a remedy targeted at the wrong income segment -- like injecting pain killer for a tooth ache into a knee.

Question: Would raising taxes on the upper-middle class and wealthy have a greater impact on curbing aggregate demand than interest rate hikes which most impact low-income people who don’t have the capacity to increase quantity demanded? At best, wage increases are barely keeping up with inflation. They are more likely to be reacting to inflation than causing it.

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The US should select immigrants based on skills, not family ties - The Hill

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Private Equity Is Gutting America — and Getting Away With It - NYT

"Consider the case of the Carlyle Group and the nursing home chain HCR ManorCare. In 2007, Carlyle — a private equity firm now with $373 billion in assets under management — bought HCR ManorCare for a little over $6 billion, most of which was borrowed money that ManorCare, not Carlyle, would have to pay back. As the new owner, Carlyle sold nearly all of ManorCare’s real estate and quickly recovered its initial investment. This meant, however, that ManorCare was forced to pay nearly half a billion dollars a year in rent to occupy buildings it once owned. Carlyle also extracted over $80 million in transaction and advisory fees from the company it had just bought, draining ManorCare of money."

Political influence? What political influence?

The Carlyle Group - Wiki

David Rubenstein - Wiki

Glenn Youngkin to Retire as Co-CEO after 25 years; Kewsong Lee Named Sole CEO of The Carlyle Group

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‘More than half of my paycheck goes to rent’: young US doctors push to unionize - Guardian

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More Americans are falling behind on paying down debt - Quartz

Harley-Davidson Says Repo Shortage Is Fueling Credit Losses - Bloomberg

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Student loan pause has benefitted affluent borrowers the most, others may struggle when payments resume - Brookings

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New Evidence: Availability of Federal Student Loans for Grad Students Caused Costs to Rise Dramatically - AEI

"Based on their analysis, they conclude that the increases in available credit did in fact cause prices to rise—and hugely so. They estimate that every dollar-increase in federal student loan eligibility translated into a $0.64 increase in net price. This implies, that in the case of graduate programs, they are in fact “greedy” in the way that William Bennett accused them of being. And more importantly, that the colleges themselves—rather than the students—were capturing most of the tax-payer funded expansion of student aid."

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How the GOP’s Medicaid work requirements will backfire - WaPost

"...A subsequent analysis of the Arkansas program, published in Health Affairs, found that it did not increase employment levels. But it did have long-term, adverse consequences for those who lost coverage. Of those purged, 50 percent reported serious problems paying off medical debt, 56 percent delayed care due to cost, and 64 percent delayed taking medications because of cost."

How executing a new GOP proposal could be 'Kafkaesque nightmare' - Raw Story/msn (ungated)

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Budget BS coming from both sides:

Biden’s misleading deficit claim earns him a Bottomless Pinocchio - WaPost/msn

Unpaid-For Tax Cuts Would Be Irresponsible and Hypocritical - CRFB

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Roundup: Analyzing Speaker McCarthy’s Harmful Debt-Ceiling-and-Cuts Bill - CBPP

DOA in the Senate.

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As lawmakers gear up for federal debt limit fight, here's what it could mean for Social Security - CNBC

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After Macron Raised Retirement Age, French Unions Promise Largest Strike Yet on May Day - Payday Report

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Republican Governor Blames Democrats for Stopping Child Tax Credits - Newsweek

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Massachusetts House passes comprehensive tax relief package - Leominster Champion

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Supreme Court should put an end to unjust government seizures of home equity - WaExaminer

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Every family with a home needs to start worrying about inheritance tax – right now - Telegraph

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Birthday party ideas for eight year olds

Center on Capital & Social Equity completes 8th year

Billing from our web site vendor indicates CCSE has been operating for a bit more than eight years. If memory does not fail, this was the first article posted:

"Playing Immigration Piñata"

This is one of the longest and most comprehensive:

"Mixing Capitalism and Socialism: Policies To Moderate Systemic Wealth Concentration in the United States"

Click here for links to essays, op-eds, letters and other information concerning economic inequality. Or click on Quick Links at the top of this page.

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You Choose: Food or Medications? - Medpage Today

"The suffering caused by exorbitant drug prices is all too clear for doctors to see."

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Assessing Health Care Access among Medicaid/CHIP-Enrolled Children - Urban Institute

"Extensive evidence shows that, relative to being uninsured, coverage through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) improves children’s access to and receipt of health care, with benefits that extend throughout a child’s life. But some children with Medicaid/CHIP coverage may face systematic barriers that constrain their access to care."

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The VA would face major budget cuts under the GOP’s debt ceiling plan - Task & Purpose

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How Do Workers and Households Adjust to Robots? - VoxChina

"New technologies, artificial intelligence, and automation may have positive impacts on growth and productivity, which could eventually increase demand for higher-skilled workers. Our results suggest that in the short run the labor market may not adjust to such rapid and dramatic change. As income inequality increases in many emerging economies, this may pose further challenges to governments facing increased dissatisfaction among the population, particularly among those most exposed to the competition with new technologies. However, we also document how workers responded to the shock by increasing early retirement and technical training, highlighting the role of these channels of adjustment in the labor market. Households responded to the negative shock by increasing borrowing to keep savings and consumption constant. At the same time, more exposed households increased investment in the human capital of their children."

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May 4, Washington, DC

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How a Google Antitrust Case Could Determine the Future of AI - BIG

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8 Helpful Everyday Examples of Artificial Intelligence - IoT For All

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Canadian Federal Workers Strike Enters 2nd Week – Rutgers Staff May Strike Again - Payday Report

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Writers Guild Warns of Impact on Streamers, Legacy Networks as Potential Strike Looms - Hollywood Reporter

***Why Hollywood Writers Are Going on Strike -* *More Perfect Union***

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Amazon delivery drivers scored a rare union win. The company swiftly sidestepped it. - yahoo!

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This how much you really need to earn to be considered middle class in America - Daily Mail/msn

"There is a nearly $100,000 disparity between household incomes required to be considered middle class in cities across the United States, new data showed..."

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West Virginia employers struggling to hire more than most states: report - msn

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Understanding America’s Labor Shortage: The Most Impacted States - US Chamber of Commerce

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Touchscreens, conveyor belts: McDonald’s opens first largely automated location - Guardian

Unionize this!

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McDonald’s lays off hundreds, cuts pay for workers, closes field offices - NY Post

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“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house."

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Sunday, April 23, 2023

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Israel’s One-State Reality: It’s Time to Give Up on the Two-State Solution - Foreign Affairs

"Some implications of this one-state reality are clear. The world will not stop caring about Palestinian rights, no matter how fervently many supporters of Israel (and Arab rulers) wish they would. Violence, dispossession, and human rights abuses have escalated over the last year, and the risk of large-scale violent confrontation grows with every day that Palestinians are locked in this ever-expanding system of legalized oppression and Israeli encroachment. But far less clear is how important actors will adjust—if they adjust at all—as the reality of a single state shifts from open secret to undeniable truth."

Discussing “the one state reality” in Israel-Palestine - Brookings

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The US should reassess its massive aid programs to the Middle East - Hill

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Christians in the Holy Land become a target of Israel's rising far-right - NBC

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Muslims Celebrate Eid, the end of Ramadan, across the world

Tired, Cranky, and Very Hungry: Life As a Mom During Ramadan - Elle

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Republicans Have Named Their Price to Raise the Debt Ceiling - Jacobin

"...their plan would make it significantly harder for people to access Medicaid, food stamps, and Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF — the main cash welfare program for poor families with children)."

Thought the new GOP was going to fight for low-income people and frontline workers...More paperwork to qualify for Medicaid and cuts in benefits workers need in hard times? That's not new.

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Assessing the Damaging Impact of Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements in McCarthy Bill - Georgetown University

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Taking Medicaid Away for Not Meeting a Work-Reporting Requirement Would Keep People From Health Care - CBPP

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Millions expected to lose dental care coverage after Medicaid review - NBC

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Paid leave is now the law in Illinois - Labor Tribune

State Family and Medical Leave Laws - NCSL

Paid Sick Leave Laws By State for 2023 - Paycor

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All Workers Should Have A Few Paid Sick Days. The President And Congress Can Make It Happen - HealthAffairs

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The Tide of Price over Volume - Big Picture

"When you combine the narrative from P&G (“we have price power and we know it now”) with the FOMC’s greatest fear (services inflation), it is not difficult to parse out what happens next. There is little in the way of relief coming in the pipeline for the consumer."

More 'greedflation'...

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Monthly housing payments hit all-time high: report - Hill

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Bernie Sanders: We Need To Talk About Oligarchy, Income Inequality, Lobbying, Corporate Ownership Of Media - RealClear Politics

Sen. Bernie Sanders talks about his new book, "It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism," with MSNBC's Jen Psaki.

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Sanders Surprisingly Sees Dems' Flaws - Ira Stoll/Newsmax

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India Weighs Higher Capital Gains Tax to Curb Inequality

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Taxes & Government Revenue - World Bank

Taxation - Our World in Data

How the Modern Tax System Emerges As a Country Develops – Evidence from 100 Countries - Harvard KSG

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Assisted-living homes are rejecting Medicaid and evicting seniors - WaPost

Q: If an AL company drops out of a state Medicaid program after promising private-pay residents to keep them should they exhaust their assets, has it encumbered a contractual obligation to pay for their care at another AL facility (assuming, of course, residents do not require nursing home level of care) if they run out of money and are asked to leave?

Also, another reason it makes sense for Congress to increase SSI:

SSI Needs Fixing: Chronic neglect is choking off access to Social Security’s critical backstop – and pushing more
blind, disabled and old people into poverty. - CCSE

"SSI helps many states offer assisted living and group home options to low-income seniors and people with disabilities who otherwise would have to live in a nursing home or psychiatric facility. Under federal law, Medicaid pays for room and board in nursing homes but not assisted living or group homes. States use SSI to fill in the gap, but the amount is often insufficient to cover provider costs. As a result, supply and consumer choice of non-institutional housing-with-care options are usually limited."

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Leon Levine, discount store pioneer, dies at 85 - CNN

"Levine, a college dropout, was one of several retail founders who ushered in a boom of stores selling low-cost goods. Discount stores have thrived in recent decades as the income gap in the United States has widened. Three dollar store chains — Dollar General, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar — are now the fastest-growing US retailers."

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America’s heinous regression on child labor exploits vulnerable migrants - Hill

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Jayapal criticized for saying immigrants 'needed' in America to 'pick the food we eat' and 'clean our homes' - Fox

Another way immigrants can help the US: providing competition for incumbents whose mouths run ahead of their brains.

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CBPP has released two tweet threads: one on how the expiration of the expanded Child Tax Credit has affected child poverty, and another on the number of adults without children previously eligible for the expanded 2021 Earned Income Tax Credit who will receive a meager credit or no credit at all this year.

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State Child Tax Credit Overview - NCSL

State Child Tax Credit Enactments

New Maryland laws expand earned income tax credit, child tax credit - Center Square

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Why Yelp wants to ban noncompete agreements - Axios

WaPost op-ed - Beyond noncompetes, firms use these tactics to stop workers from leaving - Open Markets

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Statistic: Difference between the inflation rate and growth of wages in the United States from 2020 to 2023 | Statista

Find more statistics at Statista

US Paychecks Are Outpacing Inflation - Bloomberg

Median earnings ran above consumer prices in first quarter.
Strong wage gains may tilt Fed toward another rate hike in May.
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US Inflation Rate by Year From 1929 to 2023 - Balance

Check out the Fed funds rate in 1980 and 1982.

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Vance railway safety bill debate tests more populist, blue-collar GOP - Washington Examiner

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PNC Ballpark Workers to Strike on 4/20 – 155,000 Canadian Workers to Strike on Thursday – Payday Publishes 1,000th Article

Rutgers Puts Wall Street Before Teachers - Lever

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Employee dies, nearly 100 workers infected in fungal outbreak at Michigan paper mill - USA Today/msn

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'We’re going to live in reality over here': Republicans nix Kevin McCarthy's plan to slash food aid - Raw Story

"Politico reported Sunday that McCarthy's latest idea is to slash food aid to poor families, including children. Still, it's not sitting well with Republican colleagues who are likely aware of the inflated costs around food."

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Dramatic realignment swings working-class districts toward GOP - Axios

"Nine of the top 10 wealthiest congressional districts are represented by Democrats, while Republicans now represent most of the poorer half of the country, according to median income data provided by Rep. Marcy Kaptur's (D-Ohio) office."

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More independents, but...

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There are more Americans who say they are independent but who still vote with one of the parties than there are Americans who belong to either the Democratic or Republican parties. https://t.co/qqBKmRwPca
— Philip Bump (@pbump) January 13, 2023

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INFLATION PRESSURES ARE STRESSING RENTER HOUSEHOLDS - Harvard JCHS

"More than half the nation’s renters—including two thirds of low-income renters—report that they have been very stressed by sharp increases in both rents and the price of other goods and services, according to our analysis of data from the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey."

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Why Employers Change Insurance Brokers and Benefits Consultants - Dr. Eric Bricker/AHealthcareZ

Great video...So, what can policymakers/Congress do to ensure these brokers and consultants are guard dogs, not lap dogs -- ie, minimize conflicts of interest?

As medical cost inflation cuts into health coverage and care, particularly for people with low incomes, employers and the government need to increase their bargaining leverage.

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The chronicle of the revolutions foretold?: Review of Peter Turchin's "End Times" - Branko Milanovic

"Turchin’s model of decay has one variable: inequality in income or wealth...

"The model fits well—almost too well—the current American reality. The median person is the “deplorable” (to quote Hillary Clinton), a populist (to quote the mainstream media), a Hillbilly (to quote J. D. Vance) or one of the candidates for the deaths of despair (to quote Anne Case and Angus Deaton). The disaffected, disenchanted American lower middle class has been studied extensively after Trump came to power. The current elite, whom Turchin dissects in an almost forensic manner, is composed of CEOs and board directors, large investors, corporate lawyers, 'policy-planning network', and top elected officials (p. 203), that is, of all those who have money and who use it to gain voice and power."

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A classless, socially fluid America? Not today, not in politics. - George Will/WaPost

"Instead, postsecondary education has become a status marker and a source of the snobbery that fuels the resentments of America’s non-college majority. The education divide threatens to become a calcified class distinction akin to race as predictive of political behavior...

"Education levels broadly correlate with incomes. Today, Democrats represent 14 of the 16 congressional districts with the highest percentages of bachelor’s degrees."

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Community college enrollment plunges nearly 40 percent in a decade - Hill

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A Christian group has amassed more than 12,000 signatures to oust the Tennessee Republican leader who expelled two Black lawmakers - Business Insider

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Sunday, April 16, 2023

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Well founded pessimism - Michael Roberts

"The long depression of the 2010s is continuing into the 2020s."

A particularly bad time to put all your eggs in one basket.

"To withdraw is not to run away, and to stay is no wise action when there's more reason to fear than to hope; 'tis the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow, and not venture all his eggs in one basket." - from "Don Quixote"

Pink Flamingos (1972) - Eggman Scene

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‘I’ve seen people do stupid things all my life’: Warren Buffett doubles down on his long-held bitcoin and crypto views - msn

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Man gets prison time after feds discover $3.4 billion in stolen Bitcoin hidden inside a Cheetos popcorn tin and underground safe - Business Insider

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A paper mill in Alabama told authorities a worker died from a heart attack. He actually died after being electrocuted by machinery, the labor department says. - Business Insider

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New report reveals 'landlord playbook' on renovictions in Toronto - CP24

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India’s Democracy in Detention - Shashi Tharoor/Project Syndicate

The onus is on people in power to demonstrate they are not thieves.

_____

‘A democratic China must be realized in our time’: Beijing jails two prominent legal activists for subversion - CNN

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In Mexico, López Obrador’s provocations may soon get opponents killed - Enrique Krauze/WaPost

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A Welcome End to the Bar on Affordable Health Coverage for People with DACA - CBPP

__________

The Working Class Isn’t Down with the Green Transition - Ruy Teixeira/AEI

True enough, but the working class is stuck between a political rock and hard place. Just what are Republicans doing for them on economic issues? Higher wages and benefits? Right to organization and bargain?

