Timothy Birdnow

Arguing with an idiot on Facebook.

Trevor says:

And the reforms are pretty simple to my mind. Stop pretending money trickles down when it obviously filters up, and focus deficit spending on lower income brackets. Stop pretending they have to tax to spend, acknowledge deficit spending is required for a growing economy and to have people saving money (the dollars don't exist for it if you have a break even or surplus), or they have to be furnished by debt. Pump new money in, perpetually, through education, research, public building projects, health care and social safety nets. All of which can cost less, because we won't be taxing anybody in paycheck to paycheck income brackets. Stop the bullsht regulations. Get serious about the serious ones. Things like clean air and clean water and some basic OSSA standards are necessary. But don't fkin come at me with my 200k remodel and 3 guys on site talking about putting a harness on to get on a 6ft step ladder. The fk out of here with that sht. No you can't have iron workers walking around 700ft with nothing below them. But it's ok to be selective with enforcement. And that extends up into small business. All the dumb sht paperwork red tape bullsht can go. Just stop. You shouldn't need a lawyer on staff to run a small business. But the basic stuff like minimum wage, overtime and unemployment. Life really isn't great without all that. I worked 1099 for most of my 20 years in the field. Paid my taxes out of pocket, never had anything saved because my pay wasn't enough to break even on life. You miss days and your house is at stake. There's no point in working late so you work your 8 hours and go. Unless it's real sht going on. There's times, of course, you stay until the day is done. You don't leave with a house open to the rain, and you don't not wrap up the framing the day before the Plaster guys are coming. But by and large its like. For an extra 25 bucks? No. I'll go home. Being on w2 now finally is a whole different thing. But of course it means I'm really expensive. I cost about $80 an hour. That's a lot month after month. There's no way it would happen without laws around. There should, again, be selective enforcement. Don't go after the guys that paid me 1099 with a hand written check. Because I got to work those years. They couldn't have paid me the right way. I willingly worked the jobs. I could have gone elsewhere. And I eventually did. They all lost the best employee they'll ever have. Because.. I'm a fking gown ass man and have kids and a wife and I need sick days and can't be paying 12,000 dollars out of pocket in taxes every year when I can barely make my mortgage. To a point, I take your point, inb4. The market would driving the best workers to companies that offered those things voluntarily. But. It's not enough. Too many of them won't. That's just a given. My boss certainly wouldn't if he wasn't forced to on order to be over the table. The system works, as long as there's selective enforcement, and they don't have thr budget to go after everybody.

I retort:

Trevor Anderson the problem is that government is the enforcement wing for the corporate masters. Without a strong central government the corporations would not be able to do what they are doing. They are in partnership with the government. Just like in the Nazi economy.

I disagree with many of the reforms you suggest. Saying money "filters up" only means more of what has given us this state of affairs. It means more redistribution of wealthy, which never comes out of the pockets of the wealthy but out of the Middle Class. It is precisely this "defiicit spending for the poor" which has gotten so many people on board with the internationalist scheme; they vote for the fascists because they are the ones promising the most largesse from the taxpayers.

And deficit spending/money printing is the root of the corporatist power. They control the money supply and hence inflation and wages. Squeeze Americans and they will turn to government and to their big corporate buddies.

I don't think you cold prove your assertion that it is somehow a desire to actually bring in as much money as you spend is the cause of our problems - or that the only way to grow an economy is by printing more money. I would point out that what we have witnessed here has been directly tied to unbacked spending and high deficits.

You do realize that money is a measure of wealth, and if you adulterate it you wind up taking wealth away from those who worked for it?  That is the incidious nature of inflation and deficit spending. The rich shelter their money, the poor never had any, but the middle class gets squeezed by this. Your suggestion would usher in the New World Order far more quickly. It would end with two classes and most of us would wind up in the poor category.

Inflation of the currency is nothing but a toold to destroy the Middle Class. It gives a temporary illusion of prosperity. I grew up in the '70's when we had a lot of inflation. It led to stagflation - a stagnant economy AND high inflation.

When Reagan came into office he hade a nasty recession but the reforms he suggested - tax cuts for all in particular - led to an economic boom which went on for decades.

So much of the problem is the internationalism of the Bush family, the Clinton family, etc. We promoted a "New World Order" which would be a partnership between governements and corporations. The tech industry got involved early on. Then we had the wars - the war on drugs, the war on terror, etc. each of which empowered technology, banking, and government. These were all mistakes.

And globalism saw the move of companies out of our country to where labor was cheap. Yet the policies which drove them out were just doubled down upon. The people with the gigantic brains argued we were in a "service economy" and should be grateful for jobs that didn't actually make or produce anything. The end result was a lot of cheap beads and trinkets, but at the expense of local businesses and small enterprises. Now everything is centralized. Most mom and pop retail stores went out of business, especially in mill towns and the like, because of the collapse of manufacturing and the subsequent rise of big centralized outlets like Amazon. But it all went back to the policies we purused in the '90's forward.

You advocate pumping money in perpetually. You do realize this is a finite resource?  The more money you print the less value it has. Eventually the economy will collapse. Just look at the Soviet Union.

What you suggest would be disastrous.

You cannot possibly spend forever; that is a perpetual motion money machine.

Uh, we have clean air and clean water here - far better than in many of the countries you would have us emulate.

You do realize too that every regulation limits freedom and also costs money, usually the businesses that are regulated. There has to be some, granted, but like arsenic a little is o.k. but a lot will kill you. You will strangle an economy with overregulation (as indeed is the problem with the U.S. economy right now.)  I would add corporations love regulations; they strangle the competition. That is what you have with a fascistic type regulated economy.

"selective enforcement" is another word for inequality under ther law. It's exactly what we have now. And it is why everyone is so angry.

You say you shouldn't have to have a lawyer on staff to run a small business. But how can you not in the economy you propose? You are guaranteeing that every business have one.

I would add that working for a living isn't going to get you rich, and everyone knows it (or used to).  You complain about not making enough as a laboring man, but that was and is and always will be the fundamental problem. You made a lot more money during times of scarce labor and limited government regulations. And your money goes a lot farther when it is strong and not adulterated by endless spending

Has it ever occurred to you that you wold make a lot more without those "laws around" as your employer has to pay for all of them? Where do you think the money comes from to hire accountaants, lawyers, etc.? Out of your paycheck.

I understand your frustration but your desire to increase the power of the Deep State to somehow combat the Deep State makes absolultely no sense to me. We should look to the past, to what worked for us then. Soft socialism is no answer.

BTW We do not have a capitalist system. We have a form of National Socialism, a corporatist system. It's much like the Merchantilism of the 17th and early 18th centuries where government partners with big corporations (then such entities as the East India Company) and whole cities existed as corporate towns for the ruling class. The Crown granted monopolies, and used the power of government to enforce them. It's what led to the American Revolution. Truly free enterprise is not a "system". It is what people do when not molested or "helped".

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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