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Starting in April 2024 $20 per hour will be minimum wage in California, helping workers in the restaurant industry with the cost of living.

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The head of the Germany Program at Institut Montaigne in Paris, France, Robinet Borgomano looks at the renewal of German society under the ideas of "respect" put forward by Olaf Scholz of the SPD party. What does Olaf Scholz see as the main issue of our time? - Borgomano says it is the disintegration of European and American societies under the combined effects of technological progress and globalization. Where does Scholz get his ideas of "respect" for workers and families? Isn't Mr. Biden sharing the same ideas in the US? The SPD party got its start at the Bad Godesberg Convention in 1959 when it embraced the idea of a social market economy as a party of the people. Wily Brandt as chancellor from 1969 to 1974, whose personal struggle against the Germany of World War II was based in the Nordic countries, embodies best this renewal aspect of the SPD. Scholz sees his role as renewal of Germany, Europe, hand in hand with Mr. Biden's renewal efforts in the US on the same basic ideas of respect of the dignity of the worker and families that in Germany were seen with Wily Brandt and in the US with Harry Truman who followed FDR. Scholz rejects the overemphasis on the of merit in German society, European society, or American society, in the way it has taken shape in the last fifty years. Scholz cites Michael Sandel's Essay "The Tyranny of Merit" rejcting it because it makes a case for inequality based on merit, on capital allocation on an implied idea of merit of free markets managed in damaging ways for personal interest. It is wrong because it robs the worker and families of the basic dignity that is the right of every individual and of every person. It is wrong because it makes a false justification for growing inequality, and makes those who do not succeed feel that it is their fault. Meritocratic elites have made the idea that those who work hard and play by the rules get all the benefits and wealth even if the rules were first set in a way that benefits them alone. When these rules become implicit they are rarely questioned as happened in the period after 2000. It is not just in Europe and America that this happens, and not just in the 20th century.  Strange but true- During the 1850's in the heyday of industrialization in Britain the Ethnological Society of Britain justified the inequality between the British and Indians in the British Empire by saying Indians were inferior in exams and did not have the motivation or the aptitude and energy to excel in the way British students did. Dadabhai Naoroji, the first Indian member of the British parliament in Mr. Gladstone's Liberals singlehandedly took up the job Sandel and Scholz and Mr. Biden are taking on today to restore the respect of workers, farmers, and families in America and Europe and in all parts of the world. Sandel goes on to say what Scholz has heard clearly- "the parties that made the offer of upward mobility to workers and families have missed the insult implicit in it to a large number of working people." In a way it is going back to the roots, to the founding fathers in America who said in the 18th century that "all men are created equal and they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," -nothing less.   ...

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Galston of the Brookings Institution says globalization has hurt workers in manufacturing with job losses and declining incomes. It has produced outcomes that have favored some industries such as tech, and not others such as automobiles which in the past helped create the broad middle class by offering good paying jobs to people with less than a college education. Immigration has created an issue that political leaders outside of the main parties have appealed to in France, the U.S. and Britain. The result is a polarization in the voters that has rarely been seen to this extent before. The middle class in the period from the 1950's to the 1980's is not the middle class that we see today in Europe and the U.S. The 2008 financial crisis added to the problems with the slow and uncertain recovery for some groups such as white men, the less educated, students, and people on minimum wage. 

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The failure of three layers of quality checks Boeing are shown here in the WSJ video after failure events on airline flights. Two CEO's step down. What is the real problem? It is that the company is run by executives trained in finance and accounting and have too little of a background in the workplace where the manufacturing and assembly components is taking place or grasp of what it takes to turn out quality products by workers on the line. The basic approach is flawed because it is not quality checks that build in quality into a product but the workers on the assembly line who have to be trained and the investment made in quality processes to turn out a quality product. This has long been a focus in the earlier days of America's industrial revolution till the focus shifted to finance in the US and the focus on manufacturing shifted to Asia, to Japan, China and now India. It will take a complete shift in America's company leadership to hands on CEO's who are with and understand the workers on America's assembly lines, who can live some days and nights with workers on the production line to see and feel the problems first hand. This will take a decade, and for America as Jake Sullivan said at Brookings for president Biden and his team- this is a fight we must, and we will achieve. ...

