Minimum wage hike vs. reducing poverty

I figured out the solution.  I just couldnt bear to say it to the darkness in power, and have them use my insight - something they could never see - to further their own deeply human wounding agendas.

I hope to post it here.  This is a beautiful solution, and gets to the "physics" of the problem.




Backup

Bill Gates (link) makes the following points:

• jobs are a great thing
• you have to be careful that if you raise the minimum wage you are encouraging job substitution or destruction
• automation
• displacement 
• 88% of fast food workers are from non-poverty households
• often workers are teenagers from a wealthy household
• rarely a household in poverty
• the problem is about hours, not about wages

The implied goals are:

• improve the quality of life for those in poverty, especially head-of-household
• not waste money with marginal improvements for those not in poverty, especially teenagers

The actual results were:

• giving business-owners money to the children of soccer-moms.

The real question is: How do you engineer a system such that it naturally reduces rates and severity of poverty?

Analysis and suggestions to come in the next post.

PS: it is a relevant question in a international scale as well as a intra-national scale.
https://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2015/04/08/world-bank-announces-strategy-to-end-global-poverty-by-2030/

0 The problem - an introduction

There is a joke that goes as follows:

Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House in DC:

One is from New York , another is from Tennessee and the third, is from 

Florida . All three go with a White House official to examine the fence. 

The Florida contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, 

then works some figures with a pencil. 'Well,' he says, 'I figure the job will run 

about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me.' 

The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, 

'I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 

profit for me.' 

The New York contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the 

White House official and whispers, '$2,700.' 

The official, incredulous, says, 'You didn't even measure like the other guys! 

How did you come up with such a high figure?' 

The New York contractor whispers back, '$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we 

hire the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence.' 

'Done!' replies the government official. 

That flatworm level of intelligence permeates modern government.  If there is sugar, go there, otherwise stop.  It is plutocracy.  The goal isn't plutocracy - but true and effective public service.

In this blog, which will have infrequent posts, I hope to look at the big questions, and look at how someone with a brain that isn't a plutocratic flatworm would solve the problem.  Yes these are going to be engineering solutions for political problems - so while they might do the job they aren't going to win more money.  The goal isn't for the organism of the government to make more money but to deliver more value.  These really are thoughts about how to deliver value instead of reducing it.