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I agree with about 85% of your ideas Patrick. Some more than others. Not sure about trying to get that tough on immigrants. I predict that after a few years of being really tough on illegal immigrants, including upping the deportation for a while, there will be another amnesty, of ones that have been here working and paying taxes for a certain amount of time. It's a no brainer.
As for governemtn pensions ? IT seems so petty. Yes, they need to be watched and there needs to be rules to prevent abuses, and also to make sure governments pay in to them what they should. After the market shot up in the 90s, some states including California stopped paying in as they should fror a few years. Most states that are in trouble with pensions, I believe a big part of the problem is States deferring paying in, often as part of a republican plot to cause the impression that they are unaffordable. They do the same thing with medicare and social security, calling them "entitlements" while they spend the incoming taxes for these programs as part of this years budget.
I say just regulate them better. It's just a form of compensation, and if you believe in markets, it must cause the quality of those governemtn workers to be higher than it would be if the pay were lower.
The other problem is that you don't seem to understand that if you lower the pay of government workers that all have pensions as part of their compensation then you are lowering the pay of about 15% of the workforce. Corporations have less competition with respect to what they pay. It would put downward pressure on workers pay in general.
Do you then advocate raising the pay of these people after you take away their pensions, or are you just saying that government workers are all overpaid ?
prohibit all public sector unions, which bankrupt governments with crazy pensions. esp teacher's union and prison guard's union
Should we have no central bank at all? Who then would be the lender of last resort?
Are there any countries without a central bank?
No we should not have a central bank period.
The lender of last resort is in reality the taxpayer. The bailout recipients were in reality the beneficiaries of the lender of last resort.
BTW I noticed that Paulson's net worth is 700 million dollars, I would be surprised if a lot of his worth did not come from hoodwinking the taxpayer.
The fundamental imperative dynamic of the economy is to have booms followed by corrections. The corrections are vital as that is when dead wood is cleared from the market place. This is analogous to a forest, when the old trees must be allowed to die off in order to allow enough sun light and water for saplings to grow.
What we had with the bailouts was allowing AIG and the big banks to continue when they should have died. New jobs are not the same as more of the old jobs. This process is how NEW jobs are created.
Another way that the central bank is used is to finance war. The Vietnam war was the germ of stagflation, as LBJ amongst other things forced fed chairman Martin into printing more dollars to pay for the war.
These are SOME of the reasons the central bank is a bad idea.
I believe a big part of the problem is States deferring paying in, often as part of a republican plot to cause the impression that they are unaffordable (starve the beast) . They do the same thing with medicare and social security, calling them "entitlements" while they spend the incoming taxes for these programs as part of this years general spending budget.
In California, they made some major fixes, when democrats finally had control of the state govt.
What cost $1 in 1800 would cost $0.57 in 1912.
Also, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 1912 and 1800,
they would cost you $1 and $1.83 respectively.
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi
LOOK at the data.
the wages lag the inflation. It is about the margins
You know, I had never heard it put exactly this way, and it's enlightening, thanks.
Since wages lag inflation, the workers get fucked. The stuff they have to buy to live took more hours of work from them before they got a raise. Net loss for the workers.
Since wages lag inflation, the workers get fucked.
Yes it is what, otherwise useless, allows landlords to live high on the hog.
This is even more fun:
What cost $1 in 1913 would cost $24.63 in 2016.
Also, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2016 and 1913,
they would cost you $1 and $0.04 respectively.
What cost $1 in 1913 would cost $24.63 in 2016.
And that fact pretty much reflects the retained purchasing power of a silver dollar.
It was a dollar in 1913, and currently buys on the order of $20 worth of stuff.
This is why I like silver as currency.
Ah, he may not be "lying" but only mistaken. Lying attacks personal motive. Could we use a thunderdome thread for that?
I'm not even sure he's mistaken. If you're saying nominal wages increased faster than inflation, that would mean we all work less time to buy the same things.
What was the cost in hours worked for, say, a gallon of milk in 1913?
And even if it got cheaper, it's probably due to mechanization more than monetary policy.
If you're saying nominal wages increased faster than inflation, that would mean we all work less time to buy the same things.
