TheCatt wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 10:42 am
I mostly agree. But I've had a LOT of inspiration for things when I'm able to get away from everything. When not worrying about bills, healthcare, food, and all the basics needed for life, my brain can really get wild with ideas, make connections, and come up with new ideas. If you're working two minimum wage jobs to survive, taking the bus to work, etc, it's hard to have time to really focus on thoughts.
We're really in agreement here, but that stress is what ones needs to produce the genius. Some people just don't have it. Or in your case, you fail because you let other concerns keep your genius hidden. To contrast, I'm the opposite. When I have all the time in the world and no stress, I tend to not push my brain to innovation. However, in times of stress, that's when I find myself being most creative. I'm sure there's a natural selection argument to be made about our brains work differently and how that came about.
TheCatt wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 10:42 am
I would increase minimum wage, $15/hour. If you work, it will be worth. Having a 40-hour/week job should get you out of poverty (living by yourself, shared housing).
This would be a super fascinating conversation. How do we raise minimum wage without hurting M&Ps or SMBs, particularly those working on razor thin margins, like restaurants (I saw 3% as a number somewhere.)? Should any 40 hr/wk job get you out of poverty? It's easy to say, but a fry cook at McDonald's that requires zero skill and can be filled by a 16 year old? Does that job need to pay that kid that much money? A wage that has to increase with COLA each year? Further cutting into profits or being passed onto consumers. Maybe a line gets drawn based on age? A teenager attending high school doesn't need to make the same as a 25 yr old single mom. However, we just made that single mom unattractive as an employee. What about mandating that once jobs become 40hr/wk jobs then they must pay a certain scale? Now we just eliminated 40hr/wk jobs, which is the same thing we saw when Obamacare was implemented.
There's a lot to unpack there and we haven't even gotten into how much this will affect the salary demands of people making $15/hr and above. They're not going to be happy because we just pay decreases because COLA is absolutely going to skyrocket as we just doubled the salary of the most unwise spenders in the nation. Therefore all prices are going to rise because the folks who do the least amount of saving and research are going to be throwing money around like a lottery winner in a strip club.
TheCatt wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 10:42 amRamp up taxes.
Can we maybe, just MAYBE, take a look at spending first? If you're holding a bottle of water and the water level is just dropping by the second is your first instinct to just put more water in? Aren't you curious about why the floor is suddenly all wet?
I don't mean a general overview either. Let's really start digging into the different acronym agencies and see where their money is being spent. You don't get trillions of dollars into debt without a lot of bad decisions.
Oh, and how about a law mandating a spending freeze? The government's annual budget, by law, can no longer exceed tax revenue from the prior year +2%. Also, borrowing is no longer allowed outside of national emergency or war.
Call me insane if you want, but I think the best way to help Americans and the economy is to stop the out of control government spending. We are pissing away money we don't have. It's not sustainable.
TheCatt wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 10:42 am
Although, the billionaire may have paid for that tax break (see property developers).
They probably did, and here's another area that needs improving: lobbyists and the blatant enriching of Congresspeople. The hammer needs to be dropped and harsh rules and punishments enacted. Thankfully the people who can do that are the same ones who do it, so...
Speaking of...
TheCatt wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 10:42 am
The dress was a loan, iirc. And she is not a multimillionaire, this is objectively false. She's been making about $174k for 4 years. Her net worth is estimated to be about $250k, which I'm going to assume is lower than yours.
Call me when her ethics hearing is over or when she's done in Congress. Until then it's simple to not have money when you're wined and dined by your owners. She's already been caught blatantly lying and pulling political stunts, are we really to believe her ethics won't allow her to get paid?
TheCatt wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 10:42 am
She drives a base Model 3, which MSRPs just under $40k. (Average new car price in 2022, $48k).
Her car is almost 4 times what I paid for my car.
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