India thorium

India moves toward thorium in a three-stage long term program to achieve carbon free energy independence. Stage one starts with pressurized heavy water reactors and moves to stage 2 fast breeder reactors to produce plutonium to breed uranium 233 from thorium and finally to advance thorium-based reactors. Step one became operational on April 6, 2026 when 500 Mwe went into service. India not only has the world’s largest supply of thorium but fast breeder reactors can use up stored nuclear waste. Thorium is not by itself fissionable but is changed into uranium 233 and then converted to energy. India will become energy independent by using its vast supplies of thorium.

Anti Jew

When Israel invaded Gaza in response to the Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel demonstrations broke out in the US. By Dec 5, more than 1 million Americans had participated in protest over the conflict, across 2,600 events: 442 in support of Israel and 2,100 in support of Palestine. Worldwide when the US/Israel invaded Iran there were 3,200 demonstrations in the first month. By contrast, there were 3,700 demonstrations in the first month when Russia invaded Ukraine and 6,100 in the first month of the Israelis war on Gaza. There is a difference between the way the people of the world, including the US, react when it comes to Israel. The historical dislike toward Jews is alive and well.

Speech

Starting about ten or fifteen years ago, certain people in government and others in the news business came to the conclusion, that the average American could no longer determine what is their truth because of misinformation. Because of the vast amount of information available to the citizenry, people would be overwhelmed and easily misguided to believing things that according to government were not true. Then pressure was put on social media to begin censoring and removing what was called misinformation or disinformation. This was a direct attack on the first amendment. Many countries have free speech in their constitutions but most have exceptions for hate speech which means they don’t have free speech. While many countries in Europe and elsewhere criminalize hate speech, harassment, or defamatory language, the U.S. protects most speech, even if it is considered offensive or hateful.

Tax for wages

Normally when the government increases taxes on corporations, they can absorb this additional cost from profits (pay less to stockholders) or raise prices. If corporate taxes increase 5% with the condition that the company could either pay the tax or increase wages it might encourage companies to pay the money to the employees and this would help to reduce the income gap. Here is what Google AI says: The government could structure tax policy this way, effectively creating a "tax-or-raise-wages" option. This could be implemented by raising the headline corporate tax rate while offering generous tax credits or deductions specifically for increasing employee compensation. The goal would be to encourage investment in labor over paying higher taxes, though such policies often face complex economic trade-offs. This would encourage thinking out of the box for ways to help increase wages.

Income gap

Rich people use their money the same as the poor, they spend it, invest it, save it and give it away. Any of these four options promotes economic growth. The difference is that the rich generate a larger share of the income from investments, meaning they earn their money from capital, while the poor earn money from labor and over the years capital has grown faster than labor, thus the income gap keeps getting wider. If it is assumed that the income gap is too large then what steps can be taken to change. The obvious is to raise taxes on the rich and to increase wages for the poor. What can be done to encourage business to increase wages without increasing prices. Invest in new technology to improve productivity. Offer profit sharing to encourage employees to work more efficiently. Allowing remote work to save on office space. Reduce turnover to cut recruiting and training cost. Invest in new training to enhance employee skills including company and outside programs. Offer benefits like vacation time, sick leave, maternity leave, childcare, healthcare, pensions, life and disability insurance, and personal days. These benefits give employees more disposable income. Multiple studies demonstrate that employees with good wages and benefits perform better. Higher compensation improves motivation, increases productivity, and attracts better candidates, while comprehensive benefits boost retention, loyalty, and overall job satisfaction. Research indicates that "good jobs" often pay for themselves through higher output and decreased turnover.

Mejia

Analilia Mejia is running for congress in New Jersey and she represents the progressive wing of the democratic party. She has solid democratic bona fides after starting as a union organizer, she was political director for Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign and in the Department of Labor under President Biden. Her platform includes canceling student loan debt, abolition of ICE, Medicare for all, guaranteed sick leave on a federal level, impeachment of Justices Thomas and Alito, $25 federal minimum wage, regulating AI data centers and Big Tech companies, says Israel is committing genocide, childcare for all, increase taxes on the rich and supports defund the police. Some of these ideas are unpopular but most would help reduce the income gap particularly if she helped strengthen unions. She is the favorite to win since democrats currently hold the governorship, both houses and all state wide offices. New Jersey currently has the second highest debt per capital at $23,000 just behind Connecticut. If Mejia can increase taxes on the rich to cover some of the spending she is proposing, it could help the working people.

The new way

The income gap between the rich and everyone else has been increasing by every major measure for more than 30 years. Much of this has been caused by globalization but that is coming to an end. One way to understand this disparity is to compare CEO salaries. In 1950 the average CEO earned 25 times as much as a factory worker and today it is 300 time more. The way to reverse this trend is to do a couple of things each year. This year the government should start taking social security tax from all earned income instead of stopping at $184,000. Second increase the child tax credit from $2,200 to $4,000. Collecting SS tax on all income would bring in $475 billion per year and increasing the child tax credit would only cost the government $100 billion. This would mean a family of four earning $100,000 would pay zero income tax or $3,000 less than they now pay. Some states are implementing state income taxes on millionaires. For this to be effective it must be national otherwise people will just relocate to another state. A 5% surtax on all earned income over $1 million per year would bring in $80 billion.