Biden's plan for Stimulus. Is this a good thing?

[Grumps 3,693]

 

[homersapien 11,349]

Sounds good to me.  Why would it not?

[CoffeeTiger 5,077]

Is prioritizing smaller, less connected businesses over the mega-corporations and businesses that have inside government contacts a bad thing? 

 

 

[SaturdayGT 719]

   Sounds good, but I wish I understood how a $15.00/hr min wage wont destroy small businesses.  I wish I understood how shutting down the Keystone pipeline would not jack Gas prices up through the roof, causing the cost of goods to skyrocket. I do not see anything that will help small businesses at all.....

[CoffeeTiger 5,077]

Just now, SaturdayGT said:

   Sounds good, but I wish I understood how a $15.00/hr min wage wont destroy small businesses.  I wish I understood how shutting down the Keystone pipeline would not jack Gas prices up through the roof, causing the cost of goods to skyrocket. I do not see anything that will help small businesses at all.....

I don't know if $15/hr across the board is the correct answer, but I do absolutely agree that Fed. min wage needs increasing. There is a reason a majority of states have already taken it upon themselves to increase the rate in their states. There's been a total of about 21% inflation from 2009 when the 7.25 was implemented to 2021. 

$15/hr should be fine in places like metro California, New York, and high cost of living areas, but it is probably overkill for most rural areas. I'd prefer a increase to 

$10-11/hr personally for federal then States can of course adjust accordingly to their wishes and needs. 

[SaturdayGT 719]

1 hour ago, CoffeeTiger said:

I don't know if $15/hr across the board is the correct answer, but I do absolutely agree that Fed. min wage needs increasing. There is a reason a majority of states have already taken it upon themselves to increase the rate in their states. There's been a total of about 21% inflation from 2009 when the 7.25 was implemented to 2021. 

$15/hr should be fine in places like metro California, New York, and high cost of living areas, but it is probably overkill for most rural areas. I'd prefer a increase to 

$10-11/hr personally for federal then States can of course adjust accordingly to their wishes and needs. 

I too agree that wages need to come up. Seems like a tiered approach would be better. Like a min wage for the the after high school part time type jobs for kids 16 to somewhere in the early 20's.  Or maybe have different min wages based on the industry or maybe even the number of hours put in or something. 

[around4ever 4,139]

$15 per hour minimum wage will raise unemployment numbers because small to medium businesses won’t be able to afford to pay that.  $15 per hour wage will increase the cost of living for everybody, including the people making $15 per hour.  I don’t see it helping the economy at all.  A more beneficial approach would be to train minimum wage workers in a trade that pays much more than minimum wage. 

[TitanTiger 20,465]

1 hour ago, SaturdayGT said:

   Sounds good, but I wish I understood how a $15.00/hr min wage wont destroy small businesses.  I wish I understood how shutting down the Keystone pipeline would not jack Gas prices up through the roof, causing the cost of goods to skyrocket. I do not see anything that will help small businesses at all.....

The thing about it is, if minimum wage had kept up with the cost of living index, it would already be over $15/hr.

[woodford 3,655]

On 1/17/2021 at 3:37 PM, Grumps said:

 

At least he comes out in says he won’t support white owned small businesses lol this “HR Administration” is going to be comical 

[woodford 3,655]

2 minutes ago, TitanTiger said:

The thing about it is, if minimum wage had kept up with the cost of living index, it would already be over $15/hr.

How is the cost of living index a proper way to gauge and measure the economy?

[AUDub 11,131]

3 minutes ago, woodford said:

At least he comes out in says he won’t support white owned small businesses lol this “HR Administration” is going to be comical 

The emphasis was on "equal access."

[TitanTiger 20,465]

6 minutes ago, woodford said:

How is the cost of living index a proper way to gauge and measure the economy?

It's just a simple measuring stick to say whether or not minimum wage keeps up with inflation.  Middle and lower class Americans have been losing ground in this regard for decades now.  

[woodford 3,655]

1 minute ago, TitanTiger said:

It's just a simple measuring stick to say whether or not minimum wage keeps up with inflation.  Middle and lower class Americans have been losing ground in this regard for decades now.  

How is a measuring stick? What does it measure?

[TitanTiger 20,465]

1 hour ago, woodford said:

How is a measuring stick? What does it measure?

Are we really going to be this obtuse?

Cost of living indexes generally look at expenses the average person would spend on food, clothing, shelter, energy/utilities, healthcare, childcare, education, and entertainment in different regions. Looking at it over time would reveal trends on how much basic expenses rise or fall over a given period of time.

It's an imperfect tool of course, but it gives us some idea as to whether wages have the same buying power over time.

[autigeremt 6,562]

While I'm all for this for small business how can they compete with Amazon and other companies attached to the hip with China and their manufacturing base when we kill ours? 

I like the idea....I just want to see the parts they aren't telling us. 

[homersapien 11,349]

5 hours ago, SaturdayGT said:

   Sounds good, but I wish I understood how a $15.00/hr min wage wont destroy small businesses.  I wish I understood how shutting down the Keystone pipeline would not jack Gas prices up through the roof, causing the cost of goods to skyrocket. I do not see anything that will help small businesses at all.....

The economy was doing fine prior to the Keystone pipeline, it will do fine without it.