CCSE letter to Washington Post:

"How to make carbon taxes more equitable" (2020)

"The Jan. 25 news article “At Davos, enthusiasm for trees but not a carbon tax” did not mention an important reason political leaders might balk at levying higher carbon taxes. Carbon taxes, including those on gasoline, are highly regressive, affecting lower-income people much more than higher-income. For example, if gas taxes were doubled in the Washington area, most well-paid professionals would have enough capital (or access to credit) to easily switch to a hybrid vehicle. Over the life of the vehicle, their savings in fuel and taxes would probably cancel out any initial expense. In contrast, for lack of capital, a person driving a used gas guzzler to two low-paying jobs would be stuck driving the gas guzzler along with higher fuel costs.

"Hiking fuel taxes would make it even harder for the growing share of the U.S. population working low-paying jobs to make ends meet and raise families. Carbon taxes would be more equitable and politically feasible if governments also made sure that workers struggling to pay their bills could afford the switch to clean-energy technology."

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The dirty secret about bank holding company regulation - Aaron Klein/Brookings

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The Swiss Bank-Bailout Rebellion - Bank rescues are poking a political bear last awakened in 2008 - WSJ

"...Take these episodes as a warning. The turmoil in last month’s banking mini-panic started in financial markets, but it’s unlikely to stay there if more financial failures come to light. What begins as an economic fiasco could become a political uproar as it did after the 2008 bailouts—with similarly unpredictable results."

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How to make banks safer for depositors and boost free markets, too - Saule Omarova/WaPost

Who Is Saule Omarova? Biden's Controversial, Soviet-Born Pick For A Top Financial Post

Saule Omarova - Wiki

"In a 2021 paper 'The People's Ledger: How to Democratize Money and Finance the Economy', she proposed 'a comprehensive reform of the structure and systemic function of the Fed's balance sheet as the basis for redesigning the core architecture of modern finance. In essence, it offers a blueprint for democratizing both access to money and control over financial flows in the nation's economy.' She called for the Federal Reserve to offer consumer bank accounts and become 'the ultimate public platform for generating, modulating, and allocating financial resources in a modern economy' in a move she has called a radical reform."

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Related CCSE paper:

"Could new tools allowing the Fed to pump money through ‘the people’ make U.S. monetary policy more equitable and effective?"

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US Visa Hurdles Push More Companies to Relocate Foreign Talent - Bloomberg Law

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Income and rent trends during the pandemic reversed modest affordability gains in recent years.

LOWER-INCOME RENTERS HAVE LESS RESIDUAL INCOME THAN EVER BEFORE - Harvard JCHS

"The latest trends highlight the widening inequality among renters. Indeed, residual incomes for the lowest-income renter households have decreased 35 percent since 2001 as their incomes dropped and rents rose. Higher-income households have benefited from rising incomes that outpaced rent growth, resulting in a 2 percent increase in residual incomes over the same period."

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The U.S. just hit a major jobs milestone last seen in 2001 - WaPost

"The claim that Americans don’t want to work is not true. Americans from their mid-20s to mid-50s are now working at levels not seen in more than 20 years."

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Who’s not working in the U.S.? Learn the basics - Minneapolis Fed

"Most prime-age Americans work, and most of those who don’t work say they’re not looking for a job due to caregiving, health."

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Male Labor Force Participation: Patterns and Trends - Richmond Fed

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Wage growth is cooling — but workers still have bargaining power, economists say - CNBC

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Defiant Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza likens his case to Stalin’s show trials - Guardian

Vladimir Kara-Murza’s last statement to Russian court: A reckoning will come - WaPost

"...But I also know that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate. When black will be called black and white will be called white; when at the official level it will be recognized that two times two is still four; when a war will be called a war, and a usurper a usurper; and when those who kindled and unleashed this war, rather than those who tried to stop it, will be recognized as criminals.

"This day will come as inevitably as spring follows even the coldest winter."

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Upstairs, downstairs in the U.S. medical industrial complex:

35 billionaires in US healthcare - Becker's Hospital Review

Key Facts about the Uninsured Population - KFF

"Most uninsured people are in low-income families and have at least one worker in the family. Reflecting the more limited availability of public coverage in some states, adults are more likely to be uninsured than children...

"Despite policy efforts to improve the affordability of coverage, many uninsured people cite the high cost of insurance as the main reason they lack coverage. In 2021, 64% of uninsured adults said that they were uninsured because the cost of coverage was too high. Many people do not have access to coverage through a job, and some people, particularly poor adults in states that did not expand Medicaid, remain ineligible for financial assistance for coverage."

Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions: Interactive Map - KFF

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Negotiations continue as Rutgers University and unions try to end strike - CBS

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CRA workers vote for strike mandate during tax season as mediation looms - CBC

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How Food Companies' Massive Profits Are Making Your Groceries More Expensive - TIME

Market concentration is a major factor.

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Elite white women push idea that there’s no such thing as gender - NY Post

Say what?

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News Blog: March 9 - April 9, 2023 - Click here.

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Cross with Red Sky - Georgia O'Keeffe

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Sunday, April 9, 2023

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“What the Voortrekkers failed to realize in their moment of victory was that they had offered the covenant to God, not He to them.” ― James Michener, The Covenant

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What's happening in the most racist country on the planet?:

Violence in Tel Aviv leaves one dead and five injured - Guardian

Skipping the opinions, compare the information presented in the following articles to accounts in the Washington Post or NY Times:

Netanyahu attacks Lebanon and Gaza, with full support of Israel’s opposition leaders - WSWS

Israel-Palestine updates: One killed in Tel Aviv attack - Aljazeera

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ECMO Therapy Out of Reach for Multiple Socioeconomic Groups - MedPage Today

"Sex, insurance status, and income all factors in access to advanced critical care therapy"

Blast from the past:

"Obama Signs Bipartisan Bill To Speed Miracle Cures to Market. But Who Will Have Access to Expensive New Technology? Who Won’t?"

US still has foot on medical tech gas pedal leaving millions without access.

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How Obamacare Created Big Medicine - Matt Stoller/BIG

"There's a basic conflict of interest at the heart of American health care. Obamacare caused health care payers to combine with health care providers. We need a health care Glass-Steagall. f interest at the heart of American health care. Obamacare caused health care payers to combine with health care providers. We need a health care Glass-Steagall."

Interesting article. But it's not fair to blame the ACA/O'Care, Provider consolidation was already happening and would have continued. The ACA extended coverage at the edges of the health care economic juggernaut. It was intended to make premiums affordable for consumers, but didn't cut the growth of overall medical costs (a major omission). That needs to be done and anti-trust measures are an important component.

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Suburban Inequality - Russell Sage Foundation

"The fifteen articles in this double issue explore the evolution of the suburbs, growing suburban inequality, and how inequality develops within and between suburban communities."

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‘We may be looking at the end of capitalism’: One of the world’s oldest and largest investment banks warns ‘Greedflation’ has gone too far - Fortune

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IRS reveals how it’s spending $80 billion in extra funding — wealthy taxpayers and large corporations can expect more scrutiny - msn

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B.C. to become 1st province to adopt nurse-to-patient ratio - CBC

Nurse-to-Patient Staffing Ratio Laws and Regulations by State - NurseJournal

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'Undemocratic': Tennessee legislature expels 2 lawmakers over gun violence protest - ABC

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Gun deaths among U.S. children and teens rose 50% in two years - Pew

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More than 150 Catholic priests in Maryland sexually abused 600 children, new report found - Fox

Letter to Washington Post (2019):

If crimes against children can’t be stopped from within, the Vatican and its subsidiaries need purging from the outside

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A US city received $500,000 to remove lead pipes – and still hasn’t spent it - Guardian

Land of the penny wise. Home of the brain dead.

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Employers Are Fading. Worker Power is Not. - Seth Harris

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SSA’s Latest Rule Could Mean Bigger SSI Payments — If It Sticks - msn

Omitting Food From In-Kind Support and Maintenance Calculations - SSA/Federal Register

Wyden Lauds New Proposal to Help Most Vulnerable in SSI - Senate Finance Committee

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3 Social Security Rules That Are Changing in 2023 -- and 2 That Aren't - Motley Fool

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Writers’ Guild to Vote on Hollywood Strike – Labor Protests Pa’s Largest Coal Plant Closing – BBC Journalists Move Closer to Strike - Payday Report

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Fight unfolds over measure to cap pay of LA hospital executives - Becker's Hospital Review

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How the Wealthiest Got to Where They Are - Wharton

"The paper highlighted striking differences between the wealthiest households and those at the other end of the spectrum.

"The wealthiest invested 'a substantially higher share of their portfolio' in private businesses starting from very young ages, the paper noted. Their share of risky assets (the sum of private and public equity) in their investment portfolio stayed above 80% across all ages and increased up to 89% by age 50.

"Equity income was the main source – 83% – of lifetime income for the top 0.1% in the 50-54 age group. In contrast, households in the bottom 90% of the distribution earned 80% to 90% of their lifetime income from labor services. 'A very small fraction of people became rich purely through labor earnings,' Salgado said. Added Hubmer: 'Labor earnings are not going to make you significantly rich; it’s just now how it works.'"

Two factors are intertwined: Those who start out with inherited money can take more investment risk.

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Moderna's Steep COVID Vaccine Price: Corporate Greed or Capitalism? | MedPage Today

"Lessons learned and next steps for public-private vaccines."

Or, more simply, taxpayers and citizens getting the shaft...

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Half in U.S. Say They Are Worse Off, Highest Since 2009 - Gallop

"Most lower-income Americans, 61%, say their financial situation has deteriorated over the past year, while less than half that number, 26%, indicate it has improved. Middle- and upper-income Americans are also more likely to say they are worse off than better off, but by much narrower margins than seen among the lower-income group."

Why Americans are so pessimistic about their finances - WaPost

Prices are rising faster than wages for most.

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Sunday, April 2, 2023

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The health wedge and labor market inequality - Brookings

"The model shows that, in 2019, under a payroll-tax financed system, employment of full-time workers without a college degree (ages 25 to 64) would have been nearly 500,000 greater, average annual earnings for those workers would have been about $1,700 higher, and the gap between the average earnings of college-educated workers (with a bachelor’s degree or higher) and workers without a college degree would have been 11% smaller...

"The paper stops short of recommending switching to payroll tax financing. However, it notes that one step in that direction would be to modify the current tax system, which excludes employer contributions to health insurance from taxable income, thus effectively subsidizing private insurance by about $300 billion a year. Replacing this tax exclusion with a tax credit that phases out as income rises would move the system partway toward the benefits of payroll tax financing."

Also see:

Should Congress End the Tax Exclusion for Employer‐Sponsored Health Insurance? - Cato

Robin Hood Tax Reform: Modest Changes in Health, Retirement Tax Breaks Could Produce Major Gains in US Health Access, Financial Security – at Little or No Added Government Cost - CCSE

The Cadillac Tax Do-Over Challenge - HealthAffairs

See proposal for progressive taxation of employee health benefits at end of the above article.

Also see comments below on where Congress might find $$ to plug Social Security's financing gap.

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A SUMMARY OF THE 2023 ANNUAL REPORTS - Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees

"The Trustees project that Social Security’s annual cost will increase from 5.2 percent of GDP in 2023 to 6.3 percent in 2076. It then declines to 6.0 percent by 2097. The 75-year actuarial deficit equals 1.3 percent of GDP through 2097, increased from 1.2 percent last year."

Providing an order of magnitude of the annual cost of filling the funding gap, 1.3% of this year’s GDP of about $26 trillion equals $388 billion.

(Also see: Analysis of the 2023 Social Security Trustees’ Report - CRFB.)

So where to find $388 billion (or so) in the budget? Here's one place: reducing tax breaks for employer retirement savings and pension plans and health plans. Most of these tax breaks, which exceed SS's annual shortfall, go to higher income people:

Addressing Tax Expenditures Could Raise Substantial Revenue - CRFB

Here's another way to balance the SS's books: raising taxes on higher-income people. See:

Growing inequality has shrunk Social Security’s tax base. Revitalizing it could restore solvency without cutting benefits. - CCSE

There's a way to save Social Security, but it involves taxing the rich - Washington Examiner op-ed

"Taxpayers at the top of the heap would bear most of the burden, but none would end up driving a smaller car or living in a smaller house as a result:

"Taxing invested capital: Beginning in 2019, Congress could apply an additional 6.2 percent tax on investment income (which mostly accrues to the wealthiest), gradually extending it from top earners to the middle class. Responding to a request from Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., SSA actuaries estimate this policy would close about one third of Social Security’s long-run shortfall.
"Taxing high-earner income: Beginning in 2019, Congress could apply the payroll tax to earnings above $400,000, leaving a “donut hole” that would gradually disappear as the current indexed tax cap rises, and provide some benefit credit for newly taxed earnings. This change could close up to two thirds of the program’s long-range shortfall."

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World average life expectancy (years at birth)

What’s the problem with pensions? - Michael Roberts

"...what is ignored is the huge disparity in life expectancy between lower income people retiring and very dependent on state pensions and better-off people with additional company pensions."

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Why Americans are denied social security, disability support - Scripps News

"There's a range of criteria for Americans to get social security and disability benefits, but some are denied because of an outdated index of jobs."

Also see:

SSI Needs Fixing: Chronic neglect is choking off access to Social Security’s critical backstop – and pushing more
blind, disabled and old people into poverty. - Karl Polzer

Social Security's disability program desperately needs fixing - Op-ed

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The Fed’s Role in the Bank Failures - RAGHURAM RAJAN & VIRAL ACHARYA/Project Syndicate

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Who Does Regulation Help? - American Compass

During yesterday’s Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on the unionization drive at Starbucks, Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut advanced the argument we’ve been making since our founding about the importance of conservative support for a healthy labor movement. In his opening remarks, Sen. Murphy said:

"Collective bargaining is a fundamentally conservative idea. We’ve lost track of that. It’s rooted in free-market principles, the idea that workers should be able to freely join together to negotiate in a free, open negotiation with their employer."

He went on to highlight the history of conservative support for labor, noting that “previous Republican candidates ... worked hard to win the union vote, to speak at union conventions,” while the partisan divide on the issue “is, in fact, new.”

Labor: Guaranteeing workers a seat at the table - American Compass

"In a well-functioning capitalist system, participants meet as equals able to advance their interests through mutually beneficial relationships. Organized labor has traditionally been the mechanism that gives workers an institution of solidarity, power in the market, and representation in the workplace. Strong worker representation can make America stronger."

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Price caps, spending floors, and penalties, oh my! The latest in state hospital policy - Lown Institute

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State Fiscal Briefs - Urban Institute

Each brief explores expenditure and revenue data; political control of the state government; the most recent state budget; trends in personal income, poverty, unemployment, and industry composition; and data on population, race, age, and education.

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The policing paradox - WaPost

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Covenant School Active Shooter Case--MNPD Body Camera Footage - YouTube

Witness the elevated risk police, teachers and students face every day due to lack of action by US federal and state policymakers.

School Shootings by Country 2023

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U.S. FIREARMS INDUSTRY TODAY - Shooting Industry

"According to NSSF’s 2022 Firearm and Ammunition Industry Economic Impact Report, the industry’s total economic influence ballooned from $19.1 billion in 2008 to $70.52 billion in 2021, a 269% jump. Year-over-year, the industry’s economic impact rose 11.1% (from $63.5 billion in 2020)."

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The rising cost of stagnant immigration policy - Niskanen Center

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Social Security Is Not “Bankrupt” - CBPP

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Bermuda

$4 Trillion In US Wealth Is Stashed Overseas, Much Of It In Tax Havens - TPC

To put this amount in perspective, $4 trillion is about 15% of US GDP or roughly 20% of funds needed to plug Social Security's 75-year funding deficit ($267 billion per year in current dollars) if benefits are not cut.

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Here's an area where Congress can save money and head off billions in future debt:

Humira: The Most Financially Successful Drug Ever! - Dr. Eric Bricker/AHealthcareZ

"Every other drug maker in America is going to do this exact same thing."

A "wealth extraction machine" private-sector purchasers cannot control...A natural place for Congress cut costs, but Big Pharma's influence over Congress is likely to blunt action. For example, see:

Pathways to Patient Affordability - Hill Live

This Pharma- sponsored panel discussion on drug affordability (today) is typical fare for Congressional staff (often served up with free coffee and food). Industry aligned experts are not likely to be talking about policies that interfere with wealth extraction, whether from individuals, health plans, or the government programs.

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Blame tax cuts for Washington's budget woes, new report says - Semafor

OK, now that the blame is spread around, what are we going to do to stabilize national finances?

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Americans made hopeless on economy by the left - NY Post editorial board

This NY Post editorial is, of course, business-friendly "woke" diarrhea from the right. Neither political party prioritizes interests of workers struggling at the bottom. At least the Ds pay lip service. Rs might win over voters fed up with the cultural swill dished out by the left if their party would support higher wages, paid sick days, and workers' right to organize and bargain.

