If robots and machine intelligence threaten to render many white-collar jobs obsolete, then what will people do for money? Enter the concept of a ‘universal basic income’, a flat sum paid to all regardless of your existing wealth or ability to work. It is one of the rare ideas that has support from both the libertarian right — which favours tearing up the welfare state — and the left wing. In France, Benoit Hamon has emerged as the surprise Socialist candidate for April’s presidential election first round, on a radical programme that includes such an income — to be funded in part by a new tax on industrial robots. National or local governments in other countries such as Finland, the Netherlands, Canada, Scotland and Brazil are already evaluating how such a revenue might work in practice. Finland is furthest down the road. On January 1 it started a two-year trial to give 2,000 unemployed Finns a monthly unconditional payment of $590. At the least, advocates argue, a basic income could replace the thicket of unemployment benefits currently on offer in many advanced economies. (yahoo.com)
Consumer
Trump Pledges to Work with Big Pharma to Lower Drug Prices
Good news for consumers as President Trump pledges to work with Big Pharma to lower drug prices. His message to pharmaceutical company executives: bring your production back to the United States and the Trump administration will lower regulations for you. “So you have to get your companies back here. We have to make products … We have to get rid of a tremendous number of regulations,” Trump said. “I know you have some problems where you cannot even think about opening up new plants. You can’t get approval for the plant and then you can’t get approval to make the drugs.” Sanders and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, issued a joint statement shortly after the meeting saying they hope Trump “really” takes on the pharmaceutical industry. (cnn.com)
Amazon Starts to Collect Sales Tax in Smaller States
Many online shoppers in the United States have for years had to pay state sales taxes whenever they buy goods from Amazon except in some small states. Well, that’s quickly changing this year. Matt O’Brien reports: “Amazon customers in at least 10 states will begin paying sales taxes on their website purchases for the first time this winter. Tax collection begins Wednesday in Mississippi, Missouri, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Vermont. It already started this month in Louisiana, Iowa, Nebraska and Utah, and begins in Wyoming on March 1.” (abcnews)
How to Join Navy Federal Credit Union
Harry Sit at The Finance Buff explains on how to join Navy Federal Credit Union without military affiliation. By joining Navy Federal Credit Union, the largest credit union in the U.S, you can benefit from its great rates on CDs and loans. The first step is to become a member of the Navy League, a non-profit organization that supports America’s sea services, by paying $25 tax-deductible membership fee online. (thefinancebuff.com)
Parents, Save Up: It Costs $233,610 to Raise a Kid
Expecting a baby? Congratulations! Better put plenty of money in your savings account. The estimated cost of raising a child from birth through age 17 is $233,610 — or as much as almost $14,000 annually, the Department of Agriculture says. That’s the average for a middle-income couple with two children. It’s a bit more expensive in urban parts of the country, and less so in rural areas. (cbsnews.com)
How to Determine Exchange Rates
Exchange rates are never constant in the global market. They keep changing from time to time. In fact they are constantly changing every minute as viewed in the stock market graphs. The stock brokers and the foreign exchange experts always keep their eyes on the constant changes on the graphs on how the markets keep behaving. This allows them to know when to make purchases and sales of the money in order to change from one foreign currency to the other. The factors that affect the behavior of currencies in the international market mainly are the supply and demand at any given time. The factors that determine the supply and demand can be political stability in a country, the economic stability in a country and the security that exists within the borders of a particular country. [Read more…]
Millennials are Set to Become the First Generation to Earn Less Than Their Predecessors
Millennials are set to become the first generation to earn less than their predecessors, new research suggests. The Resolution Foundation found that under-35s earned 8,000 pound ($10,600) less in their twenties than Generation X workers. If wages for millennials follow the same path as Generation X, average career earnings will be about 825,000 pound ($1.1m). That would make them the first generation to earn less than their predecessors over the course of their working lives. Research found that some of the pay squeeze was due to under-35s entering the job market as the recession hit, but it also concluded that generational pay progress had ground to a halt even before the financial crisis struck in 2007. (bbc.com)
Comcast Admits It Incorrectly Debited $1,775 From Account, Tells Customer To Sort It Out With Bank
Consumerist reader Robert is fighting with Comcast over a $1,775 early termination fee that should not have been assessed after he tried to cancel his business-tier service with the company. Comcast itself has even admitted that the money should not have been debited from Robert’s bank account, but now says it’s his responsibility to sort the mess out with his bank. The Consumerist reports: “In an effort to save money in 2014, Robert called to have their service level downgraded to a more affordable rate. Shortly thereafter, correctly believing that he was out of contract, he cancelled his Comcast service. That should have been the end of the story, but only weeks after closing the Comcast account, the boys from Kabletown decided that Robert was not out of contract, debiting $1,775.44 from the checking account tied to the Comcast service. Skip forward to Jan. 2015 — two months after being told he’d get made whole; still no check. Robert says that when he called Comcast, ‘the rep actually laughed when I told her I didn’t get a check yet. She said it would take three months.'” Two calls later, one in June 2015 and one in Jan. 2016, Robert still didn’t receive the check even after being reassured it was coming. More recently, he received an email from someone at Comcast “Executive Customer Relations,” saying: “I understand you’re claiming that someone advised you Comcast would send a refund check for the last payment that was debited but this is generally not the way we handle these situations. For your situation, you would have to dispute the payment with your bank.” After The Consumerist reached out to Comcast HQ, Comcast promises to send the check for real this time. (consumerist.com)
What To Do If You’re in a Bank Robbery
U.S. banks were robbed more than 4,000 times last year, according to the FBI. If you witness a robbery, security experts say, your first priority should be to avoid making a bad situation worse. Margarette Burnette of NerdWallet summarized some tips from the experts to keep yourself safe. Here are 5 steps to take if you’re in a bank robbery:
- Stay calm
- Observe the robber, if you can
- Don’t try to be a hero
- Cooperate, within reason
- Don’t compare notes with other witnesses
Soda Tax is Coming
Natalie Pompilio reported for AP: “Philadelphia became the first major American city with a soda tax on Thursday despite a multimillion-dollar campaign by the beverage industry to block it. The City Council gave final approval to a 1.5 cent-per-ounce tax on sugary and diet beverages. The tax is set to take effect Jan. 1. Only Berkeley, California, has a similar law. Soda tax proposals have failed in more than 30 cities and states in recent years, including twice in Philadelphia. Such plans are typically criticized as disproportionately affecting the poor, who are more likely to consume sugary drinks.”
