Saturday, December 4, 2021

Shit That Just Makes Sense

     In an era that's defined by polarization, I think it's important to spell out my beliefs once in awhile so I'm not just constantly agreeing with "the Left" and disagreeing with "the Right." Also helps to serve as a lil reminder to you all that we shouldn't depend on politicians to generate good ideas and implement them, but rather generate the good ideas and vote in the politicians that agree with us (and/or pressure the ones currently in office). Looking back at some of my old posts, this is really just a continuation of "Backwards Planning Society" (parts 1 & 2). So anyways, here's a list of some real simple ass shit that I think a lot of people can get behind:

     1. Paid family leave. I think it's just intuitive (& pro-life, btw) that people ought to spend time with their newborn children. You can't really say society gives a shit about people if they are forced to give up their livelihoods in order to spend time caring for their children. Miss me with the "if you can't afford to have a kid, then don't"-type argument. That's basically saying only people with money are entitled to participate in what humans have been doing for our entire existence. Which, for the record, is a dumb idea.

     2. Age caps for politicians. If there's a minimum age to serve as a politician, there should be a maximum too. No one thinks it's a good idea for people over the age of 70 to drive - at best, we tolerate it. Why the heck do we accept that these old ass people dictate what society will look like when they won't even be around for as long as everyone else?

     3. Minimum wage needs to be higher and tied to inflation. While I've previously written that the work week should be shorter by now, I would also take this. Anyone who works 40 hours/week should be able to afford, at the very least: the basics + some change. Will this cause inflation? I won't pretend like I know the answer to that, but I do know that:

   - minimum wage hasn't changed for 12+ years and inflation still happened anyways 😂
   - minimum wage increased from 5.85 to 7.25 from 2007-2009 (source) and then just... stopped. Wth?
   - dog shit wages just aren't a good enough incentive to get people to work. Thank God for people a) finally realizing it and b) actively withdrawing their participation
   -  tying it to inflation means we don't have to have this conversation anymore. We set a bar, make sure the bar moves appropriately over time, and voila.

   There you have it - some real obvious ways this country could be better. Now when the heck will the American people start pushing their politicians to clear these (extremely low) bars??