living

  The other day I was having a conversation with someone about the teachers going on strike. Their demands were not being met and they walked out. In this conversation I was told how they, and everyone else, deserves a living wage. I thought, yes that's true enough but just how much is that? So, I went to the government guidelines. The government says an annual salary of 67,900 dollars is the minimum for a living wage. That would equate to 32.50 an hour based on working 2087 hours a year. Well, that's before taxes anyway. Figure another thirty per cent for taxes and you need to earn 88,270 or 42.29 an hour. I can't help but wonder how I'm alive. I have never earned forty-two dollars an hour! That salary would make you middle class. Lower middle class. I found that interesting. 

 I did some reading about that, and the government guideline says that 50% of my income should go to necessities like housing, food, and clothing. Another 30% goes to discretionary spending like vacations. The remaining 20% goes in a savings account. So, if I make that living wage of 67,900 and half goes to the necessities, I only need 33,950 dollars. That's about 2800 dollars a month for the necessities. No vacations, no savings. That is the true amount you need to live. That is about 16 an hour before taxes. Add thirty percent and you get 20.80 an hour. Seems I've been poor all my life and didn't even know it!   But if 67,900 is a livable wage, the minimum wage, how much should more experienced workers earn? After all we should all earn a livable wage, right? And what about those with a degree, with loans to pay for that education, they surely would have to make more than the average joe. And shouldn't those on welfare get a living stipend as well? What about those disabled, don't they deserve that as well? The average social security recipient only gets 1600 a month! That's just a bit over half of what they need to live, if they don't have any discretionary spending or savings. Why is the government allowing that. If social security recipients are to have a living wage that would have to be 5658 a month. That's the living wage. Social security recipients are entitled to live, aren't they?

 Okay so now everyone is making that living wage. How much would that increase the cost of goods and services? I don't know but know the prices would go up, way up. According to government economists the average business operates with a 7.7% profit margin. If min wage is now going to 42.29 an hour, the cost of doing business will certainly be much greater. On average the min wage is 7.25 an hour. That varies according to the state but is the overall average. Increase that by a factor of six plus another 7.7% for profit and the cost of goods and services surely have to rise significantly. When they do that living wage isn't going to be nearly enough. It's a never-ending cycle. Has been since man conceived the idea of money. 

 What to do about that? Currently the plan is to have the government control the money. The electronic means to do is available. All that is needed is compliance. Once the government can control the flow of money, control of the population will have been achieved. Free enterprise will exist no more. The accumulation of wealth will be criminalized. Government will control all of that. Government will control your job, where and who you work for, what vacations you take, what media you enjoy. Of course, you realize there will be a crisis before things get out of hand. A crisis requiring the government to assume martial authority. It'll be easier if we can disarm the citizenry first though and or least restrict the availability of ammo. Then the government will tell you what you get, instead of providing what you want. 

 Government is already setting the living wage through regulations, codes, statutes, and laws. You can't legally live in a home without hot/cold water, heating, and a certain number of bedrooms depending upon the size of your family. Consider the requirements the government is currently imposing on you. You have to have a license or a permit to conduct business of any kind. In some places your children can't have a lemonade stand! You can't hunt, fish or farm without government intervention. If you are not insured or bonded there isn't much service work that you can do either. The government is telling you that only half of what you earn should be for the necessities. Well really the guideline is 30% for fun. 30% to distract you from what is really happening. 

 A living wage? Perhaps the measure of happiness isn't in what we can buy, but what we can contribute. That contribution isn't to the government however, it is to those we love and care for, in our own way, without government intervention. That was the pursuit of happiness referred to. The founding fathers were expressing what they knew to be reality. You are either free or a slave. They believed that every man has the right to be free. Government itself could imprison man and restrict this pursuit of happiness. Happiness to them was to live free. Free from government control and intervention. That is the basis for a Republic. By the people, for the people, and of the people. And freedom requires Independence. That is what needs to be understand above all else. Independence isn't dependence upon government! Perhaps what is needed is not more money, but less government.