Goodbye Money

Well one of the many reasons people have savings is to weather situations like what we're now going through but this current situation is basically because of the combined polices and ineptness of the people in charge. They really fucked things up and I don't see it possibly getting better for a long time.

Can someone explain the math here for me? The linked piece says we saved $2.1T because strip clubs were closed, and there were no new cars to buy. Now we have unsaved $0.1T, and the claim is that this is because of inflation. (1) We're talking about something like a 5% drawdown. Isn't that a good thing if I actually want the new car? (2) Why would you say the spending was caused by inflation instead of the other way around?

Examples:

2020
$27 fill my work car
$40 fill my personal car
$0 vacation flight because I couldn’t go
$19 chipotle take out
$0.50 4 ears of corn at grocery store

2021
$35 fill my work car
$50 fill my personal car
$798 vacation flight
$27 chipotle take out
$1 4 ears of corn at grocery store

2022
$72 fill my work car
$110 fill my personal car
$1,987 vacation flight
$35 Chipotle take out
$3 4 ears of corn at grocery store

Not sure how the math from the article adds up but people aren’t saving as much as they were pre pandemic, or are having to tap into their saving to survive.

It blows, mainly because wages aren’t keeping up with inflation now matter how much you make and interest rates are climbing everyday. The only good thing that will come out of this is the interest on your savings will eventually increase.

If I recall correctly - many are way past their savings and hitting their credit-cards hard - to the best of my knowledge it's been reported that credit-card debt is hitting records - apparently many are using CCs to make ends meet

I saw this tweet recently https://mobile.twitter.com/peterschiff/s…

This ain’t gonna end well.

The only good thing about this is if you have some play money left over then this is the best time to get ANY girl for the lowest price ever. I look forward to getting my rocks off to the hottest whores who are going to struggle to pay their bills like most people now.

I think we are in a very weird space right now. The haves are still spending down pandemic stimulus savings, but the have nots are running up their credit cards. States are still flush will absurdly large American Rescue Plan cash infusions, but some are spending it faster than others.

All of this leads me to believe that it's going to be a bumpy slow ride down for a long time to come. There is too much cash still floating around in the system for the economy to outright crater, but enough people are hurting that things will slow down.

The question is whether inflation will slow down with so much cash in the system. My guess is somewhat, but not a lot. My concern is that we get stuck in some extended period of stagflation, with economic activity depressed, yet too much cash in the system for us to easily tame inflation.

^^^that's a great theory, and I still see a lot of people around me spend money out of control so they either have it or are taking out as many loans as they can in fear of interest rates rising more over the next year or two.

You can't have a consumer society bif consumers can't afford anything

Articles like this talk about averages. That’s deceptive. It combines the upper 20%, who always have extra money, with the 80%, who always live paycheck to paycheck.

When they say the average savings rate is X, it’s because the savings rate is 5X for the upper 20% and zero for everyone else.

Speaking for the 20%, if you keep your savings in hard assets, you will come out of the next couple years just fine. Holding stock in large, established, profitable companies is probably the best path. These companies are large enough to adapt to the high inflation environment by shifting their product mix and raising prices.

As far as the 80%, the key is to keep out of debt by scaling back your purchasing to the bare essentials. Keep a roof over your family’s head, put food on the table, and gas in the car. Spend money on nothing else. In a couple years, when your friends are buried in debt, you will be in good shape financially.

In general, we are going to continue to see high inflation in essential goods and services (where demand won’t change ) and deflation among non essential and luxury goods ( where demand will drop.

In real estate, modestly priced homes will hold their value while high priced homes will keep dropping in price. A $300,000 home is an essential good, an $800,000 home is conspicuous consumption.

^ you’re not quite correct about Real Estate values, prices fluctuate depending upon your location in some markets an 800K home is a basic home, don’t forget that relocation isn’t always an option
We will get past this, if you’re smart, you can find ways to prosper regardless of what’s happening with the economy, one sure thing, effort is necessary.

Why is it that the government gets blamed for inflation? And I’m no fan of the government in any form. But last time I checked the government is not the entity that is raising prices, it seems like good old American corporate capital greed is responsible and good old “keep up with the joneses” USA attitudes that are paying the freight. Even if they are bitching all the way to the bank to get more $$.

Countries where there are government controlled prices are not having the inflation pressures but every other country is. Hmm.

People don't have money. You can't have a consumer society without consumers. You can see how people spend less every where from grocery stores to top tier clubs. Because they can't afford it. The rich are trying for a major cash grab in a failing system.

The government increased the money supply by 40% since 2020 in order to come up with the money to pay for all the government over spending. That's why there is inflation. It's not Putin, the pandemic or price gouging. The only solution is for the government to decrease spending, so they can start printing up less money.

I'm of the opinion this is not going to happen any time soon. People will have to accept we can't continue doing what we have been doing and they aren't ready for that. For it to finally sink into their brains we will need an economic crash and multiyear depression. The current system will need to be completely discredited, as Marxism was completely discredited in the Soviet Union, before we can make the transition to a better system.

Over the last 20 years, politicians had a choice in reaction to economic shocks.

They could have let the economy react to external forces. There would have been disruptions as the job market, stock market, and real estate react to the new environment. There would have been some pain, but things would have gotten back to normal pretty quickly.

Instead, what they did was keep interest rates low and print money like crazy. This covered up the pain in the short run but left a ticking debt bomb to be dealt with by a future generation, long after most of these politicians retired with their millions.

That’s why, at its core, inflation was caused by government. More specifically, it was caused by corrupt politicians who knew full well the catastrophe that would take place years down the road when they couldn't be held accountable.

The dollars value is the same today as when George W was in office in 2002. Bush devalued our currency to help our trades with overseas companies. I suspect the strong dollar will come under political pressures to weaken, again to help international trade. International commerce will go through some pain, presenting good buying opportunity to be exposed in.

^I await breathlessly your explanation of how under our system of Government the President can unilaterally devalue our currency. Go.....

Yes, there are very legitimate economic fears right now. Inflation makes people feel that they have to belt tighten, but that makes for even more of a slow down. Providers of goods and services, faced with a lower volume of commerce, will have to raise prices to meet their fixed costs. So it gets worse, and know one knows how much worse it will get.

Capitalism has not worked since the 1870's. COVID was the final blow to it.

SJG

Coffee Girls
https://tuscl.net/photo.php?id=11283

Jane - School of Rock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdWq4w8D…

Went to the grocery store. Got 12 things for $75....

When somebody gripes about inflation, ask them how much meat they're eating. Inflation in meat prices is running at about 15%. So, eat less meat, eat more beans. It takes 10 - 20 calories of grain to produce 1 calorie of meat. We have to eat less meat, to make more grain available to poor countries, that will have famines without Ukrainian grain. Because of COVID, there are people looking at an empty chair every night at dinner time. So let's focus on helping the people who can't get by by tightening their belts. Or, if you prefer to bend over for Putin like Neville Chamberlain did for Hitler, remember to lube up first.

A lot of our Right, exemplified by some of this board, are just like Neville Chamberlain. Fortunately Joe Biden and his party are not that way. Most of the other party are not that way either.

SJG

https://tuscl.net/photo.php?id=11283

Jane - School of Rock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdWq4w8D…

It seems like this same discussion appears every few weeks, no doubt in response to our collective frustration over inflation. But it is basic economic theory - not politics, and not socioeconomic judgements about haves vs have nots.
When the government pumps “fake” money into the economy, it will always result in an equal and opposite reaction in inflation. (See what I did there, by combining Adam Smith and Newton?).
The pandemic stimulus and PPP cash to individuals, corporations, municipalities, and institutions were Trump era policies, that were continued by the Biden administration. So if you’re going to blame inept politicians, both sides can take credit. However, I don’t recall anyone complaining a couple years ago when we were cashing all those stimi checks. Unfortunately, now it’s time to pay the bill - in the form of double digit inflation, exacerbated by continued supply chain distributions, overly ambitious environmental policies, an inexplicable war in Eastern Europe, and a lot of people who just decided they didn’t need to work anymore.
And as always, as others have noted, those with the least are affected the most, and are really struggling, while those with the most are generally taking it all in stride.

Since inflation is 100% the fault of the Democrats, I just keep things in check by not declaring my cash income and using that for strip clubbing. Looking at 50 benjamins.

I've moved my investments into safe stuff--dividend stocks, healthcare. So far, they've been fine. Watching my mortgage debt get devalued. Increasing my client rates on side businesses. Net worth is almost unchanged from its peak at the end of last year.

I'll club if, when, and how I want to club.

I dumpin loadz on inflation

Those very foolish COVID Bail Out Payments are the reason for the extreme inflation. And no one knows how much further it will go.

Both parties are equally responsible. BUt the Democrats committed a particular sin in promoting COVID hyseria, to beat Trump, and also to keep Bernie Sanders and Medicare for All out of the 2020 election.

SJG

https://tuscl.net/photo.php?id=8296

"Long Way To The Top" - School of Rock Reunion Concert LIVE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=refCJcJJ…

School of Rock 10 year reunion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf8INiBD…

School of Rock Musical - Teachers Pet Combination
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ae2jwWD…

Keep Me Hanging On
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9CU_5a6…

Jefferson Starship - Jane - 2018 School of Rock AllStars Team 6, awesom lead singer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdWq4w8D…

Strange Kind of Women - Perfect Strangers - live at La Grande Ourse Concert Hall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfLYvbRi…

VANILLA FUDGE_You Keep Me Hanging On_BB Kings_6-22-13
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghiIrfeU…

Chambers Brothers - Time Has Come Today - Cleveland School of Rock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQpZv2r8…

Linda Ronstadt - You're No Good - 2016 School of Rock AllStars Team 6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMM5bjkK…

School of Rock Reunion Concert - Jack Black - BEST QUALITY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLcqTLTo…

Electric Light Orchestra - Telephone Line - Chicago School of Rock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWkDM15f…

Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way - Team 1 2014 School of Rock AllStars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKvleNza…

Janis Joplin - Down On Me - School of Rock All-Stars Team 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRjYeoGi…

Aquarius - Hair - Team 5 2019 School of Rock AllStars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp_E4a4p…

Joe Cocker - With a Little Help From My Friends - Team 4 2019 School of Rock AllStars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtAnm5-n…

Because people are too stupid to realize that in times like this they need to cut expenses. Do you really need an $80 phone plan? Another area is in groceries. I cut mine by $200 a month. I now eat like we did in the 1970s. Which is to rarely buy beef, more vegetables and smaller proportions so that the same meal lasts two days.

