So, “just another day another dollar.” (Nappy Roots) But is it really even a “dollar” any longer? Maybe not. We went to a restaurant with friends for lunch the other day. A “landmark” sort of place with old framed menus from years gone by adorning the lobby. “16 oz sirloin steak” with all the trimmings: under a dollar! I tried to order from that menu but was told “no!” I could not. This week’s price $69.95 Plus tax and tip! Lucky to get out of the door for under $100 per person. That’s this week. Who knows about next week. Duh! What else is new?

This morning I was hearing, yet again, how many hundreds of thousands of people were moving out of California (New York too). “High rollers!” Folks with high incomes. Leaving. So, after the newscaster talked about the percentage of income taxes that is paid by these vacating individuals, it occurred to me. Just raise the minimum wage. Keep raising it! Make everyone a high income earner! So… it will create inflation. Who cares! That does not seem to be a concern. After all, the debt our government has was built up ordering from those old menus. When a dollar actually was a dollar. Or, last year’s dollar at least. Pay off last year’s purchases with this year’s dollars. Dollars that are worth (based on my menu comparison chart) a very very small fraction of what the dollars the debt was built on were worth. Worth, of course, meaning “buying power” and not the price to print them.

The solution? Replace the vacating high income earners with higher paid low income earners. Easy, the income tax base remains the same. So simple. For every “high dollar” (the top bracket) earner that statistical data show earns 89 percent of all income and pay 97.7 percent of all income taxes, replace them with around 10 coffee servers. Heck you say: the top 10% of earners pay 74%. Replace them all. You get the picture…

Yes, “The” solution: Simple. Replace every individual “high earner” with about a dozen (more or less) burger flippers making $20 an hour and… problem solved. Who needs those nasty ol’ over-achievers anyway? For every $400,000 a year income earner just create ten (10) $40,000 a year income earners. $20 an hour, 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year… driving deliveries and the like. (And tip them too.) There it is! Simple math. The tax base remains constant. Then, replace those higher earning CEOs with AI. Probably make better decisions anyway. But, AI can’t replace those all important “essential workers.”

With the advent of AI, there is no longer a need for decision makers (Sometimes referred to as “smart people”). They can all go. Klaus Schwab, founder and chairman of the World Economic Forum, was recently quoted (in a recording) saying that AI (as all knowing as it is)will soon be capable of replacing the need for elections. Hurray! Nobody likes that tedious job anyway. Of course, it’s racist to ask for an ID to vote. So, eliminating voting will surely make us a kinder, more understanding people. Yes, no ID to vote despite the fact that I have to “Duo” ID myself to get into my email account almost daily. A 16-digit password where I sometimes also work. On top of that. We may conclude that, someday soon, perhaps, we’ll see voting as a subject on the TV show “Dirty Jobs”… someday soon.

To me, this says one simple thing. Raising the minimum wage is a cause with one single goal in sight: Keep those income taxes coming. No matter what damage it causes to the person on the street. Buying power down? Simple, pay folks more. Catch up later… if we can.

So, in support of our national economy, I had another idea. There’s a lot in the news lately about squatters in people’s homes illegally and the home owners not being able to get them out. “Squatter’s rights.” What about “adverse possession” too? Yet more examples of just how illogical our nation is becoming. What an opportunity for that entrepreneurial spirit for enterprise to again raise it’s head. “House sitting.” Heck, it is going to get to the point (it probably already is with some 20-million new illegals moving here with no place to call home) where it is necessary to have someone “home.” So, yeah, flip hamburgers for $20 an hour and charge some property owner… I don’t know, maybe… $1,000 a month (OK, just $200 a week) to live in their fully furnished home so-as-to not leave it vulnerable and prone to being a victim of this nationwide home invasion/destruction movement. Hey, just trying to keep that all important tax base up. 100% employment like in Cuba.

And what about all this talk about healthcare being a “right.” What logic is that? Sure, we have the right to take care of ourselves. You know, stay “healthy.” But were do we get the right to have other people take care of our health? Especially in lieu of the above revelations. Try also finding medical care these days. I have. My doctor retired. Being replaced with a Physical’s Assistant or a Nurse Practitioner. . “Not taking on any new patients” either in many cases. Have you heard that yet? So how do you get to concluding that health care is a right if nobody wants to provide it? Rely on technology? AI? An eternal supply of uninterrupted electricity to power it all? Maybe simply redefine “healthcare” just like the word “vaccine” was redefined recently. A kiosk in a department store. That’s “healthcare? Have more lower paid “providers.” I want a doctor, not a “provider.”

Anyway, I guess it’s just me. I think we are in a bottomless downward spiral. Happy New Year.

_______________________

Frank Louis

Having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 2 Timothy 4:3