Fixing social security

[Desk Pop]

That worked out great for America's waterways and big game populations before government interference...

Yet, people seem to be ok with virtual monopolies propping up their 401ks...

 

[KG92]

Cool. I was a liberal between the ages of 2 and 5. I thought the whole world revolved around me and everyone else's job was to give me stuff I didn't pay for - until I didn't.

Cannot like this comment enough.

 

[Buffs35]

Fresh lefsa is wonderful. Lutefisk is a crime against humanity.

He ain't lying

 

[VikingsGuy]

Cannot like this comment enough.

“Let them eat cake”

 

[Dave N]

“Let them eat cake”

What kind?

 

[Nick87]

loved my libertarian phase - I knew everything and had all of life’s answers-

You mean to tell me your no longer in that phase?

 

[VikingsGuy]

You mean to tell me your no longer in that phase?

Well played

 

[noharleyyet]

Yet, people seem to be ok with virtual monopolies propping up their 401ks...

“If you like your monopoly you can keep your monopoly.” …til you can’t

 

[Cornbread]

Cool. I was a liberal between the ages of 2 and 5. I thought the whole world revolved around me and everyone else's job was to give me stuff I didn't pay for - until I didn't.

Give the man a Cupey Doll! Bingo.

 

[Cornbread]

No jealousy here, I am 100% ok with Bezos making a trillion dollars and burning $1,000 bills to roast marshmallows if that makes him happy. He earned it, he can hoard it or spend it as he wishes.

I am also 100% happy with a 100% estate tax with a $10 million (or similar) exemption. There is no human or societal value derived from making 4 generations of folks who had nothing to do with the wealth creation permanent trust fund babies.

Your statements drip and ooze jealousy. The gifter's earned it, and they can do damn well what they want to do with it. Typical elitist lib (whether you realize it or not). You know what is best for everybody else. If the billionaires want to corrupt their kids and ruin them by making them into slugs, I don't give a damn. That's freedom pal. You invite these douchbags in govt into our lives and empower them. My secretary used to make comments about the rich, and look down at them. I may not like them as a person, but hey, there is always somebody below us. I used to tell Pam, hey, the drug addict thinks you're rich and wants to dictate what you spend your dough on, and take part your wealth. When you let the camel's nose under the tent!!! Is that what you want????? So $10 mil is your line, hey? I say it's $200,000! You're rich!!!! Why you fat rich bastard. I deserve more money for my diabetes because I didn't work hard enough for 35 years. I spent the dough on hookers and blow & fun. Do you even see what you're suggesting? So the free markets may not always be perfect, but there are the best way to allocate capital and wealth. Food for thought.

 

[Cornbread]

No way, socialism saved USA at a time when capitalism cannibalized itself. CCC, TVA, WPA. Many of we Americans whose family was here dating back to that time are the product of people who benefited from those programs. Don’t think I’m not a fanboy of libertarian concepts. I even registered as libertarian in AZ. But sometimes the Federal gubberment in all its inadequacies and bureaucratic redundancies needs to be there to save us all.

So, I match your CCC, TVA, & WPA, and raise that with the 2006-2012 housing and credit crisis. The epitome of incompetent govt regulations etc. Has the govt learned from its mistakes during that period? Obviously not. Neither have the American people. That is what we call the classical definition of insanity. Our govt & politicians just weren't smart enough back in the 1930s to realize the power they had. Since then, they've smartened up quite a bit.

 

[Cornbread]

I think it depends how you look at it.

If you take the spectrum from poorest to richest, when you get to say a net worth of 10 million dollars, there are many more people with less wealth that that person than there are with more. The air gets even more rarified with a higher net worth levels. Some one with a 100 million dollar net worth is still a piker compared to Bezos, but almost everyone has a lower net worth than that person.

I don't think it is very easy to put a easy definition of what is rich. I do not think most people with a net worth of a million, consider themselves "rich". For some one with almost no net worth, they would likely consider a person with a net worth of a million, rich.