Money is from the devil! Brang it in to confessions and give it to the lawerd so you may be saved. The lawerd can make this evil money clean again so you may be saved from the devil and that you may find jebus Christy

The thing that always surprises me is the long line at Starbucks to pay $5 for burnt coffee. I refer to that as the retire-at-80 plan.

OMG a sighting from brotherfoghorn. please send me your address I will empty my savings account into your coffers.

Introducing the 9 meal theory:

In 1906, Alfred Henry Lewis stated, “There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy.” Since then, his observation has been echoed by people as disparate as Robert Heinlein and Leon Trotsky.

The key here is that, unlike all other commodities, food is the one essential that cannot be postponed. If there were a shortage of, say, shoes, we could make do for months or even years. A shortage of gasoline would be worse, but we could survive it, through mass transport or even walking, if necessary.

But food is different. If there were an interruption in the supply of food, fear would set in immediately. And, if the resumption of the food supply were uncertain, the fear would become pronounced. After only nine missed meals, it’s not unlikely that we’d panic and be prepared to commit a crime to acquire food. If we were to see our neighbour with a loaf of bread, and we owned a gun, we might well say, “I’m sorry, you’re a good neighbour and we’ve been friends for years, but my children haven’t eaten today – I have to have that bread – even if I have to shoot you.” …

Quantitative easing + billions in stimulus + decreased expenses (work from home, no travel, no dining out, etc) + increased demand due to scarcity = inflation & recession. Who didn't see this coming? The democrat party, that's who!

^ a lot of people saw it coming; they had to also - they're not stupid - it may be as many are saying that it's a feature not a bug.

It's a last ditch cash grab by the rich I'm a failed system

Those massive COVID bailout payments were reckless, irresponsible, and not what we needed. All the money did was sustain landlords and mortgage lenders. Our currency was devalued for a stupid reason.

Today, we need to get the money back, via an upper income tax hike and a wealth tax. This is what Biden wants, but 50 Republicans and 2 Democrats are blocking it.

SJG

Jane - School of Rock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdWq4w8D…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QLapo3r…

Green Onions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB5VD_Z5…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3nWzabI…

Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers (from Come Hell or High Water)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMmDIMmQ…


Underappreciated Muscle Cars
https://www.brakeforit.com/auto/misunder…

Yeah the increase in corporate welfare and giveaways to businesses caused this

Newshour 7/13/2022, Inflation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8yESp6y…

SJG

I think Rick is right about stagflation. Strippers will try to charge more to soak up the excess cash in the sloshing around in places the regular Joe has limited access to. But fellas are going to spend less due to inflation and the general fear of recession although the recession may be long but shallow and not disastrous. But if guys don't feel like they will have future guaranteed earning then discretionary spending tanks.

In January 2025, if inflation hasn't come down a lot, and anyone but Trump is President, the Fed will pull a Volker. Jack interest rates way up, cause a recession as bad as in 1981. So it will be morning again in America by 2028.

The producer-price-index has been outpacing the consume-price-index - latest PPI is 11.3% vs CPI of 9.3% - meaning prices won't come down anytime soon since producers haven't been passing all of their cost increases and have been eating that difference

^ correction - CPI is actually 9.1%

Published inflation numbers lag reality by a month or two. In the 3 major categories of living cost
- Housing is beginning to correct, soon to crash, but CPI hasn’t reflected that
- Energy seems to have peaked but that could just be a pause
- Food is still going up and shortages appear to be coming

Within a few months, I expect inflation will still be here but at rates closer to 5% than 9%. Food shortages will appear and scare the shit out of people. Housing prices will plunge, wiping out the net worth of millions of families. The Fed will be forced to keep short term interest rates around 4% even as we enter a serious recession.

There’s an element of gouging in this as well, take gas prices for example the pump price changes daily, up, but down takes several days to come in to correlation with the published price, yet most gas retailers only receive deliveries two or three times per week, we should get an explanation why the gas in their tanks gets a price increase on gasoline that has already been delivered and paid for, the only explanation is gouging yet no government agency will look at this phenomenon.

Despite the bad news, I think the stock market is near the bottom. The 40% of companies that weren’t making a profit have already fallen. The 60% of profitable companies in solid industries are adjusting to the new economic reality. Energy and food companies will raise prices, as will all providers of essential goods and services. Companies in non-essential areas will cut staff, sell assets, and position themselves for when the recession ends.

Personally, I’m staying invested in broad index funds, dabbling in bounce back stocks like Amazon, and staying out of debt.

The Democrats fucked things up because they listened to progressives and foreigners.

One would assume the recession should kill-off inflation - oil has dropped 25% from its previous highs which should have a big-effect on inflation - but there are those that think we could be in for a period of stagflation with higher than desired inflation while having a recession

I have an eerie feeling the other shoe is yet to drop and we're seeing the beginning of a big-drop to the eventual bottom - history shows the bigger the bubble the bigger the bust when it pops and suppossedly this has been the biggest bubble ever.

Recession should kill inflation, but there are two problems we haven’t experienced in the past

1. Government policy is preventing energy producers from producing more. Energy affects the price of everything.

2. Higher interest rates will raise the federal deficit MASSIVELY. The deficit will increase by trillions, forcing the Fed to print more money, destroying the purchasing power of the dollar ( also known as inflation ).

Many are predicting the Fed won't be able to maintain current interest rates if and when the economy takes a nose-dive and layoffs start occurring enmasse - but many of these same people doubted the Fed would have gone as far as it has recently

The total global debt is $300 Trillion. That’s $35,000 for every man, woman, and child in the world. That may not sound too bad for someone in the US, but the average includes places like Haiti, Nicaragua, and Ghana.

This debt resulted from propping up the world economy over the last 20 years. We had a hell of a party. Now, the bill has come due.

Debt service payments going to go through the fucking roof. Dems obsessed with restoring the SALT deductions, which are a tax break for blue state rich people. And they still seem to think we have leftover cash for their nonsense spending plans.

During a prolonged period of economic downturn, folks who are barely able to get by, will end up dipping into savings. This is not good, but it is necessary.

There is little that can be done, as there will always be folks who struggle to get by. It is good that people have saved - as this is one of those major downturns. The folks who haven’t saved, and who are running out of cash, are in much worse shape.

This may be worse than 2009, as the trough may dip much lower, and interest rates will jump higher. As I remember, we weren’t dealing with as many supply chain issues in 2009.

I don’t think the current administration is willing to help. That’s the odd part of the current messaging. When there were large economic issues in the past, the White House would move quickly to assist the public.

The current rhetoric of telling folks to buy electric cars - to combat high gas prices - is not helpful. The folks getting squeezed by prices and shortages, don’t have the ability to just go buy a Tesla!

It may not be so bad if somehow unemployment doesn't get too high - but if there starts being massive layoffs then the shit is gonna hit the fan

^ it’s going to change, if we get into a recession and it looks like we will, there won’t be so many jobs available and the equation will start to become a problem for the administration.
Better be careful who you elect I haven’t noticed the so called “fiscal conservatives “ paying down the debt last time they had control they appeared much more anxious to get tax cuts in, and change the Supreme Court, rather than pay the bills
I say they all stink.

It's my understanding the tax-cuts brought more $$$ into the government which included repatriating a a big chunk of overseas profits - the issue was reigning in spending which is hard with all the entrenched government programs and interests

With all the extra money they supposedly collected why didn’t they pay some of the due bills or fix Social Security, or repair a few roads and bridges, or replace Obamacare with a much better plan, Dayumn and Who’s paying for that wall on our southern border not Mexico, maybe Putin contributed, no rubles in the bank either, fiscal conservative, really oxymoronic

"... With all the extra money they supposedly collected why didn’t they pay some of the due bills or fix Social Security, or repair a few roads and bridges, or replace Obamacare with a much better plan ..."

It's Putin's fault

^ LOL my thoughts exactly

Deficit hawks get disappointed in every administration.

Social security would be a simple fix, extend the highly regressive tax that funds it to all income rather than the first $140,000 or whatever it is.

The rest of the deficit is Medicare and defense. Everything else is nibbling at the margins. Meanwhile the cost of borrowing is going to get higher and higher, and they're still talking about more entitlements.

Dems "but the Republicans!" rings hollow when they hold all the levers. They need a positive case to keep them in power. News is getting worse.

The problem is corporate welfare and funding the military and wars

If I was King of America, I would scale the power of the federal government back to where it was before FDR. Find the least painful way to get out of the redistribution of wealth business. Close most federal agencies. Leave things like welfare and pollution up to the states. End income tax and rely on tariffs.

There would be a renaissance of wealth and freedom that would last 100 years.

The cost of government is not just in the taxes it imposed, it’s also on the debt it takes in our name and in the regulations it imposes that increase the cost of everything we buy. For example, if government allowed new homes to be built without government constraint, home prices would be 30%-40% lower in places like California.

Here’s a specific example. Unlike south Florida, there are almost no high rise condos allowed near the beaches in LA and Orange County. I can only think of a handful in Santa Monica and Marina Del Rey.

Now, imagine that zoning was changed to allow high rise, multi-family buildings within walking distance of the beach from Santa Monica to Newport Beach. That would result in millions of new housing units in the most desirable areas. With the rise in supply, prices would come down. Millions of people would see their lifestyle improve. Tax revenue would pour in. New roads could be built.

The only people who would suffer are the wealthy who want to keep the beach communities for themselves.

There is a legitimate public interest in regulating the types of development.

SJG

School of Rock, real good! 2nd song in has a girl signing lead for Song Remains the Same
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7o3PCR7…

Mark, additional commerce generally does not improve the quality of people's lives. Most of the time it just uses up scarce resources and exacerbates the wealth gap.

You are caught in the illogic of Supply Side.

SJG

School of Rock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7o3PCR7…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) said on a conference call with reporters Thursday that President Joe Biden rejected an invitation from oil and gas leaders to tour successful fossil fuel operations across the United States. Instead, Biden is heading to Saudi Arabia to seek more oil from OPEC.

