Yep, I do. We aren’t going to let MAGA take that away.

The Rand Corp issued a report in 2019 on income inequality, and the situation is far worse than most people think. The median salary of $43K in 1975 had increased to only $50K in 2019, while they would have been making $92K if the tax code hadn’t been steadily re-written to enrich the wealthy at the cost of the middle class and poor.

In that same time period, the mean income for the top 1% went from $289K to $1.384 million, while they would have been making $630K under the old tax codes.

Thats a 17.4% increase in the lower median, and an increase of 321.6% in the 1% median. Clearly there has been an upwards distribution of wealth at the expense of the middle class since the tax codes started to be re-written in 1974 to favor the top economic tier. The Trickle Down Economics that everyone thought was Ronald Reagan’s great idea, was baked into the tax code in 1974.

In addition, the Federal minimum wage was last increased to $7.25 in 2009. Previous to that, it was raised to $5.15 in 1997. The Federal minimum wage was only increased twice in the last 28 years, for a total of a measly $2.10. And yet corporations and their owners SCREAM like their nuts are being carved out by a red hot, dull, rusty spoon at even the mention of a raise in the minimum wage.

When there are threats to raise it every 15 years or so, there are always two responses, as if they are the ONLY possible options - prices will have to go up, or jobs will have to be cut. There is never a mention of the third possible option - that corporations and their owners might have to make a slightly smaller profit. That option is absolutely unthinkable. Unmentionable.

“But less profit means the stock market would be impacted!” is the standard cry. Yes it would, but so what? The stock market hit its recent low in March of 2008, soon after Obama took over the presidency in the midst of a free fall caused by the Bush Economic Crash - about 7500. Today it is over 40,000. Corporations are clearly benefiting in today’s economy, even during a global pandemic when millions of American families were facing homelessness and food shortages through no fault of their own. They were the helpless victims of government edicts which forcibly and ruthlessly shut down their only ways to make a living, while doing NOTHING to help them survive because a few rich Republicans are upset that poor people might get more money than they deserve. So they fought to a stalemate over $400 or $600 per week, while their Sociopathic Oligarch slavemasters chuckled smugly while metaphorically lighting their cigars with $100 bills and demanding more corporate welfare.

So what if smaller profits (because workers got paid their value) meant the stock market was only at 20,000, or even 15,000? Those corporations and their stockholders would still be wealthy, but there would be enough money in the treasury to pay for health care for all, college or trade school for every qualified student, to forgive all student loan shark debts, to cover those whose jobs have been essentially declared illegal because of the pandemic, and more. Sure, corporations would have to live with less profit, but instead of that money being tied up in enormous stock portfolios or in offshore bank accounts, it would be in the hands of people who would buy houses, cars, furniture, vacations, retire to make room for the next generation, etc.

The Trickle Down Economic Theory never worked. As anyone could have predicted (and many did), instead of spending those tax profits on new factories or new opportunities or higher pay scales like we were promised, the Sociopathic Oligarchs only accumulated it at the top. When they did spend it, they spent it on political leverage to get more corporate welfare so they could accumulate even more wealth, at the expense of the working class, creating financial hoards which they sleep on like a Tolkienesque dragon.

Its time to give Trickle Up Economics a try. Make more money available to those at the bottom and middle, and see what happens. Raise wages, forgive student loans, offer free college and trade schools, give every citizen health care, etc. and it will create millions of jobs and stimulate the economy. Sure, the Oligarchs appreciate the efficiency of transferring the money directly from the government to their savings accounts, but the money from the Trickle Up stimulus will eventually reach them anyway, they just have to be a little patient and wait for it to help American families and the American economy first.

If they don’t cooperate in this, then our society will spontaneously pivot to a Robin Hood Economy, and the Sociopathic Oligarchs won’t like that one bit. We’re already seeing the beginnings of it.

