Effects of wage depression

The 5-percent increase for civil servants or 14,000-plus employees in poverty income and below created what’s known as “wage depression.” It simply means the breadcrumbs increase didn’t help the strength of the family purse meet basic needs. It only prolonged family hardship NMI-wide.

Before you even receive it, your utility bill went up, including gasoline at the pump stations. So there goes the increase that failed to hike family income.

The elected elite padded their wallets with 80-percent salary hike or some $31,600, smiling ear to ear. But notice most have avoided discussing their newfound loot? The eggs hatched and maggots began crawling out of the sack into the public domain before they knew it. Like Magoo would say, “Why chillgreen us lai?” You know, treat us like children!

The glossy claim of economic “improvement” is a failed PR on a false economy. Otherwise, it would have lifted all boats in the harbor. Most are stuck downstairs when the high tide came rolling in. Only yachts and big new boats floated, none of which belong to ordinary folks. Isn’t this a tale of the lifestyles of the elite versus non-elites? Of course, they’d deny it, as though the suffering villagers are blind, deaf, and mute. The inequity is embedded in villagers’ mind and a daily mouthwash, too!

Homes: Now, I’ve been around family homes completely stuck in poverty. The young warm bodies are jobless in spite of their efforts to find employment. It’s a case where foreigners are in jobs supposedly intended for local U.S. citizens. It forces a huge number of unemployed locals.

You listen carefully to their down-to-earth views of negligence by politicians on the hill. All they want is the opportunity to be gainfully employed. Is there anybody in government working diligently to resolve this issue so locals could find meaningful employment? Or is their lowly status a reason to ignore their fate altogether?

The 80-percent increase for the elected elite is a miscalculated decision riddled with boastful arrogance. It would haunt Republicans wherever they roam. No amount of “biba” would shift the fatal narrative now permanently implanted in people’s mind. Is there a savior for self-inflicted political destruction other than absorbing the consequence of indecision?

Trilemma: The weather was a bit humid and breezy, bringing steady drizzle on the tin roof above. The break was a good time to ponder an off-the-cuff assertion that “we’re doing good but we don’t know where we’re going!” Really?

The apparent inconsistency is fodder for review. I mean if you’re doing great you must be doing something right. How could it be otherwise? But the assertion came from politicians nursing a sense of fear, frustration, if not uncertainty, or the entire trilemma for their miscalculated decisions. The 80-percent centers on their wallets, screw the livelihood of civil servants. How is this supposed to mitigate poverty all over?

There’s hope, though, in the effort by the educational estate and other stakeholders to converge and organize a plan that would put purpose and goal into the education of our children and overall growth. With a fully thought-out blueprint, we could make progress and refinements with a sense of awareness what goes down the pike. It begins with a set of fully thought-out plans.

Wake up! It’s known as AirBnB, private homes and apartments that are rented out to tourist. It’s not part of the hotel group. Yet it enjoys charging fees for rent of their facilities. Does it pay BGRT as hotels do?

You see this is where another financial leak is allowed to escape—paying NMI taxes. Let’s zero-in and bring this group into the fold so they pay their fair share of taxes forthwith! Eh, fair is fair!

Absentee voting: Legally, there are three categories where voters are allowed to vote absentee: medical referral patients, students and military types.

If you are not within one of the three, then by all means you are not qualified to vote absentee. If you physically move to Guam, Hawaii, U.S. mainland or elsewhere to work and are actually living off-island, then you’ve surrendered your absentee rights.

You could claim eventual return. But let’s keep it simple by reviewing what the law permits: patients, students, and military.

The board of election should handle this and other reported mishandling of ballots in Guam in recent past so to maintain integrity of the system.