From the Guardian:
Like it or not, ‘Generation Snowflake’ has got a raw deal
The idea of generational conflict has come to prominence in the last few years, but few seem to agree on its shape and causes. Public discussion of young people, for instance, is so contradictory that they can appear to the casual viewer like a kind of Schrödinger generation; simultaneously both Generation Snowflake, the most over-entitled and coddled generation in history, and Generation Screwed, the most disadvantaged age cohort in modern times. Advocates for the latter can point to trends such as the collapse in home ownership among the under-35s. Proponents of the former argue that young people can’t afford a house because they are irresponsible and frivolous, spending their money on avocado toast rather than saving for a deposit.
A new report from the Resolution Foundation, described as an intergenerational audit, has provided the necessary data to decide which narrative is true. The findings are conclusive. The incomes of young people have been severely constrained, while housing costs have risen steeply compared with previous generations at a similar stage of life.
The report also finds that, far from being spendthrifts, people under 30 are spending less on non-housing consumption than the same age group in 2001. Indeed, out of that reduced sum they are spending more than their predecessors on essentials and less on luxuries. Yet, despite this irrefutable debunking, the Generation Snowflake stories won’t disappear, and play too important a role in obscuring the true causes of generational tension.
The Resolution Foundation insists that it has no wish to pit generations against each other. The problem is, when we look at voting patterns and political opinion, it’s apparent that the generations are already in conflict. Over the last five to six years a yawning political generation gap has opened up with the young moving left and the old moving right. While sizeable minorities still buck the trend, the scale of shift is unprecedented. Even more curiously, it’s a phenomenon that has arisen at the same time across several different countries, most notably the UK and US. As we know from inequalities around gender and race, you can’t deal with divisions by simply denying their existence. Instead, they must be recognised and their causes identified if they are to be tackled.
Thinking about the situation has made me question the traditional way we talk about generations, in which a new one simply comes along every 20 years. In fact, generational differences aren’t often important factors in political and social life. They only become prominent when a specific event, a period of sudden, ruptural change, produces very different generational perspectives. In my book, Generation Left, I argue that the financial crisis of 2008 fits the bill as an explanation for our current generational political divide.
In fact, we can see the current divergence as a consequence of the huge power the financial sector has held over the rest of society for the past 35 years. In the UK, this dominance dates to Thatcherite deregulation of finance in the mid-1980s. Alongside the sell-off of social housing this produced a dramatic rise in house prices in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Generation Snowflake myth persists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, because it acts as an alibi for those old enough to benefit from this rise but who now mistake their generation’s good fortune for the results of their individual character.
The crash of 2008 should have put paid to this illusion, but governments responded not by punishing the financial sector but by giving it everything it wanted. The ocean of free money that countries threw at finance, in the form of bailouts, quantitative easing, etc has largely gone into asset price inflation. As asset ownership (primarily housing but also pensions invested in stocks) is so divided along generational lines, many people among the older cohorts have seen their material interests met, although almost by proxy. As a result, they are increasingly seeing their interests as aligned to the performance of the financial sector. The interests of younger cohorts, on the other hand, are aligned in a different direction, dependent on the levels of wages and social spending.
The last 10 years have been catastrophic in this regard. Indeed, the 2010s will be the worst decade for wage growth in over 200 years. Is it any wonder that the young are more open to left political projects, such as those of Jeremy Corbyn, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, promising to rein in finance and rebalance power in favour of workers? As Generation Screwed turns into Generation Left, it’s likely that the right will hold ever tighter to the myth of the snowflake despite the mountain of countervailing evidence.
The Boomers pooped in your salad .
Wow, this article was written for Pumpkin.
Yes, income inequality directly in your face.
You are seeing the direct effects of not redistributing capital from the top (old rich people) to the bottom (young and poor).
No one, see what happens. You created a generation of lefty’s with your greed. Good f’ken job!! 👍🏻👍🏻 Your kind created the AOC we are dealing with today. The price has come due.
