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U.S. jobless numbers surge as worsening Covid-19 pandemic hurts businesses

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Re: U.S. jobless numbers surge as worsening Covid-19 pandemic hurts businesses

#41
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What else could you call it? You can't drop taxes on the wealthiest Americans who are seeing the lions share of wealth transferred to them and then have the government spend like a drunken sailor to try to keep the economy from tanking. SOMEONE has to pay for those stimulus checks and it appears right now it's turning into a loan that our great grandchildren will bear the responsibility of so that Bezos and Co can se…

The government can just keep borrowing until the currency collapses, there is no need to actually pay the debt down.

The word “need” presupposes a particular outcome. You don’t “need” to breathe, unless you want to live. The universe doesn’t “need” to keep existing.

So in language, when we say we need something, it’s a need for a particular and often presumptive / implied outcome.

In this case the purpose of the government is to provide for the general welfare of its citizens. The value of the US dollar depends on the “full faith and credit” of the United States actually meaning something. Therefore the government does need to show a willingness and ability to pay its debts.

The perceived future rate of inflation is a major variable in determining the interest rate that the US has to pay on its debt.

Also, the US government needs to control the level of inflation in order to have a functioning economy.

Given the widely accepted theory that printing arbitrarily large sums of money over time drives inflation, there are competing forces that act in the short and long term that would dictate the right amount of money to print now, or into the future.

Since the ultimate goal is to stabilize and grow the economy, the government does in fact need to not borrow until the currency collapses, and needs to be able to keep its debt to some reasonable multiple of GDP.

Re: U.S. jobless numbers surge as worsening Covid-19 pandemic hurts businesses

#42
post #3

Man, it's so frustrating seeing all these businesses shutting down (smaller ones are closing for good), meanwhile I'm sure Bezos and the Silicon crew are reporting record profits this year through food deliveries and amazon purchases. I sometimes find it very _very_ hard to not see this all a transfer of wealth from the middle/lower classes to the upper classes - either calculated beforehand or just being taken advan…

Anecdotal, but I laughed when I saw that SL Green, one of the biggest commercial landlords in New York City, and one of the competitors of my former PE firm, was seeking federal relief funds for the pandemic as a small business.

Re: U.S. jobless numbers surge as worsening Covid-19 pandemic hurts businesses

#43
post #19
post #3

Man, it's so frustrating seeing all these businesses shutting down (smaller ones are closing for good), meanwhile I'm sure Bezos and the Silicon crew are reporting record profits this year through food deliveries and amazon purchases. I sometimes find it very _very_ hard to not see this all a transfer of wealth from the middle/lower classes to the upper classes - either calculated beforehand or just being taken advan…

> I sometimes find it very _very_ hard to not see this all a transfer of wealth from the middle/lower classes to the upper classes - either calculated beforehand or just being taken advantage of now I don't think it matters. Wait, what? You casually suggest that the pandemic was planned as a conspiracy against the middle class, but you don't think it matters whether it was a conspiracy or not? Please clarify if I mis…

Sorry if it wasn't clear.

I was trying to say that it doesn't matter what you believe is causing all this chaos, it's independent from what's actually going on in the world right this second.

Whether it's the conspiracy theorists who believe it was pre-planned by the CCP to accelerate them to be the next global super power fueled by vaccines with 5G death-rays and microchips, or if it's these behemoth companies putting in contingency plans and/or having the massive amounts of reserve capital (rivalling even medium-sized governments) to quickly cater to the new economic landscape brought on by lax regulations and tax havens - it doesn't matter, people are suffering in numbers that haven't been seen probably for a hundred years.

It's one of those times I (very begrudgingly) think that China has done well in terms of recovery. They have the hard, enforceable power to lock people in their homes for extended periods of time under who knows what penalty - or they're lying about their recovery to the world... Who knows?

Re: U.S. jobless numbers surge as worsening Covid-19 pandemic hurts businesses

#44
post #39
post #3

Man, it's so frustrating seeing all these businesses shutting down (smaller ones are closing for good), meanwhile I'm sure Bezos and the Silicon crew are reporting record profits this year through food deliveries and amazon purchases. I sometimes find it very _very_ hard to not see this all a transfer of wealth from the middle/lower classes to the upper classes - either calculated beforehand or just being taken advan…

We are jumping into fascism 2.0: - Suppression of ability to speak freely - One party system - The executive organizations of the party agenda are the largest monopolies (instead of Krupp and Messerschmitt we have Google and Amazon for now). I know I will get a lot of downvotes, but i hope it helps at least a couple of people here to know they aren't alone in thinking this now.

One party system

You're going to have to explain that one. Right now I just have to assume you mean "one party controls all three branches of government", in which case, it's not the fault of Democrats that the GOP turned into assclowns and got voted out.

