Economy Wake up babe! The new right-wing mask-off moment just dropped! "Make the plebes toil away until they die!"

[Possum Jenkins]

It's pretty crazy that LBJ was zeroed in on the playbook for the simplicity of the racist/conservative mind a half century ago, it's out there in the open, and this is still the entire right wing/republican/conservative program in 2024. Give them people to hate, feed that hate, and they won't pay any mind that you're robbing them and the country.

It's like right wingers saw this quote from LBJ in the 60s and went
"haha yeah, I AM that fucking dumb!"

That LBJ quote and overall notion has been pretty insightful for decades now. But it's even more jarring in the last few years when the exact people to whom that quote applies the most (working class, rural, non-college educated white males) are actually, literally suffering.

Case and Deaton used the term to refer to fatal drug overdoses, alcohol-related diseases, and suicides. “We think of all these deaths as suicides, by a very broad definition,” these economists have written,3 “and we attribute them to a broad deterioration in the lives of Americans without a college degree who entered adulthood after 1970.”

The Role of Alcohol, Drugs, and Deaths of Despair in the U.S.’s Falling Life Expectancy

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

And it's exactly these groups that are the most staunch Republican voters. Their life sucks because big government gives all the money and opportunity to the illegals, the gays, the blacks, women, who all live in luxury while they toil away and then get called racist on top of everything. They can't even say the n-word!

But Trump, De Santis, or some other tough talkin' warrior will come and redeem them

 

[avenue94]

What income do you think is upper middle class? Do you think $160k means you're running around like the monopoly man and driving a Ferrari up to your mansion?

I'd consider middle class the middle third of the income ladder, so the upper part of that, let's say 50th-66th percentiles.

The median home price is like $417k.

Sounds like we should build more housing then. Housing is expensive more than any reason because of artificial constraints on housing supply. Incomes have lagged too but you're conflating two distinct issues.

OK, again, just go ahead and run a campaign saying $160k is way too much and the federal government needs to step in and take you down a peg. I don't care at all where you classify them, I just want you to tell them they need to fork over more money and be excluded from benefits. It was the dreaded "top 1%" like 5 minutes ago, and Biden had to run on "nobody making under $450k will pay a penny more in taxes", and less than 3 years later, it's "whoops, did we say 1% and $450k? We actually meant 10% of you need to hand over your income

Yes, life is so hard for everyone in the top 10 percent of earners. Poor folks.

Like 40% of adults don't even work, and 13% of the ones who do work part time, so "top 10% of income of income earners" just means established adults in their 40s and 50s who got an education and have a pretty good job that you've been doing for a while. Doctors make more, lawyers make more, engineers make more, small business owners make more, there are UPS drivers who make more.

And? Should we also add a phase out for sales tax where you don't need to pay it after you spend a certain amount every year? No, because it's dumb and would be incredibly regressive.

 

[sickc0d3r]

LOL

To be fair to conservative voters, a good number of them support left/liberal/pro-working class economic policies like higher wages, greater taxation of the wealthy, greater worker voice in decision making, etc.

They just can't get past tribalism and image. "The libs" might have good ideas but they don't talk tough, don't lift weights, don't like racial humor and stereotypes, have pink hair, are vegans, and are "for" tranny reading time at libraries. Fuck policy, who wants to be associated with those people??

Perfectly stated. Reminds me of the poll or whatever it was, where conservatives liked everything about the ACA, but hated Obamacare.

 

[Sinister]

If you vote democrat at this point you’re crazy.

I feel the same way about voting for authoritarian fascism. Just a quirk I have.

 

[ferrisjso]

Yeah, a lot of young dumb whippersnappers think that. It isn't 'getting a check' if you paid into it for your whole life.

It is the whole paying into it part was just to appease 1930s fascists. It doesn't need to be "solvent" and all the people who say it does are liars.

 

[nostradumbass]

I'd consider middle class the middle third of the income ladder, so the upper part of that, let's say 50th-66th percentiles.

Sounds like we should build more housing then. Housing is expensive more than any reason because of artificial constraints on housing supply. Incomes have lagged too but you're conflating two distinct issues.

Yes, life is so hard for everyone in the top 10 percent of earners. Poor folks.

And? Should we also add a phase out for sales tax where you don't need to pay it after you spend a certain amount every year? No, because it's dumb and would be incredibly regressive.

Yeah, if you're not even buying the damn products, you probably shouldn't be paying sales tax on items you're not even buying.

You shouldn't have said "top 10% of earners" if you consider people who don't even work or have part time jobs as middle class, and if they are middle class from not even working, sounds like those deadbeats should dust off their resume and start paying their fair share.