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Sunday - Edward Hopper (1926)

My Best Friend Died From Loneliness - Jeff Bloodworth/Free Press

"White, working-class, middle-aged Americans are one of the only demographics in the world that has seen its life expectancy fall. But Mike wasn’t just a statistic."

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The powerful lesson from 18 million workers getting a pay raise over $15 - Heather Long/WaPost

"Policymakers would be wise to try to lock in the recent gains by lifting the federal minimum wage."

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Biden tries to halt Democrats' slide with the working class ahead of 2024 - WaExaminer

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How many low-wage workers are in the US? - EPI

9 million workers (6%) are paid less than $12 per hour.

21 million (15%) < $15 per hour.
41 million (29%) < $18 per hour.
51 million (36%) < $20 per hour.
72 million (51%) < $25 per hour.

Among the issues facing national policymakers setting a minimum wage is that the buying power of a particular wage level varies a great deal between states and regions. Here's an approach to dealing with that:

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Cause of West Reading candy factory explosion still unknown, officials say - CBS Philadelphia

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Chipotle agrees to pay ex-employees after closing store that tried to unionize - CNN

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Tipped Workers Unionize, Win Contract - LAP

"Heine Brothers union is the second largest coffee shop workers' union operating under a master agreement covering multiple locations."

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Nonprofit hospitals' investment losses shouldn't be subsidized by taxpayers: health economists - Becker's Hospital Review

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Let the Banks Burn - Yanis Varoufakis/Project Syndicate

"Faced with the stark choice between curbing inflation and saving the banks, venerable commentators appeal to central banks to do both: to continue hiking interest rates while continuing with the post-2008 socialism-for-bankers policy, which, other things being equal, is the only way to stop the banks from falling like dominoes. Only this strategy – tightening the monetary noose around society’s neck while lavishing bailouts on the banking system – can simultaneously serve the interests of creditors and banks. It is also a surefire way to condemn most people to unnecessary suffering (from avoidably high prices and preventable unemployment) while sowing the seeds of the next banking conflagration."

Are all bank deposits insured? The feds must get their story straight. - Catherine Rampell/WaPost

The column answers its own question: The Fed and Treasury are being ambiguous about the risk they might cover, probably out of necessity. They need to project enough risk to control moral hazard and enough assurance to prevent bank runs. And, hell no, your $$ are not fully insured in a bank, even a very large one. For one thing, if the gov guarantees total "safety," inflation might chew up your preserved savings.

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India expels Rahul Gandhi, Modi critic, from Parliament - AP

Given the historical record, shouldn't elected officials be assumed to be thieves unless proven otherwise? Standard of proof: propensity of evidence.

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Rishi Sunak outlines ‘immediate justice’ scheme to combat antisocial behaviour - Guardian

"Offenders to clean up damage within 48 hours, wearing jumpsuits or hi-viz jackets, in government bid to claim crime as priority"

Time to invest in brightly colored jump suits? They could become a fad.

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Massé Mansour, Maternal Longing, 2018

Not Just Nuclear: Families Are Elders Long Buried and Generations Yet Unborn - Edwidge Danticat/Plough

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Sunday, March 26, 2023

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Irvo Otieno, who died while restrained in a hospital, was ‘brilliant and creative and bright,’ his mother says - CNN

Irvo Otieno’s last days: How a mental health system ‘completely failed’ - WaPost

“At what point, do we consider mental illness a crime?” Ochieng said, adding later, that for families dealing with mental illness in America, “you should not wake up and feel sick and consider whether you should call for help.”

Families taking care of people with serious mental illnesses should ask for officers with CIT - crisis intervention training - if they need help restraining someone during a breakdown (if it's available where they live). Otherwise, in many places, there's a risk their family member may end up dead.

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Effects of President Biden’s Proposal to Expand the Child Tax Credit – ITEP

"55 Million Children Would Benefit; Millions Would Be Lifted Out of Poverty...

"The expansion would benefit 55 million children, and, unlike current law, no children would face a reduced credit because their families earn too little."

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Biden’s Budget Would Raise Taxes On High-Income Households, Cut Them For Many Others - TPC

"Overall, Biden’s tax provisions would reduce after-tax incomes for nearly two-thirds of households. But for those making less than $410,000, nearly all of that decline would be due to their share of the corporate tax hikes.

"By contrast, individual income, payroll, and estate taxes alone would raise taxes on only about 2 percent of households. And nearly all of them will make $410,000 or more. Nearly 40 percent of the lowest-income households and almost one-quarter of middle-income households would get a tax cut."

Consistent with past Biden proposals. DOA in this Congress.

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Is A Wealth Tax Constitutional? - NPR

Depending on the Supreme Court's interpretation of an amendment designed to protect the interests of slaveholders, a national tax on property or wealth may, or may not, be ruled unconstitutional, or end up being impossible to implement.

Many states have wealth taxes:

Does Your State Levy a Capital Stock Tax? - Tax Foundation

And don't forget state and local property taxes, which are also types of wealth taxes.

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20 highest, lowest-paid physician specialties: Doximity - Becker's Hospital Review

At first blush, these amounts seem sufficient to pay their bills without getting free student loans. (See House hearing testimony below.)

10 best, worst and fastest-growing cities for physician pay

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No, the VA isn’t going to reduce your disability payments if you make too much money - Task & Purpose

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How falling life expectancy, Generation X and the backlash in France have pushed the UK government to rethink pension policy - Sky News

"If life expectancy was rising, Mr Cridland reasoned, it made sense for the state pension age to rise with it.

"However, since the pandemic, life expectancy in the UK has actually gone backwards...For women, the pandemic clipped a year off life expectancy on average and for men, 1.3 years....

"This, then, removes one of the major justifications for bringing forward the rise in the state pension age."

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Determinants of inequalities in life expectancy: an international comparative study of eight risk factors - Lancet

As in the US, Europeans with low levels of education and income live shorter lives.

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Here’s What To Know About France’s Controversial Pension Reforms As Macron Survives No-Confidence Vote - Forbes

Explainer: Why is Macron in so much trouble over pension reform? - Reuters

TThe French pension system explained - Expatica

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What just happened at BP? Depends on what you read:

BP Faces Serious Safety Violation Charges, Fined $150,000 - Zacks Equity Research/Yahoo

The value American capitalism places on workers’ lives: BP fined $156,250 for the deaths of two refinery operators in Ohio explosion - WSWS

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Testimony: House Ed. & Workforce subcommittee hearing: “Breaking the System: Examining the Implications of Biden's Student Loan Policies for Students and Taxpayers” - Marc Goldwein/CRFB

"...the Administration’s approach – especially the ongoing student debt pause, retroactive debt cancellation, and Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) reforms – is of serious concern. At best, these changes serve as a band-aid and ignore very real structural challenges. Likely, they will make the underlying situation worse. They are especially problematic with
inflation surging and federal debt approaching record levels.
In my testimony, I will touch on five main points:

"1. Recent student debt actions and proposals are costly, adding nearly $1 trillion to the deficit over a decade.
2. These student debt actions are, for the most part, economically unjustified.
3. The student debt pause and cancellation worsen inflation and recession risk.
4. The policies are poorly targeted, paying windfalls to high earners.
5. The policies would lead to more borrowing, higher tuition, more low-quality programs, and a more arbitrary higher education financing system."

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Americans without health insurance or $1 million to spare can stop reading here:

US government announces plan to overhaul organ transplant system - CNN

Troubled U.S. organ transplant system targeted for overhaul - WaPost

"Federal health official announces plans to break up monopoly power of group that has run system for decades."

Unos, dos, tres...? How will the gov replace the monopoly? Competitive bidding? A full bore 'wet' market?

Wyden Statement at Finance Committee Hearing on the Urgent Need to Address Failures in the Organ Transplant System

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Allocation of liver grafts worldwide - Is there a best system? - NIH

"An optimal allocation system for scarce resources should simultaneously ensure maximal utility, but also equity.

"While the model for end-stage liver disease is currently the standard for this model, many adjustments were implemented in most countries. A future globally applicable strategy should combine donor and recipient factors predicting probability of death on the waiting list, post-transplant survival and morbidity, and perhaps costs."

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Blast from the past:

"Obama Signs Bipartisan Bill To Speed Miracle Cures to Market. But Who Will Have Access to Expensive New Technology? Who Won’t?" - CCSE

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Los Angeles schools shut down as teachers, staff begin 3-day strike - PBS

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No insurance = no liver:

New liver transplant rules yield winners, losers as wasted organs reach record high - WaPost

"The number of lifesaving liver transplants has plummeted in some Southern and Midwestern states that struggle with higher death rates from liver disease."

"Landing a spot on the transplant waiting list has been difficult for some time. The proportion of people who make it can vary wildly by state. In 2021, Massachusetts had 11 people per 100,000 residents on its waitlist — the second-highest in the country; North Carolina had 1 per 100,000, among the lowest nationwide. Kansas had about 3 per 100,000.

"To get on the list, patients need insurance or other means to pay for their treatment. They must show up for regular appointments, which often require access to a car and sometimes a friend or family member to drive. And they have to be able to pay for regular appointments before transplant surgery, weeks of recovery at the hospital afterward and thousands of dollars a month in anti-rejection medication for the rest of their lives.

"Residents of the states harmed by the new rules are at a disadvantage for each of these.

"Not only do they generally have lower incomes, they also have lower rates of insured people than those that benefited. Three of these seven states chose not to expand Medicaid, the federal health program for the poor, under the 2010 Affordable Care Act. A fourth, South Dakota, only expanded it in late 2022, and it doesn’t go into effect until this summer. The state has the second highest rate of death from liver disease in the nation.

"Lack of insurance leaves many people with no way to pay for a liver transplant, which can cost just shy of a million dollars.

"'Everyone has to have insurance,” said J. Steve Bynon Jr., chief of abdominal transplantation at Memorial Hermann in Houston, when asked about its policy. “There are no freebies.'...

"'Being poor,' said Donna Cryer, CEO of the patient advocacy group Global Liver Institute, 'penalizes people.'"

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Uninsured Rate by State

Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions: Interactive Map - KFF

Someone should ask presidential candidates from the 11states that haven't expanded Medicaid why they left billions of federal matching funds on the table that would provide life-saving coverage to low-income residents.

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House Republicans’ Proposals Could Take Food Away From Millions of Low-Income Individuals and Families - CBPP

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Well, most everybody...

Biden revives hopes for this poverty-fighting tax break - yahoo

"As Congress possibly revisits an expansion of the Child Tax Credit, it’s likely that any new version won’t look like its pandemic predecessor in order to garner bipartisan support. Some Republicans have expressed concerns that the CTC would be inflationary and that one version without work requirements would disincentivize work.

"One potential compromise would be to adopt provisions from the Republican-led Family Security Act 2.0, introduced by Sens. Mitt Romney (R-UT), Steve Daines (R-MT), and Richard Burr (R-NC). The proposal calls to increase the maximum value of the CTC to $4,200 per child under the age of 6 and $3,000 for those between 6 and 17.

"Unlike the enhanced CTC from the American Rescue Act, Romney’s proposal requires families to earn a minimum of $10,000 to receive the full credit. Part of the funding would also come from financial cuts to the Earned Income Tax Credit and the elimination of the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, which would impact low- to moderate-income households the most, according to the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities."

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The Effects of Work Requirements on the Employment and Income of TANF Participants - Justin Falk/CBO

"Experiments conducted in the mid-1990s show that a combination of work requirements and work supports substantially increased the employment of cash assistance recipients in Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the predecessor program to Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF) while having little effect on recipients’ average income. There is little evidence on the effects of TANF’s work requirements, though, and recent research on other means-tested programs demonstrates that their work requirements have had little effect on employment and have substantially reduced the number of people receiving the benefits they provide."

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De-transitioned teen sues Kaiser Permanente for performing double mastectomy on her at 13: 'Intentional fraud' - Fox

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Lawmaker pauses filibuster on agreement to debate trans bill - AP

Can't deny she has big brass ones.

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UAW Challenger Fain Purges Top Allies in Favor of Brooklyn Consultants - Payday Report

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For life expectancy, money matters – Harvard Gazette

"You might expect two or three years of life differential ... but 10 or 15 years … it’s an immense difference"

"While researchers have long known that life expectancy increases with income, Cutler and others were surprised to find that trend never plateaued...

"Cutler and Chetty then examined how life expectancy changed over time, and found that while life expectancy has increased for the wealthiest, it has edged up only slightly for low-income Americans...

"'The increase has been approximately three years at the high end, versus zero for the lowest incomes,' Cutler said. 'This is important, because it has major implications for Social Security policy. People say, "Americans are living longer, so we ought to delay the age of retirement," but … it’s a little bit unfair to say to low-income people that they’re going to get Social Security and Medicare for fewer years because investment bankers are living longer.'

"When they laid the data over maps of the United States, Cutler and Chetty again found unexpected results, with low life expectancy concentrated not in the Deep South, but across the Midwest Rust Belt.

"'What emerges strongly is that there is a belt from West Virginia, Kentucky, and down through parts of southern Ohio, through Oklahoma and into Texas — it’s not a story of the Deep South,' Cutler said. 'The variability in where high-income people live longest is not as large and is much less geographically concentrated. You don’t see this same type of belt — it’s scattered all over.'"

Implication: Manchin (WVA) & McConnell (KY) alert): The pain resulting from raising the standard Social Security retirement age would fall most heavily on particular low-income states and regions.

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Britain has endured a decade of early deaths. Why? - Economist

"Life expectancy in Britain, as in almost all other rich countries, had been rising for nearly two centuries...

"Two features make this figure even more worrying. Death comes mostly when people are old. But the slowdown in life expectancy has occurred across all age groups. Mortality rates have stalled for infants, and risen among young adults and the middle-aged. Death rates for 30- to 49-year-olds have steadily increased in Britain since around 2012, in sharp contrast with neighbouring countries.

"Although the deaths have been spread across generations, they have not been spread across the income spectrum. Life expectancy has fallen among the poorest in society but risen for the richest. A poor English girl could on average expect to live 6.8 years less than a rich girl in 2011, but 7.7 less in 2017. For boys, the gap increased from 9.1 to 9.5 years over the same period."

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A Black family fights to get their kids back from Tennessee Department of Children’s Services - TN Lookout

"One month after the Tennessee Highway Patrol pulled the couple over, their five young children remain in state custody."

Need a break taking care of the kids? Try driving a car with "a dark tint" slowly from Chattanooga to Knoxville with the kids in the back seat and a joint on the dashboard. The Volunteer State can help.

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In Florida, showing mental health struggles could get a child detained - WaPost

"Advocates say the Baker Act, designed as a measure of last resort, is not used that way. The result: Kindergarteners can be forcibly committed to psych centers for exams."

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Sunday, March 19, 2023

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**"But many who are first will be last, and the last first."**

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Arizona Proposal for Automated Income Tax Cuts Sounds Benign but Would Cause Great Harm - CBPP

"Income and wealth inequality has grown in Arizona, while the state’s legislature and courts have recently taken several actions that shift even more of the state’s income to these wealthy interests. Policymakers and the courts ignored public will after Arizona voters approved increasing taxes on millionaires to fund public schools. Instead, the legislature cut income taxes, particularly for high-income people, and restricted voters’ ability to ever again tax wealthy people via the ballot box."

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2022-2023 Arizona State Income Tax: Rates, Who Pays - NerdWallet

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Whitmer signs bill to boost EITC, restore retirement tax break - Michigan Radio/NPR

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**Historic highs in employment for people with disabilities: An unexpected pandemic outcome - J*ournal of Spinal Cord Medicine***

"While much attention focused on the risks of COVID-19 infection and the social, emotional, and psychological consequences of lockdowns and mandatory isolation, in the U.S. many people with disabilities realized newfound opportunities as employers faced widespread labor shortages."

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Wealthy Executives Make Millions Trading Competitors’ Stock With Remarkable Timing - ProPublica

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Fire the Fed - Matt Stoller/BIG

"Key bad guys in the Silicon Valley Bank saga are at the Federal Reserve. It's time to end the era of central bank supremacy and fire the Fed as our most important bank regulator."

But a thousand economists with PhDs can't be wrong!...Where's Wright Patman when you need him?