[wdefromtx 3,159]

5 hours ago, SaturdayGT said:

   Sounds good, but I wish I understood how a $15.00/hr min wage wont destroy small businesses.  I wish I understood how shutting down the Keystone pipeline would not jack Gas prices up through the roof, causing the cost of goods to skyrocket. I do not see anything that will help small businesses at all.....

I think it’s dumb to shut down the remaining phase of Keystone but it won’t have a significant effect on crude prices. There are segments of the pipeline that are already operating. This last phase would have been a direct link to Canada’s reserves. It probably will hurt Canadian operators more than the the US. 
 

Will hurt Worley Parsons more than anything. 

[GoAU 1,599]

11 hours ago, homersapien said:

Sounds good to me.  Why would it not?

Fighting racism with more racism is asinine.  I can understand prioritizing small business, but to base is on gender or race, and then to follow it up with saying we shouldn’t discriminate based on race or gender is hypocritical at best.  

9 hours ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Is prioritizing smaller, less connected businesses over the mega-corporations and businesses that have inside government contacts a bad thing? 

 

 

If it’s based on size, that makes sense - the smaller businesses are clearly hurting more than a bigger business.  A $500k company owned by a white man is no better able to weather the storm than the same company owned by a minority individual.   

7 hours ago, TitanTiger said:

The thing about it is, if minimum wage had kept up with the cost of living index, it would already be over $15/hr.

Supply and demand.   If you want to control wages, control labor supply (immigration) better.  Wages grew more under the Trump administration through economic growth than any other President in at least the last 40 years (with the exception of the economic disaster of COVID.  Most importantly, they grew because the economy grew, not because politicians deemed it so.  

7 hours ago, TitanTiger said:

It's just a simple measuring stick to say whether or not minimum wage keeps up with inflation.  Middle and lower class Americans have been losing ground in this regard for decades now.  

If the post above is true and inflation grew by 21%, wouldn’t this put the minimum wage in the $9-10 range instead of $15? 

3 hours ago, homersapien said:

The economy was doing fine prior to the Keystone pipeline, it will do fine without it.

What is the rationale for stopping it, other than Trump pushed it through?   Low gas prices benefit all, especially those with the lowest disposable incomes.   

[homersapien 11,349]

23 hours ago, woodford said:

At least he comes out in says he won’t support white owned small businesses lol this “HR Administration” is going to be comical 

I missed that.  Can you highlight it for me?

[homersapien 11,349]

19 hours ago, GoAU said:

Fighting racism with more racism is asinine.  I can understand prioritizing small business, but to base is on gender or race, and then to follow it up with saying we shouldn’t discriminate based on race or gender is hypocritical at best.  

 

Maybe it has less to do with racism that prioritizing those businesses that were hurt the most and insuring access to that help.

[homersapien 11,349]

19 hours ago, GoAU said:

What is the rationale for stopping it, other than Trump pushed it through?   Low gas prices benefit all, especially those with the lowest disposable incomes.   

Its a (small) step in addressing AGW.  We cannot use all of the oil reserves that are in the ground now and control global warming. 

And producing oil from tar sands is particularly polluting.

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/what-keystone-pipeline

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/01/impact-keystone-dakota-access-pipeline-environment-global-warming-oil-health/

 

[wdefromtx 3,159]

36 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Its a (small) step in addressing AGW.  We cannot use all of the oil reserves that are in the ground now and control global warming. 

And producing oil from tar sands particularly polluting.

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/what-keystone-pipeline

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/01/impact-keystone-dakota-access-pipeline-environment-global-warming-oil-health/

 

It affects Canada more than the US. Honestly, we do not even need this latest phase of the pipeline anyways. Hell, it is some nasty stuff. It is expensive and pollutes way more in the refining process. Add in the fact that all the reserves we still have in the Permian, which by all accounts is one of the higher quality oils which means it is cheap to refine and much less pollution to refine it as well compared to tar sands. 

 

Given the fact that the US imported 0 barrels of Saudi crude last week says it all. That hasn't happened in 35 years.

[aubiefifty 16,665]

i like it how some posters do not care when some people get thrown under the bus when it comes to wages even tho they end up relying on food stamps and other programs which comes out of the tax payers pocket. all i see is a scam from the top to keep wages low and profits high and let uncle sam pay the difference. they could figure out something to help small businesses and i agree they should but it needs to be fair to all americans. most car repair businesses i see pay well for folks that can really fix a car. small owned restaurants seldom pay waiters and waitresses any kind of salary and let them get paid by the mercy of those eating by way of tips. the rich have been hollering trickle down trickle down and we know now all it does is screw the little folks. these guys sit around and dream up stuff to keep from paying a fair wage. i am not even sorry but if you are making a living off the sweat of workers in my opinion you owe them more. and then there is the thing where families trying to do it the right way have mom and dad both working which leads to kids getting into more trouble from less supervision. to me this is not a left talking point but common sense.

[GoAU 1,599]

8 hours ago, homersapien said:

Maybe it has less to do with racism that prioritizing those businesses that were hurt the most and insuring access to that help.

If you were looking for which businesses were impacted the worst, how would the owners demographics come into play?

[homersapien 11,349]

12 hours ago, GoAU said:

If you were looking for which businesses were impacted the worst, how would the owners demographics come into play?

Incidentally, from following facts:

https://businessjournaldaily.com/fed-report-minority-owned-businesses-hurt-more-by-pandemic/

I am not saying that the race should be a criteria for who receives help, but emphasizing relief efforts on whatever groups have been hurt the most is a reasonable approach.