At the center of efforts to raise minimum wage to $15 per hour in places like New York, DC, and Settle is the desire for economic justice. Focusing on fast food workers as New York is doing, fast food restaurants have embraced an assembly-line business model that has undermined the wages of restaurant workers for decades. Although most fast food jobs are not considered lifelong careers capable of supporting a family, their low-wage business model hinders the creation of living wage restaurant jobs, henceforth the justice in raising minimum wage for fast food restaurant.
To boot, minimum wage was once a living wage and $15 per hour is now a living wage, so it makes sense from the perspective of workers to raise minimum wage to $15 per hour. Of course, New York’s decision to focus solely on fast food restaurants across the State is likely a terrible mistake. Not only does it neglect those stuck in the minimum wage trap throughout the rest of the service sector and puts a disproportionate burden on fast food corporations that is not shared by other corporations, it distorts the economics of poor communities, which will hurt businesses in those communities that cannot compete by raising their wages and prices.
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Cuban Embassy, Iranian Nuclear Deal: Obama’s Diplomatic Accomplishments and Their Importance7/19/2015 The opening of Cuba’s US embassy after 54 years of isolation would be a significant accomplishment for any American President. The successful completion of a nuclear agreement with Iran would also be a major achievement. Outside of brokering peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, President Obama has accomplished more than his two immediate predecessors ever dreamed of doing. That said, the world is a very different place with far more issues than it had even when George W. Bush was President.
Although uncertainly still rules US-Cuban relations and the Iranian nuclear deal, these are important achievements, because they make it easier to deal with the far more difficult issues assaulting the International Community. Unfortunately, global economic woes, the growing threat of globalized terrorism boldly exemplified by the Islamic State, power struggles with China and Russia, global climate change, declining reserves of natural resources and other emerging issues minimize the impact of the Obama Administration’s achievements. Pluto was discovered in 1930, but it was not until the New Horizons spacecraft passed by the dwarf planet that the human race got its first glance of this new world. In this era of ever intensifying geopolitical and economic uncertainty, the fact that people are still interested and able to explore so far beyond our own world is almost surreal.
During the Cold War, space exploration for the sake of science and human curiosity helped transform the potential for war into a competition to push beyond the limits of human potential. Unfortunately, the global culture of today is vastly different from what it was during the Cold War. Our egocentric, shorted-sighted, competition-obsessed culture and inability to see beyond the cost-benefit analysis of every situation have suppressed the motivating power of imagination and the human yearning for exploration. Where Pluto still sparks curiously, the burning drive to reach beyond our own world is growing cold. The tentative Iranian Nuclear Deal is certain to change the dynamics of Iran’s relationship with the West, but it will not end the antagonistic relationship Iran has with the International Community. Assuming the oversight and “snap back” mechanisms of the Iranian Nuclear Deal are adequate to address a breach of the agreement, which assumes renewed sanctions will have any impact on Iran’s nuclear problem, it must be triggered by one of the nations that negotiated the agreement or the European Union. Whether a good deal for the International Community or not, the proposal thoroughly neglects to provide any recourse for those who are most directly threatened by Iran, i.e. Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the many Peoples of the Middle East, which means the Iranian Nuclear Deal’s biggest shortcoming is the lack of focus on the Middle East.
In essence, the Iranian Nuclear Deal allows the West to sidestep conflicts with Russia and China while placing the bulk of responsibility for securing the Middle East from the Khamenei regime onto the shoulders of regional powers. In principle, this would not be such a big issue, except Middle Eastern countries have no direct means of triggering punitive measures should Iran reveal itself to be an emerging nuclear threat. If the NATO alliance, at least, is given authority, instead of the EU, Turkey would have some direct recourse. At best, Israel can push the US to move on potential violations, but this only further disenfranchises the rest of the Arab countries. The message this failure sends is that Middle Easterners are not full-fledged members of the International Community entitled to the full rights and protections of the International Community, even if they do not participate in talks. The Chinese government is learning the hard lesson that comes from attempting to cheat the laws of supply and demand thanks to the near collapse of the Shanghai stock market. Where Americans learned from the Subprime Mortgage Meltdown that artificial demand created by cheap and easy credit will push the price of goods beyond affordability, the Chinese are learning government policy dictating artificial demand through overproduction, i.e. oversupply, creates an economic bubble that is destined to burst.
Although the world has been focused on the drama of the Greece Debit Crisis, the Chinese economy has seen trillions of dollars evaporate over a few short months. Unlike tiny Greece, China is the world’s second largest economy and that raises concerns of a global recession on the horizon. Unfortunately, Beijing’s attempts to keep Chinese workers on the job has already resulted in the oversupply of Chinese goods that will ultimately lead to the freeze of production in China and drive down the prices of these goods. |
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