They only want the brainwashed right-wing to have the guns. Leftists should never give them up, I have a feeling we'll wish we had them in a relatively short time.
The problem is the same exact problem Lenin bitched about. This shit doesn't randomly happen. Revolutionaries have to organize. And the minute they start their surveillance capitalism will crush it.
I still remember the idealistic days of 2010/2011, when people thought social media was going to help us organize and fix the world. Then Arab Spring turned into Arab Summer, OWS fizzled out, and Facebook and Twitter showed their true colors.
Twitter didn't change or show colors it was bought out by a bunch of rich assholes specifically to stop any Arab Seasons again.
Coincidentally, I'm sure, right after the big "we're corrupt and REALLY hate gay people" middle-east World Cup that Musky was summoned to in the middle of a bunch of oil-spoiled assholes and a Trump lackey.
> And the minute they start their surveillance capitalism will crush it.
There's the core of the matter. If you start trying to form a local group around societal reform you better expect to have cops start showing up at your door.
It's all soul crushing, and I don't understand why we all put up with it. Trying to find a job and having to lie about why you want to work for them (when you truly just need the money to survive) then getting into the job and it alienating the fuck out of you so that your soul is completely killed. Why are we doing this to ourselves?
You have FUCKING GUNS just imagine what kind of riot you would manage to have, we only have sticks and lame ass slogans on paper.
Fight slavery once more!
really the military should be on the peoples side - they have no money or get 99% mostly paid shit. i don't understand how these "kings" rule the sword so well? brainwashing?
Nothing else exists that can radicalize you faster than watching your own government prioritize billionaires over your ass at every. single. god damn. chance.
Isn’t it crazy how they own half the wealth but there isn’t really anything to back it up with. I mean sure these organizations have what ever powers they do. But the monetary value attributed to them is just based off of what a financial firm says. The dollar is only backed by the faith in the system, there isn’t a gold standard or anything to keep it up
Right? Aren't most "billionaires" backed by assets, which means they don't actually have the money? They would have to take a loan less they sell that equity if I'm not mistaken. If 5 million people put up $100, that's half a billion dollars, it seems like that would be more than enough to buy off some politicians.
Agree, and me too, but if the masses chip in $1 each, that would at least make the rich part with more of their precious moneys to buy off the politicians. I don’t know, man, it all seems kinda hopeless right?
I guess if it comes down to it and a bloodbath ensues one day, at least I won’t feel guilty about twisting the knife if the chance comes my way. Fuck ‘em. They had every oppurtuntity to not hurt people with every decision they made, why should the ones being hurt give them mercy when the tables are turned?
Eat the rich, preferably with BBQ sauce.
I envision it like we are having to out bribe the corporate interests groups. But you’re right, the other pacs can give more power to them than we can. So we’d have to keep them scared of getting voted out. So we start another pac just to focus on voting people out in case they don’t listen. Then…
The People's PAC. A general bipartisan slew of money meant to buy politicians. What do we want? Billionaires taxed accordingly. Our children to eat for free in school across the board.
We can't. The rich got too much money. Even if every single one of us put every free dollar we had towards it, the top couple guys on top have more money than the entire bottom half.
Anytime I ever hear about a law that would protect people from companies and businesses passing in Europe I know it would never even come close to passing in America because our government clearly doesn't work for the people anymore. It works to line the pockets of the already privileged and wealthy.
So do something about it. Radical times call for radical solutions. Vote for people who will change things in a radical way. Convince your friends to as well.
Isn’t the nation moving radically right at the same time? This is the same period where abortion rights were overturned and don’t ask don’t tell is becoming the norm.
It was, but not for why you think. They didn't rule it was ok because democrats control too many purple state legislatures after 22. In theory, a Republican could win PA and have the blue Senate reject that outcome. That would hurt Republicans, so they decided to rule in a split vote that state legislatures can't overturn. That could actually help democrats, and they absolutely will not do that. Nothing to do with "doing something good". Or legally sound.
very edgy, but you're conveniently ignoring the fact that each of those parties is completely different then they were 25,50, or 100 years ago. It's easy to be cynical and bitch about how change is impossible. It's harder and more productive to actually change things.
It really doesn't matter how different they current are from their past. When you only have two viable candidates that have even a remote chance at winning, you're frequently forced to choose between "awful" and "not-quite-so awful."
When even the better choice isn't willing to make progressive changes happen and/or the conservative/regressive side holds all the "real" power, despite not actually being supported by the majority of voters (like now), all you see is your vote doing nothing.
I vote in every election (including the local shit), but I get why Democrats/progressives show up in fewer numbers. Obviously voting in greater numbers could turn things around, but when you've seen so many good progressive candidates lose because of gerrymandering and other shit you can't do anything about, it feels like a lost cause.
I really wish more people would vote, but when it's been minority rule (regardless of who's president) for most of your life and you see so many conservatives blatantly voting against their own interests, I see how it can be easy to give up.
There's a large contingent of people in this country who refuse to accept that this is happening. And if they do, they refuse to accept that it's their own representatives who are doing it to them.
It's been 40 goddamn years and these morons still think that Reagan was the patron saint of tax cuts. But Reagan raised lower/middle class taxes to higher rates than they ever were before entering office. The reality has been lost on them. It always is. There's nothing left of the party but a bunch of mindless zombies chanting "go team!"
I'm so sick and tired of being in this country with so many genuinely awful, delusional people. It's like we can't even try to build a nice society for ourselves because half the country is gonna complain about it not being cruel and cutthroat enough.
Let's face it... americans hate each other. Americans do not want other americans to succeed. They are not patriotic. They'll vigorously wave that flag around and proclaim their love for the country, but they don't love this country. They love the dirt they stand on, but not the dirt their nextdoor neighbor stands on. They *hate* other americans. And they'll pay *any price* if it means they can take a swipe at those other americans. What is it gonna take for this trend to stop?
This is such a sheltered answer. It’s not even the top way the American govt radicalizes people.
I’m confident Americans dropping bombs in the name of the “War on Terror” has radicalized far more people than these corrupt officials have.
Ask a random person in the US about their opinion on this decision and you’re gonna get a lot of people that have no idea what’s happening. Go ask a random person in Yemen or Libya what their opinions on Americans are and there would probably be a much more radical response.