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The Silicon Valley Bank Failure Should Terrify the Federal Reserve - Desmond Lachman/AEI

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Treasury Secretary Yellen says not all uninsured deposits will be protected in future bank failures - CNBC

"Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told senators that government refunds of uninsured deposits will not be extended to every bank that fails, only those that pose systemic risk to the financial system."

In the wake of a statement like this, one might expect capital to move from smaller to larger banks.

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Wall Street banks will put $30 billion into beleaguered First Republic - WaPost

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Moral hazard or creative destruction? - Michael Roberts

Interesting history and analysis. Maybe the gov could design a way to randomly bail out enough failed banks to stabilize markets while letting enough flounder to reduce moral hazard? :)

To repeat, seems like what we have is socialism for the capitalists. And creative destruction for everyone else.

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Creative Destruction: Out With the Old, in With the New - Investopedia

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Another Predictable Bank Failure - Joseph Stiglitz/Project Syndicate

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Rate of women dying in childbirth surged by 40%. What's to blame for these preventable deaths? - USA Today

Pregnancy-Related Deaths: Data from Maternal Mortality Review Committees in 36 US States, 2017–2019 - CDC

"Over 80% of pregnancy-related deaths were determined to be preventable."

Maternal Health:Outcomes Worsened and Disparities Persisted During the Pandemic - GAO

Maternal Mortality: Trends in Pregnancy-Related Deaths and Federal Efforts to Reduce Them - GAO

Scroll down for report on how states are expanding Medicaid postpartum coverage.

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Expanding Work Requirements Would Make It Harder for People to Meet Basic Needs - CBPP

Total National Work = Paid Work + Unpaid Work (especially raising the next generation).

Source: underpaid economist, 2023

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Congress’ failure to reup expanded child tax credit displays longtime favoritism toward higher income - CCSE

"If lawmakers decide to add a work mandate, it could be softened to require only part-time paid employment for low-income single parents who have the hardest time earning a living wage since they have no partner. Alternatively, low-income parents facing work requirements could be provided with adequate subsidies for childcare, which incidentally would be far more costly for taxpayers than the expanded 2021 credit amounts.

"Sen. Romney and other leaders realize that work does not have to be paid to have great value to a society. Raising children is hard work – and perhaps the most important contribution that parents make to the country’s health and wellbeing. Having enough time to raise their children should not disqualify a mother or father from getting government assistance that better-off parents receive."

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There is finally bipartisan consensus on reducing maternal deaths - Leana Wen/WaPost

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State Efforts to Extend Medicaid Postpartum Coverage - NASHP

"This interactive map and chart summarizes proposed and approved legislation since 2018, Medicaid waivers and state plan amendments, financial estimates, and other initiatives designed to extend coverage during the postpartum period.

"Under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, the 12-month extended Medicaid postpartum coverage option has been made permanent. This option was created by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and previously expired in 2027. Now once states take up the option to extend the postpartum period from 60 days to 12 months, they will continue to receive federal matching funds."

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Unfair Cap Means Millionaires Stop Contributing to Social Security on February 28, 2023 -CEPR

"Ninety-four percent of workers are paid less than $160,200 per year, so they pay the 6.2 percent social security payroll tax on all of the paychecks they receive in 2023. But workers who earn over $160,200 pay no tax on their earnings above this level. For a millionaire, only about 1 percent or less of their total earnings go to supporting Social Security. Despite earning much more than the average worker, a millionaire’s effective tax rate is far lower than the average worker’s. As a result, the burden of supporting Social Security falls most heavily on working-class and middle-class people."

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‘That’s how capitalism works,’ Biden says of SVB, Signature Bank investors who lost money in failed banks - CNBC

Really? Another soft landing for 'risk takers' operating the US financial casino. Meanwhile, the Fed amps up risk people at the bottom will lose jobs, homes, means to pay bills and raise families...

Socialism for capitalists. Capitalism for everyone else.

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Big Tech wins unfair advantage over American workers in SVB scandal - NY Post

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With demands for a bank bailout, Silicon Valley shows its 'small government' mantra was just a pose - msn/LA Times

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Billionaires, Buybacks & Medicare: How Biden’s 2024 Budget Outlines Trillions Of Dollars In Proposed New Taxes - Forbes

"The budget is not expected to make its way through Congress, according to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell noted that because Republicans hold a House majority, the budget 'will not see the light of day,' according to Reuters."

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Stock Buyback Excise Taxes: What We Know And Don’t Know - TPC

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Biden’s making gov’t discriminate by race — he needs to stop - NY Post

For the record, "equity" on this web site denotes fair treatment, ownership of property, freedom from bias or discrimination, and inclusion of everyone in the yield of the economy.

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An End to Airline Consolidation? - Matt Stoller/BIG

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Virginia, West Va. Kroger employees allege computer-generated wage theft - Virginia Mercury

"Class-action suit, one of four nationwide, filed in Richmond in January."

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Nurses march in Toronto to demand better wages, staffing, working conditions - CBC

Registered nurse salaries in Ontario

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New Mexico Has Lost Track of Juveniles Locked Up for Life. We Found Nearly Two Dozen. - ProPublica

"New legislation would require the New Mexico Corrections Department to help schedule parole hearings for prisoners given life sentences as children. But the agency wasn’t aware of at least 21 'juvenile lifers' in its custody."

"...New Mexico, despite having banned the death penalty for children three decades before the Supreme Court did, had not yet addressed extreme juvenile sentencing. (Twenty-six other states and Washington, D.C., have done so.)"

New Study Finds 1% Recidivism Rate Among Released Philly Juvenile Lifers - Montclair State University

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Va. prison reform advocates fear approved solitary confinement bill won’t lead to meaningful change – Daily Press

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Sunday, March 12, 2023

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Another Norfolk Southern Train Derailed as Its CEO Testified Before the Senate - truthout

Congress, this isn't Ayn Rand's railroad.

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Inequality Costs Social Security Trillions - CounterPunch

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Black Americans view capitalism more negatively than positively but express hope in Black businesses - PEW

"Isms" can imply a sense of worship.

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Inequality is behind central bank dilemma - Martin Wolf/Financial Times

Wolf's analysis still holds up. If clicking this link leads to a paywall, try goggling the title of the article.

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Central banks should better communicate monetary policy’s distributional effects - IMF

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Source: Fed Distributional Financial Accounts

What Wealth Inequality in America Looks Like: Key Facts & Figures - St. Louis Fed

"Based on past research, here are four recommendations that could help families build wealth.

"Help families build a rainy-day fund...

"Promote early-in-life investments...

"Examine college costs...

"Support all forms of housing.

"Increase the supply of affordable rental housing while promoting paths to sustainable homeownership. Homeownership should be treated as a “capstone” financial event, not a first step; building a diversified balance sheet—with low levels of consumer debts and high levels of liquid savings—should precede and help sustain homeownership."

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U.S. household wealth rebounded to $147.7 trillion in 4th quarter - Reuters

Most low-income households have zero net worth or owe more than they own.

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Missing Middle Plan Wins Unanimous Approval From Planning Commission - Patch

As high-income Northern Virginia leaders begin contemplating making room for what's left of the middle class, don't forget low-wage people including those who work at restaurants, supermarkets, nursing homes, warehouses and childcare centers, and as construction workers, drivers, maids, and grass cutters. Judged by their lack of action on providing affordable housing for workers like these, county and city officials across the Potomac from the US capital demonstrate this attitude: "We want you work here, but don't think about living here." (Contact Fairfax County or Falls Church and ask what kind of housing assistance or advice they have for full-time workers making $35,000 or less a year.)

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Idaho Childcare Workers Strike Statewide – As Democrats Dither, Virginia Bus Drivers Strike Remains Deadlocked - Payday Report

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News Blog: Feb. 10 - March 9, 2023 - Click here.

Click here for slides

- News, Events & Opinions

June 2019

Mixing Capitalism and Socialism:

Policies To Moderate Systemic Wealth Concentration in the United States

Karl Polzer/Center on Capital & Social Equity

This essay explores two basic questions. The first is the extent to which capitalism, which emphasizes the rights of individuals to pursue their interests, and socialism, which focuses on group needs, tend to function in tandem as much as they do in conflict. As many agree that the political pendulum in recent decades has swung in favor of capitalism, the paper also discusses a range of public policies that can be used to reduce its imbalances and risks, with particular emphasis on moderating capitalism's tendency toward systemic inequality. Policy options range from programs to help the poorest, social insurance, higher taxation of income and wealth, and re-channeling to all citizens a portion of profits from private exploitation of public assets and business activities enabled by public laws and infrastructure.

Click here to read essay

- News, Events & Opinions

- Center on Capital & Social Equity work on Social Security and retirement savings/investment issues - updated April 2023

- Social Security’s threatened 20% benefit cut won’t happen: The Treasury already is filling its funding gap. - analysis

- Raising Social Security’s retirement age would slam low-wage workers yet again - op-ed

- East Palestine needs help, but another PPP isn’t the answer - op-ed

- What can trillions in Covid stimulus spending teach us in preparing to head off a future financial disaster?

- Instead of crying about socialist boogiemen, Home Depot, other corporate giants, could use a different brand of capitalism - op-ed & essay

- Who’s More Likely To Find Gifts from Congress under the X-Mas Tree? Low-income Families - or Well-off Retirees and Corporate Shareholders?

- Sen. Hawley is right on doing more for workers – but the GOP (and Dems) need to deliver concrete economic benefits - Letter to WaPost

- CA lesson: Congress must ensure national social insurance programs don't stiff low-wage workers - essay & op-ed

- How Much Pain Will It Take for the ‘Bottom 50%’ To Realize Its Political Power? What Then?

- Capitalizing on College Football

- Bipartisanship can be golden - but grossly unfair. Congress should slam the brakes on 401(k)/IRA legislation, rethink retirement financing policy

- Op-ed: The case for renewing the expanded child tax credit - Richmond Times-Dispatch

- Congress’ failure to re-up expanded child tax credit displays longtime favoritism toward higher income - updated April 29, 2022

- COVID Ended In-Person State Hospital Visits So Father Pushed For Virginia Law Allowing Zoom-Like Calls For Patients - Pete Earley

- Russia, Nuclear Disaster and What To Do with Our House

- A reality check on Ukraine - letter to the Washington Post

- Congress’ failure to re-up the expanded child tax credit echoes longtime bias against low-income families

- Legislative testimony: Ensure video visitation is available to residents of psychiatric hospitals and their families

- What about a few paid sick days? Are low-wage workers simply invisible to Virginia’s elected leaders?

- Why our grandchildren will being moving back from the ocean and heading north

- White House’s promised childcare subsidies face a host of ‘devils in the details’

- Call for work requirements reveals bias against low-income families, could hurt many needing help the most

- Virginia Gubernatorial Campaigns' Answers to Our Questions

- As Congress Whittles Down the Spending Package, Don’t Bet Low-Income People Will Get Much More - or the Monied, Much Less.

- Getting Inflation out of Capital Gains Taxation Is Fair - and Might Help Reach a Deal on Taxing the Dead

- Where Are the Workers?? … Show Them the Money - and Benefits!!

- A Smart Way To Tax the Rich: Let Sleeping Billionaires Lie - letter to the Washington Post

- A Low Budget ‘Infrastructure’ Deal for the Bottom 50%

- SSI is a disgrace. Congress needs to fix it. - op-ed and essay

- Biden’s spending spree could destabilize Social Security

- How much can we tax the wealthy to finance long-run social and physical infrastructure needs?

- Politicizing the Georgia shootings - letter to the edtior

- Yes, Raise the Minimum Wage, But Don't Stop There - Washington Examiner op-ed

- Analysis: Ways To Raise the U.S. Minimum Wage To Help Workers, Families, While Minimizing Negative Impacts

- By spreading stimulus dollars too far up the totem pole, aid legislation may leave the lowest earners unable to pay for food and rent. - Washington Examiner op-ed

- Low-income Americans are left out of covid stimulus - letter to Washington Post

- Politics and the pandemic darken the Fed’s findings of a fragile turnaround in American economic inequality

- Could new tools allowing the Fed to pump money through ‘the people’ make U.S. monetary policy more equitable and effective?

- 'Inequality by the Numbers' Virtual Workshop 2020 - Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality: 14 short lectures

- Race-neutral, progressive economic policies deliver $$ to minority communities

- Opposing Racism and Human Bondage in the United States

- World Inequality Lab Newsletter - July 2020

- It’s past time the White House, Congress required - and funded - Covid testing in nursing homes

- Upgrade Medicaid. Don't Gut it. - Karl Polzer

- "Capital and Ideology": Notes and Figures - Thomas Piketty

- Addicted to Identity Politics, Progressives May Miss a Historic Chance To Connect with America’s Working Class

- The spreading virus calls for fast action on paid sick days for health and personal care workers - at very least

- Case & Deaton: "Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism"

- A Wealth Tax Could Be Both Fair and Enforceable

- Making Sure We Get to Universal Coverage: letter to Sen. Bernie Sanders

- How to make carbon taxes more equitable

- Essay: A Widening Gap in Life Expectancy Makes Raising Social Security’s Retirement Age a Particularly Bad Deal for Low-Wage Earners - February 2020

- 2020 Inequality Agenda: Increase economic inclusion at reasonable public cost

- Presentation: Will Growing Inequality Make Social Security & Long Term Care Financing Fixes Harder?

- CBO: Projected Changes in the Distribution of Household Income, 2016 to 2021

- A Health Policy Wish List for Santa

- How Golf Clubs Can Help the Homeless and Make More Money

- Saez & Zucman's "The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How To Make Them Pay""

- Raising the Minimum Wage

- Moving a Wealth Tax from Rhetoric to Reality Is Hard. Why Isn’t the Left Talking about the Shortest Distance between Two Points?"

- Branko Milanovic's new book, "Capitalism Alone"

- By ignoring high credit card swipe fees, US lawmakers raise prices for all, shift billions to the wealthier

- Ways To Fix the Cadillac Health Plan Tax - HealthAffairs

- Mixing Capitalism and Socialism: Policies To Moderate Systemic Wealth Concentration in the U.S.

- States Strike Back in Federal Court on AHPs

- U.S. wealth inequality approaches high water mark of Roaring 20's

- U.S. Needs To Think Big on Border Wall :)

- CBO Updates Analysis of U.S. Income Distribution before/after Taxes and Transfers

- It's Time All U.S. Workers Had a Few Paid Sick Days

- If Alive Today, Adam Smith Might Favor a More Inclusive Economy

- Op-ed: Half of Americans have no retirement savings — here’s how Congress can look out for them.

- Growing inequality has shrunk Social Security’s tax base. Revitalizing it could restore solvency without cutting benefits.

- Including All Workers in Our Retirement Savings System Requires Two Things: a Universal Tax Credit and a Secure Place To Invest It. Congress should be working on both.

- Don’t exclude low-wage workers from planning for retirement savings programs - letter to WaPost

- Leadership Needed To Create Universal Retirement Savings System Complementing Social Security

- Better Than the Lottery: Here’s one retirement savings strategy, while government thinks about how it might help.

- How Growing Inequality Is Altering The Long-Term Care Policy Battlefield, While Tightening The Financing Knot

- A socially enlightened big-business solution for reducing US gun violence: gun clubs for the mentally ill

- Is DC Safe? Articles Paint Very Different Pictures - letter to WaPost

- If crimes against children can’t be stopped from within, the Vatican & its subsidiaries need purging from the outside - letter to WaPost

- Presentation: America’s Inequality and What To Do About It: The Poor Will Always Be with Us. Will the Middle Class?

- DoL Association Health Plan Rule Could Undermine the ACA in Several Ways

- CEPR Analysis Finds Piketty May Have Underestimated Wealth Gap

- World Inequality Report 2018

- Are Workers Receiving the EITC Being Shortchanged on Social Security? - updated October 2017

- Expanding Use, Scope of EITC and Child Tax Credit a Win-Win for Workers and Employers

- Eyes on the Prize: Universal Coverage is the Goal, Single-Payer Just a Way To Get There - letter to WaPost

- Obama Signs Bipartisan Bill To Speed Miracle Cures to Market. Who Will Have Access to the New Technology? Who Won’t?

- Modest Changes in Health, Retirement Tax Breaks Could Produce Major Gains in US Health Access, Financial Security – at Little or No Added Government Cost

- How the U.S. Retirement Saving System Magnifies Inequality

- How Can We Reduce Financial Risk for the Very Old?

- Republicans, stop with being the party of no. Let’s sell health insurance “across states lines” – through Medicare

- Let's Play Immigration Pinata

- Virginia's push to end veteran homelessness faces steep challenges

- So What Does Jesus Say about Wealth Concentration and Inequality?