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Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou told corporate employees that Hon Hai plans to increase the number of robotic arms in its manufacturing plants from 10,000 to one million by 2013. He says the move will "improve working conditions and provide a better career path to employees." The improvement of working conditions is a major concern after a number of suicides. The plans to automate dangerous and monotonous tasks is intended to migrate workers to other work. Hon Hai has about 1 million employees in China. It is moving plants to the less costly interor of China where wages are lower- to Chengdu, Wuhan and Zhengzhou from the coastal areas.

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Stellantis reports a loss of $750 million on sales of 41 billion euros for third quarter 2023. As a company with operations distributed evenly all over the world Stellantis suffered smaller losses than GM and Ford. GM's losses of profit were $1.3 billion and Ford's $800 million. From the point of view of workers who want a settlement for fair wages in a cost of living crisis keeping losses sustained by the car company to a minimum so that the industry as a whole does better is important, because when the companies do better so do workers and management. 

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A Lebanese shopkeeper's son who is a lawyer, did his Masters degree in Economics at the University of Sao Paulo. In this interview he is shown as a tucano, a member of the white, college educated, wealthy and male group in Brazil, also the name of the centre right Social Democracy party of Cardozo since the 1994 elections. PT's Lula da Silva elected as president in 2002 turned to Haddad to run the Education ministry in 2005. Since then Haddad has mediated between worker's factions and the moderate elements in the PT Party of Trabajadores or Workers Party, the party Lula founded with others in 1980 during the redemocratization period. During the period when Lula was in prison in 2018- after the election in which Haddad lost 45% to 55% to a representative of the military and centre far right parties Captain Jair Bolsanaro- Haddad visited Lula in prison.  Haddad is now Finance Minister in Brazil with inflation at 4.5%, unemployment at 7.5%, and GDP growth of 1.5% following 3% growth in GDP in 2023. Haddad says in this interview that he is seen as austerica within the PT because of his economic policies. Popularity of PT has dropped with Lula's approval at a low of 28 percent in June 2025. ...

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With inflation up, cost of living increase, the $15 per hour wage in high cost of living states such as California and New York does not go very far in tackling cost of living in 2026. Astoundingly 20 states many in the SOuth still follow the $7.25 per hour federal minimum wage that has not changed since 2009. Axios shows the minimum wage by state. In Michigan workers in youth age earn 85% of the minimum wage of $12.80 and hour. As workers lost leverage with the decline of trade unions since the 1990's administrations of Clinton, Bush, Obama, the situation is a difficult one for lower wage workers in many states. The lower wages in retail and hospitality industries also creates downward pressure on all wages which have not kept up till recently in auto and other manufacturing industries. Outshoring increased pressures over the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations and as Democrats failed to do much about outshoring, it took a Republican DJT and Democrat Biden who followed to reverse the trend and create a push for higher wages. This also has failed as inflation surged during 2022-2023 and outshoring created new problems in sourcing parts from overseas in autos and other industries. The middle class is also not much better off and engineers making $90,000 a year are also living from paycheck to paycheck, with less access to housing that has gone up in price and become less affordable. This cost of living surge and the open borders migration pressure on public services led to DJT's reelection in 2025. ...

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US president Biden calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza war after the deaths of aid workers in airstrikes. Biden warns Netanyahu of the conditions for US support.

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Why no new infrastructure building plan is in place in the US for decades as China, now India build new infrastructure every day with a Master Plan. The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in March 2024 in the Baltimore, Maryland area. There was much hand wringing at the time and president Biden also stepped in with help. The Washington Post says 2 years later no plan is in place to build a new bridge. The cost keeps going up from $1 billion to $1.9 billion and up again to $5.2 billion, with the dates shifting 2028 to 2030. Maryland received $2.6 billion insurance payments for the damage to the bridge by a ship, yet the project is stalled in disagreements with different parties involved. Even in the streets of New York, the pedestrian pavements in Brooklyn and other places are so dilapidated but no one seems to care. Suggesting that New Yorkers are also numb to infrastructure being bad as it is, just as Mumbai residents were in the old days before infrastructure became a daily priority in India in recent years, following China's example. ...