@Mark
Those high Rise buildings on the beach are full of extremely wealthy upper 1% folks, don't be fooled and think that the beach is available to the hoi polloi, it isn't anyplace in Florida, there are some public beaches but access is just as limited here in Florida as it is in California, and not just in South Florida access is limited all over the state, High rises or not.

What if Trump were still President ?

https://babylonbee.com/news/if-only-here…

^

Some of it is whimsy but there is much truth in some of those headlines.

Strategic bump...

Need one more, Lol

Here’s a little fun math.

There are about 60 miles of coast line from Santa Monica to Newport Beach. Population density for urban areas with high rise condos can reach 40,000 people per square mile. So, if high rises were allowed within a mile of the beach, that corridor would accommodate 2.4 million people. There are currently 3.8 million in the city of LA and 12 million in the metro area, including outlying areas like Riverside and San Bernardino.

So, it wouldn’t just be the upper 1% affected if this fantasy project of mine ever went through. It might even make LA livable for the masses.

^ yeah but if that area was turned into a high-density more affordable area it would likely lose a lot of its appeal - real-estate near the ocean/beach/water will often be the most desired - turning that area into a high-density area would turn-off the well-to-do as well as the big-time-developers - part of what makes something valuable is a certain-level of scarcity.

The issue is not necessarily the beach-side areas - I'd been hearing for a while the complaints that many parts of SoCal were hardcore suburban that didn't allow multifamily-housing even if those areas were not beach-side - it may be alright if the beach/oceanfront areas remain exclusive but not most of the rest of the suburbs thus minimizing the available housing.

It's a bit of a tough-call b/c many people that live in suburbs that are mostly single-family-housing wanna keep it that way and understandably so; so it's kinda a catch-22.

Increasing the supply of goods and sevices, especially the extreme things like luxury beach high rise condos, usually does not result in an improvement in the quality of life for the masses. It is just a way for financializers to fatten themselves.

SJG

https://tuscl.net/photo.php?id=1657

Song Remains the Same, School of Rock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nafJuYuB…

It’s been a while since I lived in LA, but I recall there is still land in Long Beach and nearby areas that could accommodate high rises.

They are from the government. They are here to help:

“Colorado has a new 27 cents retail delivery fee that applies to all deliveries by motor vehicles. This includes Amazon deliveries, florist deliveries, food delivery and more. Many small business owners in Colorado Springs are not happy with the new fee, and one small business owner tells KKTV 11 News that it’s costing her more than $100,000 to implement new software and systems around the fee for all her business.”

Joe Manchin is wrong. You don't have to trash environmental regulations to create "jobs", that is stupid. Universal Basic Income with a strong public housing offering solves the problem. Inflation is licked by the public housing and the fact that the new spending you get back when it siphons up.

And Build Back Better and Green New Deal don't fuel inflation for the same reason, strong public housing, taxes on high wealth and income to get the money back.

Machin is stuck in supply side illogic, which is based on the work ethic squirrel cage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb7dSO8U…

SJG

^ Entitlements destroy people, socially. Look no further than Native Americans, where many receive an effective UBI through casinos and unemployment is through the roof. Depression and alcoholism are through the roof. It is a human need to work and be useful and receive compensation for one's labor (I'll admit a lot of people left in the lurch here).

Wealth taxes didn't work in Europe except to chase wealth away. That's why they ended them.

I don't like the casinos, but Native Americans are just trying to get back the status which was taken from them.

We are all already entitled because of advanced industrial and information technologies.

Keeping the Work Ethic Squirrel Cage going costs us vastly more than it will for UBI.

If people want to run from a wealth tax and take their money, FINE! People who think like that are not part of the collective advance. Cheaper to buy them a 1 way plane ticket than to put them in a jail cell.

I am not aware that Europe ever had a blanket wealth tax, maybe higher income tax.

We only need to raise taxes to get back what the rich are siphoning up from increased gov't spending.

SJG

clever
Aquarius - Hair - Team 5 2019 School of Rock AllStars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp_E4a4p…

"... Entitlements destroy people ..."

I happened to catch a recent interview with Art Laffer (inventor of the Laffer curve) - at 81 ys/o dude is still sharp and makes a lotta sense and he touched on the subject of incentives and what it does to the economy both good and bad incentives - he talks about his time in the Regan administration and the effects of taxation policy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viO4Gww7…

"Keeping the Work Ethic Squirrel Cage going costs us vastly more than it will for UBI."

What you call a squirrel cage is a basic component of human dignity. You are literally proposing a world where we rely on the Musk's, Bezos', and Zuckerberg's of the world for sustenance, a Brave New World scenario. A better route is to make work in the lower quartiles pay better.

https://unherd.com/2022/07/how-we-became…

"If people want to run from a wealth tax and take their money, FINE! People who think like that are not part of the collective advance. Cheaper to buy them a 1 way plane ticket than to put them in a jail cell."

You are describing a collectivist nightmare. If the rich pick up and leave, where will you get the tax dollars for all your fantasy programs?

You give a great example of how contrary socialism is to human nature. Thank you.

Gotta laugh at SJG theory of manipulating demand will be the answer to all our problems economically. Basically regulating what yiu should and shouldn’t buy is ridiculous. It’s communist.

^ When evaluating any "wisdom" proffered here, always consider the source.

"America Has Become Unsafe’: Starbucks CEO Rips Politicians In Decaying Cities After Closing 16 Urban Stores"

Video in link below:

https://www.dailywire.com/news/america-h…

^ Yeah, I’m sure the store closures have nooothing to do with all the labor organizing and unionization going on. Howard Schultz spent some decent time antagonizing conservatives to give Starbucks left-wing credibility and then when the left wing workforce gets together and wants better working conditions, he shifts and decides he’s a political independent. Freaking crybaby.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed into law in November 2021, appropriated $1.2 trillion for new infrastructure projects. As part of this law, Congress authorized $370 billion in spending for roads, bridges, and other transportation projects. But the law contains a quota, requiring that at least 10% of all funding ($37 billion) go to small businesses owned by “socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.”

Federal regulations define “socially disadvantaged” as the following racial or ethnic groups: Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, or Subcontinent Asian Americans. And women are deemed “socially and economically disadvantaged.” Small businesses owned by males who are not in these preferred racial groups cannot compete for this money. This would include not only businesses owned by white males, but also males whose ancestors are from many countries in Central and South America, North Africa, the Middle East, and North and West Asia.

Mark - Yes, and it is blatantly in violation of the Supreme Court decision in Adarand Constructors v. Pena.

Joe Biden went hat in hand to Saudi Arabia to beg for oil, even meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after he said he wouldn’t–and after Biden called the kingdom a “pariah” nation. When he came out of the meeting, it was clear Biden had nothing, but he tried to make it appear he had something.

In addition, Biden said nothing about increasing US energy production.

^ So you think its' better to leave a vacuum in the middle east for the Russians and Chinese to gain influence, give it a rest, let's be realistic if the Russians and the Chinese get closer with the Saudis exactly what do you think will be the outcome, a closer relationship between OPEC and Russia, is that your goal. If the Russians gain influence with the GCC it only helps the Iranians and and emboldens our enemies.

Pointing out Biden's ineptitude, hypocrisy, incompetence, double-speak, (so much it needs synonyms) and sheer stupidity is stating the obvious. Noone argues with it, because it's as plain as day. He, his failed kindergarten teacher wife, his drug-addled perpetually-for-sale son, his box-checking-exercise administration are national and global laughing stocks. The democrat party hacks in congress are more interested in attacking white male Americans than solving all the problems their party leader is creating. Even the press is getting tired of carrying the water for them. If you cannot honestly admit that you regret voting for brandon and a congressional democrat, then you really are worthless and subhuman trash.

To the OPs point, I have a few years of income in liquid assets. I never let my spending catch up to my income. If inflation were to cause my spending to outpace my income (incomprehensible as that seems), I would cut expenses. I want, but I do not need, Netflix/ Disney+/ Prime, etc. I can always turn up the thermostat, shut off lights, and close blinds.

People need to learn to budget, sacrifice, and occasionally do without. That was the story of my childhood and young adult life.

^ People can belt tighten, and they probably need to. But belt tightening was the doctrine of Herbert Hoover, and that just brings on the recession they fear.

People think the stock and real estate markets are soaring. But all these are amounts to Ponzi Schemes. If instead of pricing them in dollars you price them in loaves of bread or in gasoline, they current levels are much more modest.

This was created by Democrats, but not Joe Biden, by Joe Manchin, as he has made passing of the Biden upper income tax hike impossible.

And this tax hike is necessitated by the COVID bailout payments, committed by the leaders of both parties.

SJG

Aquarius - Hair - Team 5 2019 School of Rock AllStars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp_E4a4p…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWkDM15f…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh4COKp_…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9CU_5a6…

A survey from The New York Times and Siena College found that just 1 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds strongly approve of the way Mr. Biden is handling his job. And 94 percent of Democrats under 30 said they wanted another candidate to run two years from now.

I'm reasonably satisfied with how Biden is handling things. He generally has sound judgement on the direction of the country. Unemployment is at 3.6%. Inflation is due to many factors over which the government has limited control. Biden's positions on energy transition, infrastructure investment and upper income tax hikes are the right policies, I haven't heard any better ideas. US oil rig counts are steadily returning to pre-covid levels, but "drill baby drill" is not a long term sustainable energy policy for the US.

Biden, or whoever controls him, has implemented the progressive agenda. That was the utopia that progressives had sought for decades. The longer that agenda is in place, the more people realize what a disaster it is. But, the 20% of true believers will not admit it’s the progressive agenda that has failed. In their eyes, any failure is the result of any number of factors except the agenda itself.

@wld4tatas, I see plenty of room to increase taxes on upper incomes, mainly by eliminating deductions, which is why it mystifies me that they're trying to restore the SALT deduction, a giant tax break for high income blue state constituents. And there aren't enough rich to fund the progressive agenda. The European social democracies tax well into the middle class to get the welfare states they have, which is less than the GND madness.

