[Steve_American]

Government spending is a component of GDP, which is the conventional proxy for growth.

Sure there's that technicaly viable method of printing money but in general analysis deficit spending is conflated with debt, and in practice this is largely a realistic precept, as far as I can tell.

Although, conventional mainstream analysis deals less with the topic of the US position of exhorbatant privilege. As for myself, I see fault with the assumption that this position of exhorbatant privilege can continue over the long horizon, which seems to be an assumption of MMT (that it can).

It doesn't surprise me the most economists conflate creating money with Gov. debt creation, because they want to confuse people.
They are not the same, IMHO.
Yes, they both add to the money supply. Debt adds interest payments to the wealthy to the mix, and those payments are seen as a possible problem. Creating money [aka printing money] also adds to the money supply but it doesn't come with interest payments forever attached.
BTW --- I have seen where one school of economics even went to far as to define inflation as an increase in the money supply. Thus making it harder to separate increases in the money supply from a general rise in prices, so they can be talked about separately. I think it is done to confuse people.

[Hindsite]

She's in good company …. apparently Dwight D. Eisenhower was also an idiot. We certainly could use more idiots like her and Ike in the government.

During the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, from 1953 to 1961, the top income bracket in the United States climbed to a marginal tax rate of 91 percent. Taxes on corporate profits were two times as great as they are in 2017, and that's before the current proposal to cut that rate to 21 percent

wealth redistribution? US income inequality, already at its worst levels since the 1920s, is likely to get worse because of President Donald Trump's economic policies, including a tax-cut program that was heavily tilted toward the wealthy. US inequality statistics have been so startling in recent years that they have almost ceased to shock — but they could undergird America's next financial crisis.

That's because consumers' increasing reliance on debt in an environment of stagnant wages is leaving more American families financially insecure, to the point where even minor setbacks can be devastating.

I was too young to vote when Dwight D. Eisenhower was President. But I remember my family being Democrats back then and they voted for Stevenson both times against Eisenhower. Today I believe Trump has the best economic policies, but he has not been allowed to implement all of them because even some in his own party will not go along with everything he wants. But I certainly don't agree with a 91 percent tax bracket. I could go along with another tax bracket for individuals making over $10 million and maybe as low as $1 million, but 70% is just too high, too unreasonable, and too unfair.

[One Degree]

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ocasio ... toward-her

She’s an idiot, but she is honest about it. She doesn’t think she should be fact-checked because she is morally right so the facts aren’t very important. Trump should be fact checked because he is morally wrong. LMAO

The Washington post fact checked Trump over 17,000 times and her twice, and she is complaining.

[Hindsite]

The Washington post fact checked Trump over 17,000 times and her twice, and she is complaining.

The Democrats are hardly ever fact checked when they tell lies or report fake news on their lying liberal propaganda news networks. Ocasio-Cortez is just too far left with crazy socialist ideas to ignore.

[Steve_American]

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ocasio-cortez-attacks-fact-checkers-for-false-equivalency-bias-toward-her

She’s [= AOC] an idiot, but she is honest about it. She doesn’t think she should be fact-checked because she is morally right so the facts aren’t very important. Trump should be fact checked because he is morally wrong. LMAO

The Washington post fact checked Trump over 17,000 times and her twice, and she is complaining.

Interesting that calling someone a "propagandist" gets flagged for Rule 16,
but calling a member of Congress an "idiot" doesn't. Why is that?
Seems like a double standard to me.

[Hindsite]

Interesting that calling someone a "propagandist" gets flagged for Rule 16,
but calling a member of Congress an "idiot" doesn't. Why is that?
Seems like a double standard to me.

We are allowed to call public figures any name we wish on here. That is part of political freedom of speech. Trump is called an idiot or some other name all the time on here.

[Godstud]

It really takes no effort atall to make the current crop of Republicans look dumb. It's like picking low-hanging fruit.

Trump is called an idiot or some other name all the time on here.

He's earned that. He has not earned any respect.

[Hindsite]

He's earned that. He has not earned any respect.