- Easter Essay: Is the Golden Rule Enough? Mathematics of the Two Great Commandments

- The Economics of Inequality

Including all workers in our retirement savings system requires 2 things: a universal tax credit and a secure place to invest it.

Congress should be working on both.

Almost half of Americans have no net assets and little or no retirement savings. Many have no money to save, and if they did, and no retirement account to put it in. Meanwhile, Americans at the top of the economic heap get generous tax breaks for retirement savings – and capital gains from these assets widen the wealth gap.

Establishing a national retirement savings system and reshaping tax policy to provide every American worker a modest tax credit to put in a retirement account could improve economic security, help people prepare for old age, and facilitate saving for emergency expenses. This type of inclusive capitalism would make every American worker an owner of assets generating income. Such a system could be funded via a relatively small sacrifice to high earners without increased federal spending.

Click here for full article

Op-ed: Half of Americans have no retirement savings. Here’s how Congress can look out for them

Don't Exclude Low-wage Workers: Letter to Washington Post

Leadership Needed To Create a Universal Retirement Savings System Complementing Social Security

Learn More

Australia as a Model?

Australia’s “superannuation” system requires employers to contribute a percentage of employees’ income into diversified retirement funds managed by trustees. By 1999, 97 percent of Australia’s full-time employees and 76 percent of part-time employees were covered by the superannuation system. Over the years, Australia has increased required contributions and continued to refine the system, which has been credited with raising levels of capital accumulation and improving retirement security.

According to a July 2016 report, the Australian superannuation system continues to broaden coverage, but may be contributing to growing wealth inequality in its current form.

Savings and Investment Basics: Videos from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank

Research shows dramatic growth of upper middle class, major shift in economic resources

An Urban Institute report published in June 2016 found that since 1979 the percentage of wealthy and upper-middle-class Americans have grown dramatically while the middle- and lower-middle class has become smaller. The study found that "the proportion of the population in the upper middle class went from under 13 percent in 1979 to over 29 percent in 2014."

The report documents a major shift in the distribution of economic resources. "In 1979, the bottom three income groups controlled 70 percent of all incomes, and the upper middle class and rich controlled 30 percent. By 2014, this distribution shifted to 37 percent for the bottom three groups and 63 percent for the upper middle class and rich groups. The middle class alone saw its share of income decline from 46 percent in 1979 to 26 percent in 2014."

The study divides the population into five classes. The poor and the near-poor had annual incomes from $0 to $29,999; the lower middle class, from $30,000 to $49,999; the middle class, from $50,000 to $99,999; the upper middle class, from $100,000 to $349,999; and the rich, $350,000 and up.

Pew study shows long-term decline in size of middle class, rise in number of poor

After more than four decades of serving as the nation’s economic majority, the American middle class is now matched in number by those in the economic tiers above and below it, according to a study released in December. In early 2015, 120.8 million adults were in middle-income households, compared with 121.3 million in lower- and upper-income households combined, according to the Pew Research Center analysis of government data. Highlights include the following:

"While the share of U.S. adults living in both upper- and lower-income households rose alongside the declining share in the middle from 1971 to 2015, the share in the upper-income tier grew more.

"Over the same period, however, the nation’s aggregate household income has substantially shifted from middle-income to upper-income households, driven by the growing size of the upper-income tier and more rapid gains in income at the top. Fully 49% of U.S. aggregate income went to upper-income households in 2014, up from 29% in 1970. The share accruing to middle-income households was 43% in 2014, down substantially from 62% in 1970.

"And middle-income Americans have fallen further behind financially in the new century. In 2014, the median income of these households was 4% less than in 2000. Moreover, because of the housing market crisis and the Great Recession of 2007-09, their median wealth (assets minus debts) fell by 28% from 2001 to 2013.

"Meanwhile, the far edges of the income spectrum have shown the most growth. In 2015, 20% of American adults were in the lowest-income tier, up from 16% in 1971. On the opposite side, 9% are in the highest-income tier, more than double the 4% share in 1971. At the same time, the shares of adults in the lower-middle or upper-middle income tiers were nearly unchanged.

"These findings emerge from a new Pew Research Center analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. In this study, which examines the changing size, demographic composition and economic fortunes of the American middle class, ‘middle-income’ Americans are defined as adults whose annual household income is two-thirds to double the national median, about $42,000 to $126,000 annually in 2014 dollars for a household of three. Under this definition, the middle class made up 50% of the U.S. adult population in 2015, down from 61% in 1971."

Better than the lottery: a poor man's retirement savings strategy while the government thinks about how it might help

Impact of Raising the Minimum Wage

Increasing the minimum wage would have two principal effects on low-wage workers, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. Most of them would receive higher pay that would increase their family’s income, and some of those families would see their income rise above the federal poverty threshold. But some jobs for low-wage workers would probably be eliminated, the income of most workers who became jobless would fall substantially, and the share of low-wage workers who were employed would probably fall slightly.

Five Facts about the Minimum Wage.
Living Wage Calculator: The cost of meeting basic needs varies widely depending on where you live. MIT offers an on-line tool to help determine such costs and the living wage in each county and metropolitan area in the U.S. The site also has articles on related issues.
State Minimum Wage Levels: Federal minimum wage law supersedes a state's minimum wage law if the state level is lower. In those states where the state minimum wage is greater than the federal level, the state minimum wage prevails. Two states have a minimum wage set lower than the federal minimum wage. In 29 states and DC, the state minimum wage is higher than the federal minimum. Fourteen states have a minimum wage that is the same as the federal requirement. The remaining five states have not established a minimum wage.

Impact of Raising the Minimum Wage for Long-term Care Workers: RTI International

US Economic Mobility: a discussion with Raj Chetty

Harvard Public Economics Course for 2nd-year PhD Students Taught by Leading Economist Studying Inequality: You Tube

Book of essays explores economic mobility in the U.S.: St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank

Deaton Wins Nobel Prize

"The award comes at a time when there is rising academic and popular interest in the study of inequality. Several economists, including Anthony Atkinson of the London School of Economics (who was among the leading contenders for a Nobel prize this year) and Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics (who is still a bit too young for one), have published widely-read volumes on the subject over the last two years. Mr Deaton published his, The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality, in 2013. In it, he argued that while most people in the world have gained in terms of health and well-being from GDP growth over the last few decades, there are many groups that have missed out, particularly if on measures beyond those most commonly examined."

-- The Economist

Milanovic Explores Dynamics of Income Inequality in Age of Globalization

In “Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization,” Branko Milanovic identifies five forces pushing up inequality in the United States:

1. The increasing share of national income that accrues to owners of capital.

2. Very high and rising concentration of incomes from capital.

3. People holding high-paying jobs also often have high capital income.

4. The tendency of high-income individuals to marry each other.

5. The rising political power of the rich.

Revisiting the work of American economist Simon Kuznets, Milanovic describes how global income economy waxes and wanes in "waves" driven by economic and political forces.

Milanovic Discusses Book At Brookings

CBO report analyzes impact of government transfers, taxes on rising U.S. income inequality

According to the June 2016 report:

"Between 1979 and 2013, all three measures of income examined in this report—market income, before-tax income, and after-tax income—became less equally distributed, based on a standard measure of inequality known as the Gini index. The increase in inequality in both before-tax and after-tax income over the 35-year period stemmed largely from a significant increase in inequality in market income, mostly because of substantial income growth at the top of the market income distribution.

"Because government transfers go predominantly to lower-income households, before-tax income (which is equal to market income plus government transfers) was more evenly distributed in each year than market income. And because higher-income households pay a larger share of federal taxes than lower-income households do, after-tax income was more evenly distributed than before-tax income.

"In each year between 1979 and 2013, government transfers reduced income inequality significantly more than the federal tax system did."

Thomas Piketty lectures at Harvard on Capital in the 21st Century

Lecture Highlights:

The return of a patrimonial (or wealth-based) society in the Old World (Europe, Japan).
Inequality in America: Is the New World developing a new inequality model that is based upon extreme labor income inequality more than upon wealth inequality? Is it more merit-based, or can it become the worst of all worlds?
In all nations with capitalist economies examined, the poorest half of the population owns virtually no assets or is in debt.
In general, when the rate of growth of capital exceeds the rate of growth of the overall economy, wealth tends to concentrate. There is no natural market mechanism to counter this tendency; a nation's degree of wealth concentration in large part is a function of public policy.

Piketty Ted Talk: New thoughts on capital in the 21st Century

Piketty's "Capital in the 21st Century": short lecture series

Economists Discuss Atkinson's Ideas on Reducing Inequality

Robert Solow, the Russell Sage Foundation’s Robert K. Merton Scholar and Institute Professor Emeritus at MIT, joined New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and moderator Janet Gornick (Director of the Luxembourg Income Study Center and a former RSF Visiting Scholar) at the Foundation for a conversation on Inequality: What Can Be Done?, a new book by British inequality scholar Anthony B. Atkinson. In the book, Atkinson argues that economic inequality has reached unacceptable levels in many countries and lays out an agenda for reducing inequality. His policy proposals span five areas: technology, employment, the sharing of capital, taxation, and social security.

Atkinson's Proposals

Hayek Revisited: Is Compromise Possible?

Is Friedrich Hayek's classic defense of individual liberty and economic freedom, rooted in moral tradition, just as relevant today as during World War II? Click here to read a summary of Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom," published by Reader's Digest as that war came to an end and a new international economic order was developed.

Today, how can monopoly power, whether wielded by corporations or government agencies, be checked while expanding economic opportunity and inclusion for all including the young, old, and those with few assets? If Hayek could have foreseen the ability of modern corporations to concentrate wealth and power, what policies would he recommend?

"...Where, as in the case of sickness and accident, neither the desire to avoid such calamities nor the efforts to overcome their consequences are as a rule weakened by the provision of assistance -- where, in short, we deal with genuinely insurable risks -- the case for the state's helping to organize a comprehensive system of social insurance is very strong. ...

"(T)here is no incompatibility in principle between the state's providing greater security in this way and the preservation of individual freedom."

-- F. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, Chapter 9/Security and Freedom

John Oliver on American Inequality

Center on Capital & Social Equity work on Social Security and retirement savings - updated April 2023

Raising Social Security’s retirement age would slam low-wage workers yet again - Karl Polzer/CCSE

Thanks to the Washington Examiner for publishing this op-ed, which provides a perspective typically ignored by Washington's elite and both political parties. The article is based on this study:

A Widening Gap in Life Expectancy Makes Raising Social Security’s Retirement Age a
Particularly Bad Deal for Low-Wage Earners - Society of Actuaries

Also see:

For life expectancy, money matters - Harvard Gazette

Sens.Manchin (WVA), Cassidy (LA), & McConnell (KY) alert! You have a dog in this hunt. The pain resulting from raising the Social Security retirement age would fall most heavily on particular low-income states and regions.

March 3, 2023

East Palestine needs help, but another PPP isn’t the answer - op-ed

"As the White House considers possible economic aid for East Palestine residents, the PPP model should be scrapped along with the wrecked Norfolk Southern railway cars. While it might be a boon for bankers administering the so-called loans, a PPP-style approach has proven prone to fraud and poor targeting and would miss altogether many people needing assistance."

_____

February 2023

What can trillions in Covid stimulus spending teach us in preparing to head off a future financial disaster?

Center on Capital & Social Equity

Time to get their ducks in a row?

Dec. 15, 2022

Who’s More Likely To Find Gifts from Congress under the X-Mas Tree? Low-income Families - or Well-off Retirees and Corporate Shareholders?

"As time ticks down for 117th U.S. Congress to pass a year-end spending package, it will be interesting to see which strata of society our lame-duck lawmakers might gift the most if a deal can be reached. Will they deliver corporate tax breaks for those at the top? Good chance. Corporate tax breaks may be the prerequisite for anyone else getting anything.

"What about tax-code adjustments mostly benefiting well-off owners of retirement funds? Possible. As described as a case study below, long-prepared, bipartisan legislation – aka the Secure Act 2 or Earn ACT— is ready for final touches and attachment to a spending bill.

"What about something that could help people at the bottom..."

Click here to read article

_____

Go Dawgs!

Capitalizing on college football

"In U.S. college sports -- as in the nation’s broader blend of capitalism and socialism -- political leverage can be advantageous. Winning football coaches now sit at the top of the public university food chain. They are emblems of both American economic opportunity and inequality..."

Thanks to the Washington Examiner for publishing this op-ed.

_____

P.S. The draft, titled "Capitalizing on the public-private college football plantation," includes links to the classic Marx Brothers film "Horsefeathers."

A reality check on Ukraine - letter to the Washington Post - 2/24/2022

__________

Updates:

March 5 - This week, the Senate approved HB 388 with amended text. The House then passed the Senate version. Both votes were unanimous. The bill now goes to Virginia's Governor. Unlike other states, if the Governor does not act on a bill, it becomes law without his signature in 30 days (the majority of bills are not signed).

Virginia becomes first state to ensure mental hospital patients, families have access to video visitation

April 11 - It's a law! Gov. Youngkin signed HB 388, which was passed unanimously by both Virginia's House and Senate. Effective July 1, 2022, the bill requires the director of each of the state's 10 mental health hospitals to have a process in place to facilitate virtual visitation. It will help thousands of patients and their families and friends stay connected and could positively impact patient care and hospital transparency.

The Center on Capital & Social Equity worked with staff at Western State Hospital in Staunton to develop a pilot program when in-person visitation was suspended due to Covid 19. We then advocated to expand access to video visits to patients at all state hospitals. Special thanks to the staff at Western State, the Virginia chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and Del. Rod Willett and his staff who were instrumental in making this happen.

To our knowledge, Virginia is the first state to make sure that mental hospital patients and families have access to video visitation. Today, the world is slightly less unequal!

Legislative testimony: Ensure video visitation is available to residents of all Virginia psychiatric hospitals and their families

Call for work requirements reveals bias against low-income families, could hurt many needing help most - letter to editor

What about a few paid sick days? Are low-wage workers simply invisible to Virginia’s elected leaders? - Dec. 28, 2021

We met with a Virginia senator about making sure all workers get paid sick days. Which party do you think this person helps to lead? - Dec. 2, 2021 --- Click here for clues.

Nov. 4, 2021

White House’s promised childcare subsidies face a host of ‘devils in the details’

Karl Polzer, Center on Capital & Social Equity

"The $1.75-trillion Build Back Better (BBB) proposal’s promise to cap childcare expenses at 7% of income for families earning up to $300,000 faces a series of policy hurdles regarding cost, equity, long-term impacts, and how such a program might be administered. While subsidized childcare would meet a pressing need for many low- and modest-income working parents, providing benefits to upper-income professionals and inflationary impacts could push the program’s cost as high as $1 trillion over 10 years.

"Some analysts warn that massive subsidies combined with costly regulatory requirements could end up reducing care choices for many low-income families, particularly those preferring to look after their children at home..."

Click here to read article

Nov. 20, 2021

Why our grandchildren will being moving back from the ocean and heading north

Karl Polzer – Center on Capital & Social Equity

As the fog lifts from what was achieved during last week’s international negotiations over controlling climate change, some outlines of future reality come into focus. Layers of carbon pollution girding the Earth will continue to drive up temperatures and sea levels. The world’s 195 countries will not be able to change human behavior enough to stop major climate change. By later this century, billions of people will face pressure to move away from eroding seashores to higher ground and north to cooler places to live.

There are several reasons to expect this...

Click here to read essay

Oct. 26, 2021

Responses received from Virginia campaigns for governor

Last week, the Center on Capital & Social Equity, which operates from Northern Virginia, sent a short list of questions to policy and press people working on the two Virginia campaigns for governor. We are pleased that both campaigns sent responses but would have liked to see more specific answers to many of the questions.

Our motivation in asking these questions is to help focus the next governor on the needs of low-income people who make up a large portion of Virginia’s population. Their everyday challenges are often ignored by their political representatives. Attention to detail and commitment will be keys to developing and implementing policies that will help improve their lives on issues including adequate wages, paid sick days, access to mental health care, the cost of living,and affordable health care. We look forward to working with the next administration on these and other matters.

November 20th, 2021 Grocery Store Labor Action - All Workers Deserve Paid Sick Days - Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy

"Grocery store workers are one of the best examples of why Virginia needs a paid sick day standard. Two-thirds of grocery store workers have no paid sick days. Virginians for Paid Sick Days is partnering with UFCW Local 400 to hold actions outside grocery stores on the Saturday of November 20, 2021 (the Saturday before Thanksgiving) highlighting the need for all grocery store workers to have paid sick days."