Also, Germany is providing an object lesson in why we're far less than ready for an energy transition. Trying to go to wind and solar, they became dependent on Russian natural gas, reactivated coal plants (lol oops), and this winter even houses may even have to go back to burning _wood_. Yeah, we could go green if we were willing to live in the 18th century again, but fossil fuels were a key contributor to bringing billions out of extreme poverty. Even if we could power ourselves on wind and solar, we need fossil fuels for modern agriculture.

Meanwhile, Dems are telling people fucked over the price of gas to go buy $60,000 EVs that aren't practical for many. It shows how they've sold out to rich white coastal progressives.

Biden's only hope to salvage his presidency is to tell the greens to go fuck themselves.

The 10 year charts for health care coverage and renewable energy provide clear evidence that progressive policies are moving the country in the right direction. We only have a limited progressive agenda in place however, due to efforts from the right, which often depend on deception and fear-mongering. Distrust and fear of the government are convenient political tools, but distract from the fact that only government can address the tremendous issues of economic inequality that free markets have created.

@Tetradon, I would agree Biden may need to make a temporary, short-term adjustment to energy policy. But the long-term direction is correct if the US is to remain a world leader. The conservative alternative of consuming US oil reserves as fast as possible and not stimulating and supporting the renewable energy sector is downright scary.

Because a $9T/year GND at a time of 9% inflation would be a bullet train to hyperinflation.

The progressive agenda is insane, for this and all the unaddressed reasons I listed above and this.

When the failure of socialism is pointed out by looking at Cuba and Venezuela, progressives always respond that they didn’t go far enough. It wasn’t real socialism. If real socialism ever takes place, it will be heaven on earth.

"I would agree Biden may need to make a temporary, short-term adjustment to energy policy."

We are not doing this, certainly not in America. Instead we are begging some of the biggest asshole regimes in the world to pump. All our telling our telling fossil fuel companies we're looking to put them out of business is killing us.

You advance technology adoption by building viable alternatives, not by

Accidental post.

Not by passive aggressively regulating them out of business. Like I said, agriculture.

Let's make sure we get to the "long term" first. No one cares about climate change tomorrow if they can't eat today.

US Democrats want the right balance of free markets and government regulation. Totalitarian government control is not the objective. Pointing to Cuba and Venezuela as examples is simply right wing deception and fear-mongering I mentioned above.

wld4tatas is running away with the "most demented (or dishonest) leftie of the year" award. It's really amazing to try and discern if he is just a sum-zero sponge willing to soak up and parrot back everything he hears on MSNBC, or if he subscribes to every seminar and leftie newsletter diligently reading, memorizing, and pitching back all of the gaslighting lies he comes across. either way, he is an enlightening look at how a committed commie is unwilling to admit that their entire paradigm a worldview is an unmitigated failure which benefits no one except for a few individuals at the very top of the societal pyramid (which notable does not include themselves). It is really sad to see someone have so little regard for critical thinking and independent analysis. Cannon fodder for the "progressive world order".

Joe Biden is on record as saying he wants to eliminate the fossil fuel industry in America. Is that what you mean by the right balance ?

All the economic arguments come down to paranoid cold war Era bs. Guess you're acting your ages. The red scare and mccarthyism really brainwashed you coz normal people don't believe that shit anymore.

"Pointing to Cuba and Venezuela as examples is simply right wing deception and fear-mongering I mentioned above."

Way to show your ignorance of basic economics. The definition of inflation is too much money chasing too few goods. Tripling the federal budget creating inflation is not deception and fear mongering, it is accurate.

The left thinks snide comments substitute for for reason, but it isn't so.

Prices are arbitrary. It's price gouging coz they realize it's a failing system. Its anlast ditch cash grab.

The cold war Era bs just makes you sound out of touch with reality.

@icee, left or right, we all know we can rely on you to add insults, without facts nor reason, to any political conversation.

"Way to show your ignorance of basic economics. The definition of inflation is too much money chasing too few goods."

Completely irrelevant, you are pivoting. My comment was about Cuba and Venezuela not being models which US Democrats aspire to, as implied by another poster.

Notice how gammanu95's post is completely devoid of any actual argument or analysis. Just a dumb, empty bash and personal attack, like he probably sees on Fox News every day. I actually don't watch a lot of MSNBC, I formulate my assessments independently. Most Democrats want a strong private sector and a strong government. That's not socialism, despite the endless fear-mongering from the right.

"Joe Biden is on record as saying he wants to eliminate the fossil fuel industry in America. Is that what you mean by the right balance ?"

Biden said he would transition from fossil fuels, but that it would take time. He was not going to open up more federal lands for drilling. Seems reasonable to me. The private sector is still free to drill; the latest Baker Hughes numbers show the US rig count now at 756, up 272 in the last year which is +56%. That's the free market at work under Biden. Pinning the spike in oil prices on Biden alone is disingenuous, his policies are just one of many factors.

===> "...only government can address the tremendous issues of economic inequality that free markets have created"

And why exactly is this an issue that needs to be further addressed?

The free market reward systems are precisely why we have the strongest economy in the world, so much so that people from countless nations flood our borders just to get in here. The problem with doing things that reduce those awards is that wealth redistribution is not a zero sum game, as countless countries continue to learn the hard way. When you reduce the rewards for your most productive citizens, <strong>they produce less and the pie shrinks for everyone</strong>.

Now sure we need to have guardrails, but we already do.
- 30% of our population is currently getting free healthcare from Medicaid and countless millions more are getting it through subsidized Obamacare and CHIP programs.
- 13% of our population receives food stamps and we're one of the few countries in the world where obesity is a major problem for the poorest in our population.
- We spend obscene amounts of money per pupil in educating our kids, <strong>especially</strong> those in inner city environments, even if the outcomes are not always what we hope.
- We have more good paying jobs available than people willing to take them. Indeed our labor force participation among young men has actually shrunk since the pandemic, probably because we continue to subsidize laziness via waived work requirements for certain government benefits.

I could go on. Seriously now, what the fuck more are we supposed to do that will not have more negative than positive consequences? Feel free to be very specific instead of talking in slogans.

"Pinning the spike in oil prices on Biden alone is disingenuous, his policies are just one of many factors."

Absolving Biden of responsibility, like he himself is trying to do, is bullshit, when gas was spiking long before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Read carefully... "on Biden alone". His policies are only one element, just as the war in Ukraine is one element as well. The pandemic had a major impact on the industry as has lack of investment from the oil majors. But feel free to continue pinning this all on Joe Biden.

^ Gasoline prices were rising due to shortages created by the ending of Covid era lock downs, which caused the refineries to decrease production due to the drop in demand, for refined product, not because of an actual shortage of oil, this was world wide, not just here in the USA, not saying Biden's policies didn't have some effect, but the underlying causes were not controllable by his administration, then to make a bad situation worse the Russians started using oil as a weapon, which should have been anticipated but wasn't so you really have a perfect storm.

^ Hard to believe the end of COVID lockdowns tracked so well to the beginning of Biden's presidency, to say nothing of the Democrats' threats to shut down the fossil fuel industry for decades.

The old crank says it was all Putin. I would call it a bald-faced lie if he wasn't so damn senile he might well believe it.

But just look at Germany to see how we aren't ready for an energy transition. The quote of the week comes right here.
"Maybe allowing a petulant Scandinavian teenager to set the country's energy policy was not the brightest idea after all."
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/deutsc…

The left's anti-fossil-fuel BS is mostly political and virtue-signaling - what sense does it make to cut-down on one's own energy-supply to then just have to buy it from another country many of which may not be worth doing business with in the first place - not to mention many of those countries source the energy in less clean ways and then that energy often has to be shipped adding even more green-house-gasses.

The Democrats are not a monolith same as the Republicans, most of the attempts to shut down the fossil fuel industry is coming from the extreme wing like the Green New Deal, and as far as I know Biden never signed on, or even paid them as much mind as you guys on here, yes the AOC group has a following, but the Democrats that got Biden elected were mostly the folks that are centrists with a large assist from the Obama wing of the party.
You guys keep on trying to pin the Bernie Sanders wish lists on the entire Democratic party, and it's going to backfire, because of all this stupidity, Trump is going to be making a mess out of what should have been an easy Republican mid-term election, and believe me one thing if Trump is the nominee in 2024, the Democratic turn out for the Presidential election will exceed the the 2020 turnout to get rid him. Nobody can mobilize the Democratic vote like Donald Trump.

@25, yet the Dems energy and money come from the progressive end of the party, or are directed at the person of Donald Trump.
From the Democrats, I hear either J6 (a Beltway/Manhattan newsroom favorite that doesn't fly elsewhere) or culture war (pronouns are niche-niche, most pro-choice don't vote on abortion, most gun voters are Republican).
The extent of "kitchen table" issues are pointing fingers, or trying to convince people "it's not as bad as it looks." Both those are losers.
The only reasons Dems won't lose more is because there are more safe seats than ever and the GOP is running some horrible candidates like in PA and GA.

If the Dems want a hope of keeping anything, they need a concrete plan to combat inflation.

"... The Democrats are not a monolith same as the Republicans ..."

When one refers to the Dems or democrats, it's often referring to the political leadership of the party, not to every single individual person that happens to be a democrat - the democrat leadership has decided to align itself with the green-new-dealers vs allowing America to have as strong an energy sector as it could.

^^ I guess we will find out soon enough, the elections are coming at us very rapidly, another shoe dropped today with Ted Cruz starting a new culture war regarding gay marriage, it seems to me that I've not seen such a bunch so eager to shoot themselves in the foot, like this bunch of lunatics as the Republican leadership.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/17/politics/…

^ We'll see if this picks up momentum. Even abortion isn't front of mind any longer. Dems seem to keep flogging issues like trans stuff and global warming, where they're either on the wrong end of public opinion or people just don't care.

Meanwhile, inflation, 401(k)'s, potential recession hit every day.

The Democrat brain trust ( Biden, Harris, Pelosi, Schumer 😉 ) is still using the same election strategy they’ve used for 50 years:

- We are the party of compassion
- We’ll give everyone free stuff without raising the deficit
- We are smart about foreign policy
- Republicans are the party of the rich
- Republicans hate blacks, Latinos, women, children, senior citizens, and puppy dogs.
- We only have a few years to stop climate change

Democrats have managed to destroy their credibility on all these issues. Inflation. Afghanistan. Hunter Biden. Transgender. Crime. Etc. The old playbook is less and less effective but Democrats keep running the same plays.

