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GoFundMe CEO: economy is so bad his customers crowdfund to pay for groceries

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Re: GoFundMe CEO: economy is so bad his customers crowdfund to pay for groceries

#61
post #4

CNBC told me the economy is doing great. My neighbor is borrowing money from me. My friend is borrowing money from me. GoFundMe is becoming more for basic needs. Everything is becoming more expensive often for no reason. According to every metric BUT stonks, the economy is holding on by a thread.

> Everything is becoming more expensive often for no reason. - For food, this was caused by supply shocks. First COVID, then Ukraine, now tariffs and the trade war. And on top of that, excessive price-setting power in some highly concentrated sectors of the food industry. - For housing, this was caused by a supply shortage, i.e. bad housing policy. A housing shortage gives property owners price-setting power, which a…

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Re: GoFundMe CEO: economy is so bad his customers crowdfund to pay for groceries

#62
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the “victim” is a large corporation is almost certainly does

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I bet you like the state using force to protect your stuff though, right? If someone scary sets up a tent on your front lawn because they have nowhere to live I bet you're all about using government services to enact violence.

Re: GoFundMe CEO: economy is so bad his customers crowdfund to pay for groceries

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a method, for sure, but not a fail-safe one nor the only one. There seems to be an active experiment going on in the UK right now.

Care to elaborate a bit on the UK comment, because it’s not clear what you mean or if you even live here? The UK doesn’t tax the wealthy or their corporations either. Meanwhile high earners like myself are kept from even middle class aspirations by aggressive income tax. All signs point to that income tax, specifically at my bracket, increasing in the next budget, leaving me ostensibly poorer than people earning less…

I do not live in the UK, but across the channel.. Had to look it up a bit as I do not follow this in great detail but there is some significant debate there on inheritance taxes I believe?

I appreciate that this is a complex topic, but the point I tried to make in response was that these things are rarely as simple as people make them out to be. Increasing taxes on wealth transfers could have all sorts of side effects which are not easy to link as nothing in the economy happens in isolation. I thought the UK was perhaps a relevant example, as France and Sweden have been recently as well.

The economy is not a zero sum game, and the rich can get richer while the poor get richer as well. Maybe this is not a fair representation of what is going on, and I am certainly no expert on the US economy, but the whole "just tax the rich" mantra does not seem obviously true or effective to me.

I agree though that the system as a whole feels broken.. but also, because it is "small club, and we ain't in it". Wealth has a significant influence on policy...

Re: GoFundMe CEO: economy is so bad his customers crowdfund to pay for groceries

#64
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care to elaborate a bit on the UK comment, because it’s not clear what you mean or if you even live here? The UK doesn’t tax the wealthy or their corporations either. Meanwhile high earners like myself are kept from even middle class aspirations by aggressive income tax. All signs point to that income tax, specifically at my bracket, increasing in the next budget, leaving me ostensibly poorer than people earning less…

How can you be poorer than people earning less than you? Thats not how progressive tax works. Am I misunderstanding something or is UK that messed up or something?

Not how progressive tax works, but it is the reality, e.g. in The Netherlands. Once you go over certain thresholds, you lose certain benefits leading to a poverty trap in some sense where the incentives of the system do not align with the implied goals of a healthy economy.

Re: GoFundMe CEO: economy is so bad his customers crowdfund to pay for groceries

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not going to defend the messaging here, they really didn't do a good job. But the US was doing better than most western countries and inflation was getting lower. Problem is, the inflation that already happened was still there. And that part is what people notice immediately. But right now, a part of what is happening is that Trump has been blowing up parts of the economy with his tarrifs and erratic actions. The eff…

Over the last 30 years the most inflated spending category is education and healthcare, which are arguably the least import dependent.

And housing... which also isn't import dependent, necessarily.

Re: GoFundMe CEO: economy is so bad his customers crowdfund to pay for groceries

#66
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everything is becoming more expensive often for no reason. - For food, this was caused by supply shocks. First COVID, then Ukraine, now tariffs and the trade war. And on top of that, excessive price-setting power in some highly concentrated sectors of the food industry. - For housing, this was caused by a supply shortage, i.e. bad housing policy. A housing shortage gives property owners price-setting power, which a…

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Immigration isn't the issue. Population growth is actually down compared to historical levels. Immigration numbers (and births) are lower than they have ever been and housing costs are higher than they have ever been.

https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2021/january/us-po...

Re: GoFundMe CEO: economy is so bad his customers crowdfund to pay for groceries

#67
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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I bet you like the state using force to protect your stuff though, right? If someone scary sets up a tent on your front lawn because they have nowhere to live I bet you're all about using government services to enact violence.

Most high tax states and areas don't help individual landowners with problems like that, ironically enough.

Re: GoFundMe CEO: economy is so bad his customers crowdfund to pay for groceries

#68
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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Immigration isn't the issue. Population growth is actually down compared to historical levels. Immigration numbers (and births) are lower than they have ever been and housing costs are higher than they have ever been. https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2021/january/us-po...

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Re: GoFundMe CEO: economy is so bad his customers crowdfund to pay for groceries

#69
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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I bet you like the state using force to protect your stuff though, right? If someone scary sets up a tent on your front lawn because they have nowhere to live I bet you're all about using government services to enact violence.

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Re: GoFundMe CEO: economy is so bad his customers crowdfund to pay for groceries

#70
post #41
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh get the fuck out with that. Not writing disingenuous feelgood bullshit, pretending that I work for some kind of greater good, while actually I'm pushing my own company, and trying to shift burden onto the "young digital natives". For a start.

I don't know about the United States of America, but in my country it's very common to do volunteer work.

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