I suppressed my feelings about the unfairness of our economic system for a very long time. Let’s forget about the injustice of our political system for now. The straw that broke the camel’s back came when I read that our nation’s biggest corporations had been obscenely inflating their profit margins since the pandemic began as they blamed everyone but themselves for the resulting inflation. Yes, there was the war in Ukraine, supply chain issues, and the pandemic, but a lot of the inflation we’re seeing right now is due to ordinary corporate greed. I read that profits have increased by more than 50% since the start of the pandemic while wages are increasing perhaps by 3% per year. If the corporate world had distributed its profits to its workers, it could easily have afforded a 20% increase in the wages of its workers. That would certainly take the sting out of our current inflation problem for most workers.
It wasn’t the only information that slipped through my skin. Apparently Republicans can’t stand the idea of our children, many of whom are heavily in debt, getting a financial break. Biden is considering canceling a good chunk of his debt, but Republicans can’t stand that. Never mind the fact that Trump’s tax cut has mostly benefited those earning over 7 figures, but giving struggling students a break is unforgivable. They want to pass a law to prevent this. I just don’t understand. My youngest son, who drove a car with over 200,000 miles, was finally able to afford to buy a used car, not a new one, that only had 25,000 miles on it. It was a necessity as his old car had broken down twice in the last 6 months on his way to work, requiring over $1000 in repairs. The money he would save by having his loans canceled would make his life much easier, but it would in no way allow him to go on a spending spree out of control. He could actually start saving to buy a house.
With respect to our wage and tax system, we must adjust the minimum wage over the next four years to $22.00/hr. This wage would be roughly halfway between what the minimum wage would receive a direct inflation adjustment since 1968, and what it would be if it were adjusted for both inflation and productivity. After that, the minimum wage should be adjusted annually for inflation and productivity without the need to go through Congress. Then our tax rate should be 50% for earned income over $1,000,000/year. Finally, while Biden’s tax proposal for taxing unrealized stock market profits is a good start, Biden is far too generous. The tax rate should be 50% not 20% and the number of years to pay it should be reduced. The amount of wealth the mega rich have accumulated during the pandemic, forgetting the general trend since Reagan was president, is obscene. They would not miss the extra taxes they would pay and would allow us to dramatically improve the lives of the rest of us as well as make the necessary investments to perhaps have a chance of saving our planet from the ravages of globalization. warming up.
Thanks for reading my rant.