Senate to Add Tax Cut to Minimum Wage Raise

Story here.

Now, I’m for any tax cut at any time for any reason. You should know this. I get tired of the “tax cuts for the wealthy” mantra because it’s the wealthy who pay most of the taxes, the middle class (that’s me!) pays some and the poor actually have a negative income tax, the EIC. So, tying the estate tax cut to a minimum wage hike is something I don’t hate.

But as always, I have a better idea.

Let’s print less money. Let’s give $5.15 more buying power. Yes, it would hurt exports some. But it would drive down the cost of oil (which is traded internationally in dollars) worldwide, so maybe it wouldn’t hurt our exports too much. 

Why not just raise interest rates again? That slows down the flow of money and thus slows down inflation, right? Well, yes, but the way we’re financing things that might hurt too much. Plus, in spite of 17 consecutive rate hikes, we’ve still got it higher than anticipated.

So, if we print less money, what we have and what we make are worth loads more. But Dex, you say, won’t that have the same effect as raising the minimum wage? No, I say, taking a sip of $3 Starbucks coffee. Not if we did it slowly and allowed the markets to adjust. It would have all the benefits of the wage hike, without the negatives.

Then again, I’m no economist. I could be wrong.