Political Discussion

RenegadeMonster said:
I think the poverty line is out of whack in the United States. It's nowhere near a living wage in much of the country.

My rent for a 1 bedroom apartment in Salem is equal to the poverty line for a family of 4. And of course I would have to make more than that because of taxes just to pay rent and that still leaves food and all other basic needs.

Even if my rent was half what it is now, there is no way I could get by on $26,500 a year.
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Yea the poverty line is pretty out of touch with a family’s ability to thrive. It’s bare subsistence.
 
Dtknuckles said:
Yea the poverty line is pretty out of touch with a family’s ability to thrive. It’s bare subsistence.
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I'd argue it isn't even bare subsistence. The definition of the poverty line is being able to afford rent, food and basic needs. The poverty line is below minimum wage. An individual could make make the $12,800 a year with just a part time minimum wage job.

As of earlier this year, there is no longer a single place in this country where you can afford rent on a 40 hour a week, full time minimum wage job.
 
Sighs,

First let me apologize, this really isn't the place to get into an economic debate. But your posts are filled with opinions and inaccurate statements, disguised as facts. I really don't have the time or the energy to go through and see which of your assertions are true and which are false.

For example, the first claim in your post is that rent has increased much faster than inflation and wages. Here is an article from Mother Jones ( a very progressive source) about rent increases over the years Raw data: Inflation of rental housing As you can see, for the most part rent mirrors the broader inflation rate until fairly recently when inflation outpaced rent increases. Same with median income, the median income has generally mirrored rent increase, sometimes a smaller decrease. However, in the last few years median income has risen faster then rent. The idea that rent has increased much faster then inflation and wages was easily shown to be completely false.

So I'm going to bow out of this discussion mainly because I don't have the time to do the research, and you obviously do not either.
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I knew that was a debate I could not win.

He shot down that rent / housing price increases has outpaced inflation as well as the buying power people have being less today than it was.
 
IATSE (union for TV and Film workers) is getting close to voting for a strike. Content made for Streaming services has gotten a sweet deal when they were new, but now that they are established they are not paying the going rate and not funding their pension.
 
Reports this morning are that both the Infrastructure bill and Budget Bill are in greater peril of not passing.

Progressives in the house are doubling down on not voting for the Infrastructure bill unless there is a vote on the economic package.

Both Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are a no vote on the economic package / budge bill. They do not have the votes for it to pass the senate. Joe Manchin is now saying the budget bill is to large/expensive, and he won't consider voting for it unless it's at least cut in half if not more. Bernie Sanders is saying the bill doesn't go far enough and won't vote for it if it gets cut.

Progressives know this is the only shot of making any meaningful change during this term of President Biden's presidency.

Historically, and supported by current polls, the democrats are likely to lose control of 1 if not both the house and senate during the 2022 midterm elections.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
Reports this morning are that both the Infrastructure bill and Budget Bill are in greater peril of not passing.

Progressives in the house are doubling down on not voting for the Infrastructure bill unless there is a vote on the economic package.

Both Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are a no vote on the economic package / budge bill. They do not have the votes for it to pass the senate. Joe Manchin is now saying the budget bill is to large/expensive, and he won't consider voting for it unless it's at least cut in half if not more. Bernie Sanders is saying the bill doesn't go far enough and won't vote for it if it gets cut.

Progressives know this is the only shot of making any meaningful change during this term of President Biden's presidency.

Historically, and supported by current polls, the democrats are likely to lose control of 1 if not both the house and senate during the 2022 midterm elections.
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No Labels remains optimistic that it has been able to delink the bipartisan infrastructure bill away from the larger reconciliation package that includes the bulk of the Biden agenda, with the possibility of outright killing the bigger bill still in play, according to a note sent by the group’s executive director to its donors.

“It is now clear that the reconciliation package will be delinked in time from the infrastructure bill and will be less than $3.5 trillion (if it passes at all), in theory making support from House Republicans for the infrastructure bill more likely,” the email from Margaret White reads.

