Category: Economy

Commentary: An Economic Bill of Rights for the 21st Century

South Carolina Sun Staff
Manual Labor

Beginning April 1, the minimum wage for employees working in California’s fast food chains and health care industries will rise to $20 per hour and, in some cases, up to $23 per hour. Many employers managing independent restaurants, retail, and other industries will have to match the higher hourly rate to retain employees. And for hourly employees whose wages are indexed to the minimum wage, mostly in California’s unionized public sector, wages will rise proportionately.

There is no national consensus on the impact of minimum-wage laws. It is part of a much larger debate over what constitutes an optimal economic environment to enable, quoting from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “economic security and independence.”

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House Freedom Caucus Calls Speaker Johnson’s Proposed Spending Deal with Schumer ‘Total Failure’

Just the News

The conservative House Freedom Caucus slammed House Speaker Mike Johnson’s proposed top-line spending deal with Senate Democrats as a “total failure,” arguing the potential agreement costs about $68 billion more than the Louisiana Republican said it would.

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Blue States Saw Highest Homeless Rates in 2023

South Carolina Sun Staff
Homeless Person

Blue states and the District of Columbia dominated the top spots for homeless residents per capita, according to a December report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

New York and Vermont came in second and third with an estimated 103,200, or 52.4 for every 10,000, and roughly 3,295, or 50.9 per 10,000, respectively, according to rates calculated by Axios from the report. Washington, D.C., had a higher rate of homelessness than all 50 states at 73.3 per 10,000 residents, or an estimated 4,922 people.

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Government Employees Exceed 23 Million for the First Time

South Carolina Sun Staff
Government Workers

Government employees in the United States topped 23 million for the first time in December, according to the employment numbers released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In November, according to BLS, there were 22,951,000 people employed by the local, state and federal governments in the United States. In December, there were 23,003,000.

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Bill Gates’ Foundation Poured Millions into Chinese Government Organizations in 2022

South Carolina Sun Staff

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation paid out or approved for future payment roughly $23 million in grants to Chinese government organizations during its 2022 reporting period, tax documents show.

The nonprofit listed grants to over 20 different Chinese entities, including Chinese government agencies, labeled as “foreign government” on its 2022 tax forms. The majority of the grants were for projects related to public health research and analysis, including several projects involving diseases and vaccine delivery.

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Democrats Support Efforts to Unionize More Auto Plants as EVs Are Projected to Cause Job Losses

Just the News

Democrats are supporting the United Auto Workers (UAW) labor union’s efforts to unionize more auto plants as electric vehicles are projected to result in job loss across the industry within the next 10 years.

Democrats in Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which included tax incentives for the purchase of certain electric vehicles as well as funding to expand the EV charging network in the U.S.

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CCP-Tied EV Manufacturer Dethrones Tesla as Global Industry Leader

South Carolina Sun Staff
BYD

A Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-tied electric vehicle maker dethroned Tesla as the worldwide industry leader in the last quarter of 2023, according to stock exchange filings.

BYD and Tesla both posted record sales for battery electric vehicles in the final quarter, according to the filings. BYD sold 526,409 vehicles in the quarter while Tesla sold 484,507, with the Chinese company achieving its highest-ever car sales in 2023, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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Sporting Associations Start to Crack Down on Men In Women’s Sports

South Carolina Sun Staff

Sporting associations have tightened rules regarding transgender athletes competing in women’s sports in 2023, drawing complaints from LGBT activists.

The issue of men competing in women’s sports has received considerable scrutiny amid instances such as Laurel Hubbard, a biological male, competing against women in the weightlifting events during the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, as well as University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas’s participation in the 2022 NCAA championships, where the biological male won the 500-yard women’s final and placed highly in other events. The international governing bodies for cricket, fishing and track and field barred biological males from competing in women’s events in 2023, following a similar decision by the international governing body for competitive swimming in 2022.

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Retailers Closed Down over 4,600 Stores in 2023, with More to Come in 2024

Just the News

Major retailers have experienced a wave of store closures in 2023, an 80% surge from the year prior, Coresight Research reports.

The top reasons include bankruptcy of one major chain and some stores just not performing well in certain areas. The continued growth of online shopping is another factor, and other retailers said that theft is a major reason for their decision to close some stores, according to CBS News. 

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