A Low Budget ‘Infrastructure’ Deal for the Bottom 50% - essay

July 12, 2021

"Congress could do many relatively inexpensive things to improve working people’s lives. At spending levels near the bottom of what’s being now debated, all workers – including the lowest-paid -- could have additional funds to raise their kids, paid sick days, more job training, and some savings for retirement and emergencies. Millions more could have higher wages and health care coverage. And millions more disabled and elderly people could move above the poverty line. Much of this could be done by modifying existing programs and policies."

Social ‘infrastructure’ improvements for the working class

Target subsidies for families (child tax credits, daycare, college) to people most in need.
Raise the minimum wage and index it for inflation. Give states reasonable flexibility to adjust the minimum. All workers get paid sick days.
Repair and improve SSI.
Establish a universal retirement savings system.
Incentivize states to expand Medicaid. Hold Medicare spending increases to general inflation or less.
Improve Social Security benefits for the bottom 50%. Achieve long-term solvency through higher taxes mostly on the top 20%.
Improve the unemployment insurance system and job training.

Click here to read essay.

Op-ed: SSI Desperately Needs Fixing - Karl Polzer

Biden’s spending spree could destabilize Social Security - Karl Polzer

"President Joe Biden’s plan to inject $4 trillion of social and capital infrastructure spending into a $21 trillion economy could help many people take care of their families. But there are also major economic and political downsides. These risks could be reduced, and the proposal’s value increased, by putting Social Security on the table and targeting new social spending to people most in need..."

Click here to read the op-ed

Where's Social Security?

How much can we tax the wealthy to finance long-run social and physical infrastructure needs?

Karl Polzer, Center on Capital & Social Equity

A government, already paying interest on more than its people produce each year (hint: $22 trillion), now proposes to tax its wealthiest citizens in the vicinity of $3 trillion more to finance a growing list of social and physical infrastructure needs. Like families paying off mortgages, indebted governments should know that each major purchase narrows its ability to raise capital for future needs...

So, what do we need and how can the wealthy be tapped to pay for it? What's missing?...

Click here to read the paper

Politicizing the Georgia Tragedy: letter to the editor

Thanks to the Washington Examiner for timely publication of this op-ed.

Yes, raise the minimum wage, but don't stop there

March 1, 2021

"...States could be given flexibility. Congress could set the national minimum at the high end of current proposals, say at $15 or $16, and allow states to adjust it downward by a certain margin, say 20% or 25%, but no lower. A national minimum wage corridor, rather than a line, could help California and New York build up and adjust down from a higher platform. Poorer states could choose lower levels in the corridor, say $12 to $13 an hour.

"Policymakers also should consider how changes to the earned income tax credit and child tax credit can complement wages for working-class families. Members of both parties support higher subsidies to raise children. Such payments should be targeted to help the poorest the most. Yet the current child tax credit provides the most money to higher-income families."

Click here to read the op-ed.

Feb. 17, 2021

Analysis: Ways To Raise the U.S. Minimum Wage To Help Workers, Families, While Minimizing Negative Impacts

Karl Polzer, Center on Capital & Social Equity

A recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis reinforces the case that raising the national minimum wage is long overdue. But it also provides reasons for caution. Dialing up wages at the bottom up too fast and too much could increase the magnitude of negative side effects including job loss and price increases.

This paper examines potential impacts of raising the federal minimum wage nationally and in selected states and local areas. It ends with suggestions to temper negative side effects resulting from a higher minimum wage and discusses the need to fill income gaps that are too large for a higher minimum wage to address adequately, especially for some types of families. Options include setting a national corridor in which states can choose a minimum wage best fitted to them and supplementing low wages with more support for raising children.

Click here to read the paper.

Biden's stimulus risks sending aid to those who don't need it - Karl Polzer/Washington Examiner op-ed

January 29, 2021

Who exactly will get the enhanced cash aid, and who won't, in the stimulus package the Biden administration will soon negotiate with Congress? This is the first of many distributional challenges awaiting lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Choices on targeting increasingly scarce public funds will reveal which income groups both parties are committed to represent.

Details of the relief proposal had not been released as of this writing. But it is likely that the administration has been working from the distribution template in legislation Democrats introduced at the end of December. That bill, the Cash Act of 2020, would increase the $600 COVID-19 cash relief authorized last month to a total of $2,000 ($4,000 for couples). It also would send billions of dollars to well-off people that don’t need the money. As with previous COVID-19 cash aid legislation, an argument can be made that the distribution scheme shortchanges millions of people who need money to pay for food and rent.

Click here to read full article

Making Sure We Get to Universal Coverage: a letter to Sen. Bernie Sanders

Feb. 23, 2020

Dear Sen. Sanders,

Among all candidates for president, we think you are the most committed to making sure that ALL Americans have health insurance and access to comprehensive health care. We commend you for your leadership on this issue.

Unfortunately, it is hard to see how the Medicare-for-all legislation you propose could gain Congressional approval in the foreseeable political future. As a longtime member of the U.S. Senate, you must be able to understand the grounds for this concern.

Please answer this question: If, during your presidency, Congress could agree to pass a universal coverage bill using a different, perhaps more traditional, approach, would you sign it?

Getting ALL Americans affordable coverage as soon as possible is an important part of our policy agenda. We cannot wait until a political moment in the unforeseeable future in which a Medicare-for-all system can gain approval. We also recognize that any universal system put in place will need to enjoy long-lasting acceptance spanning the ebbs and flows of partisan politics.

Our question is of deepest sincerity. Your answer could be key to broadening your base of support and winning the presidency.

Thank you again for your leadership.

Karl Polzer, Center on Capital & Social Equity

To Reduce Inequality, Run a Hot Economy - Karen Dynan, Harvard University

Thanks to the Washington Post for publishing this as leaders in Congress negotiated changes to Covid-19 relief legislation:

Low-income Americans are left out of covid stimulus - Center on Capital & Social Equity

Dec. 11, 2020 at 4:31 p.m. EST

Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) said in their Dec. 8 op-ed, “We can’t afford inaction on the covid-19 compromise package,” that their compromise “would help Americans at least get through the next four months.” With due respect to their bipartisan efforts, that was dead wrong.

Very little in the coronavirus relief package would help low-income Americans make it through even one month. What’s needed most is rent relief and money to cover food and utility bills. Yet no direct payments to low-income individuals similar to the checks issued under the Cares Act in the spring are to be found. The bipartisan proposal mainly would benefit interests with access to Congress: businesses (via cheap or free money, plus a liability shield), nonprofits/associations/churches, state governments, and professional classes including doctors, lawyers and accountants.

The D.C. government’s decision to send $1,200 checks to people among the hardest hit sets a good example for states and the federal government. Congressional leaders, many perched in the nation’s wealthiest strata, need to understand that about half of the U.S. workforce earns low wages or is out of a job. Viewed from the bottom up, the United States is becoming a much more impoverished nation.

Karl Polzer, Falls Church

The writer is founder of the Center on Capital & Social Equity.

Essay - Could new tools allowing the Fed to pump money through ‘the people’ make U.S. monetary policy more equitable and effective? - Sept. 1, 2020

Center on Capital & Social Equity

Policy Goals: Increase economic inclusion at reasonable public cost

Raise minimum wage with annual COLA (option: give states some leeway to adjust ↓ to reflect cost of living/labor).
Five PAID sick days annually for ALL workers.
100% of Americans with health coverage by 2025 - with strong cost controls (any number of payers will work).
Universal retirement savings system with minimum $500 annual government contribution (so, all Americans own working capital, have stake in market economy).
No surprise medical bill >$500.
Cut cost of college/expand apprenticeship programs.
Improve Social Security benefits for bottom 50%. Achieve long-term solvency through higher taxes mostly on top 20%.
Increase refundable child tax credit.

Race-neutral, progressive economic policies deliver $$ to minority communities

"Although much of it may turn out to be pre-election packaging, legislation unveiled last week by Democrats to help racial minorities is a poorly conceived policy approach that fails to treat the nation’s low-wage workers fairly or equally. Senate leadership is billing the Economic Justice Act as a “major new legislative proposal to make $350 billion in immediate and long-term investments in Black communities and other communities of color.” However, policies that reward or punish citizens based on skin color not only rest of shaky legal and ethical ground. If enacted, they may ignite a political backlash that will set minority communities back rather than helping them move forward."

Click here to read article.

A Sea Change for Wages v. Capital?

Addicted to Identity Politics, Progressives May Miss a Historic Chance To Connect with America’s Working Class

Karl Polzer – Center on Capital & Social Equity

New research affirms what has been known for centuries. In the wake of a pandemic, a smaller, more risk-averse work force is often in position to demand higher wages. After the Black Death ripped through Europe, for example, peasants, shop workers and craftsmen realized they had gained bargaining power. Wages rose and the return on capital fell.

Though the impact of the current pandemic probably will be much milder, millions in the American working class suddenly deemed to be “essential” may come to a similar realization. People working with their hands in nursing homes, grocery stores, meat packing plants, or as home health aides, might ask whether they are getting a fair deal. Why, they might ask, are we expected show up to work and risk contagion for wages that barely cover the rent, while millions in the professional, management, and bureaucratic classes can shelter at home and still pull down a good salary? Why don’t we get paid sick days, health insurance, and other basic benefits like they do? Why can’t we spend more time raising our kids to help them get ahead?

In just two months, the Covid virus has upended the American workforce. Incomes have crashed. Unemployment has rocketed. Whatever new normal emerges will be different and probably more unequal. A larger portion of the workface – and the electorate -- may well be unemployed or working for low wages. Jobs that can support a middle-class lifestyle may be harder to find.

This is the perfect time for elected officials to talk to all American workers about how to improve their lives. Unfortunately, many Democrat leaders are deeply rutted in rituals of race and gender politics. The Democratic party may be blowing its chance to regain working class support -- once its bread and butter -- in two important ways. First, its policy agenda largely reflects upper-middle class priorities. Second, the party’s world view and messaging for many years has presumed that low-wage work is exclusive to blacks and Hispanics. To many Democratic leaders, pale-skinned poor people seem to have no standing. It’s almost as if they don’t exist...

Click here to read entire article

July 1, 2020

Letter to U.S. Political Leaders and Media

It’s past time the White House, Congress required - and funded - Covid testing in nursing homes

What wasn’t said at last week’s Congressional hearings on Covid-19 should raise alarm. Federal officials testified the CDC plans to issue “more targeted” testing "guidelines" for states and nursing homes. More advice is not enough. After five months and more than 120,000 virus deaths, lack of federal and state action -- and adequate funding -- for testing in nursing homes is homicide by negligent policy...

July 14, 2020

CMS to deliver ‘point-of-care’ COVID-19 test kits to all nursing homes

Yes! Credit to CMS Administrator Verma and the Administration. We've been calling on the feds to deploy rapid, comprehensive testing for nursing home residents and staff for 4 months. This is a major step toward reducing deaths from the pandemic. Now, make sure to include long term care providers not directly regulated by CMS, such as assisted living facilities, in the testing program. About 1.5 million live in nursing homes and one million in assisted living.

June 15, 2020

Op-ed:Upgrade Medicaid, don't gut it

Thanks to the Washington Examiner for running this article.

"The current Medicaid regime is a mixture of bad and good. It often renders low quality nursing home care. But Medicaid does provide universal long-term care coverage, a rarity in American social policy. That’s a good thing. Medicaid needs to be upgraded – not gutted. Long-term care insurance and personal savings simply can’t fill the gap cutting Medicaid would leave." ...

"Witness the Trump administration’s delegation of most of the responsibility for the COVID-19 nursing home policy to the states. It recommended, for example, that states make sure COVID-19 testing gets done in nursing homes rather than having CMS require it nationally. Washington’s failure to take the lead on testing can’t bode well for nursing home quality and mortality rates."

Covid-19 Relief Bill Should Do More for Low-wage Workers - Letter sent to Washington Post

The World Inequality Lab Newsletter - July 2020

Thomas Piketty - Why Capitalism Must Be Reformed | The Daily Social Distancing Show

Capital Gains and U.K. Inequality - Arun Advani and Andy Summers

Three policy recommendations include: "Capital gains tax rates need to be aligned more closely with marginal income tax rates, since large gaps lead to repackaging of income, reducing the redistributive effects of tax, creating horizontal inequity, and biasing measures of vertical inequality."

The Missing Profits of Nations: How much each country loses or attracts because of tax competition - Thomas Torslov, Ludvig Wier and Gabriel Zucman

"Capital and Ideology": Notes and Figures - Thomas Piketty, 2020

"In this talk, I present some of the figures & tables gathered in my book Capital and Ideology (2020) - an economic, social & political history of inequality regimes, from trifunctional and colonial societies to post-communist, post-colonial hyper-capitalist societies. As compared to Capital in the 21st Century (2014): Capital and Ideology is less western-centered, more political and focuses on the fragilities and the transformation of inequality ideologies. A much better book (I believe!)"

Click here to download article

Op-ed: To stop the coronavirus, take quick action on paid sick leave

Letter to the Washington Post, Other Media - April 3, 2020

U.S. news media should make coronavirus coverage available to everyone

The Washington Post and other newspapers have done yeoman work in covering the coronavirus outbreak. Getting reliable and thoughtful information to the public quickly plays a critical role in helping to coordinate responses and saves lives. Unfortunately, the normal practice of restricting access to paid subscribers slows down dissemination of critical information, particularly to lower-income people.

Until this national emergency is over, the Post and other media should "ungate" all coverage related to the pandemic. That way people and organizations that subscribe can quickly get the word out about latest developments. This would be a great service to the public.

Karl Polzer/Center on Capital & Social Equity

March 3, 2020 - Letter to the Washington Post

A wealth tax could be both fair and enforceable

The Post’s March 3 article “Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren want a wealth tax. Wealthy Swiss say their model could work for America” raises key issues of tax fairness and enforcement.

Why would it be unfair to tax the super wealthy on total net assets when middle-class homeowners already are taxed on the value of homes largely financed through debt on which they pay interest to banks (whose profits flow disproportionately to the wealthiest)? Existing American wealth taxes -- state and local property taxes -- now finance most K-12 education. A national wealth tax could be used to make school funding more equitable and lessen the tax burden on the middle class. We already tax the middle class on property it partially owns. So why not tax the wealthiest on the value assets they own lock, stock and barrel?

Incentives are key to enforcement. A progressive wealth tax -- rising in increments from point A to point B -- could be enforced by applying the maximum rate to all households with wealth over a given threshold, and leaving it up to filers to document to the IRS that the lowest allowable rate is appropriate. Finally, a reasonable tax rate could provide an incentive for investment that spurs economic growth. A high rate could stifle it.

Karl Polzer/Center on Capital & Social Equity

Letter to the editor: A wealth tax could be both fair and enforceable

https://kpolzer.tumblr.com/post/190962070290

"Fastest way to cut carbon emissions is a 'fee' and dividend, top leaders say," Washington Post, 2/14/20

The article above is an example of how the virtue of economic analysis can't be measured by the pound or aggregate number of titles. The insight of a single analyst can contain more wisdom than collective opinion of 100.

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How to make carbon taxes more equitable - letter to the Washington Post

Jan. 28, 2020 at 5:40 p.m. EST

The Jan. 25 news article “At Davos, enthusiasm for trees but not a carbon tax” did not mention an important reason political leaders might balk at levying higher carbon taxes. Carbon taxes, including those on gasoline, are highly regressive, affecting lower-income people much more than higher-income. For example, if gas taxes were doubled in the Washington area, most well-paid professionals would have enough capital (or access to credit) to easily switch to a hybrid vehicle. Over the life of the vehicle, their savings in fuel and taxes would probably cancel out any initial expense. In contrast, for lack of capital, a person driving a used gas guzzler to two low-paying jobs would be stuck driving the gas guzzler along with higher fuel costs.

Hiking fuel taxes would make it even harder for the growing share of the U.S. population working low-paying jobs to make ends meet and raise families. Carbon taxes would be more equitable and politically feasible if governments also made sure that workers struggling to pay their bills could afford the switch to clean-energy technology.

Karl Polzer, Falls Church

The writer is founder of the Center on Capital & Social Equity.