Sactly
"You know, I had never heard it put exactly this way, and it's enlightening, thanks. Since wages lag inflation, the workers get fucked. The stuff they have to buy to live took more hours of work from them before they got a raise. Net loss for the workers."
This is a perfect illustration of confirmation bias. There was absolutely ZERO evidence offered to support Indig's assertion that wages lag inflation. But Patrick was very quick to believe it and call it "enlightening" because it agreed with his view of the world.
There was absolutely ZERO evidence offered to support Indig's assertion that wages lag inflation.
Not true. The very definition of inflation is too many dollars chasing goods.
Ergo what is the cause of too many dollars? It IS the central bank printing them.
Do these dollars circulate uniformly NO they create a HUGE advantage for those who receive the dollars ahead of the others.
Consider these two graphs. Which illustrate how inflation does not occur uniformly.
Credit creation may encourage great technical progress via investment, but I don't see that it necessarily has to do so.
Maybe people would have cars anyway, simply due to technical progress under a flat money supply.
Technology and the fact that wages catch up with inflation, albeit lag inflation.
This chart demonstrates how inflation create wealth inequality. Both periods are marked by an increase in the money supply.
"Not true. The very definition of inflation is too many dollars chasing goods."
No, the generally accepted definition is rising prices. Too many dollars chasing goods is one way to get inflation, but far from the only one.
I have to admit Patrick that this thread allows me to make this point to where some may actually get it, as I have made this point many times before but the point was lost in the ad hom.
"Sure it is"
lol. So what do you think would happen if we reversed the inequality chart you posted earlier. What if the inequality level were suddenly at the levels of the mid-70s with the top 1% only owning
lol. So what do you think would happen if we reversed the inequality chart you posted earlier. What if the inequality level were suddenly at the levels of the mid-70s with the top 1% only owning
Splain yourself
"Splain yourself"
Ask a specific question and I'll try to help you understand.
Ask a specific question and I'll try to help you understan
What if the inequality level were suddenly at the levels of the mid-70s with the top 1% only owning
Splain what you mean
"What if the inequality level were suddenly at the levels of the mid-70s with the top 1% only owning"
I mean, hypothetically, if you took enough money from the top 10% and gave it to the bottom 90% to reduce inequality to similar levels as in the 1970s.
I mean, hypothetically, if you took enough money from the top 10% and gave it to the bottom 90% to reduce inequality to similar levels as in the 1970s.
Then there would be less inequality?
"Then there would be less inequality?"
You're learning fast. My point is that will create a good deal of inflation as the money goes from people who save it to people who spend it. Velocity will increase and so will inflation.
You're learning fast. My point is that will create a good deal of inflation as the money goes from people who save it to people who spend it. Velocity will increase and so will inflation.
I actually agree with you about the velocity increasing inflation.
The problem with the other is that the people who save it are the beneficiaries.
"I actually agree with you about the velocity increasing inflation. The problem with the other is that the people who save it are the beneficiaries."
How are they the beneficiaries exactly?
It's called a hypothetical.
But, yes--gasp--I'm suggesting redistribution! Oh, the horrors!!!!!!!
How are they the beneficiaries exactly?
They were able to invest ahead of inflation
"They were able to invest ahead of inflation"
Anyone is able to invest ahead of inflation. Anyone can buy stocks ahead of a bull market. What's your point?
My take is that calling Austrians a cult is ad hom
No, it's not attacking you personally.
A personal attack would be "Are you a member of a fucking cult?"
The presence of the word "you" is usually a good indication that the comment is attacking the patrick.net user and not the point.
Anyone is able to invest ahead of inflation. Anyone can buy stocks ahead of a bull market. What's your point?
But the people who have access to the money are the only one who can take advantage of the situation
"But the people who have access to the money are the only one who can take advantage of the situation"
Everyone has access to money. Is there some secret stash that only certain people have access to that I don't know about?
Is there some secret stash that only certain people have access to that I don't know about?
Yes it called access to the money supply, i.e. bankers, insiders. e.g. I doubt that Paulson came by his 700 million dollars with out the help of being an insider and access to money ahead of inflation.