“A new report from the Resolution Foundation, described as an intergenerational audit, has provided the necessary data to decide which narrative is true. The findings are conclusive. The incomes of young people have been severely constrained, while housing costs have risen steeply compared with previous generations at a similar stage of life.”
“The Resolution Foundation insists that it has no wish to pit generations against each other. The problem is, when we look at voting patterns and political opinion, it’s apparent that the generations are already in conflict. Over the last five to six years a yawning political generation gap has opened up with the young moving left and the old moving right. While sizeable minorities still buck the trend, the scale of shift is unprecedented. Even more curiously, it’s a phenomenon that has arisen at the same time across several different countries, most notably the UK and US. As we know from inequalities around gender and race, you can’t deal with divisions by simply denying their existence. Instead, they must be recognised and their causes identified if they are to be tackled.”
Snowflake describes the lack of coping mechanisms, not the sense of entitlement.
“The Hudson River Tunnel sits at the heart of the most heavily trafficked rail corridor in the entire country — and even a partial closure will harm our economy. I joined with the NJ delegation to ask Secretary Chao about her Department’s grant approval process”-Sherrill
“The entire #NJ delegation has united to demand answers from Transportation Sec Elaine Chao on how DOT is awarding grants. Our economic future depends on getting Gateway Tunnel built and we want to get moving!”- Bill Pascrell Jr.
Huge investment coming to our area through gateway. Think of the impact of this investment on our economy. Even if the nation goes into a recession, this project should ease the pain for our area.
Driving down rt 3, just look at how much that highway is changing to reflect the growth in the area. With the modernization of the rt 46/rt3 interchange, the expansion keeps pushing further down the corridor.
That’s just one example. It’s really amazing how much nj has changed over the past 20 years.
“That’s just one example. It’s really amazing how much nj has changed over the past 20 years.”
not my way, Pumpkin.
Thank God
I have been saying this for years. The millennials got screwed by the old geezers.
I see it at work. I am an older Gen-Xer…… all of these Boomers that are 10-15 years older than me just don’t see how better off they are….. the only cumuppance is that their kids are going to be a shackle around their ankles to the grave…… good… you deserve it for being self-indulgent and raising a bunch of clowns…..
To be clear, millennial snowflake is not a new personality type….. they were always in the population…. it’s just that it has become pervasive to the point that it is unavoidable….. same thing with SJW types….. they were always there….
3b says:
June 22, 2019 at 9:26 am
I have been saying this for years. The millennials got screwed by the old geezers.
The housing bailout a decade ago put a floor real estate do to excessive Wall St bets on credit. The government saved the large unsecured creditors of large financial institutions instead of letting the housing market fall completely and perhaps the banking system restructure. No bailouts for the homeowners, just endless extensions on payments as millions defaulted or walked away. Direct costs to the taxpayer were 1/2 trillion, indirect was trillions more. For Example in QE1, the Fed quickly purchased a total of $1.25 trillion in mortgage bonds during their cash for trash program. Even today more than a decade later the Fed holds still 1.5 trillion in mortgage bonds and Fannie and Freddie are still under government conservatorship being nationalized over a decade ago to provide mortgages when the private sector will not because it is well just a damm risky bet.
The Fed is now prodding Americans (millennials) to buy more homes by keeping rates low or perhaps lowering them again.
Media is piling on again too, let’s shame the Millenials for the endless cycle we are in all driven by credit and it must continue at all costs.
Cheap credit folks until the cows come home or we are all dead. Dead is the more likely scenario as a reset in unpalatable and for the Millennial and other future generations well they will be left holding the bag and will continue to see increased wealth inequality since they are not yet on the property ladder and do not benefit from it.
Juice well said as always! I have always maintained the Fed put a floor on housing instead of letting it go and cleansing and restructing the financial system. The millenials are paying the price. No wonder they are embracing the S word.
Chgo I agree. I try to have there conversations with my boomer friends and they refuse to acknowledge any of it. Now they are moaning that they can’t get the prices they want for their houses and all the millenials want to
Do is travel and have experiences instead of buying their over priced high tax house. And they all of course have nice pensions but not the millenials of course.