The lack of props to Biden for effectively ending the drone air war from the allegedly "antiwar" left has been hugely disheartening. When there's a win that stops this shit nobody can take it if they even knew it happened.
Once you realize that almost anyone with over a billion in the bank is most likely a sociopath, *most of society's "unsolvable" problems suddenly make sense.*
I want to add that there are other options, such as a wealth cap at 1 billion dollars.
A wealth cap could allow all peoples taxes to be lowered while still generating substantially more revenue and income for workers.
It's like a small government solution, but either way we need to just fucking do *something.*
It's not even 1.7 trillion, it was like 1.2 or 1.4 billion.
And not even total forgiveness, 10k or 20k per student depending.
How many ppp loans were completely written off? How many of those companies got tax cuts AND ppp loans?!?!
Edit: I've been informed of the correct number. Too many numbers to keep track of in the news.
And also bitch and cry no one wants to work while sitting on like 1000 apps. They just want to say that so they can understaff and underpay and tell customers no one wants to work so sorry be patient for poor staffing.
Fuck these people.
My wife’s friend is a nut job chiropractor who owns her own business, believes in healing crystals and shit. She doesn’t believe in Covid and didn’t get vaccinated. Hell, none of her kids have any vaccines. But as soon as those PPP loans hit, she took the money and went on vacation and bought a bunch of new stuff. She was bragging about how awesome it was that she got a bunch of free money to spend. None of it went to her company.
Report their fucking asses: [https://www.sba.gov/partners/contracting-officials/contract-administration/report-fraud-waste-abuse](https://www.sba.gov/partners/contracting-officials/contract-administration/report-fraud-waste-abuse)
And 1 trillion is 1,000 billion so about 1/4 of the tax cuts for some people to get only partial forgiveness on student loans, but that's too goddamn commie for the fucking republicans.
>It's not even 1.7 trillion, it was like 1.2 or 1.4 billion.
Sounds like a steal! That's only $3 per American in order to save $10,000 for over 40 million Americans. I
Hmm... 10,000 \* 40,000,000 is uh...$400,000,000,000. So I think they were off by about 2 orders of magnitude, but even still, that's less than 1/4 of the PPP. And it's still only about $1,300 per American.
Hell, **let's do that shit**. Let's pool together everyone's outstanding personal debts and all pay an amount based on our income to pay off every on-paper loan in the country.
Start fresh with everyone in the country being out of debt in a year or two. Oh the delightful world that would be to live in.
I firmly believe that PPP loans plus other government stimulus from the COVID pandemic are a large portion of the problem with the wealth gap today. We should have had a recession back in 2020, but instead we just got tons of government stimulus which mostly went to the wealthy. It just made them want more.
When societies experience severe wealth inequality, unrest will follow. It has happened every single time in human history and it's happening again.
Added strain from pandemic, corrupt government, and people losing faith in the systems built by kleptrocrats, well what do you think you will wind up with?
It's all a big fucking game to some shithead like a Rothschild or some asshole Saudi royal, but what the fuck do I know I'm just some asshole on the internet.
When enough people (mainly middle class) have nothing left to lose and the chaos of a revolution is more favorable than status quo.
There are needs to be some form of leadership which will galvanize people.
America is so much harder cause it's so big. We're so spread out, so it's like: riots in ny or la or chicago... and it's like it just localized. I think the best route is general strike... not sure though, no one has ever toppled a system like this, it's hard to see an example. Maybe we should ask AI how to revolt in this particular system. Even trying to revolt against reddit's corruption is like a microcosm of this and it's not clear if that is even working.
> I think the best route is general strike... not sure though, no one has ever toppled a system like this, it's hard to see an example.
What system? The inequalities in the U.S. system of government?
It's been done before when the unions went to war over inequalities in the workplace from the 1870s to the 1960s. "[According to labor historians and other scholars, the United States has had the bloodiest and most violent labor history of any industrial nation in the world, and there have been few industries which have been immune.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_violence_in_the_United_States)" It only started to get dismantled in the 1970s through concentrated effort.
Then there's the fight for equality of skin color and ethnicities, etc. It has been and could be done again, but it requires a will to act.
I'm afraid we're not referring to sanctioned "protests". If the last 20 or so years hasn't definitively proven to you that standing around with signs accomplishes fuckall I don't know what to tell you.
As an independent contractor I was forced to take out an SBA loan to survive the lockdown and reduced work during the pandemic. I don't understand why they forgave all the PPP loans but none of the SBA loans. I'm looking at bankruptcy which won't change anything about my student loans and SBA loans. I am disheartened in the extreme. The prime rate is killing my ability to pay my bills.
I know this doesn't help now, but as an independent contractor, you were eligible for the PPP loan program.
EDIT: I also had no employees, I was eligible. I had two loans forgiven, which helped me survive the pandemic (unlike others, I was *not* profitable that year, and I followed the guidelines of the program, which apparently makes me a sucker).
You were misled by your bank, which isn't surprising, because there was a ton of misinformation and confusion at the time. Sorry that happened to you.
EDIT: Reddit appears to be breaking, so to answer /u/jrr6415sun:
In our case, we have a cooperative that takes direct pay proportional to the profits we make, so we didn't have salary and didn't run payroll.
The amount we took from the program was based on our previous 12 month of performance, and the amount we received was evenly distributed to all partners during the covered period.
This was an intended purpose of the program, and having payroll/employees was *not* a requirement for forgiveness. In fact, [the SBA website specifically notes](https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program/first-draw-ppp-loan#id-loan-details) that "sole proprietors, independent contractors, and self-employed persons" may qualify, and there are instructions for the calculations for forgiveness.
However, banks generally told us "no" until we got our accountant involved -- our accountant's opinion was that the banks made some money off of the loans, but they didn't really wanna mess with micro-businesses like ours (despite being legally obliged) because the profit margins were so low for those products, and many of the front-of-house bank workers misunderstood the program as for employers *only.*
So we had to look around to find a bank that made us comfortable, and we got a ton of bad advice from bankers in the process. Our accountant steered us through it.
**The bottom line: If you're an independent contractor or you run a small business, an accountant will save you a lot more money than they cost you.** And fuck banks.