The message goes on to applaud Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema for her relentless fight on their behalf.

theintercept.com

Dark-Money Group to Donors: Reconciliation Bill Can Still Be Killed

In a leaked email, No Labels’ director praised Sen. Kyrsten Sinema for her “heroic efforts” on the infrastructure bill.
theintercept.com theintercept.com

The biggest issue I think is that Biden is looking at taxing capital gains every year, not just when an asset is sold on Wall Street. This would make a lot of rich people pay a lot of money.
 
New numbers are out regarding higher education.

In 2020 women outnumbered men 60-40 when it comes to enrolling and attending college and getting a higher education. This is the largest gap between the genders ever recorded. And a complete reversal of 1970 where men outnumber women by nearly as much.


Where are all the men going? It turns out they are entering the workforce taking taking trade jobs as opportunities arise as boomers retire. Many trade jobs outpay most josts that require just a bachelor's degree and you have no student loan debt to go along with it as well as families ability to be able to afford college.

However, experts say this may not be good for our economy or country. In fact it could be outright dangerous.



According to this CNN video, there is nothing more dangerous than a lonely male. In the world of dating and meeting people online / through apps women have all the power. And most all women are looking for men with higher education. So the more and more men who don't have a higher education are likely to not see all the attention from the women online.

This could lead to more males being lonely and not in a relationship.

A lonely male who is uneducated is more likely to fall down the rabbit holes of conspiracy theories and be radicalized as well as be more violent. And if this trend continues it could be disastrous for our democracy.
 
apple.news

Senate Republicans block measure to fund government, stave off U.S. default — The Washington Post

The GOP's expected opposition is sure to deal a death blow to the measure, which had passed the House, and adds to the pressure on Democrats to devise their own path forward ahead of a series of urgent fiscal deadlines starting this week.
apple.news apple.news

of course they are 😒

Essentially Mitch McConnell saying they will only support the clean budget no agenda and no social safety net’s no stimulus or other legislation on Biden’s agenda if anything is include along with the budget reconciliation Republicans promise to block it. Essentially this means that the Democrats a big bill is bound to fail.
 
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The Republicans agenda right now seems to be obstruct the democrats and watch them crash and burn at trying to run the government, than utilize that to attack them in the 2022 midterm elections.

The Democrats now need to rebundle the budget bill under budget reconciliation. A process that will take time and enemies.

Even with the budget reconciliation process, there is not enough votes to pass it. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are a no vote. The bill is too expensive and they don't support passing it without Republican buyin.

If the Democrats find a way to come together and pass it, the Republicans can call them out for being partisan, forcing stuff through and playing dirty.

I really think the Republicans may let the country default because they no know limits. They are savage at getting their agenda done. And if it's making the democrats look like a complete failure so they can take over and save the country I think they will do it.
 
AnthonyI said:
Who are we kidding, both sides have agendas, least of which includes what's best for Joe Citizen.
...............and the Dems need to grow a pair and forget about bipartisanship, because soon enough they won't have the leverage that they seem to be sitting on at their disposal.
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The refrain from Biden and other supposedly centrist dems about reaching across the aisle and bipartisanship is more of a smoke-screen to appear "reasonable" in an effort to marginalize progressive ideals and continue maintaining the social and economic status quo.

Beyond the approach and policies being dumb the lack of concern for what their constituents actually say they want is telling. The blue team continuing to bank their approach to power on the "at least we're not the reds" is going to cost them. Biden only slid through because Trump happened to be such a bloviated loudmouth that suburbanites either didn't vote for him or voted for the other guy. The first 9 months of the Biden presidency has been anything from a complete travesty to a bunch of nothing on the scale. That's not building a progressive base and it isn't building a centrist base either. The latter being a fools errand imo.

The blues are failing to control the narratives because they are pretending to be something they are not and the reds have a substantially better investment strategy and network to promote their agendas. Biden playing the good decent guy is folly, particularly when there is ample evidence to the contrary.

I remain confused why Joe Citizen continues to not pay attention to their local and state representatives and elections and focus on national politics where the two teams we choose from are both there to maintain something that isn't working for most people.
 
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