Adonis Diaries

What is the current minimum wage in your country? Do you think all cities are equally affordable for whatever  minimum wage was promulgated, even with yearly “inflation adjusted expenses”?  Do you think that a Federal  minimum wage law is meant to be fair to all working people, or another clever gimmick to excluding the poorer citizens from flooding targeted cities? Frankly, isn’t the minimum wage meant to exclude “unwarranted” people from overcrowding “VIP cities” without imposing explicit discriminatory laws prohibiting entrance to the “sacred cities”?

What is the minimum survival salary per year in your country? For example, if it is $15,000 a year (you don’t have to pay a dime in taxes at that level) do you think this evaluation was meant to be able to survive in New York City?

It is about time to figure out the meaningful minimum wage by States and cities by considering the reverse process:  What is a sensible maximum yearly revenues for any individual?  What criteria should differ between the rich and the poor for enjoying fair levels of equal rights?

Do you think that the Occupy protests is against liberal capitalism, or because people can no longer afford to rent for the work they are doing?

You will be hearing statements such as this:  “Don’t tax the rich. Tax inequality” or that the max. revenue should be set at 36 times the median income.  (The median revenue is the cut-off line between 50% of population income:  income lower than the median represent 50% of the poorer citizens).

Suppose the median income is $35,000 per year. Can you rent a condo in any major city (since renting is far more economical than purchasing properties…)? Can you own a second-hand quality economical car and maintain it adequately?  Can you buy fresh fruits and vegetables and once a week steak meal?

How many houses, cars, and luxury items can someone generating $15 million a year spend on? That what 36 times median income amount to!  You do the math if you know the current median income.  Suppose the max revenue level is $15 million a year, how many houses, cars, and luxury items can someone spend on with all that money? Do you think “perception of inequality” would vanish if the government set this limit?

Do you know that in 1918, individual revenues surpassing one million were taxed 77%? That in 1944, Congress imposed 94% on incomes above $200,000?  Even during Ronald Reagan the tax break was 50% for the rich classes, before reaching 28% in 1988. What is the tax break now on high income?

It is 35% with a stitch: All profits resulting from transactions in capital gains, shares, obligations… are taxed 15% only.  Basically, the ultra rich are plainly paying 18% tax rate. What is your tax bracket?

Do you know that in 1955 the richest 400 people in the US gained only $13.3 million (after factoring in inflation) and paid 51% in tax rate?  That in 2008, the 400 richest generated $270 million and paid only 18% in tax rate?

Do you know that the same alternative suggested in the New York Times article was proposed a century ago?  Felix Adler, founder of National Child Labor Committee, had launched a vigorous campaign demanding that individual revenue be limited to $100,000 (about $2 million in current dollar)?

Back then, Amos Pinchot, chairman of American Committee on War Finance, declared to Congress:

“Two percent of the richest American capture 65% of the total wealth.  If the State has the right to confiscate the life of a citizen for the general interest (dispatching him to war battle fields), shouldn’t the State enjoy also the right to retain the wealth of the richest class in critical periods?  How can a state go to war and pretend to defend democracy and plutocracy in the same vein?”

Suppose the community or State provides quality public schools for free, cover healthcare expenses, secure jobs, and cover apartment rent…How much an individual should earn maximally in order to reduce the sense of inequality among th citizens?

Note 1: Post on max revenue limit was inspired from an article by Sam Pizzigati in the French monthly “Le Monde Diplomatique” # 695