Posted on 04/03/2025 6:49:29 PM PDT by Red Badger
I’ll post to anyone I want to pal. Get it?
It seems to me Schweikert is calling out these “critters” on THEIR pretense. His statement is not for them, it is for the public, relatively few of whom seem to really understand the depth of this budget problem. The public is mostly for cuts, but NIMBY.
The problem there is that it makes China’s economic demographics even worse, while at the same time burning a potload of wealth. Just exactly the wrong long term solution.
No he doesn’t need to be primaried. What he is talking about is a very basic truth that has been discussed in the economic sphere for decades. It happens within every society/culture. America won’t be an exception to the natural order of events.
He is correct, ‘the math doesn’t lie.’ and neither does history. People fret over AI taking away jobs, but we are going to need AI to do those jobs. And there is a segment of jobs that AI won’t be able to do and those jobs are the ones often considered to menial for Americans to do.
When we talk about the future class of the “useless” it is those folks who will refuse to work. There is already a large segment who are of working age, but refuse to work. You can see that growing number in the BLS every month. These are the ones to focus our concern on as they utilize our tax resources and contribute nothing.
Legal immigration will be good for the nation. Most legal immigrants I have met are wildly successful as are their children. And it often makes me ponder at the “obstacles” the Useless claim to exist when both were presented with the same opportunities.
AI isn’t going to replace the lower class jobs very soon. It is these elite jobs that will go away first. What becomes of those professionals as that tax base is removed and coupled with the death spiral of the boomers?
The economic collapse will just happen faster. And a few billionaire class folks will get even richer. The entire system needs to be braced for this ‘shock.’ And I believe this is what Donald Trump and Musk are trying to do at the risk to their very lives and fortunes. Will it be enough, can they reverse the story of economics?
Even in my humble work I have witnessed the adaptation of technology and AI. I have seen myself go from a litterbox scooper to a litter robot technician, a Libro troubleshooter, and Wifi connection troubleshooter. I have gone from doing a security walk thru to dealing with a clients failing security tech. Oh yeah ...and I am supposed ‘walk the dog.’ as my primary responsibility.
In this scenario there are two extremes of ‘class.’ Can you recognize them?
No such thing. Go away. We are so tired of the "jobs Americans won't do BS"...
Fixed it.
You’re right - it doesn’t work - but the status quo doesn’t work either.
Nothing works when the federal government spends 20 times too much.
That’s right - 20 times. Obviously, that number a guess, but I swear 20 is in the ball park.
Because in addition to massive fraud and waste, there is another thing: overreaching scope. Even that small part of what the government does that is efficient, honest and necessary, would mostly be best done at the local level or by the private sector.
If the Founders could see what has become of the sleek and minimalist federal government they defined in the Constitution, their jaws would hit the floor.
Because in many cases they do not come out of the pockets of consumers. In the case of many tariffs they come out of the taxes paid by citizens of other countries. If a country is paying export subsidies to keep their prices low our consumers are not paying the tariff, their government is.
#3, the FUNDAMENTAL problem is that we are pulling too much money out of the private sector and diverting it into public sector spending that is inefficient and even often counterproductive. Whether we divert the money by taxation, tariffs, or debt, the end effect is similar, and growth stagnates. Who in “F” actually thinks a GDP growth of under 3% is impressive? With debt we can kick the can down the road a bit, but, then the interest on the debt starts to kick our butts too, eventually. God help us if we actually have to face double today’s quite low interest rates...
How much of the general public is willing to accept that due to Biden's over spending we can no longer afford to have NIH, NSF, or NASA? Or more accurately and nastier in the likely reckoning in ~10 years our choice is between Hyperinflation, Loss of Nuclear deterrence or loss of Social Security thanks to Pelosi's bloated budgets.
Too much free bread and circuses. American aversion to hard times...children running the country (our democracy). Half the country living in a fantasy world. Demonized religion and God...Christian charity replaced by government programs. Gird up your loins.
Re: 30 - it’s a large part of his posts - personal threats, telling posters to shut up, etc. All from the comfort of behind a keyboard.
“tariffs do not, ultimately, come out of the pockets of exporters to the USA: Those costs are ultimately passed on to consumers...”
...consumers who decide to purchase the tariffed commodities regardless of the increase in price.
The NIH enabled Anthony Fauci to create gain of function experiments that led to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The NSF who gave grants to investigate homosexuality in the animal kingdom or a $500,000 award for investigating "bike safety." NASA that left Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who were only supposed to have a 10-day space mission, stranded in space for 9 months, and finally rescued by SpaceX.
I am willing to go back to the founding with the Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Defense and Attorney General, but maybe including Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Commerce, but that's about it.
All I am saying is saving 2 trillion now saves more than 2 trillion down the road due to what the increase in compound interest would have been if it hadn’t been saved/not spent.
No. Different spellings.
Correct - tariffs are paid to the US Government by importers - if the tariff + cost goes up to the point that the increase cannot be entirely billed to the importer's customers in the form of higher prices, the importer has two options: a) Look for a lower-tariff producer or b) Stop selling the product.
The option c) Wish new domestic producers into existence cannot not actually happen without big legislation to abrogate the excessive labor and environmental regulations that drove that production offshore in the first place. Conservative majorities in the House and Senate are not large enough to make this happen.
So, if you have existing on-shore production, like automobiles, tariffs can be used to change and motivate smaller foreign governments to play nice. I think that is Trump's primary purpose, rather than directly raising tariff revenue to replace other taxes. If, however, your country has no existing on-shore production, tariffs will not make any difference. $10 Chinese products will now retail for $17 plus $5 extra for shipping and duties (which are levied on cost, not retail price). Some more money will flow into the Treasury from the US consumer as a kind of hidden VAT. China will not pay the US one dime directly, though they may see a significant drop in their exports to the US. China has ways to make this up by selling to other countries over whom they have political influence (Belt and Road). Most of their smaller rivals do not.
All this might be OK if the income tax could concurrently be reduced or abolished. Again, conservative majorities in the House and Senate are not large enough to make this happen.
If Trump can achieve actual zero percent free-trade agreements with countries like Vietnam and Argentina that will be a good result. The EU and China will not play because they cannot afford to lose face to Orange Man. They will continue to act tough - which China can get away with for a while but will probably drive the EU into economic collapse, especially if the US leaves NATO.
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