Wow, devils vs rangers rivalry is back. Another two years, and these two will be fighting for the cup.
Juice,
The banking gangsters and anybody that has anything to do within 500 miles of the FIRE economic sphere wants low interests.
However, low interest are based on the dollar hegemony, which includes Dollar trading and tracking of worldwide transfers. The last 2 points are a real sore point to China/Russia/North Korea/Iran/Venenzuela, etc. I mean how is a good dictator going to spend his loot if he can’t really pay for it because he can’t clear his money.
The biggest danger to the FIRE & banksters world is a gentlemens agreement of the affected party to in lets say an Iran War, where all of the Middle East Oil goes puff for a while; those affected parties push for clearing trades in some sort of gold or any other currency outside the dollar.
Been saying this for a while on this blog. I think this mentality that is obsessed with a recession coming has actually prevented a recession by being extremely fearful of overproducing to meet coming demand. Fear is preventing greed, and pushing this boom period to last for who knows how long.
I’m the only person I know that doesn’t claim this run is long in the tooth and recession is due. Just look at the investments in the stock market, no greed, mainly fear induced positions of defense, not attack.
“Everyone, whether they admit it or not, believes that there needs to be some major comeuppance, some cleansing moment, because for whatever reason the good puritan instinct that lies in America feels as though you can only cleanse through some level of pain,” he said. “There’s an obsession of when the next recession is going to come. What I think has been forgotten is that if you want lower for longer, you also have to accept the longer part of it. And that’s what we’re getting.”
https://apple.news/AUJLG798BTLqY2RXIt1Weqg
Cash reserves have increased over the past year as the big boys act in fear. Hoping to have cash to buy the bust, but I have a feeling they are going to be waiting a long time and miss out on a lot of gains. No doubt it about it though, euphoria isn’t powering this stock market and economy, yet both continue to blast away. It’s pretty crazy and amazing.
Dufus is back again. Last week, he got it that true economy is wallowing in sh*t. Now, we are fools for thinking this Fed rally has gone for too long. He predictions will come true. What did Decemeber lows tell you? What are June highs telling you? Let me make this simple, the enormous bubble formed in unstable and market simply won’t price in reality. The Fed has lost control and now is the tail of the market, letting WS dictate what it wants, like 3 rate cuts this year. Insane, given the fake strong ecpnomic numbers they tout with other side of their mouth. The will end badly..believe it. This is not “amazing”. It is completely irrational.
Let me take my micro view. My neighbors (right next to me) are moving. Just listed 4 days ago and first open house this weekend. I have been doing yardwork since 12 and typing from my patio. Open house started at noon. I can see driveway and not a single car has pulled in. Blank, dead, nada…and they are listing for basically same price as 2014 purchase but put gobs of money in it. Vinyl fence all around, finished basement, inground sprinkler system. They are spoiled with two sets of parents helping float lifestyle of boating, Block Island and even giving daughter fake six figure job at Daddy’s company. They can take hit. Still,why are rich millennials not jumping to it? Beautiful day too. Oh right, they are all in Hamptons and Fire island spending their vast market driven wealth. No time for open house.
Oh, I thought I heard a family of kids in neighbors backyard…sorry just my patio speaker. True.
Poor millienials 1, Realtor wasting weekend 0
Housing market on the way down too. Inflate all you want but at some point it just does not matter. A millenial couple would be foolish buying at these prices.
Fire island just like asbury has become attractive to straight people. And ironically it’s the straight peoples behavior that are turning heads.
