What Party Am I (and What Pet Should I Get)

I saw the what party am I suggestion during my search and liked it. And there's a new Seuss book out! Just in case I do run for Congress next year, I need a party. Ooh, maybe the Seuss party. Just for general lunacy, I'd consider the New Party and The Rent's Too Damn High Party. And, of course, the Greens, but that's too crazy for me. I looked at the Pirate Party, too. It's copyrights and shit like that, though. I wanted real pirates. Aargh, maties!

UPDATE: I'm just going to tack on this link to info at the New York elections site. A little how to guide.

Persons wishing to run for elective office may be nominated either by a political party or through the filing of an independent nominating petition. Party members may also circulate petitions to create the opportunity to write in the name of an unspecified person for an office in which there is no contest for the party endorsement. The current political parties are the Democratic, Republican, Conservative, Working Families, Independence and Green parties. Any person who is not nominated by one of these parties must file an independent nominating petition. The requirements for all petitions are contained in Article 6 of the Election Law.

And somewhat off-topic, here is the Green Party platform. A slightly different version than I had previously found. Much more intensive and not much to disagree with. If only they didn't have insane candidates. 

Revisiting the $15 per Hour Minimum Wage

I don't want to say I'm against raising the minimum to $15. That might get me re-branded as a faux liberal. Would like to see how that figure was arrived at. I have found any of several articles calling for the rise, but can't find many that have a justification for that figure.

This article points out what I see as a problem with the idea in general.

Raising the minimum wage carries a different significance depending on where you live. A dollar goes a lot further in the South than it does in New England, as my colleague Niraj Chokshi explained earlier this month. 

From the link above:

A dollar buys the most in Mississippi, where prices are generally about 13 percent below the U.S. average. It buys the least in D.C. and Hawaii, where prices are nearly 18 percent and just over 16 percent above the national average, respectively.

So, if I was going to call for an increase in the minimum wage, I believe I would have it adjusted to the region. Certainly those in DC and Hawaii may need $15 an hour to survive. In Ole Miss, maybe not. 

The map above shows the real purchasing power of $15 in every state. In Honolulu, the priciest urban area in the United States, a $15 minimum wage is only worth about $12.24; in rural West Virginia, meanwhile, where prices are lower than anywhere else in the country, $15 is worth closer to $20. The only place where $15 is actually worth $15 is Allentown, Pennsylvania, according to Pew.

The writer of the WashPo piece mentions regional pay floors and there is a prez candidate who has given a sensible response. Surprise, it's a Democrat.

At the moment, there is at least one aspiring presidential candidate who seems to agree. Democratic presidential hopeful Hilary Clinton has said she supports a $15 minimum—just not for everyone. "I think part of the reason that the Congress and very strong Democratic supporters of increasing the minimum wage are trying to debate and determine what’s the national floor is because there are different economic environments," Clinton said in a town hall in New Hampshire last month. "What you can do in L.A. or in New York may not work in other places."

Another Plank In My Platform:Minimum Wage Increase and Work Week Decrease

The platform thing comes from a notion I have about running for Congress from NY's 21st. How realistic that notion is, who knows? Likely, not very. Makes a nice meme.

Going to get this down quick and come back to it. For now, here goes. There has been a call for a $15 per hour minimum wage. I don't know if that is reasonable or not. My call is for a min wage of $13.65 per hour. This is a healthy increase over the present minimum. I'm also in favor of reducing the work week to 32 hours. Any work over that would result in time and a half being paid. Therefore, a 40 hour work week would lead to the same pay as 40 hours at $15.

I'm back and thanks to a link from Shaw, I can at least make an attempt at discussing what a fair minimum wage would look like by comparing ours with other developed countries.

In U.S. dollars, we see Germany at $10.79/hour, France at $12.10/hour and Australia at $14.81/hour. But, taking purchasing power parity into account, which factors in the cost of living in these countries, brings France's min wage down to $10.60/hour and Australia's down to $10.20/hour. PPP for Germany was not available, but I would suspect it is in the same range. Looking at this, I have to wonder how reasonable a $15/hour min wage for the US is. I do want to note that the minimums for these two countries is not much higher than the $10.10/hour that was pushed by Aaron Woolf (bless his heart) and many other Dems in the last election.

Following through as I did above with 32 hours at $10.50 straight time and 8 hours at time and a half would lead to an effective pay rate of $11.55/hour. So, just based on what I see of these other nations which are at least more progressive than we are, the $10.50ish number is probably a reasonable goal. I would certainly like to know how or where the goal of $15/hour came from.

On to the work week decrease.

My attempt is to influence employers to make the 32 hour week the standard. Benefits from the article and those I see are:

1) Less stress on employees leading to fewer disability claims and less absenteeism.

2) Hopefully a reduction in unemployment and not an attempt by employers to get more production out of fewer work hours.

3) Flexibility for employer and employee as to duties, hours worked and so on. The extra day off per week would certainly be useful for scheduling appointments and so forth.

4) Energy savings from 20% fewer trips to work and possibly from companies operating on a 4-day week as a standard, as opposed to a 5-day week.

Tax Meat Now

This will be a plank in my platform when I make my run for Congress in 2016. Meat should absolutely be taxed. Can't believe I found this in Bloomberg.

Meat has always been part of the human diet. Few dishes are as wonderful as a bolognese sauce made with a combination of pork, lamb, and beef. But taxing pigs, sheep, and cows is essential to contain the spiraling costs associated with massive meat eating.

Excessive consumption of meat is harmful to human health and the health of the planet. I'll be eating some turkey on Thursday and I consume it several times a month on non-holidays. It's necessary that the costs associated with its consumption are raised in order to discourage it.