POLITICS - "Living" Wage

This is a personal comment on just what a "Living Wage" is. I am tired of GOP Conservatives claiming not to know what this means. I am sure my readers know just what a Living Wage would be for them.

Living Wage: What you need to earn to purchase minimum goods and services in the area WHERE YOU LIVE.

This means that the implementation of Living Wage standards must meet specific requirements to be feasible:

• You CANNOT have a one-shoe-fits-all approach (aka the Federal Government cannot mandated fixed amounts nation wide)


• You must look at what the Cost of Living actually is in given locals, and we do have government statistics for this, both State & Federal.


• Let the States determine the just how to decide what the Cost of Living is for areas in their state and use this figure to be the base for a Living Wage.

All the above requirements are doable. The Federal governments job would be to gather the information (Living Wage amounts and areas they apply to) from our states and apply this to the Federal Tax Code as the basic deductible.

That is, you deduct the Living Wage amount FOR WHERE YOU LIVE from your taxes at the top, then any other deductions by tax code that apply, and you pay tax only on what remains, if any.

It could be that simple folks.

As for other standards, in conjunction with state input when such a law is written, the Living Wage Law could set standards for:

• The applicable area; Congressional Districts, the state's legislative districts, let the Census Bureau divide each state by population count, etc.


• Living Wage = COST_OF_LIVING + a small percentage, like using the current inflation rate.

In addition, this could be used to address the issue of the poor. Poor being, in this case, all people who DO NOT earn a Living Wage. You have a welfare program that pays them the difference between the Living Wage in their area and what they earn every year. Welfare$ = Earnings - Living_Wage

Side issue: It is my belief that one of the basic problems with tax codes (state & federal) is DEDUCTIONS MADE FROM THE TAX YOU OWE. My opinion is all deductions should be made only from your gross income. Think about it, this would be a much fairer way to tax. If you do this EVERYONE WHO EARNS TAXABLE INCOME WOULD PAY SOME TAX.

In the present system, the rich can get away from paying little or no tax because of deductions that are made from the amount of tax they owe.

Of course the GOP Conservative Fascists will howl about the nanny-state and the Free Market (aka make the super-rich more rich and to hell with everyone else) but, frankly they can..... well I'll be nicer than usual and let you fill-in the explicative.

The Mage