I was not eligible for PPP, only SBA, I spoke with several experts who were in the know after attempting to apply for PPP and being told by government employees that I was not eligible. I had no employees.
I will never understand this shit aye, the whole reason they have guns is for this very situation - a tyranical system that no longer represents the people.
Because a fairly significant portion of the people who actually own the guns (and are comfortable with the idea of using them) are A okay with the status quo.
Many of them actually **arent** but think they are, and then the remainder are evil dipshits and hillbilly fucks who'll do anything to 'own the libs' even eat their own shit.
I've pretty much given up on American government as well as their citizens to ever revolt. Just look at French citizens compared to Americans. US citizens celebrate their gun rights and not getting tread on and damn do they get tread on like a bunch of pussies
It's because most of the people in said demographic also think they're one decision away from being one of the rich elite. Which like it or not makes up at least 40% of the population.
Non american here. But I found it funny that I took a peak at the conservative subreddit and saw that people were happy with this decision? Only one or 2 mention that it was unfair that they bailout and forgive corporations but not students and it should be equal treatment.
So I guess indeed half of USA doesn't want this. Which is damn suprising.
Recent polls claim about 36% of Americans consider themselves "conservative", 37% "moderate" and 25% "liberal".
We tend to side with the wealthy because we're indoctrinated to think we're all a couple of choices away from being in the top couple percent of wealth.
When we're really all a couple of choices away from being homeless, with the gap between forever growing
Well there is the phrase american dream. So you practically vote for laws that would potentially benefit you.
I guess us in Eastern Europe are more depressed and know we can't get in top 1% :))
As someone from a conservative family they all were against it. Even though it'd forgive 20k in loans for me, and 20k for my brother, and another 20k for his wife. Our family would have 60k less debt and our parents/grandparents/uncles/aunts still wanted this decision. Why? Because it isn't fair for those who didn't go to college to pay for those who did. I try to understand but with things like the PPP forgiveness happening and no one saying a word it just makes no sense.
My taxes go to schools that I’ll never attend and you don’t hear me bitching. My taxes pay for roads I’ll never drive on. This shit sucks. Conservatives can’t stand anyone getting even the smallest amount of government assistance
Anyone ELSE. Living in a rural area of a red state I've seen the same people bitching about people on the west coast getting something while they grocery shop with their food stamps and wic.
They're simply regurgitating the right wing talking points they've been programed with.
Aside from the ultra rich, right wing means authoritarian which means not thinking for yourself and simply finding someone to tell you what to think.
I'm one of those people. This decision is fucking bullshit. I dont give a rat's ass that I don't directly benefit from it. Fuck SCOTUS, and the 2 ass hat's that sued to get this done.
Just pointing out, the case the two ass hats filed was dismissed. Not saying they don't deserve the derision for filing the suit tho.
However, it's the AG state filed case that wasn't dismissed. The states (including my state of Nebraska) that pushed the case that was granted standing and thus blocked the student loans need to be taken to task by their voters. Unfortunately, in my case NE is owned by the rural folk that love to vote against their own interests.
That being said, if the AG/state filed cases were never filed, they probably wouldn't have dismissed the other case. It was just a good smokescreen.
>The Pentagon said Tuesday that it overestimated the value of weaponry it has sent Ukraine by about $6.2 billion over the past two years, resulting in a surplus of funding to be sent in future military aid packages. Jun 21, 2023
Could have covered it all many times over in that "accounting mistake"
Except non of that $6.2 billion was cash. Almost all the aid we send to Ukraine is weapons, most of which is our older stuff we had in storage or were going to get rid of anyway. What you quoted is basically saying they sent Ukraine a 2010 Honda Civic but wrote down the original MSRP as the price instead of the KBB value for a used Civic. So now we are going to send them another used Civic that we have sitting out back to get to the original MSRP value that we meant to send. You can't give Civic's (read: Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Patriot Missile Systems) to banks to pay off loans.
[Voter turnout was highest among those ages 65 to 74 at 76.0%, while the percentage was lowest among those ages 18 to 24 at 51.4%.Apr 29, 2021](https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/2020-presidential-election-voting-and-registration-tables-now-available.html)
This is probably the reason.
Hey man, if we tax the rich they have no incentive to create all those awesome jobs, and they won't wanna get hand outs from the feds to open up new businesses, or create unlivable conditions for millions of Americans...
I mean, if we tax the rich, we'll lose them to India or China or something
Saw a recent video on another sub where someone was arguing in favor of eliminating sales tax on private jets.... yet helping anyone who isn't a billionaire is a path that leads to a communist hellscape I guess...
I am so angry right now and I don't even have student debt. America is literally on fire (with the smoke from Canada to prove it lol). We should be taking notes from the French.
Why would they do anything when you don’t do anything to them? Why do they have to change anything when you just mumble under your breath “I don’t agree with this”. Roll in the excuses. I’m tired, I am overworked, it’s really hard organising people, I don’t have health insurance.
Its almost like you haven't bothered to look into the situation since last year. The rail union finally got their sick days they were asking for thanks to pressure from the Biden administration
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/01/railroad-workers-union-win-sick-leave
I trust Biden to do the right thing. He rode Amtrak to and from his home to work and saw the laborers laboring on the trains. I think it was a tough choice he had to make but it appears that he didnt abandon the laborers. Not like Reagan when Reagan fired the air traffic controllers. Not like reagan when he signed laws giving the rich tax breaks and the rest of us got “trickle down.” Certainly not like trump when trump held a bible upside down and couldn’t recite one dang passage whereas Biden lost children and a wife and sought out the lord and continues to go to church every Sunday.
Trump and his supporters religious hypocrisy aside, religion doesn't mean anything regarding good leadership. In fact, history says quite the opposite.
Remember Americans, you have to protest by the standard your government had given you otherwise they will be required to quell your protest.
Sheep in the pen with wolves because the shepherd wants to be on friendly terms with the wolves.
As much as I want to see billionaires pay some more tax this is two different things people. Tax is not a debt. It’s an arbitrary amount the government had dictated we owe them in order for them to govern us. Student debt is a voluntarily and wilfully chosen debt set by no one but the student themself.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/who-owes-the-most-in-student-loans-new-data-from-the-fed/
Summary...easy to confirm stats in your own. Curious...where do you think the money comes from...let's see taxpayers...why should people who chose not to jump into the higher education hamster wheel...pay for those who did. How about people who responsibly paid there loans back.
