4 ms·

The money printing during COVID screwed everything up. Most of the capital was directly given to banks and businesses, fraudulently in many cases and unnecessar

The money printing during COVID screwed everything up. Most of the capital was directly given to banks and businesses, fraudulently in many cases and unnecessarily in most, and everything pooled up into real estate and stocks so anyone who had already owned a large proportion of those became absurdly wealthy in the span of a couple years and everyone else effectively lost 20-30% of their income through inflation. The majority of all money was printed during COVID, no one voted for this to happen, no one bothered to even communicate how it was decided how much money would be printed and who would get it, and no retrospective has ever been done. It’s never been more clear that a small group of the wealthiest investors in the US run the show and the majority of people are wage slaves who had the ladder kicked out above them. Now we’re seeing an administration and elite class that is openly ransacking the country for whatever profits it can extract from a dying empire. I have no idea how this ever gets fixed.

stanleykm 3mo ago
a big war, probably
Terr_ 3mo ago
> The capital was either directly given to businesses, fraudulently and unnecessarily in many cases Especially concerning when a bunch of politicians were in on it, ensuring that the money went out willy-nilly and that $700+ billion in "loans" were turned into a straight up gift from the taxpayers. https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/members-of-congress-ppp-transparency/ https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/cre... https://fortune.com/2020/07/08/ppp-loan-recipients-members-of-congress/ https://fortune.com/2020/07/08/ppp-loan-recipients-members-o...
- gruez 3mo ago
  >ensuring that the money went out willy-nilly and that $700+ billion in "loans" were turned into a straight up gift from the taxpayers. Wasn't that widely understood during the pandemic? All the coverage I've seen mentioned that the loans for forgivable if certain criteria were met, and nobody was like "yeah it's fine because it's a loan!".
  - cyberax 3mo ago
    The problem is that these loans went to _businesses_, not workers. There was an orgy of corruption, with newly formed LLCs claiming to have dozens of workers. And then these loans were just forgiven. And since they went to businesses, Republicans are completely silent about that. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paycheck_Protection_Program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paycheck_Protection_Program
    - Mountain_Skies 3mo ago
      Your partisan obsessed brain is why the political class gets away with this.
      - cyberax 3mo ago
        Sorry, but "both sides" went out of the window in 2024. There are _some_ decent Democrats in the Congress. There are also plenty of bad ones. There are NO decent Republicans in the Congress. And yes, reality appears to be partisan. To the topic in question, PPP was not really a big deal. The real culprit is this: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CP https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CP - the corporate profits literally DOUBLED since 2020 because of earlier Trump's tax cuts.
        gruez 3mo ago
        >To the topic in question, PPP was not really a big deal. The real culprit is this: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CP https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CP - the corporate profits literally DOUBLED since 2020 because of earlier Trump's tax cuts. Not really. If you add data series for pre-tax profits and index both series to 2020, you see the two lines are basically on top of each other. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1X0JM https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1X0JM
    - cute_boi 3mo ago
      I don't know why they keep voting republicans, they haven't done anything to benefit Americans.
12hasgt 3mo ago
You get the money back the same way Roosevelt did, 94% tax rate on the rich.
- idiotsecant 3mo ago
  Wealth reform is needed more than any point in American history
- gruez 3mo ago
  And yet, the amount of redistribution that's happening has never been higher, far exceeding the era of "94% tax rate on the rich", never mind that nobody actually paid that rate because the tax code was full of exemptions at the time. https://www.economist.com/content-assets/images/20260221_IRC408.png https://www.economist.com/content-assets/images/20260221_IRC... https://www.economist.com/content-assets/images/20260221_IRC410.png https://www.economist.com/content-assets/images/20260221_IRC...
  - javascriptfan69 3mo ago
    Those graphs are about income, not wealth.
    - gruez 3mo ago
      So was "the same way Roosevelt did, 94% tax rate on the rich"
      - lovich 3mo ago
        No, that tax rate was on income, not wealth. Are you trying to conflate the two?
  - lovich 3mo ago
    I don’t see how this graph shows that claim. It says it’s graphing the effect of welfare on income ratios between top 10% vs the bottom 50% then just has an arrow pointing down saying “Stronger redistribution” Where is the connection between the percentage being graphed and whatever their definition of “stronger redistribution” is? And I just realized the second graph includes capital gains for the fiscal income but not for the after tax income? This just seems blatantly misleading with that detail being hidden in an asterisk.
Loughla 3mo ago
Google Disaster Capitalism. What we've done to other countries has finally turned inwards. It was just a matter of time.
- lifestyleguru 3mo ago
  Oh the sweet shock therapy. Kids sniffing glue, women emigrating to prostitute, emergency services and doctors killing people for kickbacks, oligarchs, organized crime. Fun times.