Essex – stop making me delete your posts
Hey hey hey
eh, shite disappearing into fcuking cyberspace…g’nite all
Bernie wants to cancel over $1 trillion in student loan debt
https://m.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/Sanders-to-propose-canceling-entire-1-6-trillion-14032094.php
My view wasn’t positive, just justifying why euphoria stage hasn’t kicked in yet. Will it, at this point? Too many smart people scared of the fed band aid economy? Crazy times, you have crazy stuff going on. Look at bit coin rally and try to make sense of it…
Bystander says:
June 23, 2019 at 1:36 pm
Dufus is back again. Last week, he got it that true economy is wallowing in sh*t. Now, we are fools for thinking this Fed rally has gone for too long. He predictions will come true. What did Decemeber lows tell you? What are June highs telling you? Let me make this simple, the enormous bubble formed in unstable and market simply won’t price in reality. The Fed has lost control and now is the tail of the market, letting WS dictate what it wants, like 3 rate cuts this year. Insane, given the fake strong ecpnomic numbers they tout with other side of their mouth. The will end badly..believe it. This is not “amazing”. It is completely irrational.
I want the money I paid given back to me too…plus interest. Be damned that I busted my a$$, had multiple jobs throughout college to come out with minimum debt. Why did I bust my a$$? There are better ways to redistribute that money.
Mächïne says:
June 23, 2019 at 11:42 pm
Bernie wants to cancel over $1 trillion in student loan debt
https://m.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/Sanders-to-propose-canceling-entire-1-6-trillion-14032094.php
https://youtu.be/cawk2cMTnGo
Mächïne says:
June 23, 2019 at 8:40 pm
Hey hey hey
Was there ever any surprise that the next election was going to turn into the biggest vote-buying giveaway in history?
Someone should let the voters know, the president doesn’t have the authority to actually deliver on the promises being made.
Grim you are wrong.
2010 ObamaCare Medical Health Complex Bail Out Act, 2009 Bank Bail-out, 2003 Iraq War Profiteering Event, 2004-5 Bankruptcy – Banks Money 4Ever Act.
Why do you always make statement like that, without looking for evidence first. Look always at the corruption. People want their goodies because all the crooks have gotten their goodies in very public, in your face, I’m better than thou way.
Was there ever any surprise that the next election was going to turn into the biggest vote-buying giveaway in history?
Someone should let the voters know, the president doesn’t have the authority to actually deliver on the promises being made.
Since the S0c1al1$tas are calling for a 2020 jubilee, let’s see who will step up to the plate and promise to cancel credit card debt. That’s hope&change I can believe in…I already busted my hump for 15 years to pay off my college loan. Unless they’re feeling saucy and will let me get an MBA or my MS in CompSci and forgive that debt even though I haven’t applied to school yet.
7:29 shut up and eat your avocado toast rimjob.
Trump will win re-election. All he has to say is Medicare for All with cheap prescription.
The dems are too sold out to big pharma and health and won’t do what need to be done to win.
And forget about costs. Like I mentioned before, after all those goodies to the 1% and Big Business, people want stuff.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/voters-have-big-health-care-worries-but-not-the-ones-democrats-are-talking-about/2019/06/21/5c4a353e-8d22-11e9-adf3-f70f78c156e8_story.html?utm_term=.f9763a346910
Grim please release, link to Wapo
Agreed, if we are canceling debts, why not my mortgage? How is credit card debt, mortgage debt, or student debt any different? No debt should be given importance over another. You signed the line, know wtf you are signing up for before you sign the dotted line and take the money.
Bruiser says:
June 24, 2019 at 7:29 am
Since the S0c1al1$tas are calling for a 2020 jubilee, let’s see who will step up to the plate and promise to cancel credit card debt. That’s hope&change I can believe in…I already busted my hump for 15 years to pay off my college loan. Unless they’re feeling saucy and will let me get an MBA or my MS in CompSci and forgive that debt even though I haven’t applied to school yet.
Agree, Blumpy. Let them default and declare bk on student loan debt like you can on mortgage and cc..oh wait you can’t. There’s the difference. Student loan debt is now a mushroom cloud to tune of 1.5 trillion. Politicians are all over boards of universities, Sallie Mae, Navient..they created monster and it is at the door. Same argument as to why HAMP, HARP and wall street bailout was needed. Why should people who paid mortgage on time get screwed? Bc it is impacting housing and economy.
