Economics #1: Unemployment and Compensation

In August, we discussed American health policy. In September, it was crime in America.

For October, I would like to discuss economics. As with the previous three months, I would like to break this into three topics: This week we will discuss Unemployment and Compensation, next week will be Deficits and Debt, and the third week we will discuss Poverty and the Social Safety Net. After these three, there will still be two Mondays in October to talk about Foreign Policy, and I will spend the first week of November on another silly post about TV characters. I will probably change up which characters I talk about, though one or two will likely be the same.

Hillary Clinton believes that the minimum wage should be raised to $12 per hour. She has said that she would not veto a move to raise it further to $15 per hour. Clinton also wants to lower taxes for middle-income families and small businesses. Raising the minimum wage does have its detractors, but most current research implies that it will have a positive impact. Even if it doesn't, Clinton supports expanding the EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit), which she helped to create back in the 90s.

Clinton also has plans to directly address unemployment, such as providing parental leave for childcare, being paid 2/3 of your income for 12 weeks. This would create two three-month openings, so that firms will need to replace both parents. Clinton backs a plan to fix our infrastructure, employing mostly Millennials.

Gary Johnson wants to eliminate minimum wag, claiming that if you show up on time and wear clean clothes, then you will make more than minimum wage.

Johnson wants to give the economy a little stimulus in the form of eliminating all payroll and income taxes, in exchange for a Fair Tax, a 23% consumption tax on all newly produced goods and services. Johnson believes that if government can get out of the way of the common person and the market, then jobs will be created.

Jill Stein favors raising the minimum wage to at least $15 per hour, if not more. She also wants to eliminate student loan debt, which would effectively give most people under 35 a $300 per month raise.

Stein wants to break up the big banks, which would create new white collar jobs by increasing redundancy in our banking system, and also create big profits for investors.

Next week, we will talk about deficits and debt.