Thanks Suzanne for the focus on the need for universal basic income. . . and how affordable.
The nature of work is a huge topic, but it doesn't seem to me that there will be too little. ( speaking as an unemployed guy on Medicare with 2 fancy engineering degrees and a fairly recent US patent law registration . . . looking for good work …
Thanks Suzanne for the focus on the need for universal basic income. . . and how affordable.
The nature of work is a huge topic, but it doesn't seem to me that there will be too little. ( speaking as an unemployed guy on Medicare with 2 fancy engineering degrees and a fairly recent US patent law registration . . . looking for good work for 3 years running now . . . how can that be? I can't guarantee you, but algorithms and excruciatingly young recruiters know I'm over 45, would be where I would start . . . )
We saw the stabilizing power of payments for children in the pandemic. But Rs voted against. Big source of current unrest in my mind, not anywhere near as bad as most of that detailed by Thom above, but easily fixable. And that, in a nut, is what Rs do not want.
My approach / view is that we each have exactly one vote in this great federal enterprise, the United States -- *only* if we can keep it -- and that means we have exactly one share in that same all-encompassing enterprise. The USA controls all business public and private within its jurisdiction, and in a fundamental accounting sense, that means that We the People own everything. Everything.
We are not getting our dividends.
Net household wealth in the USA increased approximately $70 Trillion ( with a T ) in the past 10 years. Thom has cited a $50 Trillion transfer. Overwhelming. Overlapping? Probably.
National debt increased about $12 Trillion in the same period. Mostly bad debt, corrupt, pushed on us by those who can easily afford it, and their slavering demented lackeys. ( not fair? Yes, I was too nice . . . )
The top 10% own about $45 Trillion, net wealth. Net. So 2% on that amount would generate about $900 Billion, almost a Trillion dollars a year. The excellent Senator Warren has been remiss, very unlike her in my book, in never citing just how much the wealthy control. She talks about taxing those over $50 million; it takes about $13 million to get into the top 1%, for a total of $17 Trillion, and I recall that Senator Warren was proposing to generate about $200 Billion a year. It takes about $1.5 million, net, to get into the top 10%; many of those are simply working class retirees from the old days, who have IRAs and a house. How the Fed accounts for the estimated capital values of pensions and Social Security and Medicare is still a mystery to me, I'm betting they don't, big hole.
[ notes $136 T, 2022 Q2; $65 T, 2012 Q2; -> ++ $70 T 10 years, - $6 T last Q ( boo who ? ) ]
[ note! bottom 50 keeps increasing, if ridiculously small fraction . . . put $2 T there, happiness! ]
We are the board of directors of the boards of directors.
We are not properly exercising our rights nor our responsibilities in that regard, clearly, and that also shows the need for republican ( small r ) operation of our sprawling and rich ( small d ) democracy. [ every group is a democracy -- some just do it a damn sight better than others ]
It's always Opposite Day in the self-destructive camp we are struggling with, so I'm sure you can hear the cries of 'socialism!'
It's not socialist to own and vote a share of an enterprise. It's profoundly capitalist. Neither word is particularly controlling or useful in the conduct of a prosperous modern society that has both shared ownership and shared responsibility built right into its constitution, laws, and history, in my view, but here we are.
Share is the most important word in capitalism. Equity is next, and Security is next. These are not word games, they are distilled principle and law that reflects everything our forebears learned and incorporated into our country, from careful consideration of prior systems and now more than 2 tumultuous and chaotic centuries running, better and worse, yet somehow advancing rights and prosperity overall, decade by insane decade.
apologies for running on, hope some was useful and even inspiring, it fires me up -- b.rad
Thanks Suzanne for the focus on the need for universal basic income. . . and how affordable.
The nature of work is a huge topic, but it doesn't seem to me that there will be too little. ( speaking as an unemployed guy on Medicare with 2 fancy engineering degrees and a fairly recent US patent law registration . . . looking for good work for 3 years running now . . . how can that be? I can't guarantee you, but algorithms and excruciatingly young recruiters know I'm over 45, would be where I would start . . . )
We saw the stabilizing power of payments for children in the pandemic. But Rs voted against. Big source of current unrest in my mind, not anywhere near as bad as most of that detailed by Thom above, but easily fixable. And that, in a nut, is what Rs do not want.
My approach / view is that we each have exactly one vote in this great federal enterprise, the United States -- *only* if we can keep it -- and that means we have exactly one share in that same all-encompassing enterprise. The USA controls all business public and private within its jurisdiction, and in a fundamental accounting sense, that means that We the People own everything. Everything.
We are not getting our dividends.
Net household wealth in the USA increased approximately $70 Trillion ( with a T ) in the past 10 years. Thom has cited a $50 Trillion transfer. Overwhelming. Overlapping? Probably.
National debt increased about $12 Trillion in the same period. Mostly bad debt, corrupt, pushed on us by those who can easily afford it, and their slavering demented lackeys. ( not fair? Yes, I was too nice . . . )
The top 10% own about $45 Trillion, net wealth. Net. So 2% on that amount would generate about $900 Billion, almost a Trillion dollars a year. The excellent Senator Warren has been remiss, very unlike her in my book, in never citing just how much the wealthy control. She talks about taxing those over $50 million; it takes about $13 million to get into the top 1%, for a total of $17 Trillion, and I recall that Senator Warren was proposing to generate about $200 Billion a year. It takes about $1.5 million, net, to get into the top 10%; many of those are simply working class retirees from the old days, who have IRAs and a house. How the Fed accounts for the estimated capital values of pensions and Social Security and Medicare is still a mystery to me, I'm betting they don't, big hole.
Source ( .gov ) <https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/chart/>
[ notes $136 T, 2022 Q2; $65 T, 2012 Q2; -> ++ $70 T 10 years, - $6 T last Q ( boo who ? ) ]
[ note! bottom 50 keeps increasing, if ridiculously small fraction . . . put $2 T there, happiness! ]
We are the board of directors of the boards of directors.
We are not properly exercising our rights nor our responsibilities in that regard, clearly, and that also shows the need for republican ( small r ) operation of our sprawling and rich ( small d ) democracy. [ every group is a democracy -- some just do it a damn sight better than others ]
It's always Opposite Day in the self-destructive camp we are struggling with, so I'm sure you can hear the cries of 'socialism!'
It's not socialist to own and vote a share of an enterprise. It's profoundly capitalist. Neither word is particularly controlling or useful in the conduct of a prosperous modern society that has both shared ownership and shared responsibility built right into its constitution, laws, and history, in my view, but here we are.
Share is the most important word in capitalism. Equity is next, and Security is next. These are not word games, they are distilled principle and law that reflects everything our forebears learned and incorporated into our country, from careful consideration of prior systems and now more than 2 tumultuous and chaotic centuries running, better and worse, yet somehow advancing rights and prosperity overall, decade by insane decade.
apologies for running on, hope some was useful and even inspiring, it fires me up -- b.rad