5 ms·
Expenses + inflation has been outpacing income increases for many years now. The ruling class seems oblivious to the sociopolitical implications of the imbalan
by chiefalchemist 4y ago
Expenses + inflation has been outpacing income increases for many years now.
The ruling class seems oblivious to the sociopolitical implications of the imbalance. The 2016 election should have been an epiphany moment. Instead they pushed their heads deeper into the sand, and ratcheted up the rhetoric and distractions.
This isn't sustainable.
- jleyank 4y agoThe 2016 election gave a slug of cash and tax breaks to the investor class, voted in by a huge cadre of people probably living check to check. Given that, why should it have been an epiphany? Until people vote in their legitimate best interest, nothing will change.
- MomoXenosaga 4y agoTrue but the US government, Trump himself in fact, authorised helicopter money bags when COVID 19 disrupted society. In fact as much as I hate Trump he was change: the first evidence of the old elite losing control.
- jleyank 4y agoAll countries threw bags of money. The difference was who it was thrown at.
- andrekandre 4y ago> the first evidence of the old elite losing control. admittedly pre-covid, but trumps tax-cuts greatly benefited the elites...
- Maursault 4y ago> Until people vote in their legitimate best interest, nothing will change Best interest here means best economic interests. About 25% of Republicans earn less than $30K/yr, another 25% earn less than $50K, another 25% earn less than $100K/yr, and another 23% of Republicans earn less than $300K/yr. This means 98% of Republicans have absolutely no idea what they're doing and are voting themselves into economic stagnation. The 2% of Republicans earning more than $300K/yr are quite shrewd, but at moral cost. The Republican Party is made up nearly entirely of the bamboozled, yet while they will never see economic opportunity while Republicans hold power, they are paying for the 2% to make inroads on the 0.01%.
- Red_Leaves_Flyy 4y agoDo you have sources for those numbers?
- Maursault 4y agoYes, but I eye-balled it.[1] Satisfied? [1] https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/compare/income-distribution/by/state/among/party-affiliation/republican-lean-rep/ https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-stu...
- Red_Leaves_Flyy 4y agoAwesome, thanks. Note of warning for lurkers, the page is broken on my mobile.
- patrick451 4y agoWithout a baseline, your numbers are both meaningless and uninteresting.
- Maursault 4y agoLovely straw man. Out of curiously, just what exactly are you talking about? Why do you think a baseline is needed? Because I have no earthly idea what you mean by "baseline" in the context of what percentages of Republicans earn.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- rayiner 4y agoCorporate tax breaks, like those in Trump's tax cuts, are complicated in terms of their effect on the economy. There's a reason why even countries with robust social democratic parties like Germany and Sweden have low corporate taxes. At least in theory corporate tax cuts drive business activity and lowers unemployment, which happened during Trump's presidency. Meanwhile, Trump also took aim at the "investor class" by capping SALT deductions, which hurt rich people in the orbit of Wall Street and Silicon Valley. As a practical matter, moreover, tax cuts are something Republicans can do with only 51 Senate votes, because the budget is an exception to the filibuster's 60 vote requirement. Query what would have happened if we eliminated the filibuster and the GOP had more room to give their voters what they want.
- bombcar 4y agoCorporate taxes just come from the customers of the corporations. It may be more palatable but it’s just VAT with extra steps. The SALT change and the deductible increase affected large swaths of taxpayers favorably-mostly the working poor who made enough to pay taxes but not enough for much deductions.
- hotpotamus 4y agoThere's that, but also people are now turning down free, potentially lifesaving vaccines as an expression of their political identity. Dying on a ventilator to spite your perceived political enemies is not sending a very strong message of disapproval to the elite.
- polio 4y agoDying and giving up your vote is not particularly effective politics either.
- chiefalchemist 4y agoI believe that when it comes to voting, those who do vote do the best they can. What's broken is the two party cartel system. Getting two choices, both of which are often second rate isn't the voters' fault. Put another way, if you don't have anyone worth voting for you're not going to vote. Voter turnout is very low. What does that tell us? Oddly enough, there's no one responsible and accountable for voter turnout. Funny how that is.
- throwaway5959 4y agoThey’re not oblivious, they just don’t care. They’re in extraction mode in the US, the money is going to be reallocated to higher growth regions like China, India and Africa.
- master_crab 4y agoGrowth in China has been wildly overexaggerated as indicated by a recent report: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/09/29/a-study-of-lights-at-night-suggests-dictators-lie-about-economic-growth https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/09/29/a-study-... (And that isn’t even considering the sharp drop in population growth China is about to experience) Plus the GDP (per capita and otherwise) in Africa and India lead me to believe there really isn’t much money being reallocated to them.
- kennend3 4y agoYou entirely missed their point. - The U.S. goods trade deficit with China was $310.3 billion in 2020 - The U.S. goods trade deficit with China was $355.3 billion in 2021 I think their choice of "growth" was bad, but their point of "sucking up money" was spot on. It is not an accident that China maintains a surplus, they are intentionally extracting money from them.
- master_crab 4y agoWhat point? That America runs a trade deficit with China? That isn’t news. Have you looked at our trade relationship with Japan? Germany? It’s been negative by tens of billions for decades. No one claims they are depleting America of money. Trade deficits aren’t a zero sum game. Countries end up putting those earnings back in American securities, burning that money on useless investments (particularly relevant to China right now) and many of the inputs/outputs (like services which America excels at) aren’t ever properly recorded.
- bombcar 4y agoTrade deficits are wonderful. We print worthless dollars and other countries give us real valuable things in exchange. Win!
- bheadmaster 4y agoThe whole system is rigged. Everybody knows it, but nobody can do anything against it.
- jleyank 4y agoSure they can. Stop watching news programs and vote your pocketbook.
- bheadmaster 4y agoIt's hard to vote with your money when you barely have enough to keep a roof over your head and food on your table. And what I do with my money is meaningless unless I coordinate with millions of other people to do the same thing. And the probability of that happening is extremely low.
- jleyank 4y agoYou misunderstand. Vote when thinking of your pocketbook. Not how you spend. Can’t outspend the investor class. Cut off their oxygen by restaffing government.
- bheadmaster 4y agoSame principle - my vote is a drop in the sea. Unless I agree and coordinate with everyone else on how to vote, it's meaningless. And the probability of that happening is extremely low. I admire the optimism, but I just don't feel it's realistic. There is absolutely nothing an individual, on their own, can do to change anything in the current world.
- jleyank 4y agoCorrect. As long as the investors lead the sheep they’ll get sheared. It will take a groundswell that is positive rather than what is common worldwide right now.
- 4y ago