Collapse of the progressive economy: the future belongs to blue-collar workers

Post by taylodl » Wed, Jan 04, 2023, 3:04 PM UTC

yucky wrote: post #27

zozbot234 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Starve the beast" was quite successful during the 1990s, the U.S. had constant budget surpluses and was paying down debt. And it happened under a Democratic administration.

> And it happened under a Democratic administration. It was a Republican Congress though who tied Clintons hands and forced him to sign on to a balanced budget after the absolute drubbing the Democrats took in 1994 midterms, losing 50 seats in the House and control of both chambers of Congress. In the end, they found a way to work together and we benefited greatly from that era until 9/11 snapped the government back…

Post by theironhammer » Wed, Jan 04, 2023, 5:43 PM UTC

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #22

esarbe wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They are barely competent at running the key government institutions. That's by design. In the last forty years, Reaganism has firmly taken hold of both parties, i.e. "starve the beast". This is at display again currently with the efforts of getting the IRS's budget cut - nevermind that improved collection would improve the budget. It's not about the budget - it's about who's paying the bill. Or not paying - in thi…

The tax code is like the speed limit. If they enforced it 100% (or substantially closer to 100%) it would wind up getting changed to reflect reality and that would be counterproductive to the goals of everyone who complains it's not enforced enough. The billionaires and other people with nebulous and complicated finances would actually be the people least effected by greater enforcement because their arrangements typ…

Post by Gud » Thu, Jan 05, 2023, 2:35 AM UTC

antisthenes wrote: post #32

francisofascii wrote: post #24

> the future may be brighter for people who can install plumbing systems than those who perform tasks easily done by machine. “It’s the end of the white-collar knowledge work,” As someone who has been struggling to find a person to update our bathroom who isn't charging obscene prices, this kinda resonated with me. It dawned on me that these guy's hourly rate might be higher than mine right now. Rather than leetcode…

Your experience is actually quite solid argument for blue-collar workers not taking over. White-collar professionals aren't dumb and incapable of screwing in their own light bulbs. They can do the math on ROI of DIY projects and complete them if need be. If you can do some light plumbing with a couple of youtube videos, then that right there already eats a bunch into their margins. And if we're talking about more dif…