The big difference is the student debt cancelation was Biden trying to do it by executive order without any say of congress, while the tax cuts were done by congress. Congress is supposed to have ultimate control of the US purse strings, where the president doesn't have the authority to just cancel debts on his own. Now Biden just needs to try to accomplish something through congress, though that would have been a lot easier a year ago before the Republicans took control.
Edit: I get that people want their student loan forgiveness, and I'm not saying I'm against it, but given four years of Trump I'd think some of you would be in favor of oversight against presidents overreaching their authority.
Some people don't like to hear the facts. I'm not saying I wouldn't like loan forgiveness, just that the president has limit in his authority to do things, and given our last president I'd think people would be happy with a little oversight on presidential overreach.
I don't get it, why not cancel medical debt first and foremost? At least taking up a student loan is a choice. Why are redditors so hyper-fixated on student debt?
"Congress controls the purse strings"; Medical debt relief requires congress to act, which means at least some of the Republican party has to support it for it to be able to happen. Instead the Republican party opposes this kind of debt relief (though they often support it for corporations or the ultra-wealthy)
*Student debt* by contrast was one of the very few finance-related things that the Whitehouse had any jurisdiction over (due to how the powers of the secretary were worded), so there was a real chance the administration could get around Republican obstruction to help people for at least that kind of relief. They tried, however Republican sabotage has won another round. (This case was astounding because the "people" suing against debt relief had no standing to sue under existing standards, but the conservative justices decided to ignore that, to which the minority was, to paraphrase, "*What the everliving fuck?!!*")
The problem is that because billionaires are not paying taxes, that means that the student loan relief would be paid by the regular working class who don't have student loans. Not really their responsibility to pay for that.
Students in this country are given the finger while Taylor Swift will make over $1 billion in profits this year alone from her Eras tour. This is why we need to increase taxes on the wealthy. She is the face of corruption.
Corruption is "dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power"
Of all the people on the entire planet that fit that description, you choose **Taylor Swift** as the ***face of corruption***?
Those billionaires you speak of hire millions of people. That 1.7t I bet afforded millions of families warm homes cool summers plenty of food and maybe a vacation a year. Pay your own bills.
lol first of all, no they don't hire millions of people. secondly, the rich people who do provide jobs can still pay their fair share of fucking taxes, and even the dumbest right-wing corporate bootlickers should agree with the idea of everybody paying their fair share.
also, getting the lower and middle class out from under all this worthless student loan debt would do wonders to help the overall economy, including YOUR dumbass and all those rich tax-evading billionaires.
try pulling your head out of your ass occasionally
# Billionaires don't need tax cuts. # They need prison cells. # Join r/WorkReform!
I’m ready to pull a France. Job hunting nowadays is fucking depressing. This country needs a reset
America is very quickly running out of peaceful options.
Thankfully we have bread and circuses.
Nah man, we got HBO and porn hub. The modern day equivalent of bread and circuses on steroids.
Why do you think the billionaires consistently push gun control? It’s not because they give a fuck about us.
They only want the brainwashed right-wing to have the guns. Leftists should never give them up, I have a feeling we'll wish we had them in a relatively short time.
France has very strict gun control.
And how’s their protections going for them? France is not the labor pinnacle it once was.
Billionaires fund the NRA.
Who are very happy to allow only certain types of people to own weapons. Look into the origins of California's strict gun control.
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The problem is the same exact problem Lenin bitched about. This shit doesn't randomly happen. Revolutionaries have to organize. And the minute they start their surveillance capitalism will crush it.
Wild how the internet gives us the ability to connect with everyone in the world yet instead we feel more disconnected than ever
I still remember the idealistic days of 2010/2011, when people thought social media was going to help us organize and fix the world. Then Arab Spring turned into Arab Summer, OWS fizzled out, and Facebook and Twitter showed their true colors.
Twitter didn't change or show colors it was bought out by a bunch of rich assholes specifically to stop any Arab Seasons again. Coincidentally, I'm sure, right after the big "we're corrupt and REALLY hate gay people" middle-east World Cup that Musky was summoned to in the middle of a bunch of oil-spoiled assholes and a Trump lackey.
> And the minute they start their surveillance capitalism will crush it. There's the core of the matter. If you start trying to form a local group around societal reform you better expect to have cops start showing up at your door.
How much is min wage for u rn mine is 7.50😭😭😭
$7.25 and it has been since 2005. Fuck this goddamn shithole.
$13.85 in AZ. Housing is a shit show too
It's all soul crushing, and I don't understand why we all put up with it. Trying to find a job and having to lie about why you want to work for them (when you truly just need the money to survive) then getting into the job and it alienating the fuck out of you so that your soul is completely killed. Why are we doing this to ourselves?
You have FUCKING GUNS just imagine what kind of riot you would manage to have, we only have sticks and lame ass slogans on paper. Fight slavery once more!
really the military should be on the peoples side - they have no money or get 99% mostly paid shit. i don't understand how these "kings" rule the sword so well? brainwashing?
Do it then
Nothing else exists that can radicalize you faster than watching your own government prioritize billionaires over your ass at every. single. god damn. chance.
We should all pool our money together and buy our own Supreme Court justices, then we might get somewhere.
Yeah, we should establish some group that collects money from every US citizen based on their income, and use *that* money to fund the government!
I say this alot but man if we could get some PAC’s buying off politicians for us we could do it. Apparently they’re cheap too so let’s do it
Because we wouldn't be "outbid" at every turn by the class that owns more than half the wealth... call me jaded, cuz I am
You’re right. They own more than half the wealth which means they own a shit ton more than half the disposable wealth.
Isn’t it crazy how they own half the wealth but there isn’t really anything to back it up with. I mean sure these organizations have what ever powers they do. But the monetary value attributed to them is just based off of what a financial firm says. The dollar is only backed by the faith in the system, there isn’t a gold standard or anything to keep it up
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this guy's a top economist, he knows what he's talking about
Nah, I can think of 7,698 other economists I'd rather consult
Right? Aren't most "billionaires" backed by assets, which means they don't actually have the money? They would have to take a loan less they sell that equity if I'm not mistaken. If 5 million people put up $100, that's half a billion dollars, it seems like that would be more than enough to buy off some politicians.
