Economic Situation Thread

[Daniel Balan]

1 minute ago, Leo Gura said:

Putin is eating this up. Trump is the very guy who the Russians invented the term useful idiots for.

Trump is bringing American hegemony to its knees by scoring own-goals.

To me Trump is a Torjan Horse for Putin. It feels like Putin alone has elected Trump in the USA.

[Leo Gura]

34 minutes ago, Daniel Balan said:

Putin alone has elected Trump in the USA.

No. Trump is a manifestation of America's unique stupidity. Only in America could people love a guy like Trump -- who is completely full of shit, ignorant, corrupt as hell, vain, fake, fickle, and incompetent. And yet half of Americans still respect him.

It's the exact same stupidity which elected W Bush twice.

America does this to itself because it lacks a proper education system.

Edited Saturday at 10:57 AM by Leo Gura

[HelluvaGuy]

One of my online friends wrote this 

I think he will have to wait a long time.

 

[Davino]

This might be relevant to understand the big picture:

 

 

[ItsNick]

 

[Daniel Balan]

@Leo Gura But Leo, why Trump's foreign policy is exactly what Putin has sought after all along? I mean, Trump is giving Putin exactly what he wanted. He forces Ukraine to capitulate and surrender to Putin, he gives Russia the former Warsaw Pact countries as a sphere of influence. He puts heavy tariffs on his allies but none to Russia... I mean it is hard to believe that Trump isn't Russia's torjan horse. 

Edited Saturday at 12:14 PM by Daniel Balan

[Raze]

The issue is if the economy crashes the mega rich will be able to buy everything and we basically return to serfdom 

[Twentyfirst]

So if the choice is 0% income tax and 25% tariff vs 25% income tax and 0% tariff which is better? Wouldn't it be better to pay 25% tax which you could write things off or do other tax schemes to get it lower versus a tariff which you can't lower in anyway? But then again tariffs are only on goods and not other ways to spend money like activities and experiences 

[ChadT]

3 hours ago, Daniel Balan said:

To me Trump is a Torjan Horse for Putin. It feels like Putin alone has elected Trump in the USA.

I'm being a little hyperbolic here, but I think you can trace the rise of Trump all the way back to Rush Limbaugh.  The right has become very good at propaganda and manipulating the american electorate.  Limbaugh gave rise to Fox News and much of the right wing media we see today.   Putin watched all this unfold and recognized it for the propganda machine it was.  It doesn't care about truth.  Only power and money.   

[ChadT]

 

[FourCrossedWands]

The ideal scenario would be no tarrifs/taxes between countries and no income tax for the poor. Only mega rich should pay high income tax.

Even Warren Buffet and Bill Gates admitted the US tax system is corrupt, and the rich should have higher income tax.

[Hardkill]

4 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

No. Trump is a manifestation of America's unique stupidity. Only in America could people love a guy like Trump -- who is completely full of shit, ignorant, corrupt as hell, vain, fake, fickle, and incompetent. And yet half of Americans still respect him.

It's the exact same stupidity which elected W Bush twice.

America does this to itself because it lacks a proper education system.

It’s also because of this broken media environment and the Democratic party’s terrible messaging and spineless attitude.

[ChadT]

 

[Hardkill]

18 minutes ago, FourCrossedWands said:

The ideal scenario would be no tarrifs/taxes between countries and no income tax for the poor. Only mega rich should pay high income tax.

Even Warren Buffet and Bill Gates admitted the US tax system is corrupt, and the rich should have higher income tax.

The way the tax rates were set up in our country just before the Reagan era were practically perfect.

[aurum]

Keep in mind Sowell is a darling of conservatism, NOT a lefty:

 

[Twentyfirst]

3 hours ago, FourCrossedWands said:

The ideal scenario would be no tarrifs/taxes between countries and no income tax for the poor. Only mega rich should pay high income tax.

It's punishing the rich for doing well in the economy

3 hours ago, FourCrossedWands said:

Even Warren Buffet and Bill Gates admitted the US tax system is corrupt, and the rich should have higher income tax.

They say that to the public because they have politicians in their pocket making sure it never actually happens

[Twentyfirst]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Davino]

I've been reflecting and I have the intuition that the best move for Europe is to ally with China.

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

14 hours ago, Twentyfirst said:

It's punishing the rich for doing well in the economy

Income tax doesn't affect the rich anyway. Laws would have to be modified to cover all of the sneaky edge case loopholes rich people use to avoid taxation - such as capital gains, business income (both of which aren't taxed until they decide to pull the money to their bank accounts), presenting their income as business expenses, them living off of loans while using assets as a collateral, etc. etc.

But even then, the way I see it. These issues will never dissapear so long as humans continue to have this dark, shadowy side to their psyche. This is what proponents of capitalism ultimately bank on as their number one argument for capitalism, it's that ultimately it is the greed and self interest that motivates us to excel. And I cannot help but agree with that, since human dark side seems to be unchangeable and will always be present in us to some degree

[aurum]

It feels like a big crash might be coming tomorrow.

Strap in ya'll.