Paradigm Shift

How arguments against the minimum wage turn out to be arguments in favor of it

This hyperlink is to an article that makes false claims against having a minimum wage.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/3-reasons-fast-food-joints-shouldn-t-pay-workers–15-an-hour-171832189.html

1.)   Paying $15 an Hour Would Actually REDUCE Fast Food Jobs–The minimum wage is set nationally by federal wage and labor laws.  Fast food workers have been mobilizing around the entire United States especially in recent weeks, but these protests have not been by the restaurant industry alone.  There is no such regulation where one industry must pay $15 an hour, but all of other industries can keep their pay at $7.25 an hour.  The minimum wage is the price of labor, and it applies to all nearly all sectors, industries, and professions.  What this article is having readers believe is that only restaurants workers have been complaining about chronically low wages while no one has been.

The reasons why this is false are many.  McDonalds and Wal-Mart have been receiving the most publicity about their protests.  I have attended the rally for the $15 an hour minimum wage in Foley Square.  The crowd had thousands packed into the small space that is not even the size of one block.  There were the Communication Workers of America, students, teachers, janitors, The United Federation of Teachers, Postal Service Workers, Teamsters, Automotive Workers, and more.  No industry exists by itself.

There are multiple distribution channels and wholesalers involved in the corporations’ business functions.  This is of course true for Wal-Mart and McDonalds, and it is just as true for any of their competitors.  The need for these other workers and jobs was addressed by many of the public speakers during this rally.  Restaurants and retailers alike need a wide gamete of employees.  Janitors are needed in both industries.  Drivers are needed to transport the supplies and goods via their loading docks.  Therefore trucks are required for shipments.  Even with today’s technology there is the need for printed mail, and letters or notices delivered by the post office are just as relevant as ever.  Also there are other issues because not just the wages themselves get discussed.

Many of the circumstances that lead to these low wages also get a lot of attention.  The many rallies I have attended in Newark, NJ are on a smaller scale by The People’s Organizations for Progress.  The most common slogans are “Jobs not Wars” and “Food not Bombs”.  Many of the union leaders talk about how reducing military spending and our foreign wars can allow for significantly higher wages nationwide.  The low tax rates on millionaires and corporations also garner a lot of discussion.  They talk about the need to reverse the public school closings so that more students would be given the skills training and aptitude needed to perform a wider variation of jobs.  This is why students, teachers, and professors are at these same rallies along with United Federation of Teachers.

Those working in the educational field teach critical thinking involving math, reading comprehension, and grammar.  Others equip students with the vocational hands-on part of these jobs working on the assembly line.  This is why the same workers who are commanding higher wages at the restaurants and retailers also want our public schools remaining open, fully staffed, and functioning.  They know about the importance of this skills development, both vocationally and in preparation for college.  No differently than those working in the restaurants and retail chains public school teachers are also often paid too little to live near where they work because of the higher rents.  Additionally I had mentioned The Communication Workers of America.  They are responsible the wiring, phone, and internet service.  Without these media these business franchises and retail stores would never open.

2)  It Defies The Low-Cost Business Model–If the minimum wage is doubled that means that the prices of the products, goods, and services must be twice as high.  Right?  In fact this is hardly true at all.  Wages are the prices of labor.  The sales price of products, goods, and services is determined by countless other factors than paid wages.  For large corporations wages are often less than 10% of the budget and expenditures.  Even for smaller and local business wages are almost always less than 25% of the firms cost.

The reason corporations propagate that if wages are twice as high that consumer prices would also have to be doubled is that they don’t discuss many of the other expenses about running the business that are separate from wages.  They react to changes in wage laws as though this adjustment is macroeconomic.  Wages are twice as high, so therefore everything must cost twice as much.  Here is why this is false.  Wages are the price of labor.  Prices are micro-economic, so wages are determined by unit costs as are the purchase prices.

