Six years in court to get the minimum wage isn’t acceptable. People need a guarantee of a living wage job. Here’s how Uber would fare againt a Job Guarantee.New Wayland
Uber Under a Job Guarantee
NeilW
Six years in court to get the minimum wage isn’t acceptable. People need a guarantee of a living wage job. Here’s how Uber would fare againt a Job Guarantee.New Wayland
37 comments:
Wage slavery to government is not the answer to wage slavery to the private sector.
At least part of the answer, per the Bible, is:
1) De-privileging private credit creation.
2) Limits to land ownership to eliminate the problem of rentiers.
Not to say we shouldn't have generous government spending on infrastructure, etc. but the emphasis should be on accomplishing work and with the best people - not clogging the works with people to provide them with "jobs."
the emphasis should be on accomplishing work and with the best people
That's the nightmare we have now. "The best people" are the ones with jobs and money and property - who determine who "the best people" are, and who to leave out - who cannot work for the purposes the best people deem best, who to spit on.
For the umpteenth time, your well-meant proposals only address symptoms, they wouldn't change much. To the extent that they disparage the ever-increasing necessity of guaranteed jobs as the world becomes wealthier, but not wiser, they would make things worse.
not clogging the works with people to provide them with "jobs."
Yes, ordinary people are just clogs in the works. Clogs in the perfect proposals of the perfect proposers.
Read Matthew 20. You never have. Y'know I just recently saw a well-meaning quasi-liberal/left book on employment that epigraphs the book by Matthew 20. Begins well, talks a little about it. But the author didn't read it either. Ends up with crackpot New Keynesian, natural rate type crap, dismissing logic.
Jesus (& rational economists 2000 years later) say if there is one person who wants to be a "wage-slave" he has a right to it. They must be given a job. Period. Based on universal morality and with logic that is impeccable. Yours is not.
For the idea that more workers and more work would clog things, make society poorer - is even more insane. An insanity that people only apply in the "public sector", not the "private sector." It's like convincing yourself to dump out water as you cross a desert. Nobody who says such things can possibly understand what they are saying.
Of course, good article by Neil.
Yeah this is a good one from Neil...
(AA is stuck in OT paradigm.... never makes the adjustment....)
(AA is stuck in OT paradigm.... never makes the adjustment....) Franko
Wage-slavery is not the norm for citizens per the Bible but family owned farms, businesses, etc.
NeilW and you now (apparently) would perpetuate the injustice of widespread wage-slavery while continuing and increasing government privileges for a private credit for usury cartel!
And speaking of adjustment, you don't even adhere to the New Testament or even any subset of it that I can see. You've been misled, Franko, and the solution is to read the Bible yourself and take it seriously and forget mere human doctrines.
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner ... Matthew 20
What part of private landowner DOES NOT EQUAL government do you fail to grasp?
I've read the ENTIRE Bible and it's filled with snares for people who don't really take it seriously - to make fools of them.
Andrew, I honestly can't see much connection between removing the privileges which private banks currently enjoy (and certainly those need to be removed) and JG, minimum wages etc. Full reserve banking simply consists of making a totally safe bank account available to everyone (which is safe because it is matched by reserves at the central bank) and then removing all taxpayer funded featherbedding for private banks. It really wouldn't take a genius to do that, while retaining miserably low wages for lowest paid, or indeed removing all minimum wage laws (not of course that I advocate doing that).
Removing ALL privileges for the banks would mean replacing ALL fiat creation for the banks and other private interests (e.g. asset owners) and replacing it with an equal Citizen's Dividend.
We also need land reform so that every citizen is rent-free housing secure and can grow their own food and otherwise become financially independent.
So Citizen's Dividend and meaningful land reform would eliminate much if not all the need to work for wages in the first place.
Then we'd have largely VOLUNTARY employment and not large scale wage-slavery.
We also need land reform so that every citizen is rent-free housing secure and can grow their own food and otherwise become financially independent.
Everyone should be learning to grow food.
To put things in perspective:
Thirteenth-century laborers often had 25 weeks off every year. In contrast, the average American has 16 days off annually. Although the work was still demanding, English peasants had around 1/3 of the year off, including religious holidays. from https://www.factable.com/history/commonly-believed-misconceptions-about-the-middle-ages/7/
And we can't do at least as well in the 21th Century?!
“wage slavery “ is an oxymoron...
Yo, “slavery” is not synonymous with shitty pay...
The current system is based on income slavery.
Leaving aside the bubonic plague that killed up to a third of the population, what do you suppose the average life span of peasants in the thirteenth century was? Romanticizing the olden times can be really misleading if you don't consider the really bad things and only some of the good aspects.
Yo,
If one's livelihood consists of doing the will of someone else for wages then one is a wage-slave and, per the Bible, that's not the norm for citizens in a God-fearing nation.