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Rosa Ines Rivera, a cook at the cafeteria for the Y.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, with 2 small children, describes the protests over the increase by Harvard administration of the premiums charged on health insurance that now take up over 10% of the income. She says she lives in public housing with her parents as she lost her apartment because she is behind on the rent, and now cannot afford to pay the increase in premiums. About 750 workers at Harvard are on strike on this issue. She says dining hall workers want the current pay of $31,193  a year increased to $35,000 to provide a living wage that helps them afford medical care, because of the high cost of living in Boston.  To get some idea of the plight of workers who provide the kind of nutritious meals that a lot of students depend on for healthy living- Rivera says she takes in about $450 a week after taxes, or about $1800, rent is $1150, which leaves $650 for herself and two children for all food, and expenses in Boston. The $4000 in premiums for health insurance would be about 330 per month, leaving her about $320 for food and living expenses with 2 children. Why the need to bring up children in poverty in America, for generation after generation, after putting in a full day of work? ...

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UAW's Shawn Fain's support of US 25% auto tariffs April 2, 2025. Fain says-“We applaud the Trump administration for stepping up to end the free trade disaster that has devastated working class communities for decades.” US president Biden supported the UAW, even standing in a picket line to support UAW negotiate a contract for fair wages for workers with the three US automakers, Ford, GM and Stellantis. For decades workers in the US faced the threat of outshoring to Mexico to reduce wages. This action on tariffs will increase depressed wages for American workers in the same way that president Biden's action helped negotiate better wages. In this sense both Biden and DJT are on the same track. In fact president Biden 2020-2024 decided to keep most of the tariffs put up by president Trump in 2016-2020. It is likely that a future Democratic administration will continue DJT tariff policies to achieve domestic goals such as fair wages for American workers, and for rebuilding American manufacturing in the way president Biden has done. This is in fact one of the singular achievements of the Biden administration for building the working class and middle class neglected by Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations. On this issue both Biden, Trump and any future US president will be on the same page, because it is about fair trade, to even the playing field, and is right by American workers and American values. History will show that this required courage and persistence on the part of Biden and DJT, and was done not on whim as is falsely portrayed but on the advice of people who had the experience, wisdom and sought the best for America such as Robert Lighthizer ,the US Trade Representative in 2016-2020 and his deputy Jamieson who is the USTR in 2025. Lighthizer is notable because he handled the unfair trade with the Japanese in the 1980's as Deputy USTR under Reagan, and knows fair trade and how to get it to build a strong American economy. ...

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Is this a sign of things to come, after all the Japanese economy has seen sagging consumption for years with a two tier economy with full time workers and parttime workers with no benefits. The parttime labor force increased from 4.13 to 4.79 million according to the Labor Department and its the highest since 1993. Now people are doing this not by choice but for economic reasons. And employers like Kroger are doing this so that they can hire more parttimers with no benefits and pay benefits to fewer employees. There are also computerized scheduling systems for parttimers that are becoming popular with retail stores that use a lot of partimers.

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Inflation is eating into wages, says Mick Lynch, the head of Britain's Rail Maritime and Transport Workers Union. He is gaining support in the UK as the union stages a rail strike after rejecting a 3% wage increase offer in the middle of 9% inflation in Britain. This report in WSJ says he is a media star after appearing on TV shows and responding to interviewer questions. There is a similar interest in the US labor movement as workers get support for wage increases in Britain, France, Germany and the US to tackle high inflation, and after years of depressed wages in which labor had lost the power to negotiate higher wages.

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Just 1% over 10 million pounds of wealth would raise 42 billion pounds from 22,000 individuals and take pressure off the National Health Service in Britain. The capital gains made during the period of Covid has further distorted incomes by hollowing out blue collar workers and increasing incomes of remote white collar workers during the pandemic. The wealth tax would simply reverse this additional element that added to the increasing inequality of the last 2 decades during the pandemic. It would add to general wellbeing in Britain without affecting the individual ability and innovation. In fst by diverting some of the funds to education it could enhance the ability to innovate and take risks in business.