This is also known as marginal costs (the costs for each additional unit produced).  How much the higher wages affect the cost of running a business vary depending on the number of employees and the projected dollar amount of the firms budget.  Never will doubling the wages result in the cost of business being twice as high.  The final sales price reflects the average costs and therefore is determined by what is an acceptable profit margin for the firm.  The costs besides paid wages are countless including rent, utilities, inventory, purchasing of supplies and equipment, medical benefits, interest on loans, any other fees for use of the building space, and amortization.  Amortization is used to calculate the depreciation (lost value) of assets.   The edifices where the business is located maybe the largest asset.  There are many variations of these assets including factories, warehouses, distribution centers, and refineries.  Assets also include the trucks used for the loading docks, machinery, computers, and other office equipment.   I generalized above that larger corporations can have higher paid wagers costing single-digit percentages while for small local shops it could be up to a ¼ of the budget.

When firms become required to pay higher wages they are also presented with ways they can operate the facility more efficiently.  One is having less extreme variations in thermostat temperatures for heating and air conditioning during the winter and summer months respectively.  I know the impact of this where I work at the County of Hudson.  The heating makes the office feel like a sauna in the winter and a refrigerator with the air conditioning during the summer months.   Many of my coworkers complain about the discomfort caused by this.  Lessening the inefficiency in heating and cooling can save any business thousands of dollars each month for the cost of utilities.  Also there will be less sickness from colds and the flu that result in extended periods of absenteeism for some employees.  I know for myself with some of the colds and nasal drip that I confront primarily during the winter months.  There are many other costs saving measures that can make the increase in wages less costly.

Another such cost saving measure is bringing the construction of the structure up to current fire codes.  This pertains to awareness of the evacuation routes and level of resistance to flames.  Before I became an Eagle Scout in 1994 I had to do a community service project at my local church.  The project was expanding a community room for any kind of meeting that may have to be arranged in the local community, and hence it was an all-purpose room.   The schematic that I was required to use for constructing this conference room also consisted of fire escape routes so that anyone using this space would know where the stairs were to exit the building with as little difficulty as possible.  The location of the fire extinguishers relative to this meeting space also had to be outlined with the floor plans and on the schematic.   Still there is other cost saving measures that a merchant can also apply.

Personnel policies and procedures can cover many issues.  Some are on-the-job training, job rotation, job enhancement, and job enlargement.   More expansive training with exposure to all departments as well as a larger number of tasks allows for greater transparency because of improved knowledge about the products, goods, and services.  This results is faster shipping times and fewer transactional errors.  Therefore there is more customer loyalty and retention.  Firm turnover on the part of employees is also lessened.  With some of these changes in business practices doubling of the minimum wage can result in single digit percentage increases in expenditures even for smaller firms, and for larger corporate offices it is even possible that higher wages can lead to lower prices if enough of these changes are made.  Who would complain about being paid more wages while also paying less for what they consume?  This aspect about personnel changes I tended to notice the impact more readily when I worked in discount brokerage over a dozen years ago.

The more associates interacted with those in other departments the fewer and also less costly the transactional errors.  The share price and prices per share were more accurate regarding the purchase and sale of respective financial instruments.  Financial instruments are a broad term covering many financial products including stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and options trading.  Lastly and obviously not least if the higher level business executives see their pay raises become less than double then that too will shave off a few more percentage points regarding the increased cost of labor.

3)  Why Only Fast Food Chains? –As reflected at the beginning of this piece there are workers from many professions and industries present at these rallies.  Also other topics besides the hourly wages themselves are discussed.  Lastly the wage laws will mandate the $15 per hour rate regardless of the profession and industry.