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Limit copyright to 20 years like patents, with no renewals, because renewals just protect the profits of Disney and other wealthy lobbyists.
Make DMCA takedown abuse a felony because it is used to stifle free speech.
Corruption
Issue massive cash rewards for exposing illegal or unethical behavior by government officials. Turn the rats against each other.
Ban congressmen and their family members from owning individual stocks, to stop flagrant insider trading like that by Nancy and Paul Pelosi.
Ban all levels of government from attempting to influence public opinion aside from direct quotable speech by specific elected officials; government should respect and reflect the will of the people.
Make it a felony for any elected official or government employee to knowingly lie to the public, or to materially misrepresent facts to the public the same way it is a crime for members of the public to lie to government.
Require all laws — like vaccine mandates and insider trading bans — to also apply to members of Congress without any exemptions.
Aggressively rotate out DC politicians with term limits before they can fully develop their corrupt networks.
Make a point of bringing in total political outsiders as often as possible.
Forbid everyone at the FDA or family members from ever working at any pharma company, and forbid all pharma employees or family members from ever working for the FDA, until the FDA is eliminated and its functions transferred to the states.
Make all government expenditures, down to the dollar, without exception, easily available for public inspection.
Hire the elderly, who often know how things work and have a lot of available time, to watch all public contracts for excessive spending and corruption.
Crime, the Law, and Prisons
Openly address the extremely disproportionate violent crime rate by black men relative to all others, instead of hiding it.
Abolish all "hate crime" laws because they inevitably result in unequal application of the law, favoring some groups over others, and violate the First Amendment. We already have laws against crime.
Implement public honors and a large cash reward for anyone who captures and flogs a looter or shoplifter.
Require all police to wear functioning bodycams at all times when interacting with public or prisoners, all video to be used as evidence.
End civil forfeiture because it is theft by government.
Ban private prisons because they bribe judges to feed them more prisoners.
Legalize marijuana at the federal level because it is less harmful than alcohol.
Allow free speech for all prisoners so that we can learn about injustice.
Segregate prisons by biological sex. No men should ever be imprisoned among women, nor women among men.
Define "right to a speedy trial" to mean that a verdict must be reached within one year of imprisonment, defaulting to innocent.
Compensate those found innocent for their unjust time in jail. The money should come from the budget of the agency which imprisoned them.
End selective enforcement of laws by DAs. We should have minimal laws, but they should be enforced 100% of the time to avoid cases like Hunter Biden's never being charged with running the Biden Crime Family bribery racket.
First-time criminals should be given the option of flogging rather than imprisonment. Imprisonment creates hardened criminals who learn bad habits in prison.
Anyone who instigates a lawsuit and loses should have to pay his opponent's legal fees so that the suit itself was not a financial punishment. This is the law is most of the world already.
Discrimination
Forbid government from counting or classifying citizens by race.
End racism by refusing to talk about it, as Morgan Freeman suggested in his famous interview with Mike Wallace.
Prohibit any special access to government services regardless of a person's status, wealth, or payment.
Eliminate all government favoritism or exclusion of citizen by race; therefore no Affirmative Action, nor exclusion of whites or Asians from any programs.
Education
Offer a basic citizenship, numeracy, and literacy test for a high school diploma, administered by the US Office of Weights and Measures.
Fund college with temporary income share agreements, not loans, to give colleges a true motive to help students.
Let middle school and high school students test out of any subject and study whatever they want on their own, so they don't waste their time.
Require any university which gets government funding to award class credits and degrees purely for passing objective tests, no classes required.
Require elementary, middle, and high school classes on how to avoid getting trapped in debt.
Create state-level virtual universities of the very best teachers and classes, online, free for all students of any age.
Allow school choice, where parents can spend their tax money on any school in the state, public or private.
Promote practical education, such as plumbing and HVAC, but also promote reading the Latin and Greek classics, especially in the original languages.
Require middle school and high school courses to teach what rights are guaranteed by the Constitution, and how to sue for them.
Food
Make is a serious crime to introduce any insect-based food for humans without prominent warnings on the food that it includes insects.
Ban all seed oils as not appropriate for human consumption because they are poisonous, especially rapeseed oil, aka "Canola" oil.