stanleykm 3mo ago

a big war, probably

Terr_ 3mo ago

> The capital was either directly given to businesses, fraudulently and unnecessarily in many cases Especially concerning when a bunch of politicians were in on it, ensuring that the money went out willy-nilly and that $700+ billion in "loans" were turned into a straight up gift from the taxpayers. https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/members-of-congress-ppp-transparency/ https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/cre... https://fortune.com/2020/07/08/ppp-loan-recipients-members-of-congress/ https://fortune.com/2020/07/08/ppp-loan-recipients-members-o...

gruez 3mo ago
>ensuring that the money went out willy-nilly and that $700+ billion in "loans" were turned into a straight up gift from the taxpayers. Wasn't that widely understood during the pandemic? All the coverage I've seen mentioned that the loans for forgivable if certain criteria were met, and nobody was like "yeah it's fine because it's a loan!".
- cyberax 3mo ago
  The problem is that these loans went to _businesses_, not workers. There was an orgy of corruption, with newly formed LLCs claiming to have dozens of workers. And then these loans were just forgiven. And since they went to businesses, Republicans are completely silent about that. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paycheck_Protection_Program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paycheck_Protection_Program
  - Mountain_Skies 3mo ago
    Your partisan obsessed brain is why the political class gets away with this.
    - cyberax 3mo ago
      Sorry, but "both sides" went out of the window in 2024. There are _some_ decent Democrats in the Congress. There are also plenty of bad ones. There are NO decent Republicans in the Congress. And yes, reality appears to be partisan. To the topic in question, PPP was not really a big deal. The real culprit is this: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CP https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CP - the corporate profits literally DOUBLED since 2020 because of earlier Trump's tax cuts.
      - gruez 3mo ago
        >To the topic in question, PPP was not really a big deal. The real culprit is this: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CP https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CP - the corporate profits literally DOUBLED since 2020 because of earlier Trump's tax cuts. Not really. If you add data series for pre-tax profits and index both series to 2020, you see the two lines are basically on top of each other. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1X0JM https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1X0JM
  - cute_boi 3mo ago
    I don't know why they keep voting republicans, they haven't done anything to benefit Americans.

12hasgt 3mo ago

You get the money back the same way Roosevelt did, 94% tax rate on the rich.

idiotsecant 3mo ago
Wealth reform is needed more than any point in American history
gruez 3mo ago
And yet, the amount of redistribution that's happening has never been higher, far exceeding the era of "94% tax rate on the rich", never mind that nobody actually paid that rate because the tax code was full of exemptions at the time. https://www.economist.com/content-assets/images/20260221_IRC408.png https://www.economist.com/content-assets/images/20260221_IRC... https://www.economist.com/content-assets/images/20260221_IRC410.png https://www.economist.com/content-assets/images/20260221_IRC...
- javascriptfan69 3mo ago
  Those graphs are about income, not wealth.
  - gruez 3mo ago
    So was "the same way Roosevelt did, 94% tax rate on the rich"
    - lovich 3mo ago
      No, that tax rate was on income, not wealth. Are you trying to conflate the two?
- lovich 3mo ago
  I don’t see how this graph shows that claim. It says it’s graphing the effect of welfare on income ratios between top 10% vs the bottom 50% then just has an arrow pointing down saying “Stronger redistribution” Where is the connection between the percentage being graphed and whatever their definition of “stronger redistribution” is? And I just realized the second graph includes capital gains for the fiscal income but not for the after tax income? This just seems blatantly misleading with that detail being hidden in an asterisk.

Loughla 3mo ago

Google Disaster Capitalism. What we've done to other countries has finally turned inwards. It was just a matter of time.

lifestyleguru 3mo ago
Oh the sweet shock therapy. Kids sniffing glue, women emigrating to prostitute, emergency services and doctors killing people for kickbacks, oligarchs, organized crime. Fun times.