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The Life in the Simpsons Is No Longer Attainable

theatlantic.com

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Re: The Life in the Simpsons Is No Longer Attainable

#21

Post by monkeydreams »

DamnYuppie wrote: post #15
efficax wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody seems to know what the solution is, other than moving away from the places where the worst inequality is right now. Taxes! Tax financial gains better and more consistently, tax income more progressively, eliminate tax loopholes, and structure taxation in a way that encourages corporations to raise pay for employees instead of paying out huge dividends etc. to investors. Productivity has outpaced income year af…

Please help me understand this. We have a collective government that has more money than any other country EVER. Yet they can't balance a budget and are massively in debt. If you have people who are very bad at spending money giving them more money isn't going to solve any of their problems. We have corrupt officials who are well entrenched in their positions who profit off of it by selling out their constituents to…

Countries aren't households. They don't retire. They don't have to pay for services in some other authority's scrip. And here is the important part - they don't have the same debt pressures as people.

It is well and good for a country to accumulate debt for meaningful ends so long as the interest on that debt can be serviced. Hold the debt long enough and inflation will "pay off" the capital for you.

The belief that "Less Government" is anything other than a point at which thought stops and rationalisation begins is one I cannot grasp. There is mountains of data and counter-examples but people just stop up their ears, screw shut their eyes and thrust their heads downward hoping to find sand. Lack of regulation, particularly around poltics itself, leads to corruption and misrule. Lack of investment can lead to wastefulness.

More and stronger government is the answer to much of the UK's and US's issues in particular.

Re: The Life in the Simpsons Is No Longer Attainable

#22

Post by yellowapple »

efficax wrote: post #4
fwsgonzo wrote: post #2

I've seen the graphs showing that the combined costs have risen much more than salaries and such. So it's no surprise. Nobody seems to know what the solution is, other than moving away from the places where the worst inequality is right now. https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/05/28/countries-wit...

Nobody seems to know what the solution is, other than moving away from the places where the worst inequality is right now. Taxes! Tax financial gains better and more consistently, tax income more progressively, eliminate tax loopholes, and structure taxation in a way that encourages corporations to raise pay for employees instead of paying out huge dividends etc. to investors. Productivity has outpaced income year af…

> Taxes!

And specifically, how about a tax on the unimproved value of land? Addresses housing costs pretty readily, and no room for loopholes (you can't exactly move land overseas).

Replace all taxes with LVT, replace all welfare with UBI, cut all other expenditures to a bare minimum, and bing bang boom you've got a system that works to everyone's interests.

Re: The Life in the Simpsons Is No Longer Attainable

#23

Post by aeternum »

monkeydreams wrote: post #21
DamnYuppie wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please help me understand this. We have a collective government that has more money than any other country EVER. Yet they can't balance a budget and are massively in debt. If you have people who are very bad at spending money giving them more money isn't going to solve any of their problems. We have corrupt officials who are well entrenched in their positions who profit off of it by selling out their constituents to…

Countries aren't households. They don't retire. They don't have to pay for services in some other authority's scrip. And here is the important part - they don't have the same debt pressures as people. It is well and good for a country to accumulate debt for meaningful ends so long as the interest on that debt can be serviced. Hold the debt long enough and inflation will "pay off" the capital for you. The belief that…

San Francisco is a great example of more and strong government. There are committees and steering committees to keep the committees accountable, and oversight committees to keep the steering committees accountable.

However even with all this government oversight, lots of regulation, and very large budget, they haven't been able to make a dent in the major problems like homelessness. Are they doing something wrong?

Re: The Life in the Simpsons Is No Longer Attainable

#24

Post by monkeydreams »

aeternum wrote: post #23
monkeydreams wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Countries aren't households. They don't retire. They don't have to pay for services in some other authority's scrip. And here is the important part - they don't have the same debt pressures as people. It is well and good for a country to accumulate debt for meaningful ends so long as the interest on that debt can be serviced. Hold the debt long enough and inflation will "pay off" the capital for you. The belief that…

San Francisco is a great example of more and strong government. There are committees and steering committees to keep the committees accountable, and oversight committees to keep the steering committees accountable. However even with all this government oversight, lots of regulation, and very large budget, they haven't been able to make a dent in the major problems like homelessness. Are they doing something wrong?