Great we'll find out what happens soon, right now it's time to have some fun looking at some fabulous titties and nice round ass, I.m going to get a few lap dances so you guys keep on keeping on.

The Financial Times reported last week that EU authorities reported massive ‘black market’ sales of NATO/US military weapons and munitions ship into Ukraine to gangs in Western Europe. This is exactly why Sen Rand Paul demanded an Inspector General be appointed to oversee the billions of aid .

“the latest Baker Hughes numbers show the US rig count now at 756, up 272 in the last year which is +56%”

That’s some clever date picking right there. The number of active rigs dropped in half in 2020 because of CoVid. The recent increase is simply bringing those rigs back on line. Meanwhile, the number of drilling permits has plunged since Biden became President.

^ Excuse me but if the number of rigs is up 56% what the fuck do they need new permits for, I mean shit man, talk about fucking with statistics, that's what you're doing now.

Wild4tatas admits that he doesn't watch the news and just makes shit up.

Okay. He's right. I agree.

His opinions and statements So outrageously false and lacking any basis in facts and data that they can only come from the empty mind of one of the DNC's useful idiots.

The back and white facts are that the US was a net energy exporter by the end of the Trump presidency. Biden had destroyed that success and is unable to fix it. The number of rigs and shit don't matter, that's all useless trivia. The democrat failure extensds far beyond barrels per day. There are millions of moving parts and policies involved. The bottom line is that Biden and the democrat party are incapable of running s modern economy. They are to wrapped up in optics, social justice, and social interests to do what is in the best interest of everyday voters. How is that so hard to see? The big problem with most democrats is that they only hear what they want to hear, abs know only what they heard. Unless you are one of those special idiots who hears, reads, and learns nothing and just makes up BS as you go along.

We do need to cut government spending.... cut corporate welfare. End tax breaks for the rich. Gut the Pentagon's budget. Cut foreign aid. No aid for wars or Israel. End tax exemptions for churches.

Gammanu95 says I admit I make shit up, which I did not, so in fact he is just making shit up. He's too full of hot air to realize that the US rig count, which he dismisses as "useless trivia" is in fact a key component of US energy independence. The rig count plunged because of Covid, just like mark said. Not Biden. And the point is Biden is not obstructing their return. Apparently, many of the drilling permits held by industry sit unused due to lack of investment.

Here's a good read:
More oil supply could stop massive price spikes. But US producers won't fill that gap
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/02/energy/us…

“Apparently, many of the drilling permits held by industry sit unused due to lack of investment.”

An oil permit represents a billion dollar, and a 20 year, investment. If a President has already told you he wants to wipe out your industry, you’d be a fool to make that sort of commitment.

^ Now your back to putting words in the president's mouth, still looking for your source that shows Biden saying he wants to wipe out the oil industry, and factually the oil industry would want to pump as much as possible from the rigs that are actually available, that would be just maximizing profit not new investment, truth is that just like every other industry in America they can't find skilled workers to operate the rigs so there's a fuck ton of capacity still unavailable.

"I'm not liberal, I don't watch MSNBC. I am a moderate centrist, an independent, and so I watch CNN." If that statement describes you, then you are another mindless fool incapable of critical analysis. CNN has openly admitted, not that they need to, that they are liberal AF, and utterly set against Republicans, conservativism, and the concept of making America great again. They know that paradigm s destroying their viewership, but their offices are so full of left-wing nutjuobs that they cannot pivot away. But go ahead and keep thinking they are an unbiased news source. At least Hannity and Ingraham admit what they are, and Bret Baier is the most fair-handed anchor on the air (damn, I miss Megyn Kelly).

There is no rational or honest argument to dispel the fact that Biden and his administration have destroyed America's energy independence, planned to destroy America's independence, and executed policy to destroy America's energy independence. In true democrat party fashion, they did so without considering or having the capability to foresee the consequences. Any argument to the contrary is pure fantasy.

https://nypost.com/2022/06/13/gas-prices…
https://youtu.be/U4Ea83x4DN8
https://www.investors.com/politics/edito…
https://youtu.be/8YJeWEWU-FE

So, forget all the leases. Many of those leases are useless. Not every grid-square in the GoM produces oil or can be accessed easily enough to produce oil at a profit. Forget the number of rigs. Not every rig is operational (staffing, maintenance, hurricane damaged) or sitting on a producing well. Those are all meaningless trivia quoted by people who do not understand fossil fuel production works, or any basic American economic and business principle. Never forget that I am a conservationist. I am against fracking and against drilling in ANWAR. But I am also a patriot. I am against importing energy from OPEC, China, Venezuela, or Russia. But the Keystone pipeline would have brought crude in from our neighbor and NORAD partner Canada to be refined and distributed from Texas and Louisiana. Even after all the thousands of high-paying jobs on the pipeline, there would have been thousands more of accessible blue collar jobs created in America.

Trump never had to go the Saudis begging for more gas, was it because he was a better diplomat (hilarious, I know)? Of course not.

Video of Biden guaranteeing to put an end to fossil fuels

https://youtu.be/Slszva6kk90

We need to move off of fossil fuels, and we need to stop using economic expansion as a justification for promoting more consumption. Capitalism is insane.

SJG


Dakota Cohen - Heart - Heartless with the School of Rock 2017 AllStars Team 7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aulZmMz6…

^ Capitalism brought billions out of extreme poverty. Thanks to the Kuznets effect, capitalism is driving us to seek better environmental standards. No one gives a fuck about global warming if they don't know where their next meal is coming from.

This is the Democrats' dilemma. Germany shows the world is clearly not ready for a green transition. They have to choose between the people and the greens.

Capitalism has created poverty amidst plenty. It does not solve problems it creates problems and then justifies this by continually trying to expand.

Germany has been a pioneer of green transition.

SJG

I just posted a link to an article on CNN, and gammanu95 goes off suggesting I'm a mindless fool incapable of critical analysis... LOL. He needs to look in the mirror. I've had political debates with right wing believers like him before, despite comments like this I often continue because it's too much fun poking holes at their bs arguments.

Have a look at that CNN article, you might learn something. I agree they have been infiltrated by left wing activists to some extent, especially on social issues. There are a few personalities there I can't stand. But in general, CNN's news reporting is much less biased than Fox News or MSNBC.

Here's a few quotes I found interesting:

"Like many industries during the pandemic, oil producers are struggling with a shortage of workers. They're also having trouble sourcing some of the equipment they would need to ramp up production, including pipes and specialized sand used in fracking to extract shale oil."

"They can't find people, and can't find equipment," said Robert McNally, president of consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group. "It's not like they're available at a premium price. They're just not available."

"Oil and gas companies do not want to drill more," said Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James. "They are under pressure from the financial community to pay more dividends, to do more share buybacks instead of the proverbial 'drill baby drill,' which is the way they would have done things 10 years ago. Corporate strategy has fundamentally changed."

wld4's CNN article

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/02/energy/us…

SJG

"Germany has been a pioneer of green transition."

Yeah. A pioneer in begging Russia for gas, restarting coal plants, and their largest bank is predicting that people will have to use wood to heat their homes.

"Capitalism has created poverty amidst plenty."

There would be no plenty without capitalism. There would be no inequality either, because everyone would be some degree of fucking miserable. That's the price to pay.

>Video of Biden guaranteeing to put an end to fossil fuels

Basically irrelevant, except for being a distraction for political and corporate purposes.

Why are the rig counts going up? That's costing a lot of money. Of course, because there is money to be made. Oil and gas are going to be around and profitable for at least decades to come. We were energy independent without Keystone, without the new leases that are being requested today. Heck big oil was stockpiling leases before Biden. All the ingredients already exist for the US to become energy independent again, Biden isn't blocking any necessary element.

The only rational conclusion is that high gas prices today are almost entirely the result of the pandemic and the actions of the private sector.

===> "The rig count plunged because of Covid, just like mark said. Not Biden. And the point is Biden is not obstructing their return. Apparently, many of the drilling permits held by industry sit unused due to lack of investment."

Are you really that fucking stupid? Have you not been keeping track of the countless other ways that this administration has kept it's boot on the neck of the oil industry? Seriously dude, before you open that hole under your nose, do a little research.

It doesn't matter if you have a drilling permit if you can't get approval to pipe the shit to a refinery. Or if EPA regulations are in such flux that you can't get a handle on whether you can actually turn a profit from the permit even if you can get pipeline approval, which is doubtful. Or if you encounter investor resistance from funding the new rig because the SEC has proposed absurd rules which are scaring off most institutional investors. Or...

The list goes on. There is an alphabet soup of agencies with rules in various stages of adoption all designed to punish domestic oil drillers. Do you really think that they don't like to earn money? The problem is that they don't dare invest in new rigs when they can't gauge whether they can actually even get the oil to where it needs to be and/or turn a profit. So instead they are just pumping from their most productive rigs and returning capital to investors.

Big Oil is profiting wildly from the current situation. Claims of "uncertainty" about profits when oil projections are >$100 for the foreseeable future sound like just the spin (excuse) that Big Oil and the financial sector want everyday folks to believe. Rick are you really that gullible?

Big Oil Spends on Investors, Not Output, Prolonging Crude Crunch
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Want to know how we can have inflation and recession at the same time ? By taxing regular citizens to overpay millions of government employees. There were 86 LA firefighters who were paid over $400,000 last year. That doesn’t count the pension they will receive based on that pay level.

https://justthenews.com/nation/states/ce…

@wld4tatas: You are the gullible one if you believe that oil companies are willingly sacrificing the long-term sustainability of their oil production for a few more profitable quarters. Wells dry up and go offline eventually. In every historical past boom cycle oil companies have responded by developing new wells in order to assure longer-term production stability. But not this time, nor should they when the federal government is actively gunning for you.

What's further exacerbating the problem is our declining refinery capacity. Refinery capacity has diminished by over 5% since Biden took office. Now some of this was storm related, other refineries have tried to fill the void but have been blocked by the EPA with biofuel and other environmental mandates.

It never ends. Biden whines in public about U.S. oil companies not producing enough, but in private continues to beat them down.