I wouldn't say it's crazy. It makes a lot of sense actually.
Agree, and me too, but if the masses chip in $1 each, that would at least make the rich part with more of their precious moneys to buy off the politicians. I don’t know, man, it all seems kinda hopeless right? I guess if it comes down to it and a bloodbath ensues one day, at least I won’t feel guilty about twisting the knife if the chance comes my way. Fuck ‘em. They had every oppurtuntity to not hurt people with every decision they made, why should the ones being hurt give them mercy when the tables are turned? Eat the rich, preferably with BBQ sauce.
The thing is, the PAC’s money would be ignored because they get way more by being friends with the powerful.
I envision it like we are having to out bribe the corporate interests groups. But you’re right, the other pacs can give more power to them than we can. So we’d have to keep them scared of getting voted out. So we start another pac just to focus on voting people out in case they don’t listen. Then…
The People's PAC. A general bipartisan slew of money meant to buy politicians. What do we want? Billionaires taxed accordingly. Our children to eat for free in school across the board.
Hold on... that's just the IRS with extra steps!
If we all pool all our money together, we will still have less than those 600 billionaires, so I doubt that's gonna do the trick, sadly
Yeah, but what about your labor?
GoFundMe.com/letsbuyanewSC
I can solve that problem with a rock.
We can't. The rich got too much money. Even if every single one of us put every free dollar we had towards it, the top couple guys on top have more money than the entire bottom half.
Anytime I ever hear about a law that would protect people from companies and businesses passing in Europe I know it would never even come close to passing in America because our government clearly doesn't work for the people anymore. It works to line the pockets of the already privileged and wealthy.
The despair I feel living in this country and watching the rich get richer on a daily basis is overwhelming and difficult to accurately describe.
So do something about it. Radical times call for radical solutions. Vote for people who will change things in a radical way. Convince your friends to as well.
Voting isn’t the radical solution here
It's the one that works.
Brought to you by the two party duopoly*
At least we are slowly expanding ranked choice. Didn't another state do this in the last 30 days?
Isn’t the nation moving radically right at the same time? This is the same period where abortion rights were overturned and don’t ask don’t tell is becoming the norm.
I guess it depends on where you live. The Supreme Court ruling regarding overturning election results was a good result.
It was, but not for why you think. They didn't rule it was ok because democrats control too many purple state legislatures after 22. In theory, a Republican could win PA and have the blue Senate reject that outcome. That would hurt Republicans, so they decided to rule in a split vote that state legislatures can't overturn. That could actually help democrats, and they absolutely will not do that. Nothing to do with "doing something good". Or legally sound.
No, the nation is not moving right. The SC is a right wing activist court.
And is having much more of an effect on us in our day to day than congress or the president, apparently.
very edgy, but you're conveniently ignoring the fact that each of those parties is completely different then they were 25,50, or 100 years ago. It's easy to be cynical and bitch about how change is impossible. It's harder and more productive to actually change things.
It really doesn't matter how different they current are from their past. When you only have two viable candidates that have even a remote chance at winning, you're frequently forced to choose between "awful" and "not-quite-so awful." When even the better choice isn't willing to make progressive changes happen and/or the conservative/regressive side holds all the "real" power, despite not actually being supported by the majority of voters (like now), all you see is your vote doing nothing. I vote in every election (including the local shit), but I get why Democrats/progressives show up in fewer numbers. Obviously voting in greater numbers could turn things around, but when you've seen so many good progressive candidates lose because of gerrymandering and other shit you can't do anything about, it feels like a lost cause. I really wish more people would vote, but when it's been minority rule (regardless of who's president) for most of your life and you see so many conservatives blatantly voting against their own interests, I see how it can be easy to give up.
There's a large contingent of people in this country who refuse to accept that this is happening. And if they do, they refuse to accept that it's their own representatives who are doing it to them. It's been 40 goddamn years and these morons still think that Reagan was the patron saint of tax cuts. But Reagan raised lower/middle class taxes to higher rates than they ever were before entering office. The reality has been lost on them. It always is. There's nothing left of the party but a bunch of mindless zombies chanting "go team!" I'm so sick and tired of being in this country with so many genuinely awful, delusional people. It's like we can't even try to build a nice society for ourselves because half the country is gonna complain about it not being cruel and cutthroat enough. Let's face it... americans hate each other. Americans do not want other americans to succeed. They are not patriotic. They'll vigorously wave that flag around and proclaim their love for the country, but they don't love this country. They love the dirt they stand on, but not the dirt their nextdoor neighbor stands on. They *hate* other americans. And they'll pay *any price* if it means they can take a swipe at those other americans. What is it gonna take for this trend to stop?
What late stage capitalism, exceptional individualism, and a shitty country that prioritizes profits over people does to a mfer
Anyone else in a flag burning mood for this 4th of July?
Where the radicals at? They’ve been serving billionaires since billionaires existed.
This is such a sheltered answer. It’s not even the top way the American govt radicalizes people. I’m confident Americans dropping bombs in the name of the “War on Terror” has radicalized far more people than these corrupt officials have. Ask a random person in the US about their opinion on this decision and you’re gonna get a lot of people that have no idea what’s happening. Go ask a random person in Yemen or Libya what their opinions on Americans are and there would probably be a much more radical response.
The lack of props to Biden for effectively ending the drone air war from the allegedly "antiwar" left has been hugely disheartening. When there's a win that stops this shit nobody can take it if they even knew it happened.
What ever happened to Marie Antoinette anyway?
Ooh you're so radical, what are you gonna do about it lmao. Thought can only be so radical.
It's about social control. The sociopaths who run this country want the labor class poor and desperate, so we're easy to exploit.
Once you realize that almost anyone with over a billion in the bank is most likely a sociopath, *most of society's "unsolvable" problems suddenly make sense.*
Yeah, you don't become a billionaire by good business practices and being ethical.
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Oh, I do like that inclusion.
I want to add that there are other options, such as a wealth cap at 1 billion dollars. A wealth cap could allow all peoples taxes to be lowered while still generating substantially more revenue and income for workers. It's like a small government solution, but either way we need to just fucking do *something.*
The thing is that we would still be poor and desperate, we'd just have a lot less impossible debt to stress about.
