***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[RustyShackleford]

Filed another under Hillary Clinton been trying to warn us...


The reason I bring up Hillary before was not just to mock leftists. But to highlight warnings that have been out there for a while about the end game for the right. People chose to ignore them for silly reasons.

State legislatures and the judiciary have been the main targets for the Koch brothers and company.

 

[RustyShackleford]

And like Clinton said AFTER she lost the election in her sit down with Ezra Klein, the end game is a new constitutional convention where the write locks in minority rule permanently

They haven't stopped moving toward that

 

[osh kosh bosh]

I don't think saying or not saying Latinx is the difference between winning and losing Texas for example.

to me it's just a symptom of a disease.


the idea that a politician would willingly adopt alienating language,
for unclear and contradictory reasons

is an indication that something is seriously rotten in intra democratic party political culture.
either the something is seriously wrong with the messaging process or there are some perverse incentives at work.

 

[RustyShackleford]

The mainstream media is gonna help normalize the new ****ed up conditions in America in record speed

 

[RustyShackleford]

The game stays the same, the grift just changes

 

[gry60]

This capital vs labour frame work can be illuminating, but it's often limiting.
It obscures realities about the American electorate.

I see literally zero evidence that Americans want the broad base tax increases
that would come with a Nordic style social safety net.

like literally none at all.
and I see little evidence that Americans want a massive upheaval in the structure of American socitey.

America is a rich country, and a lot of yall seem to like living there.
so this idea that capital is standing between you and nordic socialist utopia I think is fantasy.

The voters are as well.

and one of the biggest frustrations facing young Americans, the housing crisis,
doesn't fall neatly into this captial vs labour framework either.

The social safety net existed in this country when the "general public" was synonymous with "christian white people," and much of it was funded by very high tax rates on the wealthiest Americans.

Even the idea to promote the general welfare is in the constitution, so there's nothing inherently un-American about a Nordic style social safety net.

If you look at polls about taxes from 2017 to today, you'll find that the American public's opinion on taxes is mixed, with a slight preference for taxing the wealthiest in the country. Furthermore, cheaper healthcare and education have been polling well.

As far as the housing crisis goes, the issue definitely fits neatly into the framework of property owners protecting the value of their assets at the expense of the general welfare, and it's slowly morphing into capital exploiting the need to have a home and the scarcity of homes to extract the most amount of money out of people locked out of homeownership, often at the expense of their own wellbeing.

The only reality about the American electorate that I haven't seen addressed is the fact that the voices of the voters are weighed differently depending on their income, zip code, and/or ethnic background.

The idea of America as the land of rugged individualism and few regulations is as mythical as Mt Olympus being the residence of Greek deities.

 

[gry60]

The game stays the same, the grift just changes

Did CA eliminate his district? I don't want to believe that there is someone nuttier than him that could have challenged him in a primary.

 

[Sharpshoeter13]

The game stays the same, the grift just changes

“… he can’t refuse”

lemme see that same energy when the checks become IOUs

 

[osh kosh bosh]

The social safety net existed in this country when the "general public" was synonymous with "christian white people," and much of it was funded by very high tax rates on the wealthiest Americans.

I didn't say Americans are opposed to the us social safety net.
I said they are opposed to tax increases required to fund larger more robust Nordic style social safety nets

Even the idea to promote the general welfare is in the constitution, so there's nothing inherently un-American about a Nordic style social safety net.

i have no idea if it's "un-american"
but i think there's plenty of evidence that there is a strain of individualism in American culture
that is unique to western democracies.

If you look at polls about taxes from 2017 to today, you'll find that the American public's opinion on taxes is mixed, with a slight preference for taxing the wealthiest in the country. Furthermore, cheaper healthcare and education have been polling well.

sure, but they aren't going to support the broad based tax increases to fund a full fat Nordic social safety net.

Sure they tax the rich, but they also tax payroll and consumption way more than they do in America.
How many Americans do you think are singing up for that?

You can see this in how politicians like Bernie Sanders position their agenda.
generally avoiding confronting the fact that it would require raising taxes on rich and middle class Americans.

and it's the reason why all the most popular governors are do nothing republicans in blue states.
they essentially maintain the status quo, and don't attempt to implement significant changes to the order of American socitey.

Captial is not the only thing standing in the way of a Nordic style social safety net
it's also the voters.

As far as the housing crisis goes, the issue definitely fits neatly into the framework of property owners protecting the value of their assets at the expense of the general welfare, and it's slowly morphing into capital exploiting the need to have a home and the scarcity of homes to extract the most amount of money out of people locked out of homeownership, often at the expense of their own wellbeing.

Developers would absolutely benefit from relaxed land use regulations.
and really only a select few owners really benefit from the status quo,
plenty of smaller starter property owners can't trade up to a larger home due to the lack of inventory.

it is absolutely not simple a capital vs. labour story.

 

[TooOlfForThisIsh]

Complaining about progressive using certain words in certain situations and the alienating effects it might have on some people might seem like you are addressing a core issue, but really it is punching left for the sake of punching left. People should not use language that alienates their audience in all situations, but fixing that won't do much.

I think there’s a compelling point buried in the baseless “wokeness“ critique. Corporate America did go in big on superficial gestures that are nice?, I guess?, but make no real progress on fair opportunity or representation.

