agitatedpotato @ agitatedpotato @lemmy.dbzer0.com

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2 yr. ago

Personally I wouldn't let the systematic flaws in our government system off the hook for enabling things like this to happen, having no formal way for citizens to recall federal representatives, and allowing justice to crawl so slowly it may not stop someone who committed crimes around and about the election in time from wining the next election and setting up a sham trial or impeachment that clears him and prevents him from being charged with that crime under double jeopardy laws ever again like they just did with Ken Paxton. A healthy system doesn't ever get to where we are and there's no getting around that it's part of the problem. It really seems like the laws of this country are not enough to save it.

I was more focusing on the back and forth, since HW bush, the office of the president, when changing, always changed to the other main party. Before HW Bush it was Reagan so it was Two R's in a row but since then its been constant back and forth. Some people only got one term, but since then every time there was a new president, it was the opposite party of the last one, which leads me to believe its really really unlikely we dont see a Republican president in the next 2-3 presidential elections.

If the US can already outspend both its geopolitical rivals together at 50% of its current expenditure, then it does suggest that the other 50% is not achieving anything more.

Thats not how militaries work. Money doesn't fight other money. Unless they all develop, order, and make the same tech, and employ the exact same steategies you can't even begin to make that comparison. The US likes to spend its money on things and programs it considers 'deterrants'. Deterrance inherently cost much more than Destruction. Simply spending more money does not win wars and it's assanine to think forces of equal monetary value are necessarily equal. My only point is that the US military funds comes at the expense of the US population. No where have I tried to justify their budget, and simply refusing to believe 50% of it disappears to middlemen is not a support of the military, it's a rebuke of an obviously blown out of proportion claim. Let's take an example, do you think Russia or the US spends more effort on making sure its soldiers come back home, and which option do you think costs more money?

The US spends more than the next two superpowers, and they also occupy/defend more territory than the next 10 since we can now say today European security is dependent on American money and weapons. Not to mention the US collab with Isreal for security in that whole region, and the over 700 military bases across the world. Again this is all money American citizens are giving up, so that people much much closer to a problem that will never effect them dont have to sacrifice as much. People love running to America when they have military needs their country wont fulfill, but no one wants to consider helping Americans with needs their country won't fulfill.

I'm afraid theres no normal to go back to. Looking at the only opposition to the Dems, and the candidates they have lined up after Trump shows they're all threats to democracy. We can keep pushing ranked choice but with the fact that the last 30 years of elections has been a steady pattern of R,D,R,D et cetra, its not like we have all the time in the world to push for ranked choice through either of the parties that it would directly weaken. Eventually someone much smarter and worse than Trump is coming, weather theres a spoiler candidate or not and I don't see any solution where it doesn't get worse before it gets better and thats terrifying.

I'll admit that while I try to stay informed on their workings and motives and role in the economy I also don't think I can confidently claim I'd know what happens if we outright abolished them without touching any other arms of global capital. I feel like a lot of these structural problems are so deep that simply removing a contributeter to the problems could cause very real short to medium term consequences that hurt the working people. Too many problems seem to be like that, if I had a solution I'd probably be somewhere other than online forums.

Interest rates hurt anyone trying to buy property right now because historic housing prices are not coming down near as fast as the rates are going up. Inflation is worse for rich people than poor people because their massive hordes and investments devalue while most poor people are in debt, which means their debt devalues. The worst part of inflation for the working man is that their salaries arent indexed to inflation and thus they're at the mercy of their boss. Prices or domestic goods would rise a little and prices of foreign goods could rise a lot but the reason the fed tackles inflation this hard is to keep the rich peoples hordes and investments competitive with international capital.

Say what you will about whats legally required but if Biden didn't want to catch criticism from his fellow democratic lawmakers, he shouldn't have made a campaign promise saying he wouldn't build 'another foot' of border wall. Its not like he's unaware how these things work, he kind of brought this on his self.

I work in Human Care like about 25% of millennials, I don't know many people whos orgs offered retirement to them, a lot make their employees purchase insurance through the ACA, ive seen 'How to apply for ACA' in onboarding handbooks and handouts, but retirement is rarer.

Okay and that means what? That doesn't imply 50% of the money is simply wasted. The US is aiding Ukraine now, posturing to aide Taiwan, also theyre making buzz about operations in Haiti, and have hundreds of bases over the world and you think absolutely none of that comes at the expense of their citizens who live below the QOL of more than most countries as rich as them?

Look at twitter though, I'm not convinced Tesla cant get much much worse and I think its directly related to how much time Musk spends doing his job there.

They spend more and get less, look at the deliverables not the money spent. The US also has among the highest costs of healthcare, of course they spend more, it costs 30k to have a baby there, that doesn't mean they're getting child bearing care Europeans are not.

The reason we have companies with this much power is that the government stays out of healthcare and doesn't help negotiate prices. Probably because they're busy finding lower bidders for their Military projects. Theres no world in which US citizens don't incur suffering to fund their military. The US even at peacetime is running more military operations than the next ten militaries if you count all their overseas bases. All of that takes time money and labor away from social needs, necessarily.

Ive still never had that, Im over 30 and the only retirement account I have I made myself outside of work.

Thats when you stop working but aren't dead yet.

Your retirement plan activated automatically?

Thats part of why im sure of another rate hike, because even optimistically it looks like multiple hikes are coming

Quote from Mary Daly at the Fed

“If we continue to see a cooling labor market and inflation heading back to our target, we can hold interest rates steady and let the effects of policy continue to work,”

So since the labor market is not cooling, there's gonna be hikes until it does. They don't hide why they do this.

To keep spying on their allies like was uncovered years bacn and promoting their corporate interests, same as much of Europe does to Africa, I'm not sure how that diminishes the fact that US citizens suffering is fuling the budgets that Ukraine gets, I got no problem they get that money, but Europe could stand to give what they can and they have a robust health network, not a robust military complex. You act like the corporate neo colonialism is benefitting US citizens and easing their suffering when all it does is boost the stock market lining the pockets of those who funded the economic colonialism in the first place. The US is the last country on earth this Russian Invasion would materially effect yet they're doing more legwork than countries that can heard the missle blasts.

Their employers care less about the patients than the employees and are ecstatic that their doctors won't let the patients die, because the employer absolutely would let the patients die if it came down to it. I don't know what the alternative is but if you tell them you're coming back, they're not even going to sweat.

Lmfao, never announce an end date without a deal. I hate to break it to them but the company they work for cares less about the patients than the staff do, there's no version of your strike where you can continue to offer life saving services and still pressure your employer. They're counting on you to not let the patients die, because they absolutely would let them die.

The Fed is posturing to raise interest rates directly because this is more jobs than they expected. Can't let those poors get too much, the QOL is not going to increase because of this job boom, the interest rate is.

Mary Daly at the fed

“If we continue to see a cooling labor market and inflation heading back to our target, we can hold interest rates steady and let the effects of policy continue to work,”

They tell you in plain language what they're trying to do with the rate hikes, and if that labor market isn't cooling what do you think is gonna happen? Yall downvote anything that doesn't fit your 'Biden is always right and everything around him is good' perception.