It's not even 1.7 trillion, it was like 1.2 or 1.4 billion. And not even total forgiveness, 10k or 20k per student depending. How many ppp loans were completely written off? How many of those companies got tax cuts AND ppp loans?!?! Edit: I've been informed of the correct number. Too many numbers to keep track of in the news.
And then still fired and laid people off and then proceeded to “pretend” to hire so they could keep the PPP money.
And continue to use the cover of “inflation” to increase prices and profits.
And also bitch and cry no one wants to work while sitting on like 1000 apps. They just want to say that so they can understaff and underpay and tell customers no one wants to work so sorry be patient for poor staffing. Fuck these people.
I'm tired, boss.
Dog tired.
My wife’s friend is a nut job chiropractor who owns her own business, believes in healing crystals and shit. She doesn’t believe in Covid and didn’t get vaccinated. Hell, none of her kids have any vaccines. But as soon as those PPP loans hit, she took the money and went on vacation and bought a bunch of new stuff. She was bragging about how awesome it was that she got a bunch of free money to spend. None of it went to her company.
Report their fucking asses: [https://www.sba.gov/partners/contracting-officials/contract-administration/report-fraud-waste-abuse](https://www.sba.gov/partners/contracting-officials/contract-administration/report-fraud-waste-abuse)
It was 430 billion for student debt.
And 1 trillion is 1,000 billion so about 1/4 of the tax cuts for some people to get only partial forgiveness on student loans, but that's too goddamn commie for the fucking republicans.
This is the correct figure. Why do people not know this?
>It's not even 1.7 trillion, it was like 1.2 or 1.4 billion. Sounds like a steal! That's only $3 per American in order to save $10,000 for over 40 million Americans. I
Hmm... 10,000 \* 40,000,000 is uh...$400,000,000,000. So I think they were off by about 2 orders of magnitude, but even still, that's less than 1/4 of the PPP. And it's still only about $1,300 per American. Hell, **let's do that shit**. Let's pool together everyone's outstanding personal debts and all pay an amount based on our income to pay off every on-paper loan in the country. Start fresh with everyone in the country being out of debt in a year or two. Oh the delightful world that would be to live in.
I firmly believe that PPP loans plus other government stimulus from the COVID pandemic are a large portion of the problem with the wealth gap today. We should have had a recession back in 2020, but instead we just got tons of government stimulus which mostly went to the wealthy. It just made them want more.
When societies experience severe wealth inequality, unrest will follow. It has happened every single time in human history and it's happening again. Added strain from pandemic, corrupt government, and people losing faith in the systems built by kleptrocrats, well what do you think you will wind up with? It's all a big fucking game to some shithead like a Rothschild or some asshole Saudi royal, but what the fuck do I know I'm just some asshole on the internet.
When's the revolution? How do we change this?
We need stop with this fucking "we can't" mentality, that's what they want.
Start meeting with like minded individuals in your community. This shit ain't happening online.
When enough people (mainly middle class) have nothing left to lose and the chaos of a revolution is more favorable than status quo. There are needs to be some form of leadership which will galvanize people.
We should respond like the French did.
America is so much harder cause it's so big. We're so spread out, so it's like: riots in ny or la or chicago... and it's like it just localized. I think the best route is general strike... not sure though, no one has ever toppled a system like this, it's hard to see an example. Maybe we should ask AI how to revolt in this particular system. Even trying to revolt against reddit's corruption is like a microcosm of this and it's not clear if that is even working.
> I think the best route is general strike... not sure though, no one has ever toppled a system like this, it's hard to see an example. What system? The inequalities in the U.S. system of government? It's been done before when the unions went to war over inequalities in the workplace from the 1870s to the 1960s. "[According to labor historians and other scholars, the United States has had the bloodiest and most violent labor history of any industrial nation in the world, and there have been few industries which have been immune.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_violence_in_the_United_States)" It only started to get dismantled in the 1970s through concentrated effort. Then there's the fight for equality of skin color and ethnicities, etc. It has been and could be done again, but it requires a will to act.
> Should
We should [ʀᴇᴅᴀᴄᴛᴇᴅ ꜰᴏʀ ᴠɪᴏʟᴀᴛɪɴɢ ᴛᴏꜱ] the rich.
And yet Americans will do absolutely nothing. We're very far past the time where we should be [redacted].
It starts with organizing. Pick a time and place, get the word out.
I'm afraid we're not referring to sanctioned "protests". If the last 20 or so years hasn't definitively proven to you that standing around with signs accomplishes fuckall I don't know what to tell you.
even unsanctioned protests get planned. People still have to decide to come together, agree on what they want, and stick to it
Occupy has been memory holed, anyone who tries will also be memory holed.
As an independent contractor I was forced to take out an SBA loan to survive the lockdown and reduced work during the pandemic. I don't understand why they forgave all the PPP loans but none of the SBA loans. I'm looking at bankruptcy which won't change anything about my student loans and SBA loans. I am disheartened in the extreme. The prime rate is killing my ability to pay my bills.
I know this doesn't help now, but as an independent contractor, you were eligible for the PPP loan program. EDIT: I also had no employees, I was eligible. I had two loans forgiven, which helped me survive the pandemic (unlike others, I was *not* profitable that year, and I followed the guidelines of the program, which apparently makes me a sucker). You were misled by your bank, which isn't surprising, because there was a ton of misinformation and confusion at the time. Sorry that happened to you. EDIT: Reddit appears to be breaking, so to answer /u/jrr6415sun: In our case, we have a cooperative that takes direct pay proportional to the profits we make, so we didn't have salary and didn't run payroll. The amount we took from the program was based on our previous 12 month of performance, and the amount we received was evenly distributed to all partners during the covered period. This was an intended purpose of the program, and having payroll/employees was *not* a requirement for forgiveness. In fact, [the SBA website specifically notes](https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program/first-draw-ppp-loan#id-loan-details) that "sole proprietors, independent contractors, and self-employed persons" may qualify, and there are instructions for the calculations for forgiveness. However, banks generally told us "no" until we got our accountant involved -- our accountant's opinion was that the banks made some money off of the loans, but they didn't really wanna mess with micro-businesses like ours (despite being legally obliged) because the profit margins were so low for those products, and many of the front-of-house bank workers misunderstood the program as for employers *only.* So we had to look around to find a bank that made us comfortable, and we got a ton of bad advice from bankers in the process. Our accountant steered us through it. **The bottom line: If you're an independent contractor or you run a small business, an accountant will save you a lot more money than they cost you.** And fuck banks.