Shopping at a Luxury Store Can Turn You into a Snobby Jerk Towards Others
According to the experiments published in the journal Social Influence, people who shop at — or even stand near — luxury stores are significantly less likely than others to help those in need. Catey Hill writes on MarketWatch: “The researchers concluded that shopping in or being near a luxury store likely primed people with ‘environmental cues of materialism,’ which then ‘increased self-enhancement and competitive values’ which, in turn, decreased ‘trusting and benevolent behavior and a sense of being concerned about and connected to other people,’ the authors write. In other words, the luxury stores made people feel more materialistic and self-centered, which meant they were less likely to help other people.” (marketwatch.com)
Cash Now Used for Fewer Than Half of All Payments by Consumers
With cashless payments gaining popularity, cash was used in Britain for fewer than half of all payments by consumers for the first time in 2015. Cash made up 45.1% of payments in 2015, compared with 64% in 2005, and is expected to fall to just a quarter by 2025. As cash will be replaced with payments by contactless cards, consumers need to cautions about spending. Research from Drazen Prelec and Duncan Simester of the Sloan School of Management at MIT shows that consumers spend more money when using a credit cards rather than cash. (theguardian.com)
Our finances are a mess – could behavioral science help clean them up?
Hal Hershfield, University of California, Los Angeles and Abigail Sussman, University of Chicago writes:
The first few months of a new year can be a stressful time financially. The Christmas holidays typically lead to depleted savings and higher credit card balances, while tax season is right around the corner. Unfortunately for most us, this isn’t a seasonal dilemma but a chronic problem that brings anxiety throughout the year. Indeed, as many as 44 percent of American households don’t have enough savings to cover basic expenses for even three months. Without a savings cushion, even regular seasonal expenses like holiday celebrations may end up feeling “unexpected” and lead households to turn to credit to cover costs. U.S. consumers currently hold US$880 billion in revolving debt, with an average credit card balance of almost $6,000. The picture is even more dire for lower-income households. So how can we turn this around? [Read more…]
Wendy To Automate 6,000 Restaurants With Self-Service Ordering Kiosks
Due to the state’s decision to gradually raise its minimum wage to $15, more companies are looking into automation to reduce cost. To deal with the rising minimum wage, the fast-food chain Wendy’s plans to start automating all of its restaurants. The company said that self-service ordering kiosks will be made available across its 6,000-plus restaurants in the second half of the year. Wendy’s President Todd Penegor said it will be up to franchisees to decide whether or not to adopt the kiosks in their stores. The minimum wage for all 258 Wendy’s restaurants in California will gradually rise to $15 and automation and eliminating certain jobs are the solution for cost reduction. In the meanwhile McDonald’s also tests its own self-service kiosks. (investors.com)
Good News for Consumers: Google Bans Ads For Payday Loans
After deciding it doesn’t want to promote predatory lending practices that are harmful to consumers, Google decided to ban ads for payday loans on their ads systems. “Research has shown that these loans can result in unaffordable payment and high default rates for users so we will be updating our policies globally to reflect that,” Google’s product policy director, David Graff, writes in a blog post. Payday loans often come with extremely high interest rates if they aren’t paid back immediately, which can push people further in debt. Georgetown’s Center on Privacy and Technology notes in a statement, “Payday lenders profit from people’s weaknesses — particularly poor people and people of color. Every time someone clicks on those ads, search engines profit, too.” Of course Google will lose the revenue from the banned ads, but it will earn more trust from visitors for its other ads. Payday loans will be banned from Google globally starting June 13th.
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