Texas Longhorns with newborn calf in Bluebonnets

Texas Longhorns with newborn calf in Bluebonnets

Please note I have a new phone number...

512-517-2708

Alan Maki

Alan Maki
Doing research at the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas

It's time to claim our Peace Dividend

It's time to claim our Peace Dividend

We need to beat swords into plowshares.

We need to beat swords into plowshares.

A program for real change...

http://peaceandsocialjustice.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-progressive-program-for-real-change.html


What we need is a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" which would make it a mandatory requirement that the president and Congress attain and maintain full employment.


"Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens"

- Ben Franklin

Let's talk...

Let's talk...

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Living Wage

Politicians, media pundits and just about everyone is talking about a "living wage."


But, what is a living wage?


How is a living wage defined?


I find it interesting Bernie Sanders refuses to define and articulate what a living wage is.


Isn't it kind of strange so many people would be talking about something they refuse to explicitly define?


One definition is:


liv·ing wage
noun
noun: living wage; plural noun: living wages
a wage that is high enough to maintain a normal standard of living.


We Marxists define a living wage as a wage which is in line with the actual and real cost-of-living which would provide working class families with a decent standard of living as articulated by the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights.


We need to get specific in defining what a living wage is otherwise the issue of the living wage just becomes an election gimmick with working class families trapped and unable to escape this cost-of-living crisis no politician, party hack or pundit wants to talk about.


* Minimum Wage.


* Living Wage.


* Cost-of-living.


* Standard-of-living.


* Decent standard of living.


* Cost-of-living crisis.


We can not have any meaningful discussion of the Minimum Wage becoming a real living wage until cost-of-living is brought front and center to this conversation.


Judge every speech, article or book written about wages and the living wage using these six points.


These should be our talking points when it comes to a living wage.