Response to WaPo dialogue stemming from our letter on carbon taxes

Dear Washington Post Editors:

Sabrina S. Fu made excellent points in her Feb. 4 letter “Quit saying ‘carbon tax.’ It’s a fee and dividend” addressing concerns I raised in a letter last week. Her proposal, however, would work best an ideal political world where one can control opponents' and skeptics' language used to frame an issue. My concern over tax fairness would remain because in the legislative bargaining process -- including a last-minute deal in conference committee -- the redistribution part of the proposal could easily be watered down, or eliminated, while the regressive "tax" or "fee" would become law.

Why don’t we start by applying her proposal to the current gasoline tax? If it survives the legislative process and works for current energy taxes, then move on to carbon writ large. Bottom line: advocates for low- and middle-income people trying to survive today need to keep a sharp eye on idealistic proposals coming from the better-situated trying to save the planet in the next century.

Karl Polzer

Center on Capital & Social Equity

https://kpolzer.tumblr.com/post/189955953950/projected-changes-in-the-distribution-of-household

https://kpolzer.tumblr.com/post/189955866660/cbo-projects-continued-rise-of-income-inequality

https://kpolzer.tumblr.com/post/189955932725/annual-income-raises-of-08-to-2-can-accumulate

https://kpolzer.tumblr.com/post/189955853590/cbo-the-reduction-in-inequality-attributable-to

Affordability is No. 1 Challenge in Housing America's Growing Number of Older People: Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (slides 28-44)

https://kpolzer.tumblr.com/post/190197075555/us-inequality-chart-book-the-big-picture

https://kpolzer.tumblr.com/post/189862323475/opinion-all-i-want-for-christmas-is-affordable

Aug. 7, 2019

By letting banks charge excessive credit card fees, US raises prices for all, shifts billions of $$$ to the wealthier

Karl Polzer

There are many mechanisms through which the financial establishment systematically drains money from workers struggling to pay their bills. Some hum along in plain sight while regulators and members of Congress barely take notice. Such is the case with the $80 billion in fees that banks will extract from credit and debit card transactions this year.

While other countries have lowered credit card transaction costs, either through non-bank market innovation (in China) or regulation (in the European Union, Australia, and other nations), U.S. policymakers empower banks and credit card networks to levy what amounts to a doubly regressive national sales tax...

(Also see the note on excessive credit card interest rates beginning on p. 6.)

Click here for full article

Letter to Washington Post - Nov. 17, 2019

The Post’s call for vigorous debate on capitalism raises issue of its role as honest broker

Today’s lead editorial (“Capitalism itself is on the 2020 ballot: Every billionaire is not a policy failure, but each can afford to pay more”) begins by defending core values of capitalism. It then endorses higher taxes on the super wealthy to temper growing inequality. On the critical issue of how much more wealthy people should pay toward government operation and programs, the editorial is silent. It ends with a call for vigorous and informed debate over these critical issues during the 2020 election.

Along the way, by carefully acknowledging that its current owner, Jeff Bezos, bought the Post from the “civic minded” Graham family six years ago, the editors raise another important issue. That is whether one of the world’s most influential sources of news and public opinion can maintain both neutrality and vigor in the debate over capitalism if owned by one of the world’s richest people. As the debate deepens, this potential conflict of interest may become more awkward and harder to explain.

Karl Polzer, Founder, Center on Capital & Social Equity

Moving a Wealth Tax from Rhetoric to Reality Is Hard. Why Isn’t the Left Talking about the Shortest Distance between Two Points?

https://kpolzer.tumblr.com/post/190261680615/the-only-thing-stopping-us-from-taxing-the-rich-is

https://kpolzer.tumblr.com/post/188708372520/emmanuel-saez-and-gabriel-zucmans-new-book

https://kpolzer.tumblr.com/post/189309012820/wealth-taxes-in-europe

https://kpolzer.tumblr.com/post/188855852610/saezzucman-answers-to-faqs-tax-justice-now

https://kpolzer.tumblr.com/post/189644129590/the-clash-of-capitalisms

https://kpolzer.tumblr.com/post/189388975730/the-crisis-of-capitalism-is-not-the-one

https://kpolzer.tumblr.com/post/187959746935/with-the-us-and-china-two-types-of-capitalism-are

https://kpolzer.tumblr.com/post/189289005080/book-presentation-capitalism-alone-by-branko

How Golf Club Owners Can Grow Revenues and House the Homeless

"The Cadillac Tax Do-Over Challenge": Karl Polzer - Health Affairs, Aug. 20, 2019

A socially enlightened big-business solution for reducing US gun violence: gun clubs for the mentally ill

Is DC a safe place to live? Washinton Post articles paint very different pictures

Amicus brief supporting state opposition to DOL's association health plan initiative - July 2019

Effects of Raising the Federal Minimum Wage

Congressional Budget Office - July 2019

Findings: "In an average week in 2025, the $15 option would boost the wages of 17 million workers who would otherwise earn less than $15 per hour. Another 10 million workers otherwise earning slightly more than $15 per hour might see their wages rise as well. But 1.3 million other workers would become jobless, according to CBO’s median estimate. There is a two-thirds chance that the change in employment would be between about zero and a decrease of 3.7 million workers. The number of people with annual income below the poverty threshold in 2025 would fall by 1.3 million." … Similar, but smaller effects for minimum wage of $12 … Ditto for $10 minimum wage.

A $15 minimum wage would have major impact on long term care industry - $10 or $12, not so much: RTI

Many U.S. households earning less than a living wage: MIT analysis

"Across all family sizes, the living wage exceeds the poverty threshold, often used to identify need. State minimum wages provide for only a portion of the living wage. For two adult, two children families, the minimum wage covers 73.0% of the living wage at best in the District of Columbia and 41.8% at worst in Virginia. This means that families earning between the poverty threshold ($25,298 for two working adults, two children on average in 2018) and the living wage $67,146) on average for two working adults, two children per year before taxes), may fall short of the income and assistance they require to meet their basic needs."

U.S. wealth inequality approaching high water mark of Roaring 20's: Zucman

If crimes against children can’t be stopped from within, the Vatican & its subsidiaries need purging from the outside: Letter to Washington Post

Every Catholic and every U.S. citizen should carefully read The Post’s Feb. 20 front-page article “ ‘The tragedy that keeps playing out.’ ” It is the latest in an endless stream of detailed evidence that the church power structure is incapable of changing from within to protect children in its care from sexual abuse. Senior church officials should be charged with criminal negligence for failing to remove predators they employ from positions from which they could injure children. Billions of dollars should be removed from the Vatican and its subsidiaries through the courts and distributed to victims. Still, would they change their ways?

Until this systemic problem is forcibly corrected, every church, school and other Catholic facility whose employees come into contact with children should undergo thorough inspection every year on the presumption that abuse may be occurring. If this cannot be corrected from within, then the Catholic Church should be broken up and reorganized. The same should happen with any church operating this way. Jesus commands that those in power do not harm those in their care, particularly children.

All Workers Should Have A Few Paid Sick Days. The President And Congress Can Make It Happen - Health Affairs Blog, Jan. 3, 2019

Why Inequality Matters - Milanovic

Click here for compleat "láðspell" & blueprint

Distribution of Household Income before/after Transfers and Taxes: CBO

Summary of slides released November 2018

In 2015, household income was unevenly distributed: Households at the top of the income distribution received significantly more income than households at the bottom of the distribution.

Before accounting for the effects of means-tested transfers and federal taxes:

Average income among households in the lowest quintile (or fifth) of the income distribution was about $20,000.
Average income among households in the highest quintile was about $292,000.
Within the highest quintile, income was highly skewed toward the very top of the distribution: Among households in the bottom half of the highest quintile (the 81st to 90th percentiles), average income was $157,000; among the 1.2 million households in the top 1 percent of the distribution, it was $1.9 million.

The combined effect of means-tested transfers and federal taxes in 2015 was, on average, to increase income at the bottom of the income distribution and decrease income at the top of the distribution.

After accounting for the effects of means-tested transfers and federal taxes:

Average income among households in the lowest quintile of the income distribution was about $33,000.
Average income among households in the highest quintile was about $215,000.
Among households in the bottom half of the highest quintile, average income was $125,000; among households in the top 1 percent, it was $1.2 million.

Below: Taxes, transfers resulted in significantly more income growth from 1979-2015 for the bottom income group than the middle three, while the top income group was held harmless.

How Different Studies Measure U.S. Income Inequality

The American Economy Is Rigged: And what we can do about it - Joseph Stiglitz

Would Adam Smith favor policies creating a more inclusive economy?

Karl Polzer – Center on Capital & Social Equity

In a recent op-ed, I suggested that Congress establish a universal retirement savings system, possibly funded by a tiny tax on financial market transactions. In another, that growing income and wealth inequality has shrunk Social Security’s revenue and that taxing capital gains and high earnings could help the program stay solvent without cutting benefits. What would Adam Smith, the father of modern economic analysis, think of taxing financial transactions and capital gains? The notion of including all workers in saving and ownership of working capital? Helping correct the tendency of modern capitalism to concentrate wealth? Although conservative economists often cite Smith as a siren of an unfettered market, he might give these proposals serious consideration. Times have changed. Yet his manner of reasoning remains vital in addressing issues we face today.

Click here for full article

Growing inequality has shrunk Social Security’s tax base. Revitalizing it could restore solvency without cutting benefits.

As the graying and outsized baby boom generation claims Social Security benefits, Americans increasingly doubt whether the program can pay all that it has promised – or even continue to cut checks at all. In their annual report released June 5, Social Security’s Trustees warn that, unless Congress acts to restore the program’s long-term solvency, by 2034 it will only have sufficient funds to pay 77 cents of each dollar currently promised. By then, the Social Security trust fund will be empty and the program will lack legal authority to pay out more than it can bring in through earmarked taxes. An adjustment this size in 2018 would drop the average annual Social Security payment of $16,848 to $12,973. Most older Americans depend on Social Security for all or most of their income.

The longer Congress plays chicken on this issue, the greater the risk that changes such as tax increases or benefit cuts, or a combination, will have major economic impacts on retirees and workers. The trustees’ report emphasizes the growing ratio of retirees receiving benefits to workers contributing payroll taxes as a major force impinging on the program’s solvency. Underlying factors include the size of the baby boom generation and a lower birth rate. But other forces are at work. Growing wealth and income inequality have significantly eroded Social Security’s tax base.

First, wealth inequality: As Americans at the top of the economic spectrum continue to amass equities, bonds, and other assets, the portion of national income from capital investment has increased significantly, pushing down the portion earned through labor. In the United States, labor’s share of earnings fell about eight percentage points between 1995 and 2013 (compared to a bit over three percentage points in other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries). Since Social Security relies primarily on a tax on labor for its sustenance, the relative growth of capital income gradually is choking off a source of revenue.

Second, income inequality: As part of its structure to promote fairness between economic classes, Social Security replaces relatively more lifetime income for lower-wage workers than those with higher wages – but also caps wages subject to its payroll tax, in part to increase the net value of Social Security in the eyes of higher earners. The wage cap for 2018 is $128,400. Over the past several decades, wages of lower-income Americans have stagnated, while those at the top have grown significantly. As a result, the trustees note that portion of wage income taxed by Social Security has dropped by about six percentage points (see p. 144). In agency jargon, the “taxable ratio” of payroll fell from 88.6 percent in 1984 to 82.6 percent in 2000, and has fluctuated near the latter level since then. Social Security Administration (SSA) actuaries assume the ratio will remain about 82.5 percent over the next decade. In summary, unless the tax cap on earnings keeps up with the growing prosperity of those at the top, Social Security’s tax base shrinks as a portion of national income.

Click here to read entire essay

Op-Ed: There's a Way to Save Social Security, But It Involves Taxing the Rich

Click here for slides

How Growing Inequality Is Altering The Long-Term Care Policy Battlefield, While Tightening The Financing Knot - Health Affairs

World Inequality Lab newsletter - March 2018

Extreme Income Inequality: Brazil, India, the Middle-East and South Africa

This paper presents findings about inequality dynamics in Brazil, India, the Middle-East and South Africa by combining tax data, household surveys and national accounts.

In all of these four regions, top 10% earners receive more than 50% of national income. These societies are characterized by a dual social structure, with an extremely rich group at the top whose income levels are broadly comparable to their counterparts in high-income countries, and a much poorer mass of the population. The authors highlight the importance of the historical legacy of social segregation and of modern institutions in shaping income disparities.

Which Way Is Your Country Headed?

Analysis including Housing Assets Finds Piketty May Have Underestimated Wealth Gap

The Rate of Return on Everything - CEPR

"One of the most intensely debated economic questions in recent years is the relationship between real returns on wealth, and the real rate of growth. In his influential book, Piketty (2014) argued that if the return to capital exceeded the rate of economic growth, rentiers would accumulate wealth at a faster rate than incomes grow. Comparing returns to growth, or “r minus g'' in Piketty's vernacular, we uncover that in fact “r >> g” for more countries, more years, and more dramatically than Piketty himself reported."

World Inequality Report 2018

How Humans Extract Rent from Nature's Gifts

"As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce. The wood of the forest, the grass of the field, and all the natural fruits of the earth, which, when land was in common, cost the labourer only the trouble of gathering them, come, even to him, to have an additional price fixed upon them. He must then pay for the licence to gather them, and must give up to the landlord a portion of what his labour either collects or produces. This portion, or, what comes to the same thing, the price of this portion, constitutes the rent of land, and in the price of the greater part of commodities, makes a third.”

― Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations

U.S. Tax Policy Should Boost Retirement Savings for All Workers, Not Just the Wealthiest

Center on Capital & Social Equity - October 2017

Current tax breaks for retirement savings mainly subsidize the top half of the income distribution, leaving almost half the workforce out of the system. Part of the federal tax subsidy for 401(k)s should be rechanneled into a retirement savers tax credit that all workers get ($500 to $1,000 a year).

In 2017 employees can put up to $18,000 in tax-deferred defined contribution plans (e.g., 401(k)s) and those 50 or older can put aside an additional $6,000. Total employee and employer contributions are limited to $54,000. The Tax Policy Center estimates that in 2016 the tax savings from all tax-qualified pension and defined contribution accounts averaged about $1,040 per taxpayer. (No kidding: 1040.) These tax savings, however, were extremely tilted toward the well-off. Only 4.4 percent of workers in the lowest fifth of the income distribution received any tax benefit and their average tax savings in 2016 was $20. In contrast, 82 percent of the highest-paid quintile received a tax benefits with an average benefit of $4,750. About 48 percent of the middle fifth received a tax benefit with an average savings of $580.

The result of this tax policy? About half the American population has put aside virtually nothing for retirement, while many wealthy people are being paid to save money they would have saved anyway. It’s clear that retirement savings tax breaks could be better targeted. For more information see:

Manifesto for a New American Liberalism, or How to Be a Humane Libertarian - Deirdre McCloskey

Are Workers Receiving the EITC Being Shortchanged on Social Security?

updated October 2017

..."Under the current system, a person whose highest earnings averaged $15,000 a year over 35 years would end up with about $10,542 in annual Social Security benefits – the same as a worker averaging $15,000 wages plus various amounts of EITC. A worker averaging $20,000 in wages would end up with $1,600 (15%) more in annual Social Security benefits compared with another with the same total income but instead averaging $15,000 wages and taking home $5,000 in EITC. Similarly, someone averaging $25,000 in wages would end up with $3,200 (30%) more in Social Security benefits than a counterpart averaging $15,000 and receiving $10,000 in EITC."

Click here for full article

D's Push for Major EITC Expansion

September 2017

Two members of Congress are teaming up to bring much-needed relief to low-wage workers and their families through an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) introduced the Grow American Incomes Now (GAIN) Act in both the House and Senate. Currently, a family of three can receive a maximum EITC of $6,318, while workers without dependent children can receive at most a $510 credit. The legislation would roughly double the EITC for eligible workers raising children and increase the credit for workers without dependent children nearly six fold. The bill also lowers the qualifying age for the EITC from 25 to 21.

CCSE comment:

Expanding the EITC is a good idea. However, as the share of workers' income provided by government subsidies rises, the case becomes stronger for the federal government to begin making corresponding payments to Social Security. Also, a way to simplify tax policy might be to coordinate the EITC and Child Tax Credit (CTC) in the following way: the EITC could be based solely on income, not family structure. The refundable component of the Child Tax Credit could be expanded to provide additional income for low- and middle-income families.

