Fixing the Economy: A Citizen’s Take on Wages, Inflation, Jobs, and Taxes
A grounded plan for fixing what politics keeps breaking — from wages to taxes and everything in between.
The economy isn’t a spreadsheet — it’s your rent, your groceries, your gas tank, and your paycheck. It’s whether your hard work gives you stability or keeps you stuck. When politicians discuss the economy, they often focus on numbers. But when regular people talk about it, they talk about life.
This piece isn’t about right vs. left. It’s about what’s broken and how to fix it — with honesty, practicality, and a little bit of moral courage. Let’s break down four of the most significant pieces: wages, inflation, jobs, and taxes.
Wages: The Floor Is Too Damn Low
The minimum wage in America is a joke. I’ve said it before, read about it here, and I’ll keep saying it: wages need to rise. That’s not radical — it’s reality.
The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 for over fifteen years (). Try building a life on that. You can’t. Not in 2025. Not even close.
We live in a country where some people make millions, and others cobble together two or three jobs just to survive. Yes, we have wealth. Yes, we have high earners. And yes, many households benefit from dual incomes. But there’s still a massive chunk of Americans who are getting left behind. And when the floor is too low, everything built on top of it becomes unstable.
The result? Economic imbalance starts bleeding into politics. People lose faith in government. Tribalism grows. Resentment festers. Because when people can’t meet their basic needs, they don’t care about ideology — they care about survival.
That’s why I believe the minimum wage should be tied to something real. Something people feel. Something people pay for regularly. For me, that benchmark is gas.
Here’s my proposal:
Set the minimum wage at 3× the average price of a gallon of gas from the previous year.
As of May 2025, the national average gas price was $3.19, which would put the minimum wage at around $9.57 per hour (). I’d argue the floor should never dip below $10.62, based on the 2024 average of $3.54.
That kind of flexible indexing makes sense in a country as large and diverse as ours. It acknowledges the cost of living without being rigid. It adjusts when gas prices drop, but no more than a quarter down. No massive pay cuts — just small recalibrations based on cost realities.
Because a minimum wage should reflect the cost of being alive in America, not the political will of people who haven’t worked an hourly job in decades.
Inflation: The Hidden Tax That Doesn’t Hit Everyone Equally
If you listen to politicians or legacy media, inflation is treated like some vague economic weather pattern — like it’s just something that happens to us. But here’s the truth: inflation isn’t just about rising costs. It’s about who gets squeezed.
And spoiler alert — it’s never the rich.
For everyday people, inflation is brutal. The cost of food, gas, rent, utilities, child care — all of it rises fast and together. But what makes it worse is this: wages don’t rise with it. Companies raise prices faster than they raise paychecks, and somehow we’re expected to clap when they announce record quarterly profits. It’s corporate double-dipping — “greedflation” — and most people feel it every time they swipe their debit card.
Let’s be honest about what happened over the past few years. Supply chains struggled, yes. Global events had an effect, sure. But once the door opened for price hikes, many corporations saw an opportunity to boost margins under the cover of inflation, and they took it. Some never stopped.
Meanwhile, the Fed’s answer is to raise interest rates and cool the economy. Translation: make life harder for regular people so stock portfolios don’t melt down. That’s not a solution — it’s a sacrifice.
Real wages — after adjusting for inflation — have barely moved. Over the past year, they’ve risen by just 1.0% ().
So, what do we do?
We reward honesty. We reward restraint. We reward transparency.
- Create consumer incentives and tax benefits for companies that adopt transparent pricing models.
- Limit price hikes that outpace supply or cost increases in essential sectors.
- Enforce anti-trust laws to break up coordinated price manipulation.
“Inflation isn’t just economics — it’s modern pickpocketing dressed up as market behavior.”
Because if inflation is a test, we’re failing — not just on policy, but on principle.
We’ve built an economy where maximizing profit is the only value that matters.
That’s not sustainable. And more importantly, it’s not who we’re supposed to be.
Jobs: It’s Not Just About How Many — It’s About What Kind
You’ll hear a lot of politician's brag about job creation.
“Five million jobs added this year!”
But no one ever stops to ask: What kind of jobs are those?
Because here’s the reality: we don’t just have a jobs gap — we have a quality gap.
Yes, unemployment is low. But many Americans are working low-wage, no-benefit, gig-based jobs with no stability. They’re driving for Uber, working inconsistent retail shifts, picking up hours on an app, piecing together an income one gig at a time, with no benefits, no PTO, and no future ().
It’s the illusion of employment. It keeps the charts green and the press releases happy. But it’s not building a stable middle class.
And now, we’ve entered an era where AI, automation, and outsourcing threaten even the jobs that once seemed untouchable.
So, what do we do?
We shift the focus from quantity to quality. We stop measuring success by how many jobs we’ve created and start measuring it by how much those jobs actually pay, how long they last, and what kind of life they make possible.
- Invest in vocational education and skilled trades
- Rebuild infrastructure — physical and digital
- Launch a national job corps for clean energy and conservation
- Protect gig workers with portable benefits
That last point is critical. Portable benefits are one of the smartest solutions we’re not using . They allow workers to carry essential protections, like health insurance, sick leave, or retirement savings, across multiple jobs or platforms.
Right now, too many Americans are stuck in jobs that no longer serve them, not because of the work itself, but because they can’t afford to lose their benefits. Someone might want to become a substitute teacher or get a CDL, but they won’t risk it if it means losing their healthcare.
We don’t just trap people in low-growth jobs — we trap them in fear.
Taxes: The System Isn’t Broken — It’s Rigged
Let’s get one thing straight: it’s not that the government doesn’t have enough money.
It’s that the people funding it are wildly out of balance.
Middle-class Americans — especially W-2 employees — pay the highest effective tax rates. Meanwhile, many billionaires pay a lower effective rate than their assistants. And major corporations, despite record profits, pay little to nothing after loopholes and deductions.
That’s not broken. That’s rigged.
What’s wrong:
- It punishes income from work and rewards income from wealth
- It’s backwards on incentives
- It stifles upward mobility
What would be more fair:
- Close loopholes for the ultra-rich
- Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit
- Remove payroll taxes for low-income workers
- Create a flat corporate tax floor
And let’s not forget the IRS itself estimates a $686 billion tax gap — that’s how much in taxes goes unpaid every year ).
Simplify the Code — And Scrap What Doesn’t Serve Us
Our tax system is bloated, confusing, and utterly unnecessary in its complexity.
Other countries offer pre-filled returns. We make people jump through hoops, then hand their data to companies like TurboTax and let them charge for access.
We could fix this tomorrow:
- Pre-filled tax returns for 80–90% of Americans
- Eliminate the marriage penalty
- End “tax on tax” structures
- Reduce self-employment double tax
- Phase out outdated excise taxes
- Consolidate tax brackets
Taxes should be easy to understand, hard to dodge, and fair across the board. What we’ve built is a labyrinth — intentionally — so the wealthy can slip through the cracks while everyone else gets stuck.
Final Thoughts
We don’t need slogans. We need solutions. We need people willing to say: the system isn’t working for enough people. And instead of arguing over who to blame, maybe it’s time we start rethinking how to fix it.
Wages. Inflation. Jobs. Taxes. These aren’t just policy points — they’re the pillars of our everyday lives. If we want an economy that serves more than just shareholders and billionaires, we need to start building it from the bottom up — with fairness, transparency, and a hell of a lot more honesty.
I’m not running for office. But if I were, this is where I’d start.
