Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[AlabamAlum]

Stockholders and business owners are still going to get their ROI or close.

Until the pitchforks come out. No matter your values, ethics or understanding of economics, human history under any system of political organization demonstrates that capital pools and ends up in the hands of few, and then masses of people get fed up with the inequality, and there is change. Capital is dispersed, new people take charge, and the capital starts to pool again. It's a cycle. The question at this point is how long it will take in the US. Sometimes those with capital can stave off the pitchforks for quite a while, and in the American system they are doing an excellent job with that.

I don't equate the unskilled labor job with feudalism. Serfs, for example, were a parrt of mandated stagnation. The Wal-Mart worker isn't bound in such a way. Someone with even moderate drive and average intelligence can improve his station.

[AlabamAlum]

Haha. Now I am really out. Eye doc appointment.

[Whitley]

A guaranteed "living" wage for every US worker would be devastating to inflation and the economy especially since fast food and retail automation is a real thing now. Just let there be a real incentive for business to drop the low-wage unskilled laborer in favor of Hal-9000 making your Big Mac.

Agreed which is why you don't raise the Minimum Wage to $15/hr. However, that does not mean the problem (of working FT and not being able to make ends meat) should not be addressed. There are 44 million Americans that work FT AND have a side gig just to get by. That is a big indication the economy is not working for them. It is time to start talking about a UBI (universal basic income). If you gave them $500/mo that would cost $266 Billion. Which would be spent (another shot in the arm for the economy). How to pay for it? Why Congress just found 1.9 trillion to give to mostly to the 1% (those tax cuts are permanent while the middle class ones sunset).

Free college (for families making under 125k/year): Right now there are 20.4 million (as of 2017 according to the Dept of Ed). Ballparking some numbers here, Let us say that 15 million of those are FT students coming from families and let's say the average tution is 20k. One year would cost $300 Billion.

So far we have this:

Congress found 1.9 trillion for tax cuts.

UBI--->>> $266 Billion
Free College---->>> $300 Billion if you add in a one time cancellation of student loan debt of the federal student loans (as of Q2 2017)---->>> 1.6317 Trillion (counting free college)

Now you will have reduced what is at the very least a serious drag on the economy and freed up a lot of people in the last two generations from the crushing student debt. That would be another super shot into the economy, because now these people no longer have to spend this money on student debt payments but on other things. At the worst this is going to make the overall economy more efficent and at best a real chance for a boost at the bottom to middle parts of the economy because that money is going to spent. It might be on big ticket items (homes, cars, trips etc.) it might be smaller things but it will likely get spent.

[hack]

Perhaps true that those with moderate drive and average can improve their station in life, but one cannot base any robust policy on that assertion. If the success of any policy rides on everybody having an average-at-minimum level of any attribute then either you have to kill/castrate/exile those in short supply or you're in Lake Wobegon. That's the only place I know where all the children are above average.

[Kapture1]

Agreed which is why you don't raise the Minimum Wage to $15/hr. However, that does not mean the problem (of working FT and not being able to make ends meat) should not be addressed. There are 44 million Americans that work FT AND have a side gig just to get by. That is a big indication the economy is not working for them. It is time to start talking about a UBI (universal basic income). If you gave them $500/mo that would cost $266 Billion. Which would be spent (another shot in the arm for the economy). How to pay for it? Why Congress just found 1.9 trillion to give to mostly to the 1% (those tax cuts are permanent while the middle class ones sunset).

Free college (for families making under 125k/year): Right now there are 20.4 million (as of 2017 according to the Dept of Ed). Ballparking some numbers here, Let us say that 15 million of those are FT students coming from families and let's say the average tution is 20k. One year would cost $300 Billion.

So far we have this:

Congress found 1.9 trillion for tax cuts.

UBI--->>> $266 Billion
Free College---->>> $300 Billion if you add in a one time cancellation of student loan debt of the federal student loans (as of Q2 2017)---->>> 1.6317 Trillion (counting free college)

Now you will have reduced what is at the very least a serious drag on the economy and freed up a lot of people in the last two generations from the crushing student debt. That would be another super shot into the economy, because now these people no longer have to spend this money on student debt payments but on other things. At the worst this is going to make the overall economy more efficent and at best a real chance for a boost at the bottom to middle parts of the economy because that money is going to spent. It might be on big ticket items (homes, cars, trips etc.) it might be smaller things but it will likely get spent.

since when can people live on 500 a month?

so, we cover their housing, we double that to 1000 per month, we take care of their food, and child care. we take care of the useless college degree.


so not counting housing and childcare, or food stamps, we are sitting at 800,000,000,000 per year to take care of people you just gave an incentive to never take care of themselves.


per year.


You are advocating for raising our current national debt by 50% in 10 years for 2 programs aimed at 14% of our population???

[Kapture1]

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[iam416]

Whitley and Ocasio-Cortez. JFC.

As an FYI, I do really appreciate you applying the tax cuts numbers for a TEN YEAR PERIOD to year-by-year for the abysmal free college idea and awful UBI idea. By your estimates, apparently UBI and Free College will cost $566B per year. Over 10 years, that's $5.6 trillion. The tax cut, over ten years, is a $1.9 trillion cost.

As an FYI, I believe Sanders proposed plan for free tuition is considerably lower -- but I think they were only going for tuition and just at public schools. If you add in private schools -- and why not? that's where the huge debts are incurred -- then it's probably much closer to your $350B.

[iam416]

A fundamental difference between little "l" liberals and the Democrat Socialists is that the former tends to build policies around the fatter part to right side of the bell curve the latter is all about policies aimed at the left side of the bell curve. Opportunity vs. outcome. Fortunately, you sort of have to acknowledge you're inept to have a real interest in voting for macro policies designed to save the inept. That's a tough look in the mirror.

[Ghengis Jon]

Known connections between Trump's peeps and Putin's peeps. Nothing more, nothing less.

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/politics/trump-russia-connections/

[Kapture1]

I use Kaspersky, good product. I guess that makes me a Russian bot according to CNN

[Kapture1]

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[Kapture1]

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[Kapture1]

Whitley and Ocasio-Cortez. JFC.

As an FYI, I do really appreciate you applying the tax cuts numbers for a TEN YEAR PERIOD to year-by-year for the abysmal free college idea and awful UBI idea. By your estimates, apparently UBI and Free College will cost $566B per year. Over 10 years, that's $5.6 trillion. The tax cut, over ten years, is a $1.9 trillion cost.

As an FYI, I believe Sanders proposed plan for free tuition is considerably lower -- but I think they were only going for tuition and just at public schools. If you add in private schools -- and why not? that's where the huge debts are incurred -- then it's probably much closer to your $350B.

add in medicare for all with it's 33 Trillion dollar pricetag

[iam416]

This is fun to tool around with -- well, at least I like it: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...1/40.44/-77.05

Precinct-by-Precinct voting results for 2016 (as well as county).

[UMStan White]

"There is no such thing as conspiracy if the event isn't a crime." quote by Kapture

Hey moron, learn your law. One can be found guilty of a criminal conspiracy by taking illegal acts to accomplish a legal end just as one can perform legal acts to accomplish an illegal end.