Politics_Observer wrote:@Tainari88
Your video mentions Denmark and I believe it was $22 dollars an hour for a worker in Denmark who also gets various protections by law that are not offered in the U.S. My question though in turn would be how much does it cost to live in Denmark and what is the take home pay of a Danish worker after paying ALL of his or her taxes that he or she will be required to pay by law as part of normal life taxes that a typical Danish citizen will have to pay? You also have to consider real-estate prices if a Danish worker doesn't want to rent an apartment for the rest of their lives. How much does real estate and a home cost in Denmark as opposed to the US?
These are all good questions Politics Observer, but the reality is that many workers pay a lot more taxes to the USA federal government than a very wealthy American actually does Politics. The laws favor abnormally in the USA very wealthy people. There are tax loopholes for incredibly wealthy companies like Amazon.com. A quick search for Bezos and how much taxes he pays compared to the average full time middle stage worker in Amazon makes?
I am of the opinion that I don't mind paying high taxes as long as I know my taxes are going for infrastructure, free university high quality educations for my kids, great prenatal care for pregnant women, great child care for working parents, and making sure people can afford to buy their own homes for the future and pay them off within a reasonable period--10-20 years of full time working lives. Not 35-50 years to pay off a mortgage to a bank. Most people who work for a living don't have 50 years of full time work to do that pays off a house.
Hell, Puerto Rico in the past? The Puerto Rican government in the 60s and 70s all allowed low income Puerto Rican families to move in to public housing and if they stayed there for 10 years and paid their maintenance and sliding scale costs of being part of that community the Puerto Rican government would let you become the owner of the apartment. Yours. Not the governments. My husband sold his mother's (who had died) apartment in Puerto Rico as a private apartment. Why do they do this? It stabilizes communities and people feel invested in that community and they take care of their property and work to preserve their properties for their kids and relatives and friends to inherit. In the mainland USA they have these dumb concepts about never allowing the reality that the best thing in life is security. For working poor people, working families and working communities.
Got to stop the myth that working people are lazy and the reason they are not rich like Bezos is because they are inferior. That is all bullshit Politics.
The laws and the way the economy is done all favors a very tiny group of people in the USA. They call all the shots and unfortunately, they are going to be making very important decisions that impact the vast majority of working families.
I don't know how many Mexicans I know who have no idea how the USA works in reality. I had one young woman here whom I adore a lot, and who is the epitome of hard-working and honest and decent human being and she did not know that people in the USA can become homeless, that millions of people are driving and so on to food banks and waiting in line. She told me..."How can they own cars and not have enough to eat at home? That doesn't make sense to me?" Look at this video. She is confused. They don't have enough to eat what they want at home because they lost a job to COVID or something and the unemployment check only covers rent and gas and utilities and not food. They don't qualify for food stamp assistance or it is not enough for the amount of mouths they need to feed in their rented places. She doesn't understand it because it doesn't jibe with her image of the prosperous USA where everyone has full bellies and new cars and big homes and lots of money. There is a total disinformation campaign in the world about the true living conditions of many working families all over the world.
The young woman in question has a mother who is retired, never graduated from high school but worked a good job at the Mexican Social Security office and makes lower middle class pension income and has a small economy car, a paid off huge home with all the conveniences and she was able to go to college and graduate and she thinks that the American citizens automatically have it better than she does. I have to sit down and say, "No, they don't. Why?" I told her, "It is not as easy as you think to escape certain problems in the USA. Sure there are wealthy people in the USA. There are wealthy people in Mexico too. But the most common folk in both nations? How do they live?" Mexico's poverty is bad. I do mean bad. But? The Mexicans never had welfare at all or food stamps. All cooperation and support come from extended families working together and pooling all their resources. There are laws against abandoning family members and they are HARSH. Nothing like that exists in the USA where individuals have no family responsibilities because the entire society is set up to have a rugged individualism (look out for your own needs only). Now, someone like you that is or was part of the military Politics understands teamwork well. Other nations say...if you are part of our 'team' you get benefits for that. Period. Like Veterans benefits, and being able to pull a military pension when you get to retirement age, get some free college tuition out of military services etc. WHY? Using the power of the group to create a safety net. That is the essence of socialist organization of society. It is the center of it all. Use the power of the group to benefit all members of society. Not all the benefits are floated to a tiny elite and let the rest fend for themselves and not have any safety at all.
There is a reason Roosevelt implemented all these social programs in the 30s and 40s. Because it stabilized the society and the economy.
Other nations are not standing still Politics. They are moving forward. Fighting for justice is hard in any government and in any human society. But the USA is going to have more divisive false shit happening and lies like this last 2020 election has revealed unless Americans start realizing that their 'image' and their 'reality' is not coinciding at all. They need to work very hard to make their lives reflect a better standard of living and a much higher quality of life than they currently are getting Politics.
I think Biden will do a better job at that than Trump did for sure. But if Biden hires these corporate stooges to run important agencies in the government? The neoliberal agenda won't change much. And that agenda is the one causing the problems.
Erin Brockevich on the new EPA appointee in the Biden transition team. It is concerning.
Why choose a person with a horrible track record with the environment for that post? It is a neoliberal thing. And those people are not the Left. NOT at all. But the USA citizens don't know what the LEFT really is. They are confused.