September 2017 - Karl Polzer

Expanding Use, Scope of the EITC & Child Tax Credit: a Win-Win for Workers and Employers

This paper makes the case that helping employees access the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit – along with supporting bipartisan legislation to expand these programs – can help industries with large numbers of low-to-middle wage workers. In the long-term care field, such a strategy can improve worker income through government wage supplements, thus encouraging more to enter the workforce. Increased labor supply would dampen employer wage costs – all while expanding the range of affordable services providers can offer. This could result in hundreds of millions of dollars of added value in worker earnings as well as provider and customer savings.

Click here for full article

High earnings of labour are an advantage to the society - Adam Smith

“Is this improvement in the circumstances of the lower ranks of the people to be regarded as an advantage or as an inconveniency to the society? The answer seems at first sight abundantly plain. Servants, labourers and workmen of different kinds make up the far greater part of every great political society. But what improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconveniency to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, cloath and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged.”

-- The Wealth of Nations (originally published in 1776)

Chinese Minimum Wage Standards

Robin Hood Tax Reform - May 2017

How Modest Changes in Health, Retirement Tax Breaks Could Produce Major Gains in US Health Access, Financial Security – at Little or No Added Government Cost

..."The positive impacts of two such changes discussed below could include 1) lowering the rate of health care cost inflation; 2) providing revenue to help subsidize health insurance for the unemployed; 3) creating seed money and a low-cost infrastructure for a universal retirement savings system; and 4) increasing retirement security for low- and middle-income people; and 5) helping people save for long-term care costs. Looking at benefit tax exclusion is already on the table as Congress faces the unsavory chore of developing a fix for the Affordable Care Act’s clumsily designed “Cadillac” health plan excise tax. Most importantly, these changes could result in greater economic fairness and inclusion."

Full Article

Eyes on the Prize: Universal Health Insurance Is the Goal

Letter to the Washington Post:

Charles Krauthammer’s March 31 op-ed, “The road to single-payer health care,” was largely on point. However, it is important to separate the concepts of “single-payer,” which is a means toward a goal, and “universal coverage,” which should be the primary goal. Universal coverage can be achieved without having the government cover every citizen. Even if government programs cover most citizens, there will always be multiple payers, including individuals and taxpayers; a universal system also could allow employer plans to operate. Ironically, creating a larger government role in sponsoring and subsidizing health insurance could result in a more competitive market for providing services. Karl Polzer - April 2, 2017

Getting Americans to Save: Reforming Tax Incentives and an All - of - the - Above Approach

Obama Signs Bipartisan Bill To Speed Miracle Cures to Market. Who Will Have Access to the New Technology? Who Won’t?

In a city that’s witnessed trench warfare between Congress and the White House during the last six years of the Obama Administration, this was a rare moment: a bipartisan love fest. On Dec. 13, 2016, President Obama signed the "21st Century Cures Act," which includes expanded funding to push medical technology through the development pipeline. “We are bringing to reality the possibility of new breakthroughs to some of the greatest health-care challenges of our time,” Obama said. “It is wonderful to see how well Democrats and Republicans in the closing day of this Congress came together around a common cause.”

The legislation was backed by a coalition of interests, including the powerful pharmaceutical industry, academia, and consumer groups supporting speedier medical research. Its few critics have mainly argued that the popular funding provisions “mask a worrisome loosening of regulations at the Food and Drug Administration that could put patients at risk.”

Hardly anyone, however, is asking the million-dollar question: Which Americans will end up having access to new miracle cures, many of which promise to be extremely expensive? And, who will not? The country’s patchwork of health insurance already is rationing expensive new technology to some populations, particularly low-income people. Congress, meanwhile, has begun a fractious debate over repealing, and possibly replacing, the Affordable Care Act (ACA). So, while lawmakers have just put their collective foot on the technology gas pedal, they may soon slam the brakes on funding for expanded coverage, potentially throwing millions of Americans into the ranks of the uninsured...

Click here for full article

Traditions of Democracy

"The tradition of Jefferson and Jackson might recede, but it could never disappear. It was bound to endure in America so long as liberal capitalistic society endured, for it was the creation of the internal necessities of such a society. American democracy has come to accept the struggle among competing groups for the control of the state as a positive virtue -- indeed, as the only foundation for liberty. The business community has been ordinarily the most powerful of these groups, and liberalism in America has been ordinarily the movement on the part of other sections of society to restrain the power of the business community. This was the tradition of Jefferson and Jackson, and it has been the basic meaning of American liberalism."

Excerpt from Chapter 37, "The Age of Jackson," Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

A Guide to Statistics on Historical Trends in Income Inequality: CBPP

June 30, 2016

Reflections on American Wealth Concentration – and What To Do About It

Just over one year ago, the Center on Capital & Social Equity (CCSE) began exploring the phenomenon of growing wealth concentration and inequality, while advocating for a more inclusive form of capitalism. Following are some general observations.

Over the past year, the issue of economic inequality in the United States has moved from the backburner to center stage. Much credit for this goes to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ attack on the “top one percent” in his run for the Democratic nomination. While there is ample reason to question many details of his proposals, Sanders’ call for an increased role for government in providing opportunity and essential services resonated with many Americans who feel they have been left out of the economic mainstream. Yet the problems posed by rising economic inequality are deeply rooted and go well beyond the disproportional gains of the top one percent. They will be harder to address than portrayed in election rhetoric and require judicious use of public resources.

Three observations can be made about economic inequality in the United States. First, income and wealth inequality have grown steadily since the 1980s, suggesting that some of the causes are structural in nature. Second, high levels of inequality increase the risk of political and economic instability. Finally, moving toward an economy that is less unequal and offers opportunity to more Americans will require major changes in public policy and shifts in spending.

Click here for full article

How the U.S. Retirement Savings System Magnifies Wealth Inequality

Karl Polzer, Center on Capital & Social Equity

Economic inequality and wealth concentration have have emerged as central issues in the U.S. presidential race. While these concerns appear to have risen to the forefront quite suddenly, forces driving wealth concentration have been building for decades. As analysts probe the dynamics beneath these trends, they may find that America's shift to a defined contribution retirement system is playing an increasing role in the concentration of wealth...

Full article (published by Society of Actuaries, May 2016)

So, What Does Jesus Say about Wealth Concentration and Inequality?

Karl Polzer

In recent years, the tendency for wealth to concentrate in the hands of a powerful few has come under scrutiny, prompting concern about growing inequality from political and religious leaders, most notably Pope Francis. While excessive wealth concentration is likely lead to greater social ills and unrest, how to rein in growing inequality is a more difficult question. Should we move away from capitalism and the market system? Develop a more socialist model? Reform capitalism from inside to benefit people more equitably? ...

Click here for full article

"Strengthening Temporary Assistance for Needy Families": The Hamilton Project, May 2016

Virginia's push to end veteran homelessness faces steep challenges

On Nov. 11, 2015, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced that the state was the first to "functionally" end homelessness among veterans of the U.S. armed forces. To assist two veterans living on the street not aware of the program, the Center on Capital & Social Equity contacted the governor's office, asking how veterans can gain access to housing and other services under the collaboration involving state, federal, and local government agencies.

The Virginia Department of Veterans Services provided information (click on the button below), including contact points at the local and state levels where veterans and their advocates can begin the process of finding temporary or permanent housing.

To follow up, we contacted three Northern Virginia jurisdictions and found an array of barriers to functionally ending veteran homelessness. These problems include lack of knowledge on the part of local officials of the state's initiative; lack of affordable and subsidized housing resources; high housing prices; lack of shelter space (for example, Fairfax County has 1 million residents but only three homeless shelters that can't meet wintertime demand); unwillingness by many street people to seek help (for a variety of reasons); coordination issues between state and local, local and local, and federal and state and local agencies; bottlenecks like having to go through shelters to gain access to housing, when shelter space is limited; and many other factors.

While helping one of the veterans gain access to temporary shelter and services, we reported these issues back to the state officials who said they will take steps to increase awareness of the governor's initiative, including posting information about the program on a state website. For more detail, see our correspondence with state and local officials, which can be accessed by clicking the second button below.

FAQs & Contact Information

Correspondence with state and local officials as of 12/22/'15

Many living on streets suffer from mental illness, hard to help: Washington Post zeroes in on Georgetown outreach effort

Click here to read full article

CCSE comments on Labor Dept. rule: Association health plans could undermine ACA in several ways - 2018

Analysis of proposal to allow selling health insurance "across state lines" during the Bush Administration

Click here to read full article

Analysis & Proposal

Slide Presentation

Retirement Strategy: When Should I Start Receiving Social Security Checks?

Americans can begin taking Social Security between ages 62 and 70. Waiting to take Social Security can increase the amount on your check significantly. Collecting Social Security benefits early has the opposite effect.

When to start depends on many factors including your life situation, needs and plans. Most Americans begin taking Social Security early.

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offers this planning tool and other information to help people work through this decision.

Click here to see your Social Security earnings and estimated future benefits

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Maya Angelou

On Being White...And Other Lies - James Baldwin

Easter Essay: Is the Golden Rule Enough? Mathematics of the Two Great Commandments

Whether people see themselves as Christians, followers of other faiths, or atheists, all are pulled by the power of many gods: the god of money, the god of technology, the nymph of new electronic gadgets, satyrs of TV and the worldwide net, and so on. In adoration of possessions, money, and power, atheists and believers are equal -- even deeply religious in the way that Paul sarcastically described the polytheistic statuary of Athens as evidence of its faith. Some of today’s humanists and atheists are more Christian in spirit and behavior than nominal Christians. And, unlike some Christians, many have thought through their views on religion and feel they need to have moral justification they can explain. The conventional morality of good people often is a humanism expressed by the Golden Rule.

Jesus taught the Golden Rule two thousand years ago, as one of two great principles. But to Jesus the Golden Rule, while essential, is incomplete without a first principle. Jesus preached the Golden Rule in the Sermon on the Mount. "Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." (Mat 7:12 NKJV).) Here he is speaking to a large crowd that can't hear him that well and needs a simple guideline.

Later, speaking to religious leaders, he aligns the Golden Rule with the first commandment. In Matthew 22:34-40, "hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ " To this audience, Jesus provides more context: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

The interaction of the two great commandments shows why the second commandment is not sufficient and why God -- an overarching Spirit that connects individual people -- is necessary, even for a functional morality. For example, if we only love our neighbor as ourselves -- and we happen to be filled with hate and rage for ourselves -- then we won't treat our neighbors very well. The Golden Rule can remedy part of this problem by changing the focus from "loving" to "treating" neighbors as we would have them treat us -- thereby imposing our view of ideal behavior and not raw emotion as the standard. But that won't work for some people either, especially those who lack a model of ideal behavior. So, these folks still might act destructively to people around them.

The idea of a single God, or life force, connecting all people creates a vertical pull toward a connecting spirit (the first commandment) to accompany the horizontal equity of the second commandment. Mathematically, the second commandment is nothing more than a simple equation: Love for me = Love for you. The first commandment is a command to maximize Love to the limit of capacity. Without the first commandment, the potential of a person's love would be limited by inherited and culturally absorbed defects and injuries. The two commandments can be seen as consistent with scientific theories of evolution. The first commandment reflects the biological imperative that no individual can carry on life on his or her own. Individuals must interact and communicate with others to continue the stream of life. The Golden Rule suggests that individuals have the freedom to choose the way they interact and communicate with others. Perhaps those with greater faith and sense of fairness are more likely to pass along their genes. --

Karl Polzer, Easter 2017

Exploring economic inequality - Advocating for the bottom 50%

Thanks to the Washington Post for running our letter:

"In contrast, ending the Trump-era tax cuts, which disproportionately benefit the wealthy, could put a major dent in the national debt...."

News, Events & Opinions

"Unions are pushing for minimum and award wages to rise by about 7 per cent in line with inflation, while the Albanese government has said it doesn’t want the lowest paid workers going backwards in real terms."

"Van Bavel distinguishes three stages: market economy (output markets and security of property), accumulation (wage labor, capital accumulation, and growth), capitalism (dominance of the financial sector, use of the state by capitalists, monopolization)."

As has been written here before, the current run of inflation has many fathers.

World capitalism can breathe a sigh of relief - at least for the weekend. The U.S. government will still be there to feed it. But couch potatoes on Medicaid might have more trouble getting free chips...On to Congress for more tough love.

"Videos from a March 16 raid in Jenin show increasingly deadly tactics by Israeli officers"

"Turnout for Flag March estimated at 70,000; some chant ‘death to Arabs’ and ‘may your villages burn’; over 60 arrests; Palestinians, Israelis fight with rocks, pepper spray."

Wonder if the Biden/McCarthy budget deal includes a few billion for this racist government. Would the U.S. public tolerate a white mob marching through an African-American neighborhood on July 4 chanting the "n" word?

Sunday, May 28, 2023

No surprises from the DC swamp: Federal hospital pricing transparency requirements are largely not being followed or enforced. As a result, patients remain at financial risk.

'The taxpayer must render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, but no more,' said Chief Justice John Roberts in Tyler v. Hennepin County

Stalingrad (1943)

Putingrad (2023)

Anything in here that could reduce the national debt?

"A possible lapse in Social Security payments means the oldest beneficiaries — those over 88 — and the disabled could be among the first to suffer."

"With homeless shelters full and warming weather, some street outreach workers are calling the situation in Pittsburgh a crisis and expect the number of people living outside to increase by up to 50%."

"Now we're witnessing the opposite. As of March 2023, reported M2 data showed a 4.1% year-over-year decline...

"...if M2 is declining and inflation is still above historic norms, there may not be enough money for discretionary purchases or other goods and services. Declining M2 may signal deflationary pressures to come that could lead to lower corporate earnings and a recession."

"The survey, which was fielded in October 2022, found that self-reported financial well-being fell sharply and was among the lowest observed since 2016.

Question: What percent of the tithes that Churches ask from their members should the Church spend on helping people in need? How much on itself?

Sunday, May 21, 2023

"...the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates and pulling back on its epic monetary experiment that started with the Great Financial Crisis...

"The two-hour documentary Age of Easy Money investigates how the Fed’s experiment has changed the American economy and what it means that the era may be over."

Has the US health insurance industry found a novel use of AI to increase cash flow and profits: replacing human claim reviewers with algorithms programmed to be blind, deaf, ignorant, lazy, stupid, obstinate, and randomly erroneous?

"FTC Chair Lina Khan just put the business model of big pharma on trial with a challenge to a merger of Amgen and Horizon Therapeutics. And Wall Street is freaking out."

"Republicans stubbornly defend $7.25 an hour in a state where more than one in four children live in poverty."

"The U.S. is the only wealthy country in the world without universal paid sick leave...

"Lawmakers also called for Congress to pass universal paid family leave, which is not included in the bill, at the press conference."

Decoupling the demand for paid sick days, which mainly would benefit low-income workers, from paid family leave, which is more expensive and more likely to benefit higher-income workers, would be an important policy shift for progressives.

See:

"Nothing but the power of corporate leaders to rig rules in their favor can explain this double standard."

Question: If the Administration exceeded the debt limit, what enforcement mechanisms could Congress, or the Supreme Court, deploy to enforce compliance? How long would it take to litigate noncompliance and remedies?

Have intel that contractors that would profit from administering federal/state work requirements are lobbying Congress to impose them on Medicaid and SNAP benefits.

Dear Speaker McCarthy, President Biden, and Senate leaders:

In contrast, ending the Trump cuts, which disproportionately boost the wealthy, could make a major difference in the nation's finances. Lawmakers could either do this now or wait a couple years and be gridlocked when some of the tax cuts expire.

CBO recently cited JCT estimates that extending individual income tax provisions of the 2017 tax act would increase deficits by $2.5 trillion over the 2024–2033 period -- or by $2.66 trillion including debt service costs. Most of the effects would occur after 2026.

So, which is it?

Is it rational for a woman and a man to produce and raise children? Costs and benefits?

Is the working-class black vote up for grabs?:

While there's truth in this argument, the GOP can't offer a viable alternative until it supports concrete policies that advance the economic interests of working-class Americans. That would include higher wages and better benefits.

We've suggested this approach on raising the minimum wage:

It's impossible to know all of President Truman's motives for supporting the creation of Israel. Here's what he said in support of immigration of displaced Jews to Palestine in 1946:

Hypothetical question: If the Netanyahu government was forced to leave the country, where would it be welcome?

Though the hodge podge childcare industry is unlikely to become monopolized by capitalists, the story above provides interesting background and research.

Another idea: provide support for parents who forego paid work to care for their young kids. Canada, for example, does this by providing caregiver tax credits and counting childrearing in the national pension formula.

**"The two-hour documentary Age of Easy Money investigates how the Fed’s experiment has changed the American economy and what it means that the era may be over."**