First quarter of a game that we can’t end.
We are still in the first quarter of a game that we do not know how to end.
The reaction of the stock market has been fascinating. I’ve seen good arguments on either side. The sectors hit hardest are not zooming back, and those that should be the strongest are doing the best. But, they are still making some pretty big assumptions about the impact this is going to have on the economic system as a whole. Blaming retail traders for this bounce seems insane. The FED has signaled what they plan to do to backstop the economy and now the question seems to be will it work and will poor leadership prevent the action we need to safeguard things.
If the Republicans keep the Senate I could easily see them destroying the economy and sending us into another great depression. Moscow Mitch has already signaled he is willing to drive the economy off a cliff between now and January. Maybe the pressure will get to him, but maybe he doesn’t care.
When I look at the big picture it seems like it could easily take 5 to 10 years to retool the economy. I am hoping for a magical vaccine but that isn’t guaranteed in so many ways. If we lose 50% of restaurants and the food landscape changes how do you move all those jobs to new areas quickly. The USA might be in a terrible position now, but the fastest to rebound given how brutal and inhumane our society is.
I am excited about the political possibilities for 2020 and onward. I am hopeful that we get a new social contract if the Democrats can take the Senate and now be the idiots they usually are. I think the pain our country and the world is about to enter is going to be on such a massive scale that change will finally be possible. The scary thing is that change could as easily be backward toward fascism and fear as it could toward social progress.
What would I love to see?
- Health care. The government needs to chop costs down severely and I don’t care how they do it. Our drugs should be the same cost as the EU, hospitals need standard costs for procedures, and we need to make health insurance both affordable but also COVER HEALTH EMERGENCIES. What is the point of insurance if you have a $10,000 deductible. So frustrating and backward.
- Reimagine the police, split up their current duties to people trained to do them and every officer has to be re-evaluated in order to be hired. Traffic is now traffic safety (no fucking guns and give them hot pink cars), crime is handled by community safety, etc. Send people to help mentally ill people who know how to do that, and give them money to help those people (Reagen shut that all down). Help homeless people get back on their feet like Utah is doing.
- College – Free or a very small cost for everyone. It would be great to look at technical schools and doing the same. If we want to make a play at high-end manufacturing we need that too.
- Expand kindergartens to age 3 months. Colorado starting this push, just keep pushing the age down and hiring. Pay teachers more.
- Maternity/Paternity – Paid 3 months by the gov, increase payroll taxes.
- Paid Vacation- 3 to 4 weeks even with hourly jobs.
- Unemployment System – We need to take a hard look at that system and how to help people get back on their feet with better skills. We don’t want people in despair and we want them adding to our tax base, can we do better? And, can we stop stupid states from punishing people for losing a job like Florida.
- Retirement – Increase social security payouts by a good 25% and fix your stupid COL adjustments, increase payroll taxes, and close the silly loopholes for high earners.
- Legalize weed everywhere.
- If you are not going to increase the minimum wage you need to view the cost of food and housing as national security issues. Food is decent in the USA as you can get it cheap if you know what you are doing and learn to love hormones and antibiotics and animal and environment abuse. Housing is much harder. I’d love to see federal and state legislation to end the hold NIMBA and property taxes hold over housing cost.
- Climate change needs a massive push on infrastructure and a revamp so much of how we operate our electricity and industry.
- Reduce spending on the military by 30%.
- Increase taxes on the upper class, and progressively tax dividends and interest payments. Start revamping taxes so that Americans make less but get 5x more from their gov.
- Revamp capital gains to start at a 35% tax if it is held for under 2 years, then slowly reduce it down to 10% to 15% if held for over 10 years.
- Stop allowing the police or whatever replaces them to run the city on fines. There are a lot of problems with city/state funding and where that money is coming from and incentivizing. I’d rather cities/states be run on weed/liquor/tobacco/lottery taxes than the cost to put a roof over someone’s head.
- IRS – Increase funding to do audits.
- EPA – Actually protect the environment and give them teeth to go after companies and seize stock ownership the more they violate.
- SEC – More funding, and give them a share of the winnings in cases.
- I’d love to see us pay government officials like the private sector. Our president should be making a few million a year minimum. Congress should be making 500k or more a year with a housing allowance. We make them whores for the private sector instead of efficient gov servants. Go look at Singapore and how they pay their people.
- Get rid of the electoral college.
- Let PR vote on if they want to become a state, same for DC.
- Reparations – We need to talk about them. How can we equalize the economic damage done against the black community over the last 250 years? Not an easy answer.
A random list of ideas from over the years. We shall see what happens.
Recent Comments