> However even with all this government oversight, lots of regulation, and very large budget, they haven't been able to make a dent in the major problems like homelessness.

All major economies have some problems. There are no binary switches to fix or unfix a problem, especially one as complex as homelessness.

There is one obvious, and effective, fix for homelessness. Provide homes. This would run into a plethora of issues, many political, some social, but it does solve a shit-ton of issues. When the homeless are provided with homes, they tend to have fewer emergency health interventions, fewer police interactions and cost society much less than leaving them homeless. But I cannot see a nation or a state which is still arguing over whether or not healthcare should bankrupt people will go the extra steps to provide the homeless with free accommodation, especially in SF.

Re: The Life in the Simpsons Is No Longer Attainable

#25

Post by souprock »

phaedrus wrote: post #19
twic wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They/we lived in houses without switchplates over the outlets What's the significance of this? I think this is a nuance of American wiring that is lost on me, i'm afraid.

Yes American outlets are already more dangerous than European style; when the switch plates are missing there are exposed live contacts on the sides. I don't know why but it stood out to me how many houses (of friends) I saw where all the switchplates were gone. At some point maybe they're removed for painting/wallpaper, or they just break, and either through a lack of money or lack of motivation never get replaced.

Traditional outlets have the plates held on by just one screw. That screw runs through a piece of plastic that is just 0.4 inches (10 mm) wide. The screw pulls the whole plate against the wall, which probably sticks out a bit due to an uneven surface. That stress point, right at the screw, will break.

Re: The Life in the Simpsons Is No Longer Attainable

#26

Post by mbrodersen »

aeternum wrote: post #23
monkeydreams wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Countries aren't households. They don't retire. They don't have to pay for services in some other authority's scrip. And here is the important part - they don't have the same debt pressures as people. It is well and good for a country to accumulate debt for meaningful ends so long as the interest on that debt can be serviced. Hold the debt long enough and inflation will "pay off" the capital for you. The belief that…

San Francisco is a great example of more and strong government. There are committees and steering committees to keep the committees accountable, and oversight committees to keep the steering committees accountable. However even with all this government oversight, lots of regulation, and very large budget, they haven't been able to make a dent in the major problems like homelessness. Are they doing something wrong?

Not al all. The average American doesn’t care enough about helping the homeless to accept any of the solutions that have worked for other countries (Portugal for example). In other words, it is the “will of the people” to only solve the problem of homelessness if it can be done with a very limited set of tools (punishment, laws). And those tools won’t solve the problem.

Re: The Life in the Simpsons Is No Longer Attainable

#27

Post by mbrodersen »

monkeydreams wrote: post #24
aeternum wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

San Francisco is a great example of more and strong government. There are committees and steering committees to keep the committees accountable, and oversight committees to keep the steering committees accountable. However even with all this government oversight, lots of regulation, and very large budget, they haven't been able to make a dent in the major problems like homelessness. Are they doing something wrong?

> However even with all this government oversight, lots of regulation, and very large budget, they haven't been able to make a dent in the major problems like homelessness. All major economies have some problems. There are no binary switches to fix or unfix a problem, especially one as complex as homelessness. There is one obvious, and effective, fix for homelessness. Provide homes. This would run into a plethora of…

Portugal (and other countries) shows that there is a way to solve the problem. However most Americans will reject those solutions because they are not punishing the homeless for being homeless/poor/mentally il/drug users.

Re: The Life in the Simpsons Is No Longer Attainable

#28

Post by mbrodersen »

The reality in the US is that the GDP keeps going up, while the majority of Americans are getting poorer. In other words, wealth is moving from the majority (middle class) to the rich. This will continue until America becomes the equivalent of a feudal society.
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