Feminists en masse in Prospect Heights

On Saturday, October 19, 300+ people gathered on the stoops of brownstone homes in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights to talk about feminism from a personal perspective. And that number didn’t even include the guests.
In Between the Door and the Street, participants organized by Los Angeles-based artist Suzanne Lacy chatted amongst themselves about topics like the pressure to be macho, judgments about women’s clothing choices, sexual harassment, and platonic friendships between men and women. The audience looked on, moving at their own pace to overhear the next group of their choice. True to the contemporary definition of feminism, the participants were female, male, LGBTQ, and from various cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
Arriving half an hour into the performance, I was delighted to see that so many people had come out that they had to wait to enter closed off Park Place. Once inside, adults hugged acquaintances they bumped into and children played, making it feel like a street party. The downside was the amount of noise. There was a policy of no cellphone conversations and it’s a shame there wasn’t a policy of no conversations of any kind among the audience because it was impossible to hear the majority of conversations over the din. At best, the performed conversations would have been in competition anyway because of the proximity of the stoops to one another. Hopefully, the documentation will enhance access to the conversations.
Sometimes when an art performance ends, it can be awkward for the theatrical experience to become reconciled with reality. In Between the Door and the Street, though, it was great to see the participants dispersing through the neighbourhood and entering the subway, with their bright yellow scarves marking them as consciousness-raising feminists.

For more, see: http://artistintransit.blogspot.ca/2014/02/feminists-en-masse-at-prospect-heights.html

How the Wealthy Enjoy a 365-Day a Year Holiday

Some things for some people are a day off every single day of the year.  Social Security for wealthiest of wage earners is one of them.  This is because taxes are not taken above $114,000 a year under the current tax code about.  Before the Fiscal Cliff by the US Congress this past January there was a 2 % payroll “tax holiday”.  This was true for all employers and income levels.  Since January of 2013 this tax break had been terminated under the budget deal known as sequestration.

Separate from the payroll tax those earning higher incomes pay no social security taxes while enjoying full benefits.  This is why it is a daily holiday throughout the entire year.  After retirement they enjoy all of the benefits over and above what they have paid for.  Requiring all wage earner to pay the same percentage into social security will not solve everything, but it an important start.  I have chosen this topic because many of the progressive parties including working families, socialists, and the Green Party have argued that a 2% payroll tax holiday is weakening social security further.

For many millionaires their savings from not paying these taxes are far greater than anyone else regardless of whether this payroll tax cut is kept in place or removed.  The full social security tax is 6% of income without this payroll holiday and thus 4% when it is in effect.  This is not just uneconomical; it is also nonsensical.  It is regressive in the most obvious way possible.

There are millions of senior citizens living in poverty.  This has been especially true since the financial crisis of 2008.  This is also because women, people of color, those with disabilities, and the LGBTQ Communities continue to feel the effects of tighter social security benefits.  What President Obama is willing to do when he describes chained CPI is tie payment increases to the CPI which is the consumer price index.  The CPI understates the cost inflation because it is applied as the core CPI leaving out the cost of food and clothing in the calculation.

Here in Jersey City and Hudson County nursing homes and homeless shelters are beyond capacity at nearly all times.  I have participated in 3 of the Hudson County Homeless Counts since 2007, and the situation is rampant. The coldness of the winter months accelerate and exacerbate this, but these facilities are near capacity during the summer months.

There are job training programs for seniors, but they have limited success.  Those who are old enough to remember the Great Depression are near 90 years old or greater, but those who are in the 60’s and 70’s lack the skills with to days technology.   In some ways the elderly and young adults first graduating from college are facing the same dilemma.  The oldest of our population never grew to adapt to the technology, and for the youngest population they have to learn about a whole different system of production.  This is why I support government spending on construction and manufacturing at all times.

It’s not that the need for these sectors has lessened.  In fact this need only continues to grow.  What it comes down to is that the technology has changed, and the assembly line has a different meaning.  Production has become more specialized.  It is not done as batch processing the way it used to be.   What is needed is more vocational hands-on job training.  The senior population is among the fastest growing demographic.  We will never have a country or economy where there are between 15 and 20 workers to each retired person.   Today it is estimated to be 3 workers to each retired person.  If there could be another few million workers employed in these trades and skill sets then it would 4 to 5 workers for every retired person. 

Requiring millionaires to pay this extra 2% on their income would raise this ratio if not to 10 to 1 at least into the upper single digits as adjusted for gross revenues generated to pay into social security.  Examining the allocation of social security payouts will always be an important policy issue on government spending, but there will be enough funds to pay benefits at the full rate of inflation for another few generations, at least another 50 to 75 years.  Requiring the wealthiest of tax payers to continue paying social security at higher income levels and getting more workers employed in these manufacturing and construction occupations will strengthen our retirement system and economy both in the short and long runs.