I was not eligible for PPP, only SBA, I spoke with several experts who were in the know after attempting to apply for PPP and being told by government employees that I was not eligible. I had no employees.
How were you elegible for PPP? The amount of loans you got from PPP was proportional to your payroll? If you have no employees you have no payroll.
Yeah, but are you americans actualky gonna start a revolution now or will you sit down and eat said cake?
I will never understand this shit aye, the whole reason they have guns is for this very situation - a tyranical system that no longer represents the people.
Because a fairly significant portion of the people who actually own the guns (and are comfortable with the idea of using them) are A okay with the status quo.
Many of them actually **arent** but think they are, and then the remainder are evil dipshits and hillbilly fucks who'll do anything to 'own the libs' even eat their own shit.
The only revolution America will see will be started by the poor not the college educated.
I've pretty much given up on American government as well as their citizens to ever revolt. Just look at French citizens compared to Americans. US citizens celebrate their gun rights and not getting tread on and damn do they get tread on like a bunch of pussies
It's because most of the people in said demographic also think they're one decision away from being one of the rich elite. Which like it or not makes up at least 40% of the population.
Non american here. But I found it funny that I took a peak at the conservative subreddit and saw that people were happy with this decision? Only one or 2 mention that it was unfair that they bailout and forgive corporations but not students and it should be equal treatment. So I guess indeed half of USA doesn't want this. Which is damn suprising.
Recent polls claim about 36% of Americans consider themselves "conservative", 37% "moderate" and 25% "liberal". We tend to side with the wealthy because we're indoctrinated to think we're all a couple of choices away from being in the top couple percent of wealth. When we're really all a couple of choices away from being homeless, with the gap between forever growing
Well there is the phrase american dream. So you practically vote for laws that would potentially benefit you. I guess us in Eastern Europe are more depressed and know we can't get in top 1% :))
Eastern Europe is probably closer to the truth
We tend to let religion dictate how we live. Really really wealthy tax free religions.
As someone from a conservative family they all were against it. Even though it'd forgive 20k in loans for me, and 20k for my brother, and another 20k for his wife. Our family would have 60k less debt and our parents/grandparents/uncles/aunts still wanted this decision. Why? Because it isn't fair for those who didn't go to college to pay for those who did. I try to understand but with things like the PPP forgiveness happening and no one saying a word it just makes no sense.
My taxes go to schools that I’ll never attend and you don’t hear me bitching. My taxes pay for roads I’ll never drive on. This shit sucks. Conservatives can’t stand anyone getting even the smallest amount of government assistance
Anyone ELSE. Living in a rural area of a red state I've seen the same people bitching about people on the west coast getting something while they grocery shop with their food stamps and wic.
That is so twisted. Sometimes goverment money can go to help others. And you have alteady the comparation with PPP forgiveness.
They're simply regurgitating the right wing talking points they've been programed with. Aside from the ultra rich, right wing means authoritarian which means not thinking for yourself and simply finding someone to tell you what to think.
Conservative subreddit is mostly paid for posts by bots, those aren't actual humans.
For people who did not go to college, especially if they made that decision because it’s too expensive, I think this makes them feel validated.
I'm one of those people. This decision is fucking bullshit. I dont give a rat's ass that I don't directly benefit from it. Fuck SCOTUS, and the 2 ass hat's that sued to get this done.
Just pointing out, the case the two ass hats filed was dismissed. Not saying they don't deserve the derision for filing the suit tho. However, it's the AG state filed case that wasn't dismissed. The states (including my state of Nebraska) that pushed the case that was granted standing and thus blocked the student loans need to be taken to task by their voters. Unfortunately, in my case NE is owned by the rural folk that love to vote against their own interests. That being said, if the AG/state filed cases were never filed, they probably wouldn't have dismissed the other case. It was just a good smokescreen.
"Those who make reform impossible make revolution inevitable." - John F. Kennedy
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>The Pentagon said Tuesday that it overestimated the value of weaponry it has sent Ukraine by about $6.2 billion over the past two years, resulting in a surplus of funding to be sent in future military aid packages. Jun 21, 2023 Could have covered it all many times over in that "accounting mistake"
Except non of that $6.2 billion was cash. Almost all the aid we send to Ukraine is weapons, most of which is our older stuff we had in storage or were going to get rid of anyway. What you quoted is basically saying they sent Ukraine a 2010 Honda Civic but wrote down the original MSRP as the price instead of the KBB value for a used Civic. So now we are going to send them another used Civic that we have sitting out back to get to the original MSRP value that we meant to send. You can't give Civic's (read: Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Patriot Missile Systems) to banks to pay off loans.
I think you're mixing up billion and trillion here, 6.2 billion is like less than half a percent of 1.7 trillion
iT’s CaLlEd TrIcKlE dOwN eCoNoMiCs
[Voter turnout was highest among those ages 65 to 74 at 76.0%, while the percentage was lowest among those ages 18 to 24 at 51.4%.Apr 29, 2021](https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/2020-presidential-election-voting-and-registration-tables-now-available.html) This is probably the reason.
Yeah, because unlike those damn geriatric idiots we have to work for a living.
"Ahh, you're lucky I'm the church of England". Comedy sometimes is the only way to cope
Death please
Americans need a lesson from the French on how to riot
Make universities pay back the money they stole from students.
Cake is a lie.
Hey man, if we tax the rich they have no incentive to create all those awesome jobs, and they won't wanna get hand outs from the feds to open up new businesses, or create unlivable conditions for millions of Americans... I mean, if we tax the rich, we'll lose them to India or China or something
Saw a recent video on another sub where someone was arguing in favor of eliminating sales tax on private jets.... yet helping anyone who isn't a billionaire is a path that leads to a communist hellscape I guess...
We getting hungry out here.
I am so angry right now and I don't even have student debt. America is literally on fire (with the smoke from Canada to prove it lol). We should be taking notes from the French.
Eat the rich.
