- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
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What a disgusting shithole america has become.
It’s only going to get worse. Money buys elections and Putin, along with American oligarchs have a lot to spend on getting their desired results.
Yet it remains one of the happiest countries in the world. I’m not saying we don’t have our problems, because we clearly do, but the idea that the country is a “shit hole” is just baseless nonsense.
Top 23 isnt what I would call “Happiest country in the world” Especially not for the worlds most powerful nation. So yeah, shit hole applies
Edit: For perspective, theres 190± countries depending on whos counting, The most powerful Country on this planet doesnt even enter the top 10% of countries with the happiest citizens. At 190, the states is in the top 12%
Happier than nearly 90% of the countries in the world isn’t amount the happiest? Where do you draw the line then? Seems like your definition is ridiculously narrow.
Once again, the ACTUAL MOST Powerful Nation in the world is basically at the bottom of the list when compared to countries of similar wealth and political stability. US only looks good when you compare it to countries with significant poverty or political problems. So yes, if you’re trying to escape life under a cartel, the states is a better option, if you live in Europe, the Commonwealth, or any of the Nordic Countries, hell no would you move to the States
Europe, the Commonwealth, or any of the Nordic Countries
(Just for clarity, the Nordic countries are part of Europe if anyone thought anything else)
And it’s still happier than nearly 90% of the world. To me, that’s one of the happiest in the world. Where do you draw the line?
I don’t care where it stands in relation to other countries. The problem is that happiness is decreasing at an alarming rate.
Well, I was responding to a claim that the US is a “disgusting shit hole” not that our happiness is dropping.
Bowing down to the wealthiest people is what makes it a shithole. America sold its self respect to give the rich more tax breaks.
1: Shithole is in response to your country’s remarks about other countries
2: You are bragging about being lower than the DEFAULT for countries similar wealth and political stability as the US. Its like someone with an alcohol addiction, but who doesnt have to work for a living bragging that they feel more fulfilled in life than someone who is struggling to put food on the table for their children
Shithole is in response to your country’s remarks about other countries
This makes zero sense in the context.
You are bragging
Challenging the nonsensical claim that the us is a “disgusting shit hole” is not the equivalent of bragging about anything.
More needs to be said about taxing the wealthy. 70% for every dollar over 10 million. Wealth tax for those hoarding wealth in stocks.
Fuck 70. It was 91 after WWII.
I read somewhere that that was literally only for a single person. But the fact that taxes were used to aggressively trying to curb wealth hoarding is something we need to look at today
The New Bad Deal.
Rich get richer and everyone gets fucked on their taxes while dealing with crazy high inflation.
Thanks GOP! YOU GUYS REALLY KNOW HOW TO GOVERN
Till we close the loop holes for these billionaire foundations buying elections (i.e. the Koch network) - billionaires will continue to tip the scales their way. Courts also need to be 10 year appointments, not life time.
More over we need to make it easier to remove both federal and state judges from their positions if necessary. As it stands now removing judge for any form of misbehavior is far too difficult.
Trump is such a shit stain
Still waiting for that trickle down.
What we need is a controlling asset tax, 99.9% tax on the value of assets controlled beyond $100m
0.1% of a billion dollars is still 10m. Since we’re on track to see our first trillionaires soon, I’d argue we need a 100% tax bracket as well. 0.1% of a trillion is 10 billion.
Wouldn’t matter, 99.9 is enough to trash these fortunes within a few years.
We need to change how stocks work. Separate investing in a company and buying control. That way we can tax unrealized capital gains. Put a 100M$ cap on personal wealth. Since the argument against it is always that people will lose control of companies if they’re forced to sell stock. Either that or ban stock as a medium of anything other than investing in the company. No using it as collateral, no trading it, just straight back to the company for what it’s worth.
How likely is it that the trump tax giveaway was all about FUNDING the Fascist takeover of America ? Because they wouldn’t have had the money otherwise
Word begins with a C and ends with unt.
It’s not just billionaires. If you put any amount of money into the S&P500 in Jan 1 2017, it would be worth more than twice as much today.
But is it really fair that a person with 50 million can turn that into 100 million, whereas most people can turn at most $5,000 into $10,000?