Pussy Riot! A Punk Prayer for Freedom

October 10 is the one-year anniversary of Pussy Riot member, Yekateria Samutsevich (aka. Katya) having her sentence overturned and being released on probation.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Pussy Riot is an anonymous, activist female punk band that performs unannounced in public places in Russia like the subway. The number of members and the date of their formation vary in reports, but it seems to be in the teens and in the fall of 2011, in response to President Vladimir Putin announcing he would pursue a third term in office. Five members participated in a controversial 40-second performance in the priests-only section of an Orthodox church, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow on February 21, 2012. After being chased away, two fled the country for their safety; they have kept the conversation going, visiting feminist venues like New York’s Bluestockings bookstore this past June. Katya, Maria Alyokhina (Masha), and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (Nadya) were caught and they eventually confessed to imploring the Virgin Mary through a ‘punk prayer’ to become a feminist and remove President Vladimir Putin from power. Had they pleaded guilty to the charge of felony hooliganism motivated by religious hatred (or arguably, had they agreed to join a convent like one witness suggested), it is believed that they would have been released. They refused, and Masha and Nadya remain behind bars, serving a two-year sentence in a penal colony. During that time, the band was shortlisted for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. To my knowledge, there have been no public performances since the arrest, but their lyrics continue to resonate with international news: one song mentions a violent day in Egypt and the anti-Putin song refers to gay pride being exiled to Siberia.

Supporters range from Madonna to Amnesty International. Another advocate is the Feminist Press at the City University of New York. Within a month of the verdict, they released an e-book, Pussy Riot! A Punk Prayer for Freedom (2012) and in 2013, they published it as a paperback. It’s billed as a historical document and contains translated lyrics, letters, and poems by the detained band members as well as translated excerpts from the court transcripts, legal statements from the defense attorneys and the defendants, and—new to the paperback edition—statements from the appeal. It’s also presented as a call to action, with contributions from artists, musicians, and writers (Yoko Ono, Justin Vivian Bond, Johanna Fateman, Eileen Myles, Karen Finley, JD Samson, and Laurie Weeks are in the original edition and are joined by Peaches and Simonne Jones, Bianca Jagger, Tobi Vail, Barbara Browning, and Vivien Goldman in the paperback edition). Proceeds go towards the band’s legal fees and related expenses.

Rather than being portrayed primarily as a band, Pussy Riot is seen as more of an arts collective, an association arguably strengthened by their choice of an art gallery as one of their venues. Performance art, action art, protest art, art attacks, and sacred art are terms used throughout the book by their supporters, yet the prosecution overlooks these possibilities with the slight, “so-called contemporary art.” In response, Masha recasts the experience as a so-called trial in a so-called court.

As the book demonstrates, it’s not the three women who come out looking badly, but the Russian judicial system. In the five months leading up to the trial, Katya, Masha, and Nadya were kept cold, underfed, and sleep deprived. The injustices were many: only one of the three defense attorneys was allowed to confer with the defendants; documents were forged to say the defendants had access to all of the material evidence; the non-disclosure statement was signed late; the public and the media were unwelcome at the trial; and experts’ questions were based on judicial requirements and addressed motive directly. It’s no wonder defense attorney Mark Feygin commented, “Lawlessness reigns supreme in Russia.” Perhaps the most disturbing element is that excerpts from the court proceedings read like the Salem witch trials. Consider the witness accounts: a candle seller describes Pussy Riot’s dancing as “the devil’s twitchings” and the church electrician called their performance “a witches ritual”.

Barbara Browning says that Pussy Riot’s real intervention is their unrelenting feminism. In their vividly coloured A-line and shift dresses, they are undeniably female, but with balaclavas masking their faces, as one anonymous band member says, they eschew ideals of beauty. How disappointing that in jail, one band member kept hearing that it must be men who were the brains of their operation. How frustrating that in court, Nadya’s question to a witness, “Is feminism a swear word?” was met with, “It is if it is said in church.”

