Here are a few thoughts to consider about some important issues Americans are confronting today. I hope this generates some open-minded discussion...
1. Increasing Minimum Wage - Increasing minimum wage will cause more damage to low income workers. Think about it, if a business has $100 an hour to pay its employees and it spends $20/hr on a manager and $12/Hr on two assistant managers, then the business has $56/hr to divide up among its employees. Simple math shows that you could have 9 more employees working for a little over $6/Hr, 8 employees working for $7/Hr, or 7 employees working for $8/Hr.
For every employee the business loses, it is asking the other employees to pick up the extra work for very little compensation.
The situation is more complex that basics layout above, but sometimes the simplest thoughts are overlooked on important issues.
2. Gas Prices - What should the price of gasoline be? Is $3/gallon too much? Is $0.99 to low? What % of total revenue should be profit? Is 8% appropriate? What about 20%?
With the profits of Exxon and other oil companies sky high, the question has to be asked why the companies are making money hand over fist at the expense of the gas payer. A few things should be noted before jumping to any conclusion. First, many companies' profits increase and decrease over time. Second, the largest companies in the world are most likely to make the most amount of profit. Third, oil companies compared to other industries make less percentage of profit. If recollection serves me correct, the average hair salon makes about a 12% profit and the average pharmaceutical comapany makes close to 15% and banks average around 18% profit. Meanwhile, oil companies average 8%. This begs the questions - Are oil companies actaully pricing their product too low? Are other industries ripping us off?
3. Middle East - For years, and I mean years (like back to around 600 AD), Islamic extremist have preached the destruction of inferior humans (i.e. Jews, Christians, etc.). Foreign policy that tries to negotiate peace has done nothing to eliminate the threat of violence from extremist. Why not try a different approach? Isreal has taken military action against Hezbollah and should not let up any time soon. Unfortuneatly, innocent civilians are dying at the hand of Isreal's military campaign. But it needs to be noted that innocent civilians have been dying at the hand of Hezbollah over the past few years because they are following in the footsteps of previous generations that preached the extremism of destroying inferior humans. Innocent people dying is horrible, but answer this question - would you rather have innocent people killed in a slow-pace genocide OR would you rather have innocent poeple die in a cause that is working to eliminate extremist hell bent on destuction? The obvious answer is that we don't want any innocent lives lost, but we live in a reality where they are going to die one way or another, which would you prefer?
Well, there's some food for thought. Any ideas for solutions?