He has earned my respect. A billionaire businessman, who won the United States Presidency with his first political run for office, deserves respect for that accomplish alone, without counting the great things he has down while President and before becoming President.
HalleluYah

[redcarpet]

How anyone can think Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is stupid or dumb is beyond me. Trump is a narcissistic horror. But AOC hasn't been in office for long and already total made up crap against her. Why? Who is talking shit about her? Disgruntled rich people. Republican goons on Trumps behalf, and Corporate liberals scared of losing their billionaire company donors and being investigated for being sellouts as well.

What the nation needs Jimjam are more young, upstanding, honest, and hard working socialist leaders. If they ever get a hold of power for as long as they need to? The old people in the old people's home will be taken care of. In fact AMLO just upped the social security checks for Mexican older folk. And he just told the government employees who were living high on the hog. Nope. Take a pay cut. He went and showed how much money he is sending back. Total transparency of salary. Here is the video: Do you see Trump being transparent with his shady money? No. The prez just got his first two week paycheck and he sent back the money that is over what he approved for the salary.

The message is? Graft, corruption, grabbing money that is not your normal salary is going to be questioned and you better send anything not computing back.

The brazen greed of the American plutocracy is unleashed and eating away at the U.S 'economy' and society.

While it genreralises, we all know it's very true about the rich; as individuals sick and greedy. WORSE than the stereotypical Medieval aristocrat!



Jerry-Netherland:

True story: About ten years ago, I found myself in conversation with a woman who was married to an obscenely rich banker (he was also particularly influential, as head of his sector’s national association). She was clearly very distressed as she described to me the shame she felt as she had pulled up to meet some friends for dinner earlier that week at Michael’s (a venerable, very pricey restaurant in Santa Monica)...in. her Lexus(!). How low she felt.

She was still mortified a day later, she explained, so she went looking at Bentleys and Maseratis (the husband already had a Rolls, so two would’ve been too matchy-matchy and a Mercedes too ordinary in Beverly Hills). Which car did I prefer, she asked.

I stared at her blankly, unable to muster any compassion for her plight (and well aware that they were living off the pillaging of others, which was to be exposed a year later). I suggested she go a different route, “buy a Chevy or a Prius,” I said, suggesting she scoff at keeping up with the Joneses, as they all know how rich she is (This was made more absurd by the fact that their maid drove a Mercedes)
I saw her a few weeks later driving her new Maserati 4porte.
The moral of the story is that there is no such thing as peak greed, and the rich rarely have even the slightest sense of irony or humor about it.

Therefore, the suggestion that...

“what people can do now is to start thinking about ways to make it uncomfortable to be too rich. Socially uncomfortable and otherwise. When the accumulation of great wealth ceases to be a praiseworthy endeavor and instead becomes viewed as a sick, greedy pastime ...”
... is folly. They don’t change - particular today’s rich, much of whose wealth is already hidden offshore. They may go elsewhere, but there’ll always be a new batch of the insecure, irredeemably greedy.

https://www.vox.com/2015/6/16/8790357/rich-people-jerks
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/10/rich-people-compassion-mean-money_n_1416091.html
It has been scientifically proven that most rich people are assholes. There is more evidence than just those two links.
Not even joking.

[Hindsite]

Some people need to be rich enough to buy those Bentleys and Maseratis, otherwise they couldn't afford to make them anymore.
Haven't you got any compassion for the workers that make those fine cars? Do you really want to put them out of business and have those workers in the welfare lines?

[redcarpet]

Some people need to be rich enough to buy those Bentleys and Maseratis, otherwise they couldn't afford to make them anymore.
Haven't you got any compassion for the workers that make those fine cars? Do you really want to put them out of business and have those workers in the welfare lines?

They probably already are. Remember, in Australia for example, 80% of people on unemployment benefit ARE working. The average wage is not the norm, increasingly the minimum wage is. Inequality increases every year in most Western societies, especially yours.

Not that reactionaries like you give a fuck. That's why you support candidates that lines the pockets of the 1% and screws the 99%.

Also car companies don't want to employ people to make cars; they're increasing automation.

The hardest working people I know work 3 jobs and 90 hours a week, and make barely enough to get by.
Fuck you and the bootstraps you jerk off into.

On a related note the U.S federal minimum wage should be at LEAST $12/hr by now. Not that your friend Trump advocates that, of course!