“The poor, have nothing to stir them up to be serviceable but their wants, which it is prudence to relieve, but folly to cure.” Anonymous 1714 (from Naked Capitalism comment by "I have lived in your future")
Except:
However, there will be no poor among you, since the Lord will surely bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, if only you listen obediently to the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today. Deuteronomy 15:4-5
Yo, “poor” is ptochos it means “lacking means of subsistence” it doesn’t mean shitty pay...
In the nations you could subsist on the “denarius per day” then you didn’t lack means of subsistence... and you weren’t a slave you were not bonded to another person..... water was free and you could always head over to your temple you belonged to for a free nice sacrifice boozy meal...
Israelites had their inheritance which provided for their subsistence...
Two different systems... nobody in either system lacked means of subsistence unless they became estranged from their system...
Neither system is in place today... Art degree morons in charge all think “we’re out of money!”...
The system that is in place requires you to obtain income. Wages are the means of obtaining income for the majority of the adult population, but there are alternatives: welfare, savings, interest on savings, stipends, proceeds from theft, etc.
We are slaves to income as animals in the wild are slaves to finding sustenance.
Money is a wonderful invention (cf. Ecclesiastes 7:12, Ecclesiastes 10:19). However, it is imperative that it be created and distributed justly.
Nonetheless, per the Bible, all citizens should normally be housing, food, fuel (for cooking at least) and water secure without having to have money.
”We also need land reform so that every citizen is rent-free housing secure and can grow their own food and otherwise become financially independent.”
Who shall decide who will get the good land, the better, best, worst land?
Divided as fairly as possible and then distributed by lot (chance).
And, of course, God can make up for any residual injustice.
“And, of course, God can make up for any residual injustice.“
LOL like doing nothing is going to work out well for everyone ...
“Jesus take the wheel!”???
Try that sometime when you are driving down the highway see how it works out for you..,
“God can make up for any residual injustice.” = “let the free market do it!”... same thing...
LOL like doing nothing is going to work out well for everyone ...
Franko
We're to trust God to enable us to do our best.
Try that sometime when you are driving down the highway see how it works out for you.., Franko
See, you're even ignorant of the New Testament where Jesus said to Satan: “On the other hand, it is written: ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’” Matthew 4:7
Andrew:
Like I said, you have never read Matthew 20. You don't seem able to. Try just repeating the words out loud. They might sink in. For you seem to be able to type them without understanding them in the least. I mean that literally, not figuratively - if the words of Matthew 20 were on a test of English comprehension like the TOEFL or the IELTS - you would fail.
Like the very first words, which incredibly, you actually cited:
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner ... Matthew 20
and then you ask- ! -
What part of private landowner DOES NOT EQUAL government do you fail to grasp?
The "kingdom of heaven" is a "kingdom" - a government. And it's heavenly, meaning good. The basis of the parable is equating the two. So Jesus says that good government, the way things oughta be, is like this private landowner who runs a Job Guarantee program. It doesn't leave anybody out.
And the left out people - NOT the landowner, not the other workers - they and they ALONE are the judges of whether they get a job or not, whether they are being left out or not.
So your question is like
What part of Jesus DOES NOT EQUAL Jesus do you fail to grasp?
All parts, because your question demonstrates that you hold your own dogmatic economic beliefs so tightly that when they utterly and absolutely conflict with something else you believe you believe strictly, the Christian Bible, the cognitive dissonance makes you say things that are crazy at a level that calls for a psychiatric examination, that would fail a test of comprehension of your native language.
You're not the only one by a long shot; that book is another explicit example. But No, you and these others can't believe those economic beliefs and believe in the Christian Bible.
(AA is stuck in OT paradigm.... never makes the adjustment....) Franko
That seems to be the case.
No the point of Matthew 20 is that the King OWES His workers NOTHING more than justice, ie. paying them what He and they agreed to, but that He MAY be as generous as He desires with SOME.
Or do you propose to pay all JG workers a full day's wages for 1 hour of "labor" in the cool of the day? Why not a UBI then?
More specifically, Jesus is saying that the New Covenant (i.e. New Testament) is more generous than the Old Covenant (Old Testament) but that those who labored under the Old Covenant should not expect more than what they agreed to.
That seems to be the case.
As if you would know? Have you even read the ENTIRE Bible?
So Jesus says that good government, the way things oughta be, is like this private landowner who runs a Job Guarantee program.
No. Jesus is saying that God, the owner of all things, while being JUST to all, may be as generous as He pleases with only SOME - just like a private landowner.
AA: More specifically, Jesus is saying that the New Covenant (i.e. New Testament) is more generous than the Old Covenant (Old Testament) but that those who labored under the Old Covenant should not expect more than what they agreed to.
Maybe. But to make that the meaning, excluding what Jesus actually says is incredible. Or do you have some contrived exegesis of the "casting the first stone" parable that urges people to cast stones, of the Good Samaritan parable that exalts the passersby and spits on Samaritans?
