Posted on 05/10/2016 4:16:53 AM PDT by expat_panama
As coarse as it may sound to those immersed in high-minded thought, the simple truth is that the United States doesn't have a poverty problem.
Maybe someday we can even put to bed once and for all minimum wage hikes too.
The difference is we worked for it vs. having it handed to us - makes the ability to buy a car w/o a loan and eat at the occasional 'fine restaurant" sweeter somehow when we could have sat on our asses and then complained about how cheap the government (tax payers) is when it comes to satisfying our wants beyond our needs......
When approached wth “Would you like to give to the poor?” I always say ‘F the poor. Let their own governments help them.’ The rejoinder usually is “No, here in the US”. Me, walking away: ‘We have no poor.’
Good morning! Yesterday's trades brought surprise endings w/ stocks up a bit w/ slightly higher volume while gold and silver sagged a bit --now at $1,266.10 and $17.12. IOW, we may not be getting anywhere but at least it's at a measured pace! This morning's futures outlook sees more today w/ stocks +0.2% and metals -0.02%.
A half hour after opening bell: JOLTS - Job Openings and Wholesale Inventories.
fwiw:
Dissected The S&P 500, This Is What I Found - Rob Isbitts, MarketWatch
Looters Target Multinat'l Corporations - Richard Rahn, Washington Times
Gender Gap: Men/Women Plan Retirement Differently - Paul Katzeff,IBD
Life Is Unfair, Learn How to Deal With It - Karol Markowicz, New York Post
This is the casino indian model. Or, the Alaskan oil model.
The shocker too many avoid is the fact that it can never be "handed to us". All living beings must go out and get their own food and breath their own air. The fact that this is not a widely accepted notion these days does not make it any less true.
Hmmm. Maybe someday people will also say that America does not have a race problem either.
I’ve looked at this before, imagine getting rid of every bureaucracy and social justice program and replacing it with this? Imagine the savings, and every citizen gets the same check, so there is no cost to administer or police it other than mailing a check.
There will still be poor people, the currency will inflate over the course of a few years and the check will be worth zero at some point but we would finally be rid of the obamaphone, welfare, food stamp, section 8 and the hundred other massive trillion dollar programs.
How about guaranteed billionaire?
Like for instance, the folks in Zimbabwe ...
The “Earned Income Tax Credit” in which a person filing a tax return, ending up with a gross annual income of less than the “official” poverty rate, is given a sum of money which it to restore them to some point near or just above the “official” poverty line. With this provision in place, there is no need, ever, for any “minimum wage rate”.
Either the EITC or the minimum wage. NOT both.
I hate the idea that hardworking people like you might see their life’s work go down the drain. So I feel forced to make a Cassandra-like warning.
Brother, the petrodollar is likely to end soon.
When/if it happens, this means a lot of foreign-held dollars are going to come home.
The Fed cannot, cannot use its printing magic to buy these dollars, because they would just be swapping dollars for dollars.
All of this is just a roundabout way of saying: please make sure you’re ready for a large dollar devaluation. Protection of principal is not the same as protection of purchasing power.
Hope this proves helpful.
It also does not address a pressing US problem the profoundly mentally ill and retareded whose needs cost way more than a basic income, even if they are provided only three hots and a cot. Medicatins costs and caretaker costs, even if it is state mental health facilities, would be important.
The thugettes who get the checks will give them to Jamal, spend them on drugs, alcohol or designer sunglasses, and the little thuglets will be back into foster care.
This was part of the platform of McGovern’s campaign back in 1972—I know, I was part of the campaign, when I was 18, naïve, idealistic, and believing in the inherent goodness of humankind. 44 years later, I am less naïve, just as idealistic, and believe in the inherent sinfulness of humankind, which is why I am here rather than on DU. McGovern never outgrew his liberalism, but at least one of his supporters did.
Maybe if we cleaned up that global statement.....
"We have very few people who are legitimately poor due to no fault of their own. Injury, for instance, that disallows physical laber; However, the great bulk of our "poor" are able-bodied, indolent laggards whose main defect is a poverty of values...and I say F 'em!
with all due respect to those who have been forced into receiving welfare benefits,IMO, welfare benefits should only be to sustain a basic lifestyle. Not to enhance it.
You are wise.
What is your advice to prepare for the coming hard times?
I see the end also, and constantly harangue folks to buy staple dry foods and meds. Am I off base? What if the end does not come in the predicted 3 years? Because then I am stuck with these enormous cans of dried blueberries.
All that would happen is that every year they’d whine that it wasn’t enough and needs to be raised.
I have been wary of petrodollar and Eurodollars for some time now. There are what? Trillions of dollars out there beyond the control of the United States. They have a life of their own. If the world loses faith in the dollar, and starts dumping them, the Fed will have to severely raise interest rates to slow it down. (who knows if that would even work). This would probably push us into a depression. It is a scary scenario.
In addition to supposedly eliminating vast government bureaucracies, the guaranteed minimum has one key advantage: Ignoring payroll taxes, the guaranteed minimum income would make the marginal tax rate for poor people 0 per cent, or at least very low. This is in contradistinction to current welfare policies which, by subtracting benefits as income rises, can make the marginal income tax for poor people as much as 50 per cent or greater.
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