If we had any politicians with brains, we would not be having these kinds of debates, nor such impassioned struggle for basic rights and privileges of American citizens. Politics takes dealmaking, but many deals are so bad they actively imperil future generations, and politicians who make them should be voted out of office immediately rather than being lauded for bipartisanship or whatever bullshit political rhetoric is currently in vogue. The 1994 assault weapons ban, for instance, was not a permanent law, as part of a deal made to enact it, and it expired in 2004 after which there was immediate increases in the number of gun deaths, predictably, not only in the United States but also in Mexico bordering the United States.

Minimum wage laws always fail to work because of inflation. Politicians know this, and don’t care to enact real solutions for either the poor nor American corporations because a few years down the road when those old wages are no longer sufficient it can be used again as a clarion call to drum up political support. But the long-term damage done by drive-through politics is burdened on later generations, who are made to suffer because of poor policymaking, and become pawns and scapegoats in the process while also having to subsist on poverty wages until our narcissistic and apathetic lawmakers are finally compelled to do the bare minimum for our best interests.

I have never had a job which was directly affected by minimum wage laws. Having design and computer talents I secured employment right out of high school in occupations which most people need to acquire four year college degrees. But there is a direct impact on my quality of life because of employers paying poverty wages to their employees and other forms of both private and government mismanagement. I have always been taxed at a higher rate than people who make millions and billions of dollars a year, and my taxes go to pay for things like subsidizing poverty wages with food stamps, welfare, and medicare. So even though I have been extremely talented, capable, and successful in my professional life I too must bear the burden of such incongruent policies and social inequality. I want other people to be paid fairly for their work and contribution to society so they in turn no longer need to be reliant on our government and welfare systems (along with those who are rich being taxed in proportion to their income).

Our country is overtaxed, underpaid, and in sore need of real solutions to promote economic prosperity, and because of the greed and incompetence of the previous governing generation we are in real danger of reaching another catastrophic failure of markets and economy. The only reason the coronavirus lockdowns haven’t sent us into an apocalyptic depression is because of the serendipitous availability to work remotely and in more service oriented professions (which are themselves exploitive) as well as the generous eviction and mortgage relief provided by the government without which millions of people would right now be living on the street, and may yet still depending on what our government does to alleviate poverty and economic and tax burdens.

Instead of minimum wage laws we need solutions which promote economic prosperity, lower taxes, and persists with the changeable value of monetary systems. Instead of minimum wage laws which become toothless as soon as inflation progresses in just a few years, there should instead be a Weighted Wage Disparity tax break/tax increase for businesses which is based on an equation which compares the lowest wages of a company with the highest (which includes all forms of compensation, including stocks, healthcare, travel, etc.). This could be evaluated as whether the lowest paid wage in a company is 10% of the top wage of the company. If the top executive of a company for instance makes $600,000 a year, then their least paid employee should make at least $60,000 a year, and then if this is the case the company gets a great tax break. For every percentage the lowest wage is lower than 10%, the company then receives a lesser tax break (and tax rates are raised back to those more appropriate for corporate taxes along with minimum tax payment laws so that companies like Amazon who make billions of dollars without paying taxes instead pay their fair share), and if the disparity is too great they are then penalized with a higher tax rate to subsidize the social burden their poor compensation imposes upon the general population and social programs those underpaid workers must rely on to supplement their income.

Such an equation would also strongly assist small businesses who do not make enormous profit, and would promote entrepreneurialism, allowing new and small businesses to pay employees less than larger, profitable corporations while still receiving generous tax breaks until such time as their business experiences greater success, since executives would not be able to pay themselves well until such time as their business succeeds, and because wage competition with larger businesses will be more robust, the market itself would help to raise wages for employees of small business without penalizing small business owners.

It is important that such a policy is tied to tax breaks, because this would motivate corporate boards and stock holders to pay their executives a competitive salary rather than one which is gluttonous and exorbitant while also helping business through tax breaks which also directly benefit workers and the economy, while businesses which don’t are then taxed to fund the social programs which are required to support those they do not justly compensate. Right now, most businesses get rewarded by laying off employees, who are then shopped on to State and Federal welfare programs like unemployment, food stamps, and government health insurance because they were never paid a wage which could help secure their economic situation in the first place, which the rest of us then in turn have to pay for through our taxes. The biggest strength of such a policy would be to provide stability and consistency in perpetuity, both for employees and business. Of course, if such policies are passed, lobbyists and special interests would attempt to weaken it and create loopholes to exploit, such as not including certain forms of compensation in the evaluation criteria so that they could pay executives in other methods which are not evaluated by the criteria, and would require resolve to resist these influences as well as to communicate to them that the stability of our economy such as would be accomplished by such a policy would directly benefit them in the long term and should be strengthened rather than weakened.

One of the best ways to boost economic growth would also be to eliminate payroll and income taxes. For most of our country’s history average citizens did not actually pay income taxes. That was changed when Woodrow Wilson enacted income tax laws in 1913 which at the time only applied to those making significant income but, again, because of inflation and bureaucratic incompetence and excess has today led to taxing even the most poor and destitute of us. In many ways, tax sources are regarded as if their source is unique or significant and thus unrelated to other areas of taxation, but in reality taxes are arbitrary and affect everyone, no matter where they are placed. Even though payroll/income taxes are split between employers and employees, all such money which is taxed is still a tax on businesses, because it comes from wages they pay to their employees, the only difference being that the burden for their payment is passed to those who don’t make much money, and obligate their participation in complex financial systems and then prosecute them through government institutions when they have neither the ability nor competence to navigate such purposefully complex financial instruments and institutions. In the last century businesses went to great lengths to entice employees with benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, pensions, or paid vacation. Today, employees are taxed more than they have ever been, carrying the burden of funding our bloated country which should instead be placed on businesses, corporations, and government who can actually shoulder such a burden, to free employees to be more productive and less stressed, and thus better funded and empowered to actually participate in this Capitalist economy which above all depends on its citizenry being empowered, funded, and healthy. It’s absolutely ridiculous to require those who can barely afford their rent or mortgage to also fund our military, our infrastructure which is failing but which is necessary to facilitate commerce, and exactly why these systems are failing, because those being asked to fund it are not capable of doing so. During economic stress some companies have been benefiting wildly, but most are being decimated precisely because they have absolutely failed to protect and fund the very people on whom they rely for their profit. Long-term economic stability requires that the middle and lower economic populations be funded and protected in order that our economy keep circulating capital, and that can be accomplished through such policies which encompass the dynamics of the free market rather than those which apply a bandaid for politicians to pat themselves on the back and pass our obligations to the next generation. Tying wage rates to tax benefits helps to leverage the strengths of Capitalism to support our economy and thus long term stability. But most importantly, when you pass these laws for the love of God do not fucking set them to expire!

Further economic stability can be sustained by guaranteeing universal wages such as I discuss in my article, Universal Wages and the Volatility of Market Capitalism, or you can read ideas about happiness and success during times of economic disparity in Money and Success In This Economy.