Read on Twitter
1) Minimum wage will never rise high enough & fast enough to account for all the ways that the lion's share of the economic pie that all humans create is captured by those who already disproportionately hold the wealth or own the 'means of production'. (thread)
2) Inflation is just one part of this massive, system-wide boondoggle. Interest rates and usury and debt-servicing are another.
3) The criminalization of poverty is another. We already know the poor pay more (transportation, the absence of grocery & other services, penalties & fine default convictions, rent, not to mention over-policing & disproportionate subjection to the so-called 'justice' system.
4) What Marx called 'surplus value' (and mainstream economics often praises as 'profit') is another.
5) The complicated, nested tax structures across three levels of government, that are mostly regressive -- and even when they're not, they're in constant danger of rollback....
6) The tendency of capital to seek low regulation enclaves where they'll profit by abolishing labour & environmental protections & by flowing to polities where unions & communities with the audacity to think they ought to have self-determination can just be shot or 'disappeared'.
7) There are myriad ways that the 'common wealth' created by ordinary peoples' labour is captured by employers, landlords & property-owners, & siphoned upwards to the already-wealthy, or inwards to the already-wealthy countries ...
8) Imperialism is itself a massive method of theft, often at the best of times, masquerading as neutral or mutually beneficial 'trade' policies.
9) At a domestic level, corporate subsidies & bailouts, many state contracts, & privatization schemes are themselves ways to channel public funds into private sector hands, even though they are almost universally (and laughably) described as being in the 'national' interest.
10) At the end of the day, minimum wage and its relationship to 'real wages' (income factoring for inflation) is obviously a crucial thing for those most vulnerable in society.
11) But talking about its "pros & cons" without also talking about real wages in relation to all this, & to housing & food costs, & whether or not education, health care, mass transit, & other social services are fully-funded public goods - will always be a red herring.
12) ... And it will *always* be characterized by insufferable elites, pundits, and employers whining about how hard-done-by they are when "government" interferes with their "natural" ability to exploit labour at bargain basement prices.
13) Part of the problem with these debates is also: few ask how these kinds of decisions *ought* to be made, how transparent, who ought to make them? We just follow the bouncing balls that have been put into motion before our eyes as if that's the only thing worth discussing.
14) But what if we asked different questions, like:
A) What if we tied minimum wage to a real wage benchmark that ensured it would always be sufficient for a good life? OR
B) What if we funded social services and minimum wage increases by setting a maximum wage? OR
A) What if we tied minimum wage to a real wage benchmark that ensured it would always be sufficient for a good life? OR
B) What if we funded social services and minimum wage increases by setting a maximum wage? OR
15) C) What if those most affected - whether it be changes to the tax structure, or labour standards, or environmental standards, or public infrastructure investments, or social service spending - had decision-making power in proportion to the degree they were affected? OR
16) D) What if the minimum wage was equal to the maximum wage? How would aspiring to equity affect people's jobs, income, and lives? OR
17) E) What if we required everyone who wanted to share in the benefits of the economy to perform a share of the socially-necessary but less-desirable work? How would that change the way we think about and structure both jobs and remuneration?
18) We are taught, all our lives, to accept whatever we're born into -- and often to rationalize it (good or bad) as "deserved." Mainstream economics see-saws between talking about "the economy" like a weather-pattern that is beyond human control ...
19) ... & talking about it like capitalism is some kind of "meritocracy". Both of these talking points are absurd -- indeed, vile.
20) People are often skeptical & cynical about positive social & economic change. We all-too-often mock aspirations & visions of a better world. "There is no alternative", said Thatcher & it's a massive victory for capital that many of the most marginalized seem resigned to this.
21) But sometimes, just asking questions -- especially questions like "how *ought* this to be?" -- is a revolutionary act.