You're blaming biden for decades of private sector neglect of the oil industrys infrastructure.

If Joe Machin had let Biden pass his build back better with its tax hikes on high income, things would be much better today.

SJG

Khatia Buniatishvili is hypnotic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jbHbDen…

Prices increase due to the money supply TIMES the velocity of money, and decreases due to the available quantity of goods and services https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mon… . The Fed increased the money supply when the housing bubble burst and during COVID, when there was a risk of a deflationary spiral. Now that a higher velocity of money is raising prices, the Fed is reducing the money supply by raising the discount rate and ending quantitative easing.

The COVID response was all just green ink on paper. And that was really stupid because all it did was prop up the real estate bubble.

With no underlying activity, it was the real estate and securities bubbles which needed to crash.

Today that money needs to be collected back, and the upper income tax hikes in Biden's Build Back Better would be a first step at doing this.

SJG

Schumann: Klavierkonzert ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Khatia Buniatishvili ∙ Paavo Järvi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jbHbDen…

Most of you skirt around the fact that the increase jn money supply is due to handouts to businesses and corporations. Like the businesses that abused the ppp program...the enormous handouts to the real estate sector. You're trying to blame the few scraps thrown at poor Americans

The main handouts were in the COVID bailout payments. On the surface they were monies for people who lost their paychecks. But the effects of this was simply to prop up rentiers and mortgage lenders. So most people were still getting further behind.

As the economy was shut down, the things where this need to be felt, was in the securities and real estate bubbles.

What we needed to do then was to start building a strong public housing offering and go to UBI payments, and then let the real estate and securities bubbles deflate. There would also be higher taxes on high incomes as most of the money would end up there. Need to get it back.

We've crashed our currency instead of letting the ponzi schemes collapse.

SJG

Most of the money went to businesses and corporations. People got a few tiny scraps

People got to keep next to nothing. BUt the bailout payments went to individuals. ITs just that it ended up with landlords and mortgage lenders.

SJG

>.. why do you think BIG OIL gave millions to the BIDEN campaign.. do you think BIG OIL enjoyed the low oil prices of the last admin or do you think they gave money to biden to get elected so the price of their commodity would finally go up in price?

@desertscrub - The political donations have pretty much zilch to do with the point I'm debating which is the false and absurd right wing narrative that Joe Biden is responsible for the high price of oil. In the link you shared, Big Oil gave much more to Republicans than to Democrats; and Trump received $1,873,342 while Biden received $769,956. The donations to Biden and other Democrats only have one purpose which is to curry favor (or limit damage) if they get elected. It's all self-serving, obviously.

@rickdugan: You are pulling from the right wing playbook that whenever the government comes across as antagonistic to an industry, that industry is justified in taking whatever measures are appropriate to protect itself. It certainly sounds perfectly logical. But is it really the case with Biden and the US oil industry? One has to (or should) dig a little deeper. I have, and I can't find a single example of an actual or proposed regulation that has expert concensus while significantly impact Big Oil profitability. Care to share an example?




In fact the

Texas Survey Shows Why Oil Producers Aren’t Drilling More
https://www.barrons.com/articles/texas-s…

^ oops accidently clicked the "post" button too early... where's the "edit" button

Meant to add-- In a recent survey of oil and gas executives, only 6% said government regulations were the reason they weren't drilling more than they are. See the above link I posted. This pretty much puts your theory in the certifiably bogus category.

“When asked why they aren’t raising production more, 59% of respondents said it was because investors are pressuring them to maintain capital discipline.”

Any capital investment for drilling needs 20 years to earn a profit. Biden has said he wants to end fossil fuels in America. His administration wants to have 50% of vehicles sold to be electric by 2030. Of course they don’t want to invest in that environment. I explained that earlier in this thread.

The place where Joe Biden face planted into the concrete falling off his bike last month has been named as ‘Brandon Falls’ on Google Maps by some clever person. They have also placed a 5 star bicycle shop on the Google map at that location.

I expect Google to delete this, if they haven’t already.

Biden energy official says the quiet part out loud. Advises against long term investment in fossil fuels.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blo…

From Yahoo news

“Climate leaders are calling for President Biden to declare climate change a national emergency — and it appears that the White House is seriously considering the move.

A formal declaration would open up new possibilities for unilateral action by the executive branch to combat climate change, including halting U.S. exports of crude oil and halting offshore drilling. Biden could even redirect military funding to the construction of renewable energy projects. “

Maybe the populations of Texas and Oklahoma would rather be roasted to death than admit Joe Biden is right ?

Potentially deadly, record-breaking heat continues to bake the central US
https://www.foxweather.com/weather-news/…

Climate situation bad.

Got to stop trashing environmental concerns just to perpetuate the Work Ethic Squirrel Cage.

SJG

^ Kuznets effect- With prosperity brings concern about the environment.

No one cares about climate change when they have trouble keeping food on the table.

I’m a Wells Fargo customer - mainly b/c I was formerly a Wachovia customer and Wells Fargo bought them - I stayed with Wells Fargo b/c as a result of buying Wachovia they have the highest # of branches - within 10-minutes or-so of my house off the top of my head there are at least 5 branches including one within walking distance.

Anyway - I recently got the following email from Wells Fargo:

“We recently said goodbye to these fees”

“Returned item/Non-sufficient funds (NSF) fee: We no longer charge an NSF fee on items we return unpaid due to non-sufficient funds”

“Overdraft Protection transfer/advance fee(s): We no longer charge transfer or advance fees for transfers/advances from accounts linked for Overdraft Protection”


I wonder why they are being so “generous” all of a sudden – I got a feeling something bad is coming down the pike and why they all of a sudden are being so generous.

Wells Fargo was in very-hot-water a few years ago for doing a lot of shady-shit behind customers’ backs – as of late in these current “woke times”, I’ve also noticed that their TV commercials mainly have a black actress; and on their website over the last 2 years or so it’s always a black person on the website’s cover – makes me think they are trying to “rehabilitate their image” by trying to get in the good graces of the woke-mob.

And we have extreme agricultural surplus in this country as we do in the production of all other goods and services.

The only scarcity we have is the one capitalism creates with the work ethic squirrel cage.

SJG

Gimme Shelter - School of Rock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwlRGS0x…

Hot weather = Irrefutable proof of climate change
Cold weather = Irrefutable proof of climate change
Forest Fire = Irrefutable proof of climate change
Tornado = Irrefutable proof of climate change

Wild climate swings, out of well regulated range, not just only hotter.

SJG

"Flashback 1989: UN Predicted Global Warming Would Destroy Entire Nations By 2000"


"... Well, at least according to a top United Nations official who warned that “entire nations could be wiped off the face of the earth” by the year 2000 if nothing was done to stop global warming ..."

https://dailycaller.com/2015/03/12/un-sa…

But we have since then tried to reduce CO2. Party over global warming, but partly over concerns about fossil fuels running out.

Today I think we worry more about CO2 than fuels running out. They say that the fuels which remain must stay in the ground.

CO2 causing polar ice caps to melt. Bulldozers running down the Amazon Rain Forest. These are our two climate regulators.

So there will be:

hotter hots ( as we are seeing right now )

colder colds

stronger storms ( as we have seen lots of )

deeper draughts

The only thing we have to fear from greater environmental regulations is an end to the Work Ethic Squirrel Cage and the exploitation by the Financializers.

SJG

Thick As Thieves Sirius/Jane(Alan Parsons Project and Jefferson Starship Cover)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I6Clyjo…

The financial contagion is spreading:

“Tanks have been deployed on the streets of China to protect the banks — Due to the Henan branch of the Bank of China declaring that people's SAVINGS in their branch are now 'INVESTMENT PRODUCTS’ and can't be withdrawn

^ Yippie!

This is what should have happened around the world before COVID. But it is happening now!

Don't walk under high rises.

SJG

Thick As Thieves Sirius/Jane(Alan Parsons Project and Jefferson Starship Cover)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I6Clyjo…

Jane - School of Rock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdWq4w8D…

China's financial situation including lack of food availability is what some say was behind China's latest lockdowns - they were just using Covid as an excuse to keep people forced in their homes vs protesting in the streets

The f'in world is collapsing and Brandon along with all the f'ing woke MFs are precipitating the collapse - all they care is that they remain in power and increase their power which they can likely more readily achieve if people are scrambling just to get their basic needs met and thus don't have the ability/resources to stand up against the government - straight out of the totalitarian-playbook - make people totally dependent on the government and that way they won't be able to stand up to the government

@SJG, you do realize this UBI, end of work ethic economy is literally one in which you are at the complete mercy of the Musk's, Bezos', and Zuckerberg's of the world, and when they pull up and leave, you are literally left destitute?

Get out of your shelter and flip burgers or do something. All this spare time to post everything you've Googled on here leaves you to marinate in crazy ideas. It's clearly not good for ya.

For the record I am not 100% convinced of climate change. We have incomplete understanding of long-term patterns and variations that would be normal regardless of carbon emissions. However, you have to admit there is some plausible science supporting it. I say the prudent thing is to take action rather than wait until it may be too late. There is a growing percentage of conservatives who have a similar viewpoint, but unfortunately, ignorance and anti-left hatred and still holding most conservatives back.

>“When asked why they aren’t raising production more, 59% of respondents said it was because investors are pressuring them to maintain capital discipline.”

@mark94 -Glad you read the article and I expected you might quote that statement. However, you do realize, investors = Wall Street millionaires and billionaires. And this so-called capital discipline involved returning huge profits to shareholders, including corporate executives, instead of keeping it to survive while their industry is being threatened.

The translation of that statement is "Millionaires and billionaires pressured Big Oil companies to give them their record profits, instead of drilling more to bring down the price of gas for average Americans."

Here is the so-called capital discipline that Big Oil "investors" are clamoring for:

Exxon and Chevron, Buoyed by High Oil Prices, Shower Investors With Cash
https://www.wsj.com/articles/oil-giants-…

In simple terms: money out of the pocket of average Joe ---> money into the pocket of the wealthiest 1%. Please spare us the next talking point which is that average Joe 401ks will benefit, that's a silver lining but on balance this is a classic, huge net transfer of wealth to the richest. Remember that the next time you spend $100 filling your tank.