Foreign Policy
Put compensating tariffs on foreign goods from countries with lower wages or lower environmental standards, to protect the US manufacturing base.
Seek national economic self-sufficiency in all necessary goods like oil and medicines so that the US may never be extorted by a foreign country.
Impose an absolute ban on dual citizenship, because it always creates conflicting loyalties. China prohibits dual citizenship for this reason.
Stop sending taxpayer money to Israel. They can take care of themselves.
Freedom of Speech
Create a Constitutional Amendment explicitly prohibiting all levels of government from "advising" or influencing any media on what to report or suppress.
Prohibit discrimination in hiring and firing based on political activities outside of work.
Revoke all laws against "hate speech" because such laws violate the First Amendment.
Homelessness
Require mandatory prison time for hard drug use, because most homeless are addicts, and former addicts testify that enforced sobriety in prison saved them.
Immigration
Issue permanent shoot-to-kill orders against anyone invading US borders. This was normal in all parts of the world until recently.
Make everyone who enters the US illegally permanently ineligible for citizenship, green cards, employment, and welfare, except for any who help to convict and imprison their own employers for employing illegal labor.
Build a wall along the southern US border, to protect low-wage American workers from illegal competition.
Deport everyone who entered the US illegally. Exception: grant US citizenship to any illegal alien who gets his employer convicted of employing him and imprisoned. This would be yet more effective than a wall.
Mandate federal prison time for all employers of illegal aliens.
Eliminate all H1B and similar visas unless the incoming worker is paid at least twice as much as an American would be for that job, to prevent, eg, Facebook's abuse of H1B.
Infrastructure
Give official federal priority to fast and cheap rail transit to city centers as in Europe, in place of subsidies and favoritism for highways and airports.
Attempt to re-achieve US energy independence to help keep us out of foreign wars and to improve our balance of trade.
Officially disparage and refuse to grant permits to sterile modern architecture because it is merely cheap shit pretending to be classy.
Return to classical public art, perhaps with subtle new touches. Refuse to spend money on crappy modern public "art".
Create pedestrian-friendly and completely safe town squares with fountains in every town, with a particular emphasis on introducing young people to each other.
Leaf Blowers
Ban gasoline powered leaf blowers in dense residential areas. They pollute with dirty engines, blow dust around, and make a lot of noise.
Legislation
Restrict the commerce clause’s interpretation back to what it was before the 1937 Supreme Court case "National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp." This reversal would greatly reduce the size of the Federal government.
Eliminate all regulations and rules. There must be only laws enacted by elected representatives of the people, and never any regulations and rules created by unelected bureaucrats.
Require lesser authorities to defy unconstitutional laws and orders coming from above.
Prohibit all "states of emergency" because they are used to subvert the Constitution, as was done in the Wuhan Virus scamdemic. We should be ready for emergencies at all times anyway.
Create a Constitutional amendment to explicitly state that no part of the Constitution may be suspended ever, for any reason, for any amount of time.
Anyone attempting to suspend any part of the Constitution for any amount of time, especially for an "emergency", shall be guilty of a capital offense.
Require all federal laws to be read in their entirety by all legislators before they may vote on them, to discourage lobbyist-written bills.
Require all federal laws to be clear enough that a 12th-grade education is sufficient to understand them perfectly, for more public participation.
Limit bill length to 30 normal-sized pages of normal sized font, for more clarity about what is in the bill, and more public participation.
Promote the principle of very few laws, very well enforced. "The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws." -Tacitus.
Guarantee the right of the president to fire anyone within executive branch at any time, especially long-time "civil servants" like Fauci.
Eliminate anti-competitive imposition of "safety" costs on small businesses because those laws are almost all written to benefit large businesses.
Require 20 year sunset provisions for all federal laws, requiring a new vote on whether the law is to be continued after it expires.
All the public to vote to revoke the corporate charter of any company which they feel has abused the public, companies like Pfizer.
Publicly post all bills two weeks in advance of Congressional vote, to give the public a chance to read them.
Let the president have a line item veto.
Medical Care
Repeal the PREP act. All vaccines and other medical products must come with unlimited liability for manufacturers at all times.