There are a few gaps in the book. Although the band professes their tolerance of and respect for religion, nowhere is a critical refrain from the anti-Putin song addressed. Unless the apostrophe in, “Sh*t, sh*t, the Lord’s sh*t!” denotes possession (i.e., that Putin is a child of the Lord and that Putin is sh*t), rather than contracting ‘is,’ it is a reasonable trigger for the accusation of religious hatred. The book quotes Masha as saying that the intervention was prompted by political concerns, not religious concerns, but that’s a confusing explanation since their specific concern is the close ties between church and state. Also, Katya’s release is mentioned in the introduction but no explanation is given. No mention is made of Katya severing ties with the band’s shared defense attorneys and hiring someone for herself who is regarded as having ties to the Kremlin. Nor does the book specify that she was cleared on the basis of having been blocked by security from entering the altar and performing with her comrades. The complication with this defense, as Julia Ioffe writes (1), is that it implies that the women who did reach the altar and perform actually committed a crime. Also excluded is the fact that Feygin was allegedly fired by all three women over a disputed contract that trademarks the group through his wife’s company, touching on the group’s resistance of commercialism (2), something they’ve had to deal with as awards have rolled in for a documentary and opera released in their honour. The only hint of these developments is the final word given to Pussy Riot in the book: without context, Katya says, “There is no split in Pussy Riot.” Perhaps these details weren’t raised because it would imply a split, but in the spirit of historical documentation, stating if not analyzing them seems prudent.

All in all, though, this slender tome is recommended. The texts are articulate and inspiring, so much so that Johanna Fateman calls them gifts and regards Pussy Riot as “scholars of Putinist repression.”

(1) “Is Pussy Riot Breaking Up?,” New Republic, October 10, 2012.

(2) Benjamin Bidder and Matthias Schepp, “Manipulating Pussy Riot: Letters Show Division in Punk Group,” Der Spiegel, Feb. 20, 2013, transl. Christopher Sultan.

Queer Memoir 50+: Sunday, October 6th, 5-8pm, YWCA of Brooklyn 30 Third Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11217

I’m NC Eakin and I write a blog called Genderqueer Fashionista over on Tumblr. I mostly write advice for people who are both fashion and gender curious. A word I come across very often in my writing and being part of the gender/queer community on Tumblr is the idea of androgyny.

First, to define what I see as a troubling definition of androgyny, I’d like to point to this screen capture of Google image results for “androgynous fashion”:

The results here point out a lot of my contentions with the generally associated idea of androgyny. Androgynous is most often used to describe a person who is FAAB (female assigned at birth, who may or may not identify as female), is white, thin (flat-chested and doesn’t have hips), has short hair, wears masculine clothes, applies little to no makeup, and has no body hair.

I’m surprised to see the number of long-haired people that are visible in this screen capture but I think it’s notable that “Men’s” and “Male” are both separate categories one can browse in this search- showing that androgyny is usually used to describe people we might call women who look less than feminine.

The #androgyny tag on Tumblr highlights this familiar association and I often see posts that comment “The perfect picture of androgyny” with a photo like the ones above and below here.

It’s obvious that this definition is limiting for so many reasons- upholding the single beauty standard of a white/ person of European descent who is thin, hairless, and doesn’t have breasts or hips is something that is well-documented within feminist literature as harmful to developing healthy body image and self-concept. I believe it’s particularly harmful in queer spaces online and off to see that these same ideals are being passed off without question when called androgyny.

I think the solution is to shift our idea about what we can call androgyny. I believe queer people can and do rally around beautiful humans who live their gender in unique and authentic ways that help create new gender options for more than just female-bodied individuals, and that’s is a direction we should aim for. Especially when gender variety is celebrated in tandem with body diversity and racial/ethnic diversity and we all aren’t just trying to fit our wide spectrum of bodies into a single box. Even when that box is constructed to describe a blending of identities, the word itself can hold a limiting meaning. I want to work on talking about something as binary as fashion (where men’s and women’s clothes are a given in any retail outlet) in a less binary way, and I believe that conversation starts with “androgyny.”