Here are cities where 150k is considered lower middle class, because obviously the people who make that much also live in expensive places, so you kick iff your campaign there and tell them you would like to raise their taxes and exclude them from benefits.

A $150K Income Is ‘Lower Middle Class’ In These High-Cost Cities

In today's economy, making six figures is still considered doing quite well. However, new research from GOBankingRates shows that in some major U.S. cities, an annual income of $150,000 is only enough...

finance.yahoo.com

 

[Sinister]

Ok, but if we fix healthcare and make it universal and single-payer, is that really fair to your aunt...?

Kidding ofc. So sorry that your aunt, your mother and yourself went through that. Society in the imperial core is twisted.

It would be fair to my Aunt, unfair to my Mom. According to US conservative stupidity. Shouldering my Mother with paying for her Sister's care out of pocket, or merely allowing her to rot at home is much more morally sound.

 

[avenue94]

You shouldn't have said "top 10% of earners" if you consider people who don't even work or have part time jobs as middle class, and if they are middle class from not even working, sounds like those deadbeats should dust off their resume and start paying their fair share.

Do retirees not exist in your world?

And ah yes, fair share. Odd you're trying to claim you want fairness as you defend an extremely regressive tax that impacts working class folks more than millionaires. The payroll tax isn't even a traditional flat tax, which would already be regressive.

Here are cities where 150k is considered lower middle class, because obviously the people who make that much also live in expensive places

Sounds like more housing should be built. These folks already benefit from the SALT deduction, which is another tax break for wealthier Americans. And that's coming from a Californian. Let's not pretend like someone making 150K in SF has it hard in the big picture of America.

And again, housing costs in these areas are so expensive because supply is artificially limited. You don't fix that problem by just magically boosting incomes, you need more housing. Period.

 

[nostradumbass]

Do retirees not exist in your world?

And ah yes, fair share. Odd you're trying to claim you want fairness as you defend an extremely regressive tax that impacts working class folks more than millionaires. The payroll tax isn't even a traditional flat tax, which would already be regressive.

Sounds like more housing should be built. These folks already benefit from the SALT deduction, which is another tax break for wealthier Americans. And that's coming from a Californian. Let's not pretend like someone making 150K in SF has it hard in the big picture of America.

And again, housing costs in these areas are so expensive because supply is artificially limited. You don't fix that problem by just magically boosting incomes, you need more housing. Period.

Great, so you get cracking on building those houses and come back when they're affordable to discuss your plans to hike taxes on people who probably wouldn't even qualify for a mortgage in your state.

There's nothing regressive about our taxes. The top 20% of taxpayers pay 100% of net taxes.

 

[avenue94]

Great, so you get cracking on building those houses and come back when they're affordable to discuss your plans to hike taxes on people who probably wouldn't even qualify for a mortgage in your state.

There's nothing regressive about our taxes. The top 20% of taxpayers pay 100% of net taxes.

If only you were smart enough to connect the dots and realize most of those who led us into this housing shortages are the same folks who benefit from the payroll tax cap.

And I see you don't realize that taxes encompass more than just income tax. One day you'll figure it out. Or not.

 

[nostradumbass]

If only you were smart enough to connect the dots and realize most of those who led us into this housing shortages are the same folks who benefit from the payroll tax cap.

And I see you don't realize that taxes encompass more than just income tax. One day you'll figure it out. Or not.

Yeah, those damn doctors, lawyers, engineers, and UPS drivers with their housing schemes. If only you were in charge, you'd show them all who's boss and shake down everybody with a decent job and build mansions for the unemployed and keep the lowest possible return investment going forever.

If only YOU were smart enough to connect the dots and realize that you as some dude with a crappy job are only paying 6.2%, while your boss is already paying double that rate for himself, and half of yours too.

For the 5th time, if you'd like to run for president of candyland and campaign on a large tax hike for everybody making $160k and exclude them from benefits because you ran out of money the first time you tried it, go right ahead and report back.

 

[Jack V Savage]

It is the whole paying into it part was just to appease 1930s fascists. It doesn't need to be "solvent" and all the people who say it does are liars.

This guy is like Shelbyville Manhattan.

 

[Staph infection]

Shapiro is coming into his own lately after he grew that post transition lady beard.

 

[Bwagster]

I feel the same way about voting for authoritarian fascism. Just a quirk I have.

Liberals: “ if we could jail Trump, get rid of MAGA, end the Electoral College, stack the Supreme Court, ban voter ID, and sensor free speech we could save democracy “.