The $15 Minimum Hourly Wage
David Shadrick has a lot to say about the proposed $15 Minimum Wage. His points make sense, hear him out. Thanks for supporting CalamityNewsandPolitics.com
David Shadrick has a lot to say about the proposed $15 Minimum Wage. His points make sense, hear him out. Thanks for supporting CalamityNewsandPolitics.com
Homelessness as a social issue is far from new. A problem that has existed for millennia, whether it as acknowledge or not, came to wide, social attention during the late 19th through the pioneering of the likes of Charles Dickens and the Pre-Raphaelite painter William Holman Hunt. Now, as then, one of the biggest issues perpetuating homelessness is lack of public and political will. Are logistics an issue, yes, though really nothing that can’t be addressed with some strategic planning. Cuba certainly has its downsides but at least everyone has somewhere to live.
The decadence of the 1980s, cleaved to so strongly in the 1990s came into sharp focus in the early 2000s, particularly in the sub-prime mortgage crisis. A case of designed obsolescence for short-term gain, as opposed to an unforeseen tragedy. The 2008 recession was the net result of the fraudulent tactics used by the financial sector for decades, finally reaching the heights where they collapsed. Society finally realizing that the system, as it was, was no longer tenable. Even if the perpetrators of the crises were largely “punished” with early retirement including lucrative pension schemes.
Even with the echoes of the 2008 recession still echoing in the ears of many, the issue of homelessness goes far beyond resources. It would be insane to argue that housing prices haven’t gone up. They have but a fact that very few, especially those who make fortunes from it, want to admit is that it largely imaginary. The ‘housing market’ is based mostly on the ‘interest rate.’ A largely arbitrary and most imaginary measure of future values, most ‘futures traders’ having no more real insight than psychics.
In terms of cost, both in materials and labor, housing is among the most over-valued commodities, mostly because if it’s relative scarcity. Diamonds and gold have no inherent monetary value, their value stemming from their beauty and the fact they are hard to find. If tin were similarly scarce one would be paying a lot more for a cooking pot. It might seem bizarre but, at an outside, a two-bedroom house can be build in 24 hours for $4,000 with a 3-D printer. Using Habitat For Humanity have been knocking together full, family-sized homes in record time for years.
If you are willing to go a bit smaller and use a generator or solar, there are cottages in a box, which are literally small houses that come in an IKEA-style flat-pack, being sold on eBay for $10,000 for those who have their own land which, depending on where you live, is getting cheaper all the time.
Another option for those who own land is to join the tiny house movement. While it has gotten some pretty weird press over the years, this doesn’t always mean living in a converted school bus. It is more than possible to build a smaller, simpler house for not much money. Most jurisdictions have minimums on how big a house needs to be but they usually top out at 500 square feet. And that only applies to what is called the ‘foot-print’ of the structure. Therefore, it would be perfectly within the rules to build a 300 square foot tiny house with a 200 square foot deck.
Live in a city with limited space? There’s a solution for you too! Micro-apartments are the newest trend in the notoriously expensive city of Vancouver, B.C. which has been struggling with it’s own housing crisis for years. Pretty much what they sound like, micro-apartments are very small housing suites, some as small as 500 square feet, in buildings built in the gaps between existing buildings.
Thank you, for visiting Calamity Politics, where we normally feed our reader’s the unadulterated red meat of liberal political news. But today, I am having one of my, “not today,” moments.
Ha, ha. Because it’s Monday, I changed my usual Sunday offering of “25 Things To Smile About” to “31 Things To Smile About” for today only.
1.) Parades
2.) Cannon Beach, Oregon
3.) Fresh baked Molasses cookies
4.) Music boxes
5.) Being on time.
6.) Deep sea fishing
7.) Introverts Anonymous
8.) Old time rock ‘n roll
9.) Big trees
10.) Being appreciated
11.) Hand embroidered 501’s
12.) Penguins, walking
13.) Herb gardens
14.) Chess
15.) Having my taxes finished by April 15th
16.) Double Caramel Mocha espresso
17.) Kayaking
18.) David Bowie
19.) The journey
20.) Oven fries
21.) Summer Solstice
22.) A plan
23.) The beach, after Memorial Day
24.) Rock walls
25.) Tile roofs
26.) High School
27.) Portland’s Old Town
28.) Food, Views and Piano at The Bridgewater Bistro, Astoria, Oregon
29.) Chips & dip
30.) The quiet, before the storm
31.) New York Times Sunday edition
That’s it.
Enjoy your Monday.
https://www.calamitypolitics.com/2017/11/19/27-reasons-smile/
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**At the close of Black History Month let’s take a look at ourselves and our country. DSM/Calamity**
As Black History Month comes to a close, we must actively insure that the true history of Black Americans is told. All of it. The dark and the glorious. How this story ends will be a predictor of how our nation embraces our black brothers and moves forward. We all recall as children eating peanut butter spread on crackers as we learned about George Washington Carver, but no other significant Black history was ever taught, at least any school I ever attended. African-American history remains mostly hidden and not taught in schools.
It is not a significant part of any school curriculums and it should be. An accurate depiction of the history and culture of African-Americans must become part of American history classes. Teaching a truthful history lends respect to those activities could over a generation change core attitudes. The history of blacks in America is our history, some dark and tragic, some brilliant and glorious. It is time we as a country accept that not all history worth being written down and taught was that of white men. The poem that became the lyrics of our National Anthem was written by an attorney who had little or no respect for Black people. We now must educate about the atrocities of slavery and the important roles Blacks have played and continue to play in our history and our future.
Various peoples of Africa were brought to the “New World” as slaves, bought, sold, and treated like the property they were considered to be, not the persons of rich culture and tradition they had been. The “first” African slaves brought to what is now the United States is typically thought to be a load of captives from what is now Angola, sold to Jamestown Governor George Yeardley and Abraham Piersey, the colony’s trade head, for food, near the end of August 1619.