Thursday, January 30, 2014

Minimum wage is wrong fight

We should choose our battles carefully. Just because a goal is justified does not mean that a direct path to it will get you there. Why are wages low? Simple. High unemployment. But no responsible company will hire people unless they have orders for their product or service. But demand is low.

There is a lot of offshore cash, and a lot of unsustainable debt. The debt principle mostly will never be paid, and the cash will never be taxed. So default is good but only affects which billionaire gets hurt, not the system itself. And demanding fair taxation is good, but the federal government is too easy for billionaires to control.

But there is a pot of gold that no one is looking at. Waste. Yes, waste. The auto and sprawl system wastes money and energy like there is no tomorrow. Here is where we should put our efforts. And we can work locally.

Join your local public transit advocacy group. Call for public transit to be fare-free. This is not a radical idea. Pumping more carbon into the air is the radical idea. Free transit is like a minimum-wage hike, but better. It addresses the economy, energy, and climate all at once. 

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