I’ll leave you with some beautifully androgynous folks of a wide spectrum of identities who regularly inspire me:

My pal Sean of *fruitpunch, wearing a lot of pleather and a skort in this picture.

My darling partner N, who sometimes writes about her outfits and clothing woes on her blog.

Majestic Legay, who writes brilliantly about fatshion and their cats and gorgeous partner.

Michael of His Black Dress

The super dapper Blake who writes at Qwear and on her blog The Curvy Lesbian.

There are many, many others who are inspiring in their willingness to share tips on fit, thrifting, and style generally, but these are a few of my favorites.

For the past few days I have been on a mission. I have been trying to find a new gynecologist and have discovered that, in New York, the perfect female gynecologist is as difficult to procure as the perfect New York apartment. Also, the process feels hauntingly similar. I have been sending desperate emails to friends asking if they have any tips and I have spent way too much time scouring the recesses of the internet Yelping, reading HealthGrades.com, and as a last resort, Googling various combinations of terms like “gynecologist, holistic, NYC.”

This search has led me to discover that most of the amazing gynecologists don’t take my insurance (I can now say with confidence that the top 5 Yelp rated gynecologists sure don’t). Today in a moment of sheer desperation I found myself seconds away from ordering that kind of terrifying and also totally amazing at home cervix self-examination kit (complete with speculum!) because I was running short on patience and I figured at least that way I could get some sort of overview of what’s going on.

But, at home speculums aside, this search has caused me to think back on my previous healthcare providers and has brought me on a rather interesting trip down memory lane, a reproductive version of “This Is Your Life” if you will. And as I look back on all the lovely healthcare specialists I have known over the years; out of all the Planned Parenthoods I have visited and all the OB/GYNs I have seen, I realize that my most important reproductive healthcare professional, the one who truly made me understand and love my insides, was an ultrasound tech.

About four years ago my gynecologist (a certified MD and holistic practitioner, the gynecological dream until she moved out of state) sent me for an ultrasound when she suspected I may have an ovarian cyst. It turns out she was right (she was a genius) and so began my year and a half of bi-monthly ultrasounds and my best medical relationship to date.

During this period of “watchful waiting,” I got to know my ultrasound tech and, since there wasn’t too much change in my condition and none of the typical baby stuff to discuss, we usually talked about her week. Over time I asked her more and more questions about her work, and the pros and cons of looking inside so many ladies.

She told me about all of the amazing connections she had made. She explained the joy she got from dealing with repeat patients, people she knew by name and parents who had been with her for two or more children. She said she loved watching their eyes light up when they first discovered the gender of their child, or heard its heartbeat. She spoke passionately about all of the life she had the privilege of watching develop and how many years (it was up to fifteen when I knew her) she had happily spent on the job.

She also told me about the not so great parts of her job. She explained what it felt like to discover that a child no longer had a heartbeat. She said while she dealt with miscarriages often, she was still often affected by the loss. She then told me the story of a patient she had, a woman who had been trying to get pregnant for several years. This woman miscarried ten times before she stopped trying. On her last attempt, it was my tech who delivered the bad news. The two of them had grown close and this woman didn’t want to have to wait for the doctor to tell her what she already suspected. My ultrasound tech explained how she took this woman’s hands in her own and the two of them cried together, for the last time (as she relayed this to me, I was basically doing everything I could not to sob during its telling).

After the removal of my cyst, I saw my tech two more times. My post-surgical ultrasound was a bit of a reunion for the two of us and after some general pleasantries and a quick medical catch up, she began my scan. I grew tense, worried that more cysts had appeared, and after what felt like a very long time, she delivered the news.

She smiled and told me I was the owner of two healthy, cyst-free ovaries, both of which were fully functional. But the best was yet to come. She asked me if I would like to look at my ovaries and, for the first time, she turned the screen. She showed me my ovaries one-by-one and explained what I was seeing. I was (once again) in tears. They were gorgeous.

Healthcare providers like this make the difference. Thinking back on this experience reminded me of how vitally important it is to be able to have a doctor you trust with your body and, as I continue my search for the right OB/GYN, I remain grateful to have been looked after by someone who truly loved what they did.