Establish a Constitutional ban on lockdowns, mask requirements, and vaccine mandates. They must never be allowed under any circumstances.
Prosecute everyone involved with the creation of Wuhan Virus, especially the mass murderers Fauci, Collins, and Daszak.
Prosecute everyone who abused his or her power to mandate the dangerous and ineffective mRNA injection, whether in government, schools, or workplaces.
Require short clear written presentation of all non-emergency medical costs before treatment for market discipline of medical costs.
Absolve all patients from legal liability for medical care bills whose costs they did not agree to in writing in advance of treatment, aside from emergency care.
Require all emergency medical charges to be limited to moderate fixed prices by law, because there can be no market in emergencies.
Require medical insurers to give a coverage response to a proposed non-emergency medical bill within one day, again to control medical costs.
Allow import of prescription drugs from Canada and from every other country because the import restrictions are a scam to boost profits.
Make it a felony to offer doctors or other medical providers payments to recommend any drug or treatment.
Ban the practice of charging higher prices for the same medicine or treatment when the patient is uninsured. See image below.
Establish a Constitutional right to visit in person and hug any relative who wants visitors in a hospital or nursing home with no exceptions for any disease on either side. It must be their choice alone, never an administrator's.
Prohibit all hospitals and nursing homes from benefitting financially from the deaths of their patients, as they did with the Midazolam Murders.
Mens Rights
Ban kangaroo courts in corporate HR and University Title IX departments to protect men's rights.
Mandate paternity testing at birth to give all men the certainty which encourages paternal care. Eliminate all child support obligation for a non-biological father unless he legally adopts the child.
Require courts to assume that a woman of age, voluntarily alone in a bedroom with a man, has consented to sex.
Grant equal post-conception rights to men.
Military
Eliminate the US Army and instead require mandatory training and arming all sane non-felon adult male US citizens to defend US territory ONLY, organized into well-regulated militias.
Implement a mandatory death penalty for anyone who deliberately attempts to send US troops off of US soil.
Create a constitutional amendment prohibiting interventionism; American soldiers must never fight except against invasion of America, per George Washington's advice.
Ban gays from the military because they are corrosive to morale and because they spread the disease of homosexuality there, not to mention anal warts.
Ban trannies from the military because they are mentally ill.
Eliminate NATO, because Europe is not America.
Close all US military bases in foreign countries.
Create a Constitutional amendment prohibiting all interference in the affairs of foreign countries, especially sending weapons.
Money
Define the US currency to be one ounce of 0.999 pure silver, to be called an Ounce. Silver by weight worked well for thousands of years.
Prohibit the creation of any term for US currency except weight of 0.999 pure silver. So "pound" is OK for a pound of 0.999 pure silver, but "dollar" and all other such non-weight terms are to be prohibited because they can be redefined to devalue to the currency.
Require every business and government agency to accept silver metal by weight as payment.
Establish a Constitutional right to pay all debts and taxes with physical silver by weight, so that everyone can preserve savings as silver metal.
Ban all taxes on buying or selling silver. Such taxes are punishment of those who try to avoid being cheated by the Federal Reserve.
Forbid businesses from requiring payment in any form which can be blocked by government, the way Canada blocked the bank accounts of legitimate protestors who opposed deadly injection mandates.
Create a Constitutional prohibition on political discrimination as a reason to deny banking or payment system access.
Require classification and prominent marking of all non-metal payment instruments as "Not money, only a debt, MAY DEFAULT", because they are merely debts.
Eliminate the requirement for anyone to ever accept or pay with paper money because all paper money eventually becomes worthless.
Legally define all banking as either storage of silver for a fee, or participation in the bank's lending risk and bank run risk in return for an interest payment.
Eliminate the Federal Reserve entirely. Let the open market set interest rates at all times.
Limit the annual federal budget by Constitutional amendment to 1% of GDP with no exceptions, especially not for "emergencies".
Completely and permanently eliminate the national debt. Require the federal budget to be paid out of current revenue, similar to the "Swiss brake".
Ban asset managers, especially Blackrock and Vanguard, from voting the underlying shares that they don’t own but are merely managing.