[Hindsite]

On a related note the U.S federal minimum wage should be at LEAST $12/hr by now. Not that your friend Trump advocates that, of course!

It is for federal Employees. However, the private sector minimum wages should be set by the private employers. Some private sector employees also receive tips from those they serve, which usually makes up for their lower employer wages and others receive bonuses from their employer at times.

[Godstud]

Some private sector employees also receive tips from those they serve, which usually makes up for their lower employer wages and others receive bonuses from their employer at times.

That's been proven to be incredibly insufficient as a wage subsidy, even when it applies. It's about as realistic as Trickle Down Economics, which has also turned out to be more myth than reality.

Only the most rudimentary service jobs get "tips"(waitress/waitering/bar-tending). I've never seen anyone tip at McDonald's, either. Ever heard a dishwasher getting a tip? How about a cook?

[Hindsite]

:lol: That's been proven to be incredibly insufficient as a wage subsidy, even when it applies. It's about as realistic as Trickle Down Economics, which has also turned out to be more myth than reality.

Only the most rudimentary service jobs get "tips"(waitress/waitering/bar-tending). I've never seen anyone tip at McDonald's, either. Ever heard a dishwasher getting a tip? How about a cook?

You are being silly. No one makes a career out of being a dishwasher. Cooks will get raises, if they are good.

[Godstud]

You really are out of touch with the working class, aren't you, @Hindsite . People do survive on those jobs because they are sometimes all you can get. For a great many people, there isn't a "career", option.

Not everyone has a "career", either. Many people get educations but can't pursue the career, for various reasons.

Cooking for some, IS a career. Cook wages aren't exactly high, incidentally.

As of May 2011, the average hourly wage for a restaurant cook was $11.25. Half of those working in this occupation earned between $8.96 and $12.98 per hour, with the highest-paid 10 percent of all restaurant cooks reporting hourly wages of $15.46 or higher.

Chefs and head cooks supervise and direct other cooks, typically making far more than other types of cooks. Cooks usually need several years of restaurant experience before they can become a chef or head cook. As of May 2011, chefs and head cooks reported an average hourly wage of $22.40 to the BLS. Half of those reporting wages for this occupation earned between $15.19 and $27.37 per hour, and the highest-paid 10 percent reported hourly earnings of $35.61 or more.
https://work.chron.com/standard-hourly- ... -2597.html

$25/hour isn't a high wage, incidentally.

[Hindsite]

:eh: You really are out of touch with the working class, aren't you, @Hindsite . People do survive on those jobs because they are sometimes all you can get. For a great many people, there isn't a "career", option.

Not everyone has a "career", either. Many people get educations but can't pursue the career, for various reasons.

Cooking for some, IS a career. Cook wages aren't exactly high, incidentally.

As of May 2011, the average hourly wage for a restaurant cook was $11.25. Half of those working in this occupation earned between $8.96 and $12.98 per hour, with the highest-paid 10 percent of all restaurant cooks reporting hourly wages of $15.46 or higher.

Chefs and head cooks supervise and direct other cooks, typically making far more than other types of cooks. Cooks usually need several years of restaurant experience before they can become a chef or head cook. As of May 2011, chefs and head cooks reported an average hourly wage of $22.40 to the BLS. Half of those reporting wages for this occupation earned between $15.19 and $27.37 per hour, and the highest-paid 10 percent reported hourly earnings of $35.61 or more.
https://work.chron.com/standard-hourly- ... -2597.html

$25/hour isn't a high wage, incidentally.

However, the top 10 percent are making over $300,000 a year. Most people can get by handsomely on that.

[Godstud]

So, fuck the other 90% because the top 10% are OK? That sounds absolutely stupid, especially since I doubt you aren't in that top 10%.

[Hindsite]

So, fuck the other 90% because the top 10% are OK? That sounds absolutely stupid, especially since I doubt you aren't in that top 10%.

You are wrong. I just did my 2018 taxes and my gross income was under $75,000. That is plenty for me.
Praise the Lord.

[Godstud]

Yes, you've already shown you don't give a fuck about anyone else. What's your point?

[Hindsite]

Yes, you've already shown you don't give a fuck about anyone else. What's your point?

The point is that increasing the minimum wage by government force hurts Small businesses and results in layoffs of workers.