This is Texas. Therefore climate change doesn’t exist. All problems will be solved by prayer, anti – abortion laws, and improvements in moral behaviour.

I even heard a reporter on CNN yesterday saying, “This isn’t anybody’s fault. It’s Mother Nature” etc., the implication being that some were saying there was some human cause for the weather. (And I don’t mean climate change.)

The basics are self-evident. The complicated bit is putting $10 in the bank. $9 gets loaned out and spent, earning more income, which us deposited in the bank and most gets loaned out etc. There interest earned etc too. Thus the $10 adds a lot more than that to the economy. This is why religious strictures against earning interest are problematic, and why some banks really are too big to fail.

Good point.
However, a category 4 (not even 5) storm with accompanying excessive precipitation is NOT a once in a million year event (that would be a ‘category 7 or 8’ event 🙂 ). That excuse is -if made- of course a ludicrous excuse (I gather you think so too), one would, off hand, estimate it closer to once every 50 years (even without referring to any sort of climate change) or less.

Just read your “Why Increasing the Minimum Wage is Good for the Economy” . I can only but compliment you on that post.
There is only one point I’d like to take issue with:
“Therefore, when they receive any increase that money makes its way into the hands of businesses immediately, stimulating demand and therefore increasing employment opportunities. Because of the way this process works, the extra money in the economy more than offsets the higher wage costs. (This is complicated to explain, and will take a post on its own.)”
I do not think it really is complicated at all, it is as self-evident as it gets, I’d say

It’s perhaps not the time to say it, but I agree.

The excuse will be that this is a once in a million year event. However, the design of the infrastructure couldn’t have coped with a much smaller event either.

(Note: The links are there now.)

I’ve written several posts on this topic, but they might be from before you were a reader. There’s one on the minimum wage you might be interested in.

I’m not on a device where I can provide proper links (I’ll do it later), but one’s called ‘Why Increasing the Minimum Wage is Good for the Economy‘ and another is ‘ The Case Against Trickle-Down Economics in Reducing Unemployment‘.

Also ‘America’s Healthcare Problem‘ makes the case for universal health care.

It is clear we see eye to eye here. And I ‘m sure most economists and business(wo)men would agree too.
I appreciate the ‘steps’ approach, I think that a six monthly raise of 50 cents an hour raise (about 4 dollars a day) is not a bad approach if the minimum wage is like 15 USD a day, not if it is in the order of 10-15 USD/hour per hour. In the latter case it would really be too little.
I may be a bit confused about the details, since the official minimum wage for unschooled workers here in SA is about 11 dollars a day (many get less).
10 USD/hour (about 2000 USD/month, or about 25000 rand/month) would be considered a handsome income here. Will put you at least in the top 40%. If I’m not mistaken the modal income here is about 6000 rand (about 400 USD)/month. even in SA that is not comfortable by any stretch.

USians often think people are poor because they are lazy, or they otherwise deserve to be on the lowest rungs of society. I see it as a result of too much religion which promotes the idea that we’re in the position that God put us in.

The same people don’t think poor people in Africa, for example, are poor because they deserve it. They can’t see that laziness is not the reason most people are poor, it’s the lack of return for their labour, unavailability of healthcare, inequitable education, and other such factors.

Well, there is some case for laziness to be made. It occurs when the ‘Dole’ (unemployment benefits) equals or approaches the minimum wage. Or when cumulative child grants make a comfortable income. This never happened in the US, of course, but did happen in some Western European social democracies, and only in some cases, I hasten to add. And it was mostly discontinued, if I’m not mistaken. (I do not want to go into some Muslim’s idea that the Dole is a gift from Allah here, and it is not really what I’m referring to. That is a wholly different chapter).
I agree that most people want to work, have a business or be otherwise engaged, despite being lazy (we all are a bit, aren’t we?) .
I think it is more than the fear of just laziness, there is also the ‘repugnant’ idea of possibly giving to some of the ‘undeserving’ . Laziness makes one ‘undeserving’, of course, but it is not the only reason….