Read more about it :

New York Mag: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/amp/2020/09/rand-study-how-high-is-inequality-us.html

Fast Money: https://www.fastcompany.com/90550015/we-were-shocked-rand-study-uncovers-massive-income-shift-to-the-top-1

Now its your fault you can’t make ends meet if you don’t even have a “side hustle.”

Living in cars is now such an accepted lifestyle, that I recently read about a college that was building a multi-level parking lot for students who live in their cars. They could build an affordable living facility, but it’s better to normalize living in your car when they are young. And in college. That way, when that college degree that you went $60K in debt for doesn’t turn into a real job, and you are working a minimum wage retail job, and door dashing, living in your car will feel perfectly normal.

I saw another post by guy discussing his strategy of living in his car for a few years, so he can save up the money for a house. We used to do stuff like that, too, except we wouldn’t live in our car, we’d just get a roommate.

I have no doubt that soon we’ll be seeing YouTube videos about couples living in cars, and even raising families in cars. Look how resourceful they are!

And kids today think that’s normal.

Sounds like Obstruction of Justice, and a Cover-up. He didn’t have the legal authority to do that, just because another Sociopathic Oligarch told him it was okay. He needs to serve a few decades in prison.

AI makes EVERYTHING worse.

People who have had chauffers drive them their entire lives have no concept of road conditions.

Yeah, but I trust Waymo will get their shit together long before that psycho will, if ever.

Tesla is already broke, the magic bubble has popped, and they are on a steady slide to bankruptcy. They will NEVER recover their mojo. The institutional investors will keep them alive for a while, but they are already Wile E. Coyote, hanging in mid-air, and hasn’t realized there’s nothing under their feet yet.

He fired them because he knew his system sucked, and would never be roadworthy, and that was the department that would stop him. So he fired them, and here we are.

I’m actually looking forward to a lot of good crashes, that they’ll explain away as Sleepy Joe’s fault, or it’s not that bad that a school bus full of children blew up on a fire crash with a Tesla, it happens all the time, or perhaps they’ll just deny it, and MAGA will cover it up. Let them kill a whole bunch of American citizens, and then be all dismissive of any criticism.

This is the year to let MAGA fully flower, and do their worst. The Dems should just stay out of the way, and do nothing to stop them from themselves, and work the media to point out every disaster. I can’t wait for the Midterms.

Meet you at 4:20.

Valid.

I didn’t say that, I said I couldn’t do that.

My point is, I always monetize my hobbies, even when I swear I won’t. That means I’ll still be working in my retirement, it will just be working at something I enjoy.

Unemployment spiked last time because of Covid. MAGA has nothing to blame this on, other than their own incompetent policies. But Kevin Besset goes on Meet the Press every week, and claims that everything is fine, the Dems are just lying.

During the pandemic quarantine, I discovered that I will not retire well. I will just get into a hobby, and eventually monetize it, and I’m back in business. I can’t just sit and watch daytime TV, I’ll always be doing something.

Those Texas MAGAs are just pissed they didn’t think of it first. Give them a bribe, they’ll go away.

So, I went into Chipotle the other day, and approached the young black dude who was taking the order, and asked for a bowl. Then he asked which rice, and said “Let me guess: White?”

I don’t know if he was being racist or what, but I’ve got a thick (white) skin, and can see the humor in anything, so I was laughing when I said “What the fuck is THAT supposed to mean?..but, yeah, I want white rice, but still, what the fuck, dude?”

He got really nervous at that point, thinking he offended me, and of course I took advantage and guilted him into extra steak and guac.

I wasn’t using “hack” in the computer sense, it was more in the systemic sense, using their own systems against them.

We had The Bridge. There was a path that separated the High School and the Junior High, and there was a small footbridge right in the middle, over a small creek. There was a smoking courtyard IN the school (70s), so The Bridge was where we all went to smoke weed.

Looks to be at least part Pomeranian.

20/20, waterbeds were awesome.