And Jesus is not saying the landowner is generous; he is says the latecomers deserve the wage. Because they did work. Ready, willing and able in MMT lingo. Standing around waiting for work - is pretty hard work - something that methinks Jesus perceived and meant.
Or do you propose to pay all JG workers a full day's wages for 1 hour of "labor" in the cool of the day? Why not a UBI then?
Jesus said one hour, not one minute or nothing. The UBI "pays" people for nothing at all. And the UBI leaves people out, because it doesn't pay them when they want, when they are in need. And in reality, would pay them doo-doo, not a denarius. A Jesus Matthew 20 JG system can work. A UBI cannot.
I see your scare quotes on "labor" - does it mean that the late workers' "labor" isn't really labor? Do you think you or the early workers are "better" than the late workers? Can you suggest that is what Jesus meant with a straight face?
In economic terms, Jesus could be interpreted as saying, both have a JG and shorten the working day. Karl Marx and Tom Walker (Sandwichman at Econospeak) would love that. Sure there's room for interpretation and discussion and mine not be "the best". But I'm in the ballpark, and anti-literal interpretation is not.
Michael Hudson et al have worked on interpreting and contextualizing the New Testament, the Old Testament, earlier writings of the Ancient world - Mesopotamia and Egypt - taking them to have economic meaning when they are literally talking about economics. You do too. And it is irrefutable that that is one of the meanings of such religious works, that it is absurd to blithely contradict the literal meaning. From Wikipedia and a quick look, in the past, John Ruskin and Gandhi among others wrote about / translated that passage - and actually read it, could read it in that literal way.
But you're picking and choosing. Your position is that we MUST interpret anti-literally Jesus when he says: Don't persecute the unemployed that you AA, want to persecute, for some mysterious reason. Why, in Jesus's and Allah's and Buddha's name, why? What harm could there be in NOT oppressing the jobless? Do you think the landowner would say the things you do? Why do you believe so fervently the scare-quote idea? That a JG would be useless makework? There is no logical reason for this. It conflicts with basically all real experience - real New Deal type work programs were spectacularly successful. The only thing that a JG harms is plutocratic control. And that is a good thing.
To answer your question, no I haven't sat down and read the entire bible. But I grew up in this culture, permeated by it. Went to catechism classes, a Catholic school for a while. Was happy when I found a book with the same huge fun fold-out heresy wallchart that was in the fun religious class back then. They've been in the teaching / thought control game a looooong time - so that brother or father was a real expert - even the toughest kids enjoyed that class.
But my point is that you haven't read the entire bible either. You don't seem to be able to read Matthew 20. As Hegel said, would we say that someone read Euclid who only knew it by heart?
And Jesus is not saying the landowner is generous; he is says the latecomers deserve the wage. Calgacus
But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’ Matthew 20:13-15
What harm could there be in NOT oppressing the jobless?
What harm could there be in providing every citizen with economic justice, per the Bible, so they normally would NOT HAVE TO work for wages in the first place?
Believe it or not, working for wages is NOT the norm for citizens in the Bible but economic justice IS to be.
And if citizens are unemployed, it's largely because family farms, businesses, etc. were stolen by an accursed government-privileged usury cartel whose privileges the MMT School would INCREASE!
The truth is the MMT School wishes to buy off the victims of injustice cheaply while wasting their time, energy and morale.
It's you guys in favor of oppression of the helpless.
Oops!
(Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen signaled the Biden administration supports research into the viability of a digital dollar, a shift from the lack of enthusiasm shown for the concept under her predecessor, Steven Mnuchin.
“It makes sense for central banks to be looking at” issuing sovereign digital currencies, Yellen said at a virtual conference on Monday hosted by the New York Times.
She said a digital version of the dollar could help address hurdles to financial inclusion in the U.S. among low-income households.
“Too many Americans don’t have access to easy payments systems and banking accounts, and I think this is something that a digital dollar, a central bank digital currency, could help with,” she said. “It could result in faster, safer and cheaper payments, which I think are important goals.” from Yellen Signals Interest in Backing Digital-Dollar Research
The handwriting appears to be on the wall for government privileges for the usury cartel, aka "the banks."
Don't cry too much, Matt, the MMT School and other bank toadies. Too bad though y'all weren't leading this cause for justice rather than being run over by it.
AA, the denarius was the smallest denomination they had, so even if the person worked part of a day the landowner couldn’t pay them less if he wanted to... it was designed that way... created the minimum wage PER DAY not per hour like these cheap bastard “out of money!” morons we have running it today..
Think of the gold coins in the John Wick series... smallest denomination they had...
the denarius was the smallest denomination they had, Franko
The word dēnārius is derived from the Latin dēnī "containing ten", as its value was originally of 10 assēs. from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denarius
The as continued to be produced until the 3rd century AD. It was the lowest valued coin regularly issued during the Roman Empire, ... from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_(Roman_coin)
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