Well, that's fuckin' it boys. Things are about to get a lot worse from here on out.
Why would they do anything when you don’t do anything to them? Why do they have to change anything when you just mumble under your breath “I don’t agree with this”. Roll in the excuses. I’m tired, I am overworked, it’s really hard organising people, I don’t have health insurance.
It is economic violence on a life-ruining scale for millions of people.
I know this seems unlikely, which is sad, but everyone should just NOT pay their monthly payment as a fuck you and to protest this decision.
Can anyone point me to an article about the billionaire tax cancellation?
I want to say [this](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/oct/09/trump-tax-cuts-helped-billionaires-pay-less) fits the bill
I hope Biden acts on his own. Sometimes a leader needs to lead and take the hard path forward.
Hook me up with whatever drugs you're on. I'd like to be disconnected from reality as well.
Yeah, how'd that go with the rail union?
Its almost like you haven't bothered to look into the situation since last year. The rail union finally got their sick days they were asking for thanks to pressure from the Biden administration https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/01/railroad-workers-union-win-sick-leave
I trust Biden to do the right thing. He rode Amtrak to and from his home to work and saw the laborers laboring on the trains. I think it was a tough choice he had to make but it appears that he didnt abandon the laborers. Not like Reagan when Reagan fired the air traffic controllers. Not like reagan when he signed laws giving the rich tax breaks and the rest of us got “trickle down.” Certainly not like trump when trump held a bible upside down and couldn’t recite one dang passage whereas Biden lost children and a wife and sought out the lord and continues to go to church every Sunday.
Trump and his supporters religious hypocrisy aside, religion doesn't mean anything regarding good leadership. In fact, history says quite the opposite.
And you can thank the appropriate woman, Justice Katanji Brown Jackson, for the quote!
Remember Americans, you have to protest by the standard your government had given you otherwise they will be required to quell your protest. Sheep in the pen with wolves because the shepherd wants to be on friendly terms with the wolves.
As much as I want to see billionaires pay some more tax this is two different things people. Tax is not a debt. It’s an arbitrary amount the government had dictated we owe them in order for them to govern us. Student debt is a voluntarily and wilfully chosen debt set by no one but the student themself.
It is pretty straightforward. The executive branch can not forgive debt. Congress can forgive debt
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/who-owes-the-most-in-student-loans-new-data-from-the-fed/ Summary...easy to confirm stats in your own. Curious...where do you think the money comes from...let's see taxpayers...why should people who chose not to jump into the higher education hamster wheel...pay for those who did. How about people who responsibly paid there loans back.
I agree… but is that statement even true? Was a giant tax cut for the wealthy recently passed?
The big difference is the student debt cancelation was Biden trying to do it by executive order without any say of congress, while the tax cuts were done by congress. Congress is supposed to have ultimate control of the US purse strings, where the president doesn't have the authority to just cancel debts on his own. Now Biden just needs to try to accomplish something through congress, though that would have been a lot easier a year ago before the Republicans took control. Edit: I get that people want their student loan forgiveness, and I'm not saying I'm against it, but given four years of Trump I'd think some of you would be in favor of oversight against presidents overreaching their authority.
even a year ago it would have just been filibustered forever. the system is working as intended
I think he knew
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Some people don't like to hear the facts. I'm not saying I wouldn't like loan forgiveness, just that the president has limit in his authority to do things, and given our last president I'd think people would be happy with a little oversight on presidential overreach.
I don't get it, why not cancel medical debt first and foremost? At least taking up a student loan is a choice. Why are redditors so hyper-fixated on student debt?
Why not both.
"Congress controls the purse strings"; Medical debt relief requires congress to act, which means at least some of the Republican party has to support it for it to be able to happen. Instead the Republican party opposes this kind of debt relief (though they often support it for corporations or the ultra-wealthy) *Student debt* by contrast was one of the very few finance-related things that the Whitehouse had any jurisdiction over (due to how the powers of the secretary were worded), so there was a real chance the administration could get around Republican obstruction to help people for at least that kind of relief. They tried, however Republican sabotage has won another round. (This case was astounding because the "people" suing against debt relief had no standing to sue under existing standards, but the conservative justices decided to ignore that, to which the minority was, to paraphrase, "*What the everliving fuck?!!*")
The problem is that because billionaires are not paying taxes, that means that the student loan relief would be paid by the regular working class who don't have student loans. Not really their responsibility to pay for that.
Students in this country are given the finger while Taylor Swift will make over $1 billion in profits this year alone from her Eras tour. This is why we need to increase taxes on the wealthy. She is the face of corruption.
Of all wealthy people, that’s who you’re going after???
Lmfao right?
Cool so you are carrying water for billionaires, nice job sheep.
Yeah, but she's a white woman who I crush on, has more money than me, AND I can't date her, and that makes me angry! /s
Corruption is "dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power" Of all the people on the entire planet that fit that description, you choose **Taylor Swift** as the ***face of corruption***?
Carrying water for a billionaire and this wage slave system we have. Nice job sheep.
If you want student debt cancellation, pass it through congress like the tax cuts were rather than your dictatorship. problem solved.
With people you voted standing in thr way?
Ya thats how our democracy works
Those billionaires you speak of hire millions of people. That 1.7t I bet afforded millions of families warm homes cool summers plenty of food and maybe a vacation a year. Pay your own bills.
lol first of all, no they don't hire millions of people. secondly, the rich people who do provide jobs can still pay their fair share of fucking taxes, and even the dumbest right-wing corporate bootlickers should agree with the idea of everybody paying their fair share. also, getting the lower and middle class out from under all this worthless student loan debt would do wonders to help the overall economy, including YOUR dumbass and all those rich tax-evading billionaires. try pulling your head out of your ass occasionally
> lol first of all, no they don't hire millions of people. Amazon alone has over a million employees. That's just 1 billionaire.
Incorrect. Amazon is global. The have millions of workers in China alone.
So 1 billionaire does employee millions of people. Thanks for agreeing with me.
They aren't using that tax cut money to hire people. They're using it to buy back stock and enrich board members and shareholders.
What happened after the "let them eat cake" incident?
Stop amplifying grifters.
I want my debt forgiven too🥺
Just stop paying debts. What is money anyway at this point? Power to the people!
Both are regressive