Earning $5,000 over 7 years is basically worthless.
The median 40 year old has retirement savings of $45K, not $5K. And the median 70 year old has savings of $200K. In both groups, doubling the amount is quite significant.
Using median makes it a loaded statistic skewed in favor of the minority (in this case, the wealthy).
Over half the country is living paycheck-to-paycheck, so that median number is already in the ‘well-off’ category by default, making them irrelevant to the main point of discussion.
You have it backwards. The mean, not the median, is skewed by outliers.
If there are ten people in a room with $10 and one person with $1,000,000, the median is $10 whereas the mean is ~$90,000.
You might not know what median means (math pun!).
Averages or Means are skewed by outliers, not the median. The median is just picking the middle number in a list of numbers. There is no skewing possible. If you have 99 people making $1 per year and one person making $1B per year, the median is $1. The average/mean is $1,000,000.99 which is way skewed.
Jesus Christ those are pathetic numbers for retirement at those ages.
But is it really fair that a person with 50 million can turn that into 100 million
Yes.
And since that can only happen by investing that amount into the economy, it’s wisely encouraged by the system, versus putting the 50 million in a vault somewhere.
The fact that you can’t see how this is a huge flaw in, at the very least, the American form of capitalism is sad.
You think it’s sad because you’re deeply ignorant. Do you also think that if the $5 baseball card you bought becomes worth $100, that that means you’ve stolen $95? lol
No, I don’t also think that.
I do, however, think that I didn’t insult you, so that insult was absolutely not warranted.
Wealth is not the same as liquid assets
Liquid assets are a type of wealth. For many people, liquid assets make up the biggest part of their wealth.
No, they don’t. Liquid assets don’t increase in value. If they had $1 in cash seven years ago, it would be worth less than that today due to inflation.
Stocks are liquid assets. They can increase in value.
T-bills are also liquid assets. They can also increase in value.
Savings accounts and money market accounts are also liquid assets. They can also increase in value.
When you’re a billionaire, most of your net worth comes from businesses you own, not liquid assets.
Billionaires are far more likely to own part of a business than 100% of a business. And if you own stocks, then you too own part of a business.
When you’re a billionaire, most of your net worth comes from
businessesassets you own (and can borrow against without having to claim the loans as income), not liquid assets.FTFY
Why hasn’t Biden done anything about the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act?
Dems had house majority when he started and he could have tried to push changes through like Trump did.
Congress is more in charge of taxes and budgets, not the president. However, it would seem Democrats in general want to use this for the upcoming elections (along with nearly everything they promised last election).
Sure but when Biden started Dems had a majority. He could have tried to push some tax changes through like Trump did.
I agree. I mentioned something similar the first time tuition relief was blocked.
Both sides have rich friends
He only had a pseudo majority. Sinema and Manchin weren’t actually Dems and often voted against things that mattered.
I would personally love more information on this topic. I view elections for Congress to be much more important than presidential elections.
Looking around I found this website via her Wikipedia entry. It’s a website that measures how close a member of Congress votes with Biden (but only from 2020 to 2022) and Sinema and Manchin seem to vote with Biden on nearly everything he wanted. My personal opinion is those two senators along with Biden act as the “centrists” (right of center) that we expect them to be.
That’s why I added “against things that mattered.” They mostly voted along party lines on the small stuff, but for the major things that would have been impactful then one or the other would swap their vote or hold back their vote until the bill was watered down enough. It felt almost like it was planned which one would be the block so that neither was the block too often. And eventually the bill would get watered down enough that it wasn’t as impactful and then they could vote yes.
I did get your point, I just wanted more examples. I do believe you, it’s just the info I found must have been incomplete or counted the times they voted with Biden once the bill was watered down.
It did lead me to an interesting point. I’m used to seeing independents being progressive. Not leave the Democrats because they are not centrist enough.
Because he isn’t a dictator.
Yeah but what has Biden done about the heat death of the universe? I’m just saying, the man is the President.
I don’t know, but gas prices have been creeping up, so he must have accidentally leaned on the ‘gas prices’ lever in the Oval Office again.
Nah, probably because he has rich friends.