Tetra wrote, "@SJG, you do realize this UBI, end of work ethic economy is literally one in which you are at the complete mercy of the Musk's, Bezos', and Zuckerberg's of the world, and when they pull up and leave, you are literally left destitute?"

Tetra, the sooner those oligarchs leave the better.

wld4tatas, you've got it right, financialization is always an upwards wealth transfer, financializers riding on the backs of convenience store clerks, UBER drivers, police, firefighters, school teachers, and low level tech sector workers.

SJG

Jefferson Starship - Jane - 2018 School of Rock AllStars Team 6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdWq4w8D…

"Tetra, the sooner those oligarchs leave the better."

Without rich people, your UBI is a buck fifty a month.

No, the basic idea is that it is enough to live off of, basically.

SJG

^ Without enough rich people paying in, you aren't getting anything out. Why do I need to explain third grade math to you?

Negative. The rich could be incinerated and it would not make any difference.

It is mostly the same money recirculating until taxes have eaten it up and then it can be paid out again. Poor people aren't using their money to inflate the securities and real estate ponzi schemes.

You only need upper income tax hikes to the extent that the increased payouts will also fatten the fat. Half of the money does go to those above the median income, no needs test. And then also the rich have tap roots which go deep into our economy. So even Food Stamps increases the wealth gap, unless you have progressive taxation.

Now as far as having some big pot of money to get it started, to make up the recirculation friction, Pelosi and Trump printed that up for us. Now we just need to retrieve it and put it to good use.

SJG

Jane, another group, using less people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azl_Wr1a…

^ They won't be incinerated, they'll leave the country and their wealth with them. You won't have a chance to seize it, it'll be instantaneously transferred anyways.

It isn't even income; you won't get it.

And we haven't even gotten into every future wealth generating enterprise that won't get created, or won't do business in America.

You're a reliable contraindicator for what we should do as a country.

Let 'em leave, and the sooner the better. Real property will be taxed, but income and other wealth will not be. Don't need to tax them. Only want to raise taxes on the fat who are being fattened by UBI and its siphon up.

Wealth Generation is a mind fuck of the Supply Side Illogic, what G. H. W. Bush called "voodoo economics".

With UBI people will be able to pursue more education and more creative ventures.

Stern is real good:
https://www.amazon.com/Raising-Floor-Uni…

What we needed to have done in 2020 was to declare capitalism over, finished off because of COVID, and to have stared UBI instead of making those idiotic bailout payments.

But we didn't have much in the way of progressive leadership, and we still don't.

SJG

Chicago School of Rock House Band
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-55rKa7f…

No, it has nothing to do with "supply side." It has to do with all this wealth to be distributed having to come from somewhere.
Thank God we don't have much progressive leadership, Bernie is a ranting old man and the "squad" is a Twitter phenomenon.

We need less frivolous education, and more doers. I'd trade a hundred overeducated pronoun-obsessed Oberlin liberal arts grads for one immigrant with fire in their belly and a plan.

"Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."

- Frederic Bastiat

Wealth is food, clothing, shelter, transportation, education. It is produced by workers, not financializers.

And we have a surplus across the board.

Bernie and the squad are some of the most sensible Americans around.

The most frivolous education is job training, because it is a fraud. It is tracking people into jobs which will never draw out their abilities. Most of the time it is oversold, as in every field their are too many people so trained. The best education is that which draws out people's talents.

The people who live at the expense of everybody else are the financializers.

SJG


SJG

https://tuscl.net/photo.php?id=3309

^ Again with the financializers rant when I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about people who build shit. Elon Musk is doing more than any political apparatchik to "go green." You want a modern standard of living with less environmental impact, we need more like him. We need inventors and entrepreneurs. And yes, they need capital to do their thing. I agree that they have power and wealth beyond their utility, but that's a separate issue.

Dipshits with gender studies and racial grievance studies degrees go around making their own problems; they subtract value from society. Hell, LeBron thinks Brittney Griner is as oppressed in America as in a Russian jail? Funny, she really wants out of there.

Progressives have no idea how to create wealth, only how to move it around and skim some off the top. Mostly they just piss and moan. They never accomplish anything because they couldn't sell pussy on a Navy submarine. Their ideas are great in theory, horrible when you see the bill. But it's better for them that way, they can claim their ideas are perfect and have never been tried. And their supporters, like you, can always blame the opposition. Like any politician hasn't faced opposition for their ideas.

The people who build the stuff that we need, that which is wealth are workers. The development of the technology has been done throughout the 20th Century, and usually with the intended application being war. But because of the we have the ability to take care of everybody better than even royalty had lived in past centuries.

We generally benefit from inventors and entrepreneurs, although Musk seems to have gone off the deep end. These people are not always a benefit.

If what draws out someone's talents is gender studies and racial grievance studies, then these are the most relevant education. People developing such talents are every bit as important to society as what Musk and Bezos do.

Wealth is social, a shared vision, and this is what progressives best do, thinking here of Bernie Sanders, AOC, and Squad.

SJG

"The people who build the stuff that we need, that which is wealth are workers."
It takes scientists and engineers to tell workers what to build. Businessmen make sure they are resourced to do so. You seem pretty fucking crazy but not stupid in the math homework sense of the word. Surprised you don't know this.

If you're satisfied with living better than royalty has in the past, that's fine. I disagree, as do most people. In my field, I see a lot of people suffering the burden of disease. Children with brain cancer. Grandmothers with Alzheimer's. Middle-aged women with untreatable multiple sclerosis or lupus. My own lifelong struggles with mental illness--that are damn real, regardless of your hang-ups around the issue (you have no cred on the issue whatsoever). That's unacceptable, and I'm never going to get complacent around it or treat them as collateral damage.

I'm going to vote and fight for the innovators. If you're going to stand in the way, you'd best brace for impact.

Regardless of Musk's Twitter, I'll repeat myself, he's done more for green energy than any dumbass progressive politician. We need more like him. A need-based immigration platform rather than Biden's letting in millions of economic migrants with the intent to legalize them as potential Democrat voters. But at least they're here to work.

"If what draws out someone's talents is gender studies and racial grievance studies, then these are the most relevant education. People developing such talents are every bit as important to society as what Musk and Bezos do."

LOL! Talents? Talents to balkanize American society and create strife? Talents to drive families and friends and marriages apart? It's less than worthless, it's actively destructive. We should ship them to Russia and China and Iran to spread their venomous ideas and tear those societies apart.

Wealth needs to be created before it can be shared. Once it's made, we can spread it around. I've supported upper income tax hikes here, primarily through the elimination of loopholes and deductions. But not killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

We have many talented people. We do not need these oligarchs who think they own the world.

As far as illness, true, better drugs for these things would be good. And we can make sure that we have public funds and college education for people to work on them.

But the squirrel cage economy wastes the talents of most and only fattens the financializers.

It is not a goose that lays the golden egg, it is a monster and we need to slay it.

SJG

https://tuscl.net/photo.php?id=9418

Jan 6th
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48HH4LVn…

^ These "oligarchs" got that way by creating products that people desire. Yeah, some of them got a lot of taxpayer funding or loans, but that can be reformed with giving the government some kind of blind equity stake (so they can't favor their investments with preferential legislation). Besides, if we're getting some kind of social benefit, we're getting return on investment anyways. If you're envious just because someone made a lot of money, then cope harder.

My point is, college education isn't the social good in this country that it used to be. We talk about Europe, but the college experience there is much different. A lot of commuter schools. Bare bones facilities, nowhere near the amenities we have here. A lot more people shunted to trade schools, they're not denigrated like they are here.

We need to teach teenagers that becoming a mechanic, electrician, or plumber is just as noble a calling (and may be more practical) than a four-year college degree. Without those three professions I just mentioned, the country grinds to a halt. Without gender and racial studies majors, we're a happier and more unified people. Whom do we really need?

American entrepreneurship is the goose that lays the golden egg. We need more of them.

>The f'in world is collapsing and Brandon along with all the f'ing woke MFs are precipitating the collapse - all they care is that they remain in power and increase their power which they can likely more readily achieve if people are scrambling just to get their basic needs met and thus don't have the ability/resources to stand up against the government - straight out of the totalitarian-playbook - make people totally dependent on the government and that way they won't be able to stand up to the government

@Papi_Chulo: Geez, crack open a cool one and relax. It's Trump that tried to remain in power at almost all costs. The Democratic party is not about creating government dependence, it's about having a strong government to address needs that are not adequately addressed by the private sector.

I hope we’ve learned the lesson that we need to bring manufacturing back to the US. That alone will bring hope to the millions of Americans who can work their way into the middle class.

Democrat politicians are the puppets of those in the elites who see us as milk cows. Republican politicians are the puppets of those in the elites who plan on having steak for dinner.

College education is a major social good because it develops talent in young people.

We don't need those oligarchs, not at all. If they want to leave, hurry them up.

Advance Industrial and Information Technology has given us a river of gold, but we are still too pigheaded to see it.

UBI raises the floor, it doesn't take down the ceiling.


Yes, we need to bring manufacturing back to the US, YES!

And yes,

"
Democrat politicians are the puppets of those in the elites who see us as milk cows. Republican politicians are the puppets of those in the elites who plan on having steak for dinner."

SJG

^ Yeah, who needs _money_ when you want to create giant new entitlements. Envy makes for horrible politics.

Europe taxes well into the middle class to fund their stuff. And I pointed out how it's less luxurious than what we have.

With the democratization of information, we're headed towards a period of unprecedented self education and a breaking of the college monopoly. People will ask a lot more questions before going $250,000 in debt.

"With the democratization of information, we're headed towards a period of unprecedented self education and a breaking of the college monopoly. People will ask a lot more questions before going $250,000 in debt."

I'll go along with that. But as it is now many still want conventional college.

We are already entitled, its the fruits of 200 years of industrial and information technology, plus having survived a bunch of wars.

Soon financializers will no longer be able to ride on the backs of working people.

SJG

"But as it is now many still want conventional college."

Doesn't mean we need to subsidize it. If you want the deluxe alternative, you can pay for the 4 year party. I'm a lot more OK with finding community college, STEM majors than 4 year long vacations for kids to learn how to hate America while they smoke weed.

Financiers are needed. I agree that they've gotten too big a share of the pie though enterprises need money to succeed.

