And we’re cheerleading for our money to be sent to other countries’ wars.
Sending money is Israel = completely utterly worthless
Sending money to Ukraine = potentially staving off or preventing WW3
there is SO much money, as Levene in Glengarry Glen Ross says, “Just lying on the ground!”
However, we only allow certain people (businesses) to pick it up. We could give it to poor people and let the support of Ukraine continue. But we don’t. Because we ideologically have the position that businesses are people, and more important people than people people.
All it takes is the admission that “line go up” could be “line go up a little bit less steeply” and we can do it.
But no, the steepness of the line is more important than anything else.
Or, instead of that, we could spend just want we need to in order to literally defend our own shores and let our people have the abundant, full lives they deserve.
Canada only spends 26 billion a year on their military.
Mexico spends 8 billion.
All we’re doing is making a few warmongers rich and coming upw ith excuses to justify it.
we’re saying the same thing roughly. I agree, but I think it’s an easier fight in $currentYear to tax the rich than defund the military/police.
No saying you are incorrect but the obvious conclusion to Russia -> Ukraine is North Korea -> South Korea, China -> Taiwan, etc etc. I have a problem letting more democratic countries fall to dictatorships. We’ve been here before and ended up losing 500,000 American lives to defeat (temporarily) fascism.
I know it’s hot to blame price hikes rn, and there’s some bullshit going on with housing prices, but I’m going to need to see some household budget details before I break out the violin.
I’ve seen so many otherwise-defined-as-adults make very poor financial decisions for decades. Lifestyle creep is real.
Everyone has a budget they stick to, right? This isn’t a years-long delay on an inevitable recession due to tonedeaf revenge spending to counter existential depression, right?
I think the biggest factor is probably the hyper inflationary period we’re exiting (have exited?) which many companies used as an excuse to jack up prices much further than they needed to. Anyone who did not receive a raise in the last 24-36 months has effectively received a 10-20% paycut.
I can feel it in my own families finances. I went back to college and now make as much as my wife and I did combined in 2020 while my wife is now a stay at home mom and the money isn’t stretching as far as it was in 2020. On the upside my income ceiling is now significantly higher than it was, and my wife wants to start working again once the kids are in school
A global pandemic is bad for the economy. Who woulda thought.
What do you mean? The GDP has only grown (save for like 2-3 quarters).
The rich just saw their chance to become even richer and widen the wealth gap.
When somebody breaks a window, GDP grows. Hence GDP is just a guesstimate towards how the economy is functioning.
Forgive my terrible sources, at least I had something rather than throwing a random claim to the void.
I don’t think printing money and handing it out helped. But I’m some sort of pariah for pointing out that it may have something to do with inflation.
Evidence shows the government stimulus contributed to only a small portion of the inflation, and the largest portion stemmed from companies using inflation as an excuse to raise prices. I mean, have you looked at individual candy bar prices? They went from under $2 each to over $3 within the last 24 months! Individual soda bottles are getting close to $3 each as well, and don’t get me started on the cost of bags of chips. These are discretionary items and treats that saw a significant jump in price very recently that was far larger than inflation. I’m pretty frugal and my regular bi-weekly(ish) grocery bill has grown from ~$70 to ~$110 in the same period, a growth rate about inline with inflation, but when you look at individual items prices you can see a clear predatory “inflation adjustment”
Why stop at their wealth?
As someone pointed out to me, round them all up. Throw in them into an island penal colony and let them all go Lord of the Flies on each other.
My suggestion for improvement, was every once awhile, lob some artillery shells at the island. Can’t let those billionaires get comfortable.
I think the worst punishment for the ruling class is to make them part of the working class.
I guarantee you, most of them would rather kill themselves or others than live like us.
I agree, I was pretty pro-guillotine till that was pointed out to me. Redistribute their wealth and tell them where it’s all going too.
“Congratulations Jeff Bezos, you donated $1.3 billion to various labor organizations.” “Congratulations Richard Branson, you donated $1.21 billion to climate change initiatives.” “Congratulations Warren Buffet, you donated $1.14 billion to support low income people.”
Knowing where their money is going to support society in general will fucking kill them. Each of these shit bags all think that they are needed for civilization. Let’s watch them put that delusion to the test on an island penal colony that gets bombarded with artillery shells every once and awhile.
