Inequality

Everybody has jumped on the inequality bandwagon. 

First it was liberals who showed concern about the issue while conservatives dismissed it – with conservatives saying either that inequality was a good thing, a sign that we have more opportunity and that the best folks can rise, or that rising inequality was a myth.

But as the politics of the issue changed, conservative politicians switched gears, accepting that there is at least some opportunity gap.  But what to do about it? 

Marco Rubio made a suggestion that we provide training for better jobs.  His idea is really just a sketch (and impossible to implement).  He gave an example of a poor woman working as a receptionist in a medical office, he noted her low wage and said that what she really needed was to become (for example) an ultrasound tech.  So she needs training.  But in his mind, the training will come (on the cheap) from a mix of on line courses that are free, from credits for existing knowledge (gained by osmosis) and from some certification that does not now exist.  By the way, knowing what I do of medical technology, a real ultrasound techs need to know anatomy in 3 dimensions and physiology, so need hands on clinical practice on top of rigorous training. 

Anyway, that’s a fantasy.  To accomplish what Rubio wants would require a lot of cooperation at all levels (between state licensing boards, departments of education and the various tax authorities who will provide the tax incentives – chiefly the earned income tax credit, but also incentives at the state level where SNAP or Medicaid are involved.)  But his ideas have one advantage, they cost little, so no new taxes.

Let’s flesh out the example; let’s make this woman a single mother who takes the job she currently has because she can get to work easily and can come home quickly if necessary for childcare. 

The liberal solution would cost more but would include what is really needed to help a low paid worker. 

•         Training should be free and done by an institution that is equipped to train from start to finish (community colleges are the perfect resource).
•         Provide free childcare so a woman (and men where appropriate) can have more flexibility in juggling work and school.
•         Increase the minimum wage to something like $15.00 so the worker’s pay will go farther.

By the way, there is another assumption embedded in Marco Rubio’s idea, and that is that we can make all of us knowledge workers.  We can’t.  I am a knowledge worker and well paid, but these jobs are not for everyone.  We are not all equal.  So the best knowledge workers will get jobs and worst will not.

Americans did not prosper in the 1950s and 60s because there was more knowledge work, but because there were more jobs for folks who were not knowledge workers.  In the 1950s, we still had large employers who ran factories that employed shifts of hundreds and even thousands. 

If we are expecting everyone to become an ultrasound technician or a senior machinist, we will employ dozens or hundreds at most. 

So for the hundreds of thousands who will not be helped by Marco’s fantasy, how about this:  increase the minimum wage to $15 - many experts tell us that the minimum wage of the 50s and 60s would be the equivalent of $15 in todays dollars. 

And make childcare available to all or at least to most.  Free too.  Women do the most juggling, so if we want to help the mothers who are juggling tasks, we should offer free childcare.  Not vouchers or tax credits but actual care.

Oh, and unions.  Yes, I hate unions too.  They were and are associated with thuggery and abuse.  So place union members of company boards of directors. 

Of course, none of this will happen.  Not Marco Rubio’s fantasy, nor my more liberal one. 

In fact, Republicans want to spend less, especially on the safety net.  From Food Stamps to the Earned Income Tax Credit, they offer less not more.  In the arts, less may sometimes be more.  But not in real life. 

And yes, you hear boilerplate from conservatives that, yes, they want to help those in need, but they go about it in the most miserly way.

Oh, and while cutting aid to those less well off, Republican want to spend much,  more on the military.