We need entrepreneurs, engineers, and scientists. We have good workers, and +1 to reshoring manufacturing.

No, if people want it, it is a very honorable pursuit, so we should fully foot the bill.

STEM majors track people into Frat Boy and Striver Work Environments. Pretty damn stupid.

We need people who are developing their talents, and that means UBI, Strong Public Housing Offering, Medicare for All, and Free College and College Debt Forgiveness. We only need to raise uppen income taxes to the extent that the fat are being fattened by these programs.

SJG

There aren't enough upper-income people to pay for one of your little entitlement programs, especially if you just chased them out of your country with your aforementioned "let 'em leave."

Oh, and this bout of inflation put the lie to progressives' beloved "modern monetary theory." Cost of debt service is going to cripple new entitlements for some time.

We need more strivers, and fewer brats with the useless, self-righteous attitude that they are entitled to seek their own self-actualization at anyone else's expense.

I want strivers from all over the world--doctors from Ghana, entrepreneurs from the Czech Republic, engineers from India, not useless brats who only know how to foment social division.

Feel free to hate from the library, man.

Upper income people will not be paying. Money recirculating will pay. ONly need to tax the upper incomes, as the money always ends up with them.

Yeah, let em leave, chase them out.

Does this need more money to start off? Probably, but Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump were holding hands at the printing press.

Is this Modern Monetary Theory and does it cause inflation? It sure does when there is no economic activity under it. COVID bail out payments were stupid.

BUt UBI is not, it means paying jobs and business opportunities.


We need more who will stand up to Right Wing Bullies like you, whether you call them strivers or brats.

When people stand up for themselves they will not put up with anyone like you denigrating them.

People can do more with more education and bottom end financial security.

And on one, not of any skin color, should ever feel that they need to prove anything to you or to ever have your approval for anything they do.

SJG

"... With the democratization of information, we're headed towards a period of unprecedented self education and a breaking of the college monopoly ..."

Just as much we need a breakup of the federal government and all these power-grabbing federal agencies we are spending billions to maintain to rule over us

LOL you can't make up your mind where the money is going to come from. Your post is barely comprehensible as English, let alone economics.

Socialists lose because socialism contradicts human nature. "From each according to his ability to each according to his need" would work if we were automatons or angels. "Progressives" or "democratic socialists" are old wine in a new wineskin. It's the same redistribution shit, make everyone equal under a powerful elite that somehow takes more than its fair share. Everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others. AOC, Bernie, the Squad, all your idols in DC don't get that, which is why they can't win anyone over. They think they're just marketing it wrong, or the opposition isn't playing fair, but the fact is their ideas fucking suck. That's why Bernie's only sponsored a handful of bills that have passed, and one of them is naming a post office.

UBI means a whole dependent caste. Where we've seen similar situations, it leads to drug abuse and alcoholism. That's the last thing we need. Now, if you're so passionate about this because you need to feel better about yourself and the obviously sad condition of your life, that's too bad. Everything you've said on this thread speaks to the spoiled child's belief that society needs to conform to your whims.

We need people who, as prominent Democrat JFK said, "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." That means put down the J and the XBox controller and make something of yourself. Yes, strive. Reach your potential. Don't act like the world owes you something just for existing, because it doesn't. Write a great book. Compose a symphony. Cure a disease. Invent something cool. And we need to import people into the country who want to add something to it. Need-based immigration all the way, baby.

And if you just want to hate on it or cause division, we'll fly you first class, one way, to the third-world tinpot dictatorship of your choice.

Don't know where the fuck you got skin color from; the race card is the leftist's last resort when they're getting spanked on the facts.

Losers gonna lose.

Just heard that when Faucci retires his pension will be over $400,000 per year

^ Good for him. He probably could have made a fortune in the private sector, but instead he dedicated his life to public service.

Politicians get richer than most competent people in the private sector. They trade of their name, and get access to insider information for stock trading.

If Trump regains the Presidency in 2024, he has a plan to reclassify 50,000 mid level bureaucrats as Schedule F employees, allowing Trump to fire them. Drain the swamp.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article…

Except after all we've learned from the January 6 hearings, what sane person would vote for a morally bankrupt candidate like Trump?

The January 6th hearings are a joke. They don't allow for the opposition party to select members to be on the committee but, instead, appoint 2 members of the opposition party that will soon be out of office. They don't allow for cross examination of witnesses so they can say whatever they want and have it go unchallenged. They allow for "anonymous" witnesses to present whatever they want as fact.

The only people that believe in these kangaroo court hearings are the people that drank the Kool-Aid a long time ago. It captured a whopping .5% of the US population as an audience in the last prime time hearing.

@mike710
The most damning accounts came not from Trump's political opponents but his inner circle at the White House, as multiple former Trump White House and campaign aides gave firsthand accounts of the President's unwillingness to accept reality and abandon his delusions about the election. Even Trump's own family members like Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner provided testimony that painted the former President in an unflattering light at times.

The committee is wide open for anyone to come forward and provide evidence to defend Trump and his Big Lie. But almost all the evidence is pointing against him. Even his own daughter testified she believed the election results were valid. He essentially dissed her on social media as being uninformed. She must be secretly hoping for this nightmare to end.

The last 2 years the flow of money was easy and increasing to unsustainable levels. It is only healthy to see this stop and decreasing the money supply will balance things out over the next year. Next year there will be something new for everyone to freak out about and crate headlines. Maybe it will be the monkey pox affecting heterosexuals?

UBI has no needs test, it goes to everyone. The most popular federal program ever is Social Security, and that is because it has never had a needs test.

So UBI does not create a dependent cast. What it hopefully will do is teach people that they need to defend what we have. And hopefully people will see that sometimes that defense has to involve L*th*l T*rr*rr*m.

Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump were standing at the printing press using hair driers to make the green ink dry. So there is already all the money we need. We just have to retrieve it. And beyond that it is the same thing, recirculation and sometimes retrieval.

This doesn't make everyone equal. It doesn't pull down those at the top. It just raised the floor.

This is moderate socialism, social democracy, socialism subordinate to the ballot box. And it is totally compatible with patriotism and national pride.

Racial injustice shows us that there is something wrong with this country from the start. Now we need to fix it. And what we all can do for this country is make the move to Social Democracy and UBI.

SJG

The Pretenders - My City Was Gone - Chicago School of Rock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpT0IKNN…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OYhcVzz…

^ So UBI teaches people that they'll need to defend what they have with LETHAL TERRORISM?

Talk about spouting nonsense, in addition to flunking math.

Most major changes have come because people have been willing to fight for them, willing to die for them, and willing to kill for them.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/clandesti…

If the denigration is racial, then those being denigrated must make corpses. And if they are still hearing things like entitlement, lazy, frivolous college majors, then they are not being respected, and so they can see then that they have not made enough corpses.

SJG

The Pretenders - Hard Rock - 1998 ( quite good and they added a keyboardist)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4jIhy6m…

^ Lol and you're quite a killer for your cause behind a computer screen. Always willing to martyr someone else for the greater good.

The only corpses those entitled, lazy, whiny, useless fuckers are making are their own, as they stuff their fat faces with ice cream and cheap vodka and their lungs with pot smoke.

You're boring, Walter Mitty. Boring.

We would all still be slaves of some despot if some did not stand up and kill or be killed.

And well, once people see that they really are needed in this world because their are battles to fight, they might live differently.

I too am bothered by:

"stuff their fat faces with ice cream and cheap vodka and their lungs with pot smoke."

The standard progression seems to be Drugs, Alcohol, Born Again Christianity, and Psychiatric Medications.

Of the guy I helped put into San Quentin for molesting his daughters, he started out in life on Street Drugs and Alcohol. A friend of mine used to say that it is because people have weak minds.

And he was going to Community College. They keep the commercial canvassers off campus. They should keep all the canvassers off. But they don't.

"I just want you to know that Jesus loves you."

So now his additions advanced from Alcohol and Street Drugs, to Alcohol and Born Again Christianity.

And once he took the pledge, "I am a Christian", they of course tried to fix him with one of their women, just like she were a prized pig. And so soon they were making babies. His education was over and his career always ill defined. But doesn't matter because they are "blessed".

Soon though it seems he was doing bad stuff with the oldest girl, and they got the oldest boy put into the mental health system. He has since shot himself in the head.

Then he had what I would call a nervous breakdown.

But he listened to the wrong people, the White Coats at our County Hospital. Soon he believed he had ~mental illness~, ~Bipolar 2~ and he was taking prescription medications and terrified to feel his feelings, in utter terror.

So he had started with Alcohol and Street Drugs, now he had advanced in his addictions to Psychiatric Medications and Born Again Christianity. And all of these things work the same way, they are designed to prevent you from feeling your feelings.

And I would end up explaining all of this at vast length to the DA, then to the court, and since to local police officers who worked on the case.

SJG

Georges Delerue, Movie Music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC43lBrH…

We are transitioning from a 70 year period of increasing globalization and US military dominance, plus a 20 year period of free money, to a new reality of nationalism, Chinese and US military confrontation, and normal interest rates. This will change the way we live. The transition will last at least 20 years. The final outcome is unknown.

Mark, I agree that the final outcome is unknown. 70 year period of increasing globalization, really the period after WW2, and marked by the Bretton Woods accord and the eminence of John Maynard Keyens. And then US military dominance.

20 year period of free money, you mean the fed keeping interest rats supper low?

New reality of nationalism, in China you mean. And interest rates going back to normal.

Yes, there is great reason for concern here.

SJG

Georges Delerue, Movie Music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC43lBrH…

If a poll were taken asking whether “ we should reduce the size of the federal government and fire the highest paid 50,000 government “experts” who got us into this mess”, it would win by a wide margin.

Probably true, if put that way. But that does not really mean that it is these experts who caused this or that anyone should be fired. It is mainly who the people elected. And since 1980 we have been moving further and further to the lunatic right and this is the problem.

SJG

Viva Maria Soundtrack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxzVfac6…

Carl Icahn tells a funny story about buying an underperforming company and what he did with 12 floors of executives. There are parallels with our current bureaucracy.

https://youtu.be/WSatPoD2W-o

I don't think experts have that much role in our public policy. I think it is more elected officer holders, like the US Senate.

SJG