The New American Hater

   A little less than a decade ago, when a dramatic hike in the minimum wage for workers in the state of Colorado was announced, I commented to a few friends of mine that the real beneficiaries in an increase in the minimum wage were landlords and landowners, and the taxman.

   I received almost universal derision for that statement.

   This was in 2016, when Colorado's minimum wage was $8.31 an hour. 

   In 2016, the average rent for a two bedroom apartment in Colorado was $890

   In 2016, the average price of a new home in Colorado was $298,000

   As of today, the minimum wage in the state of Colorado is $14.81 an hour

   As of today, the average rent for a two bedroom apartment in Colorado is $2,081.00

   As of today, the average price of a new home in Colorado is $606,800.00

   So...9 years after minimum wage started climbing...rents and home purchase prices are shown to have climbed at a commensurate rate.

   Coincidence? Yeah, and Epstein commited suicide.

   It doesn't take an iota of financial savvy to understand that anyone who purchased land prior to 2016, be it raw or developed, has been the beneficiary of the ability of renters or purchasers to be able to pay more.

   But I'll explain it as simply as I can. Let's say you own a real estate investment firm, and in the year 2016 you purchased a 50 door apartment complex - that would have run from five million to 10 million dollars then, and would have generated anywhere from $25,000 to $85,000 dollars a month ($300,000 to $1,020.000 annually) before expenses.

   In 2025, just a scant 9 years later, that same 50 door apartment complex is worth 14 million to 25 million dollars, and will generate from $105,000 to $200,000 a month ($1,260.000 to $2,400.000 annually) before expenses.

   That seems preposterous, eh? But wait, it gets better for your real estate firm, as your mortgage on that revenue-generating property dates from 2016, with a 2016 interest rate...so, yeah, you're printing money.

   Better yet, since the minimum wage increased dramatically, so did your salary, as the salary of the owner/operator of a real estate investment firm (and just about any other type of company) increases fairly proportionally to (well, actually, grossly out of proportion with) minimum wage.

  

   Think about it. For the vast majority of people, what we pay for living quarters takes the biggest bite out of our paychecks, anywhere from 20% (for the lucky) to 80% of our incomes go towards the payment of rent or mortgage and related expenses.

   Hell, buying a home is the biggest debt the vast majority of people will ever take on.

   And debt, as we all know, is the enemy of prosperity, not to mention tranquility.

   So, if housing is our biggest expense, and the cost of housing has been increasing like mad, why oh why is a person on instagram who calls himself the American President calling for a series of rolling boycotts against companies such as Wal Mart and Amazon? 

   He's calling these boycotts an economic blackout, and his stated purpose is to show resistance to a supposed alliance between corporations and politicians to rig the system against ordinary Americans.

   Mr. Instagram American President, may I ask a question? How is boycotting companies that employ millions of people and that, due to market competition, make two of the basic needs (food and clothing) incredibly affordable for the average American, going to help the average American?

   Is the impact of a boycott that might result in the loss of hundreds if not thousands of minimum wage jobs going to make life easier for the people that lose them?

   He says he is doing this because he doesn't want his three children to eventually have to struggle as many are now. He doesn't mention whether or not, as a responsible father, he has prepared his children for the realities of life, how to be financially responsible, or how to be responsible for their own choices.

  Did he at least pick up a copy of Beth Kobliner's Make Your Kid A Money Genius and thumb through it?

  He also states that mega corporations have driven up prices, underpaid their workers and outsourced jobs while raking in record profits.

  He states repeatedly that the corporations are the problem and must be brought to their knees, and that by boycotting them, even if just for one day a month, the voice of the people will be heard and changes will be made.

   He has also set up a GoFundMe page that so far has resulted in $90,000 for expenses related to...what? Maintaining an Instagram account that allows him to rant and rave about business entities he hates and how unfair life is for the average American?

   I smell an L. Ron sized rat.

   Corporations have become the villain of the hour and are being used by a certain type of person as a whipping boy for everything they view as reprehensible about life in America. These types of people have always been able to fan the flames of discontent simply by using the good ol' demonization of whatever target they deem worthy of attack and hate.

   Their followers will call them iconoclasts, revolutionaries, freethinkers, I call them ill-educated malcontents who prey on the misfortunes of others in order to gather followers.

   It's a tactic used by haters throughout history, and is used with exceptional great ease in this age of the internet.

   I look at the Instagram American President as he presents his message and I see the trappings of the life he lives on the walls and shelves of his little home studio and I think to myself, "Man, wasn't it lucky that he was able to find all those wonderfully hand-crafted, small business sold items to decorate his home with, along with a hand-crafted, small business sold computer and hand-crafted, small business created internet service provider to enable him to broadcast his message of hope to his disenfranchised followers?

   Some readers may be getting pretty angry right about now, but I implore you to do some research. Ask yourself a few questions about both the man and the message.

   Ask yourself questions such as, what percentage of income tax revenue is collected from the top one percent of the wealthiest Americans (for the lazy or for those that have no idea what the purpose of google is, it's 40%)

   Ask yourself what percentage of income tax revenue is collected from the top ten percent of wage earners (those earning $169,800 or more). Okay, okay, it's 76%.

   Ask yourself, who buys and owns stock in publicly traded companies? Do more men than women own stock? Who is actually supporting big corporations and how mad is Nancy going to be? (Here, I'll make it easy for you: https://news.gallup.com/poll/266807/percentage-americans-owns-stock.aspx)

   Ask yourself how much stock in publicly traded companies do Teachers' unions or State Employees' pension funds own? (I'll throw you a couple of bones - the New York State Teachers' Retirement System owns over $2 billion dollars worth of Facebook stock alone, and the California Public Employees' Retirement System owns over 5 billion dollars worth of Microsoft)

   Fun Fact: Every single State Teachers' and Public Employees' Pension Fund - and the big, big daddy, the National Education Association Retirement Fund, own huge amounts of stock in Amazon, McDonalds, Apple, Wal*Mart, Alibaba (yep, they buy Chinese companies stocks), Google, all the big banks (JP Morgan, Citi, etc.) and credit card companies (Visa, Discover, Mastercard, etc.) - and every other company that the great Instagram American President thinks boycotting will bring the billionaires to their knees by lowering the value of their stock portfolio's.

   Know what billionaire investors do when the stock price of healthy companies with reasonable P/Es and sound financial management do when those stock prices experience artificial dips? 

   They treat them like Wall Street is having a terrific mark- down sale, so just like how the average American consumer treats anything that goes on sale they buy more stock in those companies, which in the long term makes them even wealthier.

   It's investing 101.

   By the way...if you are considering investing but do not feel confident in your ability to pick stocks, just mimic the picks of the New York State Teachers' Retirement Fund - they are on a thirty year win streak with a very envious return of nearly 9%).

   But I digress...

   Ask yourself, how is higher taxation of the most productive for the benefit of the least productive not enslavement of the most productive?

  Ask yourself, if envy or hatred or foolish blind obedience to an internet huckster is a good reason to put the livelihoods of people on the bottom rungs of the ladder at risk?

   Ask yourself if a person who bills himself as a "father, husband, musician, and meditation teacher" is actually qualified to make pronouncements about how the economy should be regulated?

   And most importantly, ask yourself what a self-appointed Instagram American President has to gain from your allegiance to his dubious message could be?

   Hint for that last one: Followers equal dollars.