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The Guardian follows key speeches and developments at the Labour party conference in Liverpool. This comes as the Labour party leads the Conservatives in the MRP poll by 12 points 45 percentage points to 33 points. Labour is favored in its approach to the cost of living crisis and climate change. Keir Starmer is steadily closing the credibility gap created by previous Labour administrations on policy for families and workers and conviction which has given Boris Johnson and Liz Truss an advantage in the past. Mr. Biden has faced and overcome a similar problem created by Democratic administrations in the past of a lack of conviction to help families and workers in the US.

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Pedro Sanchez is seen as pulling off a surprise in the recent Spanish snap election by increasing his Socialist workers party votes to 31.5% soon after losses in local elections. The Guardian looks at Pedro Sanchez and his career in leading the Socialist Workers Party since 2014. He is prime minister since 2018 and formed a coalition with Podemos which resulted in policies that gave Spaniards a welcome respite from inflation and the cost of living which is down to 1.9% in Spain. Spaniards were provided with monetary support and free public transportation during the pandemic years lessening the effects of that period and the cost of living crisis in Europe.

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With profits of $11-12 billion at GM and Ford Motor in 2022 and $11 billion at Stellantis for the first half of the year there is sentiment among union workers that workers wages should be raised. Ford Motor says profits go into huge investments in the electric car industry transformation. Wages suffered from the collapse of the auto industry in the 2009 period and have only gradually recovered since, falling to $16 per hour as an entry point wage going up to $32 an hour. Unions are looking for wage increases of up to 40%. A 25% wage increase was negotiated recently for an electric car plant run by GM and its partner.

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A wealth tax on the wealthiest 1% of the population is being introduced to finance efforts to help middle and lower income families and workers by Finance Minister Maria Montero in Spain.

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The issue of high youth unemployment. The bulge in demographics and the emphasis on increasing the number of college graduates without increasing the jobs available, or providing apprenticeship type training and degrees in areas where jobs can be created, has created a major problem in the Middle East. High youth unemployment in the US, Spain and the UK also poses serious problems. Former primer Minister Giuliano Amato of Italy recently told Corriere della Serra: "The older generations have eaten the future of the younger ones." Older workers tend to hold onto their jobs as long as possible as retirement ages are being raised, and they have negotiated higher retirement pensions. In Spain the younger part time workers and immigrant workers are the first to be laid off and unemployment is highest in this group, which is also why the high unemployment has not attracted as much attention there. Younger workers will eventually have to support a higher proportion of these workers in retirement because of the demographics. The shift to higher parttime employment and employment at low wages has also created a class of workers who have no future, as their incomes are low, and are easily laid off. This shift has been taking place in the US, Europe and Japan over the last decade. Germany has fared better because of its long tradition of apprenticeship training, and employers working directly with young students at universities to provide on the job training. The financial crisis of 2008 in the US slowed down many industries and created a shift in industries creating jobs, the result was a larger mismatch of skills of job seekers and new jobs created. One way to address this is more on the job training and working directly with employers, and assistance to community colleges to fill education gaps. ...

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A long overdue wage agreement gives pay raises to teachers and state employees in public sector. State employees will get 8% pay raise implemented over 33 months. By end of 2021 state employees would make at least additional 240 euros per month. The deal impacts 3.3 million people in Germany- 1 million state workers and 2.3 million civil servants and pensioners. Extra money was allocated for health care workers who receive additional 120 euros per month. Child care workers at daycares and teachers also get upto 105 euros additional per month on top of the raise.

There are severe shortages in schools, daycare centers, hospitals, and this helps to make the public sector more attractive for people to join. Making these professions more attractive was a dire need in Germany not tackled earlier.

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About 80% of Russia's business is state owned or state run business. Small business is about 20%. Steps taken so far now protect state run business workers. All state run or state owned businesses will give employees one months salary and ask workers to stay home as a way to control coronavirus. Most regions and big cities in Russia have self isolation measures to control spread of coronavirus as infections increase to 4000.

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Interview with former Mexican president Vicente Fox on the Arizona immigration bill. He says xenophobes have taken over. Fox emphasizes that the 11 million undocumented workers are the most loyal in their work habits, contribute to the US economy, and should be documented.