My immediate reaction to my firm’s ordering me to only use Latinx in professional communication was equal parts irritation and confusion. I certainly am not aware of any vocal requests for this from my peers or from clients. But it’s the perfect kind of measurable and inexpensive target that the C Suite loves and can throw on the external website.

The game stays the same, the grift just changes

The numbers on the Trump SPAC are mind-numbing. This is definitely his biggest grift of all time. And they are working overtime to innovate new ways to steel money from idiots.

As I mentioned to a colleague recently, late stage capital markets might be the most bizarre flavor of dystopia from late stage capitalism. If this is the future of finance, maybe Rex can all me comrade.

 

[mister friendly]

Trump really his the GOP fooled.

Nunes really think he will full compensation that Trump promised.

 

[osh kosh bosh]

please primary Sinema.

 

[IATT]

dwalk31 why people sensitive about supporting trump?

 

[TooOlfForThisIsh]

Developers would absolutely benefit from relaxed land use regulations.
and really only a select few owners really benefit from the status quo,
plenty of smaller starter property owners can't trade up to a larger home due to the lack of inventory.

it is absolutely not simple a capital vs. labour story.

Curious about your take on REIT / hedge fund acquisition of housing stock. is that a real story or is it overblown?

 

[RustyShackleford]

I didn't say Americans are opposed to the us social safety net.
I said they are opposed to tax increases required to fund larger more robust Nordic style social safety nets



i have no idea if it's "un-american"
but i think there's plenty of evidence that there is a strain of individualism in American culture
that is unique to western democracies.

sure, but they aren't going to support the broad based tax increases to fund a full fat Nordic social safety net.

Sure they tax the rich, but they also tax payroll and consumption way more than they do in America.
How many Americans do you think are singing up for that?

You can see this in how politicians like Bernie Sanders position their agenda.
generally avoiding confronting the fact that it would require raising taxes on rich and middle class Americans.

and it's the reason why all the most popular governors are do nothing republicans in blue states.
they essentially maintain the status quo, and don't attempt to implement significant changes to the order of American socitey.

Captial is not the only thing standing in the way of a Nordic style social safety net
it's also the voters.



Developers would absolutely benefit from relaxed land use regulations.
and really only a select few owners really benefit from the status quo,
plenty of smaller starter property owners can't trade up to a larger home due to the lack of inventory.

it is absolutely not simple a capital vs. labour story.

I don't think it will be able to match the Nordic countries, but given the popularity of tax increases for the rich, along with the rigged tax code, the concentration of wealth at the top, the massive tax gap, and the insane amount we when in certain areas for the budget, there is quite a bit of support for a major expansion to the welfare state. If America's electoral system was representative the marginal votes in the House and Senate might be liberals and we would probably already have a major one.

Sure middle-class income tax increases and a VAT would cause a massive electoral backlash. So Dems would never touch those in the near future. But you really don't need those things to do a ton. Like a **** ton.

Really, the backlash they would have to worry about is not the middle-middle class, but the upper-middle class.

 

[osh kosh bosh]

Curious about your take on REIT / hedge fund acquisition of housing stock. is that a real story or is it overblown?

They are an easy boogey man and a convinient distraction to avoid dealing with the actual issue.

They have the same incentive as a single family home owner. They just have more money.

I'm renting a condo from a lady, I think she's a doctor who was smart enough to buy a pre construction condo before the prices for crazy

What difference does it make to me if I'm renting from BlackRock or Suzan?

I still can't afford to buy unless I move to the moon

 

[RustyShackleford]

Really, if you consider financial laws that benefit the rich part of the welfare state (which many economists do) then the US welfare state is comparable to European social democracies

The wealthy just have so many mechanisms to extract money out of the macroeconomy and hide it from the IRS. it is not even funny.

I think this is where the Manchin's and Sinema's of the world really **** the Dems over. Because the compromise would be to tax the wealthy to give the middle class a better safety net.

You can message very effectively on that. But once in power, a ****ty centrist rather sabotage their party and screw over their voter, just to protect their rich donors

 

[RustyShackleford]

We can nitpick, but NIMBYISM is about protecting capital (other than the racism of course)

Thing is that when we hear that framing we generally think people are talking about big corporations, on a macro scale.

But thinking of it on a micro-level it works too.

A home is a capital asset. People, individual homeowners, veto the expansion of the housing supply to increase the value of their capital asset.

It is bad for America that the main source of wealth-building is owning a home. ****s up the incentives and turns people into rent-seeking *******s the second their sign the deed.

 

[mplsdunk]

That’s the way of the yard sign rich white people here who only vote democrat to be pc.

 

[whywesteppin]

You guys were right to nag on Kamala in the primaries. She is THE worst. I'm embarrassed for her family and anybody who voted for her.



You know who else wears earpieces like this?

COPS.

 

[RustyShackleford]

I full support Kamala's decision

I refuse to start using wireless headphones. Phone companies removed the jack, cool, just copping a 3.5mm to usb-c adapter.

Ray Jay can pay off all the Youtuber influencers he wants, so what. I refuse to give in.

Still rocking wired headphones...

 

[whywesteppin]

I full support Kamala's decision

I refuse to start using wireless headphones. **** what phone companies want.

Still rocking wired headphones...

I refuse to use wireless on my phone, period.

 

[IATT]

They really going make a story out of anything…

 

[biggie62]

I’m sure y’all are using a Sony Discman to play your CDe too with those wired headphones

 

[whywesteppin]

I’m sure y’all are using a Sony Discman to play your CDe too with those wired headphones