The wealthiest 1% of the population have 30.6% of all the wealth in the country. That is larger than the wealth of the entire middle class, if you define the middle class as the middle 60% of the population. Collectively the middle class has about 26 % of the wealth in the country. The bottom 20% own 3% of the wealth in the country. The top 10 % of households have a net worth beginning at ~ 1.6 million dollars. The bottom 10 percent of the population have zero net worth.

It is all a relative game

 

[Cornbread]

Not really a fair comparison, they have the oil production of Texas and the population of CO, while producing all their electricity from hydro and other renewables… essentially awash in cash. Its like if Kuwait were socialist.

Also you have to look at all of Europe together if you are going to compare to the US… MA has amazing healthcare, social services, etc (insane how much shittier insurance is in literally every other state) meanwhile Mississippi… Moldova…Alabama… Albania

Avid, you should also add to that, that they are seeing a huge influx of illegal aliens from the middle east that are bringing crime, and violence and sucking down the welfare benefits. So paradise may be disappearing.

 

[Cornbread]

“Let them eat cake”

You are free in this country to hand over all your wealth to them then. I know your hard earned dollars will be well spent to help the masses. Just post the check on here so we can see that you eat your own cooking.

 

[rjthehunter]

Cool. I was a liberal between the ages of 2 and 5. I thought the whole world revolved around me and everyone else's job was to give me stuff I didn't pay for - until I didn't.

Signature worthy!

 

[4ohSick]

Fresh lefsa is wonderful. Lutefisk is a crime against humanity.

Everyone talks about how happy the nordic countries are, but the fact that lutefisk is still something they choose to eat tells me they're hiding a dark side.

 

[longbow51]

It's been rolling along like that for a good long while. I'm not advocating for it, but it is what it is. Compare Norway's balance sheet to ours some time.

Not with mass immigration it hasn't. Things changing drastically and rapidly, though I was thinking more Sweden. And look at France. Their social contracts will look vastly different in a few years.

 

[VikingsGuy]

Your statements drip and ooze jealousy. The gifter's earned it, and they can do damn well what they want to do with it. Typical elitist lib (whether you realize it or not). You know what is best for everybody else. If the billionaires want to corrupt their kids and ruin them by making them into slugs, I don't give a damn. That's freedom pal. You invite these douchbags in govt into our lives and empower them. My secretary used to make comments about the rich, and look down at them. I may not like them as a person, but hey, there is always somebody below us. I used to tell Pam, hey, the drug addict thinks you're rich and wants to dictate what you spend your dough on, and take part your wealth. When you let the camel's nose under the tent!!! Is that what you want????? So $10 mil is your line, hey? I say it's $200,000! You're rich!!!! Why you fat rich bastard. I deserve more money for my diabetes because I didn't work hard enough for 35 years. I spent the dough on hookers and blow & fun. Do you even see what you're suggesting? So the free markets may not always be perfect, but there are the best way to allocate capital and wealth. Food for thought.

You need to look up the definition of jealousy.

Free markets are the best way to allocate money for the living. It is illogical for the dead to be considered part of a free market. I am not inviting govt into your life, I am inviting them after your death.

 

[406dn]

Since we are wandering around with new subjects.

I am conflicted about estate taxes, I can see each side.

While it is not often enforced with vigor, we do recognize that business monopolies are not in the public interest. The oil company that I retired from was a splinter, from the Standard Oil empire of J.D. Rockefeller.

If a business entity can become too large, it makes sense that individual estates can become large enough, to no longer be in the public interest. I have no real idea where that line is.

There are examples of very wealthy people realizing that their heirs do not need or perhaps deserve to inherit all of an estate. Off the top of my head, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Bezos' ex wife Mackenzie Scott, have given large amounts of money to charitable causes.

 

[Alpine01]

Also, NO stepped basis for inheritance. Unrealized gains must be taxed at time of death.

So you would also be ok with unrealized losses being refunded to those same estates from the Govt. right?