Privacy
Create an amendment establishing a Constitutional right to privacy because it is not perfectly clear from existing law that we have this right.
Prohibit all levels of government from collecting or holding information on any citizen except as absolutely necessary for census, taxation, criminal investigation, or driver's licenses.
Prohibit the federal government from monitoring the activities or location or even knowing the home address of anyone not currently accused of a specific crime. So no mass license plate reading or cell phone tracking without a warrant naming the specific person and the crime.
Require all private people and companies which collect or distribute home addresses and phone numbers to prominently display all of the owners' home addresses and phone numbers, and all similar information they collect. That is, demand equality of exposure.
Prohibit airlines and other transportation from demanding identity papers. Everyone should be able to travel anonymously, as we did before.
Prohibit websites from including 3rd party javascript, especially that from Google or Facebook, without a prominent notice that every keystroke or mouse movement etc is visible to Google or Facebook and that those sites may have altered the page content. It's spyware and most people are unaware of it.
Real Estate
Prohibit all foreigners, including everyone with any non-US citizenship, dual citizenship, or any foreign passport, from owning any land in the US.
Require notarization and publication of all bids on real estate to slow down the routine fraudulent bidding by realtors.
Require a publicly advertised price for a house to be a legally binding offer to immediately sell at that price, the same way it is with toasters and all other goods.
Prohibit government loan guarantees of all kinds, particularly housing or college loan guarantees, because they simply raise the cost of housing and of college.
Regulation and States Rights
Eliminate all federal government agencies outside of the military and commerce; everything else belongs to the states, as is written in the Constitution.
Eliminate the FBI, CIA, NSA, NIH, FDA, and CDC in particular, with their functions transferred to the states, as is written in the Constitution.
Allow girl scouts to bake their own cookies at home.
Sex
Strictly separate multiple-person bathrooms for men and women, whether a person is mentally ill with the fashionable "trans" disease or not.
Ban gay men from adopting, since the majority are gay because they were molested as boys, and then frequently go on to become molesters themselves.
Ban gay men from being alone with boys, ever, because most gays were created through homo-pedophilia.
Ban the sodomy or trans flag from any property funded by tax money, however indirectly. Only official government flags may be displayed.
Define the promotion of homosexuality or trans ideology to children as child sex abuse.
Revert the classification of transsexuality to be the mental illness which is obviously is.
Revert the classification of male homosexuality to be what it really is: a contagious life-shortening mental illness.
Schools
Ban the rainbow sodomy/pedo/trans flag from all schools.
Require middle and high school courses in law, taxes, personal finance, insurance, coding, cooking, home repair, car repair, self-defense, survival skills, etiquette, public speaking, and stress management.
Require daily weight lifting and running in PE classes at every level including publicly funded universities.
Taxes
Eliminate all income and sales taxes, to be replaced with Georgist land value taxes and import tariffs.
Swap the current maximum tax rates on income from work vs capital gains until Georgism is implemented and income tax eliminated.
End Prop 13 in California, to be replaced with a land value tax, with zero taxes on buildings.
Prohibit sales tax on used property which was already taxed when first sold. Ultimately eliminate sales tax in favor of a land value tax.
Prohibit all public sector unions, especially teachers unions and prison guard unions. Government workers may not unionize against the people they serve.
Voting
Make Jan 6th a national holiday honoring the political prisoners who protested the 2020 election fraud.
Arrest Pelosi, Ray Epps, and the other FBI goons of Jan 6th for conspiracy, entrapment, and incitement to violence.
Prosecute everyone in the DOJ who fabricated charges against the election fraud protestors entrapped by Pelosi and the FBI.
Eliminate all voting machines in favor of paper ballots alone because it is insane to give centralized control of the totals to Dominion and similar companies.
Eliminate mail-in voting or drop boxes; have only paper ballots with photo ID in person at a local school on that one day only, counted by each party.
Require proof of US citizenship to vote.
Publicly fund all congressional and presidential campaigns.
Set term limits for Congress: 6x for the House, and twice for the Senate, so 12 years each, maximum.
Require a roll call vote in both houses of Congress on the verbatim topic of any petition with more than 10% popular support, without amendments.
#politics
All of this could be classified as paleoconservatism
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