Re: U.S. jobless numbers surge as worsening Covid-19 pandemic hurts businesses

#45
post #39
post #3

Man, it's so frustrating seeing all these businesses shutting down (smaller ones are closing for good), meanwhile I'm sure Bezos and the Silicon crew are reporting record profits this year through food deliveries and amazon purchases. I sometimes find it very _very_ hard to not see this all a transfer of wealth from the middle/lower classes to the upper classes - either calculated beforehand or just being taken advan…

We are jumping into fascism 2.0: - Suppression of ability to speak freely - One party system - The executive organizations of the party agenda are the largest monopolies (instead of Krupp and Messerschmitt we have Google and Amazon for now). I know I will get a lot of downvotes, but i hope it helps at least a couple of people here to know they aren't alone in thinking this now.

The wealth transfer to Bezos and Zuckerberg in 2020 has been terrifying. Bezos has crossed 200 billion! https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2020/08/26/wor...

In general, US billionaires have gained over 1 trillion while small-businesses have perished https://www.statista.com/chart/22068/change-in-wealth-of-bil...

You can put considerable blame on those democratic governors and mayors who give shutdown orders to small businesses but allow major retailers to remain open https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/tale-two-pandemics... https://azbigmedia.com/business/covid-small-business-impact-...

Re: U.S. jobless numbers surge as worsening Covid-19 pandemic hurts businesses

#46
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are jumping into fascism 2.0: - Suppression of ability to speak freely - One party system - The executive organizations of the party agenda are the largest monopolies (instead of Krupp and Messerschmitt we have Google and Amazon for now). I know I will get a lot of downvotes, but i hope it helps at least a couple of people here to know they aren't alone in thinking this now.

One party system You're going to have to explain that one. Right now I just have to assume you mean "one party controls all three branches of government", in which case, it's not the fault of Democrats that the GOP turned into assclowns and got voted out.

I took it to mean that it doesn't matter if it's left or right, "Democrat" or "Republican".

The transfer of wealth has (in my personal theory) lead to the lobbying of everybody, no matter which political affiliation - to the point where both "sides" are agreeing on policies that are harming people and favoring corporations.

Re: U.S. jobless numbers surge as worsening Covid-19 pandemic hurts businesses

#47

Unpopular opinion, but I don't understand why people still tolerate these drastic and destructive measures when we can see all over the world that they have minimal effect on seasonal virus infections. Have we abandoned all common sense in sheer panic? Just an example: https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToS... Romania has had much more liberal policies than Austria for months, yet it is doing be…

Here in New Zealand we have had struck lockdowns and have eradicated covid.

Re: U.S. jobless numbers surge as worsening Covid-19 pandemic hurts businesses

#48
post #3

Man, it's so frustrating seeing all these businesses shutting down (smaller ones are closing for good), meanwhile I'm sure Bezos and the Silicon crew are reporting record profits this year through food deliveries and amazon purchases. I sometimes find it very _very_ hard to not see this all a transfer of wealth from the middle/lower classes to the upper classes - either calculated beforehand or just being taken advan…

Anecdotal, but I laughed when I saw that SL Green, one of the biggest commercial landlords in New York City, and one of the competitors of my former PE firm, was seeking federal relief funds for the pandemic as a small business.

Not looking to give them an "out" - but I wonder if it's because these companies take on so much debt by buying properties and making the bet that people will always be living and working in them, paying rent. Now that people are leaving NYC in droves for other, cheaper locations - the NY real estate market is absolutely tanking because nobody is paying rent.

These property management companies made their bed, imo.

Re: U.S. jobless numbers surge as worsening Covid-19 pandemic hurts businesses

#49
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One party system You're going to have to explain that one. Right now I just have to assume you mean "one party controls all three branches of government", in which case, it's not the fault of Democrats that the GOP turned into assclowns and got voted out.

I took it to mean that it doesn't matter if it's left or right, "Democrat" or "Republican". The transfer of wealth has (in my personal theory) lead to the lobbying of everybody, no matter which political affiliation - to the point where both "sides" are agreeing on policies that are harming people and favoring corporations.

Ah, the ol' "two rails going down the same track", got it; thanks for a different perspective.

Re: U.S. jobless numbers surge as worsening Covid-19 pandemic hurts businesses

#50

Unpopular opinion, but I don't understand why people still tolerate these drastic and destructive measures when we can see all over the world that they have minimal effect on seasonal virus infections. Have we abandoned all common sense in sheer panic? Just an example: https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToS... Romania has had much more liberal policies than Austria for months, yet it is doing be…

Here in New Zealand we have had struck lockdowns and have eradicated covid.

You also had strict travel bans I believe.
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