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Trump Dictatorship and All Things Politics

LogGrad98 said:
To be fair, the government has mismanaged social security so it has become similar to a Ponzi scheme. If they had managed it effectively from the get-go and left the fund entirely out of political reach, it would be much more self-sufficient. So now, due to mismanagement over the decades, it operates similarly to a Ponzi scheme in that new people paying in compromise a not insubstantial percentage of the money paid out each year. It doesn't mean it isn't worthwhile and doesn't help anyone, and framing it as an illegal scheme sure does a lot to further Musk's goal of gutting it to give the money to the billionaires. But in it's current iteration it does function similarly.
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I have called it a Ponzi scheme too for what you discuss. The scheme is giving benefit to people for years but not charging them enough to cover their future benefit (or using the fund for more than retirement).
The scheme is we (current taxpayers) will be paying much more in ten years or less to cover the benefits for those that did not pay on enough. Part of it is we have a top heavy generation and not enough new taxpayers to pay in (lets make immigration and citizen streamlined for those willing to work and contribute.

We need to promote employee ownership and give more incentives to invest in 401ks, while making it harder to take those funds out before retirement. Maybe even let people use some of their fica withholding in 401k vs social security.

Politicians on both sides have kicked the SS can down the road as cutting it or charging more will piss off voters.

I'd love to see higher capital gains and FICA on capital gains over say, 10mm a year. Many high wealth taxpayers live on capital gains and this would help close the loop.
fishonjazz said:
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I can confirm this to some extent. I sit on the board of a chain of grocery stores in the west. All 3 of our suppliers have not had any issues meeting our supply needs. Not sure about other markets.
 
If you have a 401k or stock, I’d encourage you to avoid looking at your portfolio for a while. Cuz yikes. What id give to have a president wearing a tan suit and wasn’t waging tariffs wars right now over the crap we have right now
 
The Thriller said:
If you have a 401k or stock, I’d encourage you to avoid looking at your portfolio for a while. Cuz yikes. What id give to have a president wearing a tan suit and wasn’t waging tariffs wars right now over the crap we have right now
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But hey, just remember, this excuse for the billionaires to artificially raise prices with the new tariffs will ensure they get a real increase in wealth which helps, uh, everyone, right? Help the billionaires then they, uh, keep the money or something then they piss on the poor? I'm struggling to remember the awesome benefits for the middle class, but it's there! Duh!
 
LogGrad98 said:
But hey, just remember, this excuse for the billionaires to artificially raise prices with the new tariffs will ensure they get a real increase in wealth which helps, uh, everyone, right? Help the billionaires then they, uh, keep the money or something then they piss on the poor? I'm struggling to remember the awesome benefits for the middle class, but it's there! Duh!
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I think it’s an open question as to whether the majority of Americans will ever understand this or if the flood of nonsense (flooding the zone with ****) will be enough for Trump and his wretched cult to escape accountability for the horrific policies they’ve implemented these last few months. You know that in the next few months Trump and his propaganda apparatus is going to blame Ukraine, DEI, CRT, librarians, antifa, and Hillary for the tanking economy. Is our media environment so broken that he’ll get away with it? Or will enough Americans finally wise up to what the billionaire class and their useful idiot Trump are doing?
 
It was pretty strange to see the president speak to congress that wasn’t a brain dead corpse. He didn’t stumble around and mumble his words. He even walked through and shook hands and talked to people without looking totally lost and confused. I gotta say it’s much easier to feel confident in governments ability to govern when those in charge aren’t drooling at the chin and ******** themselves.
 
The Thriller said:
I think it’s an open question as to whether the majority of Americans will ever understand this or if the flood of nonsense (flooding the zone with ****) will be enough for Trump and his wretched cult to escape accountability for the horrific policies they’ve implemented these last few months. You know that in the next few months Trump and his propaganda apparatus is going to blame Ukraine, DEI, CRT, librarians, antifa, and Hillary for the tanking economy. Is our media environment so broken that he’ll get away with it? Or will enough Americans finally wise up to what the billionaire class and their useful idiot Trump are doing?
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It's that broken. The majority of his supporters consume only conservative media. Media has become too siloed and it is too easy to completely wall off any input from the other parts of the political spectrum. Look at Buck on here and the others, obviously consuming nothing but breitbart and fox to the point where when they are called out they have zero further responses. It's the most divisive we've ever been as a country and it's driven by the echo chambers of social media and the entirely partisan media driving tribal thinking and endless confirmation bias. Basically we'll never get past it.
 
LogGrad98 said:
It's that broken. The majority of his supporters consume only conservative media. Media has become too siloed and it is too easy to completely wall off any input from the other parts of the political spectrum. Look at Buck on here and the others, obviously consuming nothing but breitbart and fox to the point where when they are called out they have zero further responses. It's the most divisive we've ever been as a country and it's driven by the echo chambers of social media and the entirely partisan media driving tribal thinking and endless confirmation bias. Basically we'll never get past it.
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Don't lose hope. It's possible to get partly past it by trying to make friends with the other side of fence and spending time with them. It's challenging and slow, though. But every day somewhere on Earth, a former victim of propaganda sees the light.
 
Step-Back Lauri said:
Don't lose hope. It's possible to get partly past it by trying to make friends with the other side of fence and spending time with them. It's challenging and slow, though. But every day somewhere on Earth, a former victim of propaganda sees the light.
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I have an issue with this framing. Why does that responsibility fall on people like LG? When will MAGA put some skin in the game and open up to the majority of the country that they continually demean and harass?
 
LogGrad98 said:
It's that broken. The majority of his supporters consume only conservative media. Media has become too siloed and it is too easy to completely wall off any input from the other parts of the political spectrum. Look at Buck on here and the others, obviously consuming nothing but breitbart and fox to the point where when they are called out they have zero further responses. It's the most divisive we've ever been as a country and it's driven by the echo chambers of social media and the entirely partisan media driving tribal thinking and endless confirmation bias. Basically we'll never get past it.
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Sorry @LogGrad98. The media is 92% biased towards Democrats. Conservatives are forced to see both sides. Democrats and liberals are the only ones that are truly siloed.
 
Step-Back Lauri said:
The worst of them are way too misinformed and pompous for that. This could be seen like trying to help a kid that's severely neuro untypical:)
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Again, that’s not my problem. Nor can I fix that. In fact, the more we compromise, bend, and pander, the worse they get. Look at how the Overton window has shifted in just 10 years through pandering to the right. How many more pieces must we read about “economic anxiety” and “the forgotten man votes for Trump cuz x issue and now they’ve been laid off by DOGE?” At some point, those on the right who aren’t MAGA need to expand their view of who deserves to participate in our society and who should lead the country. That won’t be accomplished by further pandering and coddling of immature bored adults who actively vote against their own interests in order to hurt others.
 
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