Assuming at least part of the conversation on Monday, 14 March will be about Russia and Ukraine, a column by Tom Friedman in the 8 March issue of The New York Times might be of interest. In that column, Friedman asks what Putin’s exit strategy from Ukraine is and concludes that he doesn’t really have one, given Ukraine’s so far apparently successful resistance and the Russian military’s apparent failures. Here’s a link to that column: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/08/opinion/putin-ukraine-russia-war.html
Living wage
During our 3 January meeting, we agreed to discuss a living wage at our 10 January meeting. There are lots of ways to approach that topic, but here are some suggested questions for discussion:
What is a living wage? I suggest that we not spend much time on how much a living wage should be in Dollars, but instead focus on the economic, social, and political concepts behind the idea of a living wage, and whether and how those concepts might differ from those behind the ideas of a minimum wage or a guaranteed minimum income.
Who would support a mandated living wage? Why? Who would oppose such a mandate? Why?
Who would/should bear the economic burden of paying for a living wage? Employers? Consumers? Taxpayers in general?
Most, if not all, living wage mandates in the US so far have been at the municipal level. What are the economic and political implications of a locally-mandated living wage?
What might be the economic, social, and political implications of mandating a living wage at the state or federal level?
“Jeder nach seinen Fähigkeiten, jedem nach seinen Bedürfnissen.” Karl Marx (and many others)
The Wikipedia entry for a living wage (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_wage) is long, but pretty thorough for our purposes. The following are a few articles I found that might be of interest:
Romeo living wage
Executive Privilege
Last Monday, we chose “executive privilege” (in the context of the Federal government) as the topic for Monday, 20 December. I found a pretty comprehensive article on the subject in Wikipedia.
There are a number of ways I can think of to approach this topic, including:
Who should be able to assert executive privilege, and under what circumstances?
In particular, should a former president (he who shall not be named) or a former member of the executive branch be able to assert executive privilege, and under what circumstances?
Do the answers to the previous questions change, depending on which branch of government (Congress or the judiciary) has subpoenaed testimony or documents over which the privilege is asserted? If so, why?
Under what circumstances should a claim of executive privilege be deemed to have been waived, for example by prior publication? Would the waiver apply only in the case of prior publication by the person claiming the privilege?
I’m sure there are other questions that can be raised about executive privilege.
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