Wall Street is having a summer party! Best June in 80 years!! What could go wrong??!!
Old home owners should be cheering student loan debt forgiveness it will free up money to buy their houses!!
Student loan debt should have always been able to be discharged in BK.
Washington … we can afford to borrow $1.5 trillion to fight Iraq.
Washington … we can afford a $1.5 trillion tax cut that will “ pay for itself”…..
On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump vowed to use his background as a businessman to reshape foreign policy. But the president has had mixed success in negotiations since taking office.
Trump hasn’t been able to persuade Congress to pass his renegotiated NAFTA agreement. He failed at holding one summit with North Korea, and has seemed to quickly take the side of Russian President Vladimir Putin on multiple issues, despite evidence from US intelligence advising him otherwise.
Most recently, the president has found himself in a negotiations mess with China over trade. After a year of back-and-forth tariffs, Trump was finally able to secure a truce in December. Yet the president scrapped that deal within months, doubling the tariff rate and drawing the ire of 600 US companies.
Economists argue that tariffs, or taxes on products brought in from other countries, could mean American consumers eventually pay more for common items like bikes and pet supplies, since companies have to make up for paying the higher import fees.
Cont’d –
But it’s not just a skill for world leaders. Whether asking a boss for more pay, a mortgage broker for a better rate, or a significant other for their buy-in on what series to stream next, bartering populates everyday life.
By studying how Trump’s have gone awry, we can inform our ongoing and upcoming negotiations.
A negotiation isn’t about winning
Trump has repeatedly said his goal with China is to “win.”
“From Bush 1 to present, our Country has lost more than 55,000 factories, 6,000,000 manufacturing jobs and accumulated Trade Deficits of more than 12 Trillion Dollars,” Trump tweeted last year. “Bad Policies & Leadership. Must WIN again!”
But, Schweitzer says, the goal of a good negotiation should be less about winning in the short-term and more about understanding the long-term objectives. Both sides should ultimately feel good about the deal. Implying one side defeated the other won’t make for the outcomes you’re looking for.
“The best negotiators never talk about winning the negotiation,” Schweitzer adds. “The goal of a negotiation like this is to think strategically about what is the long-term goal.”
The risk: Negotiators that focus too much on winning over another party are in danger of deadlocking, or being unable to come to an agreement. This could lead one or both parties to abandon the deal altogether. Plus, if a negotiator is overly competitive, the other party may take offense and choose not to continue.
Deals as complicated and intricate as trade negotiations take preparation and focus, Schweitzer says. Preparation usually comes from having an experienced team that can spend time researching different scenarios.
Trump’s team, however, did not have much experience in mainstream foreign-policy tactics. Steve Mnuchin, Trump’s treasury secretary, ran a hedge fund before taking office. Peter Navarro, Trump’s director of trade, has alienated fellow economists with his outlandish ideas. Trump’s own inner circle also vehemently disagree with each other at times, leading to screaming matches on one negotiating trip to Beijing.
As a result, China gets mixed messages from what Trump and his team want, adding volatility to the situation.
“Unpredictability is generally pretty bad,” Schweitzer says. “His skillset is not well-suited for complex negotiations. Negotiations with China are complicated, and he doesn’t have enough expertise on his team to navigate this.”
The student loan debt issue should be changed to allow for discharge via bankruptcy. Treat it like any other debt. Allow the borrower to BK and deal with all the associate fallout that brings. There is ZERO chance though that Bernie will somehow be able to magically erase all student loan debt with no personal consequence to the borrower.
Name of the game…run up debt, live large, and then cry you can’t pay it back. It’s the American way..
Democrats are still to sold out to big pharma/health. Trump is mercurial, and will sell anyone down the river to win.
Trump will win, all he has to say is Medicare For All. (M4A).
From Washington Post,
Medicare-for-all. Medicare for all who want it. Health care as a form of freedom. As they campaign, most of the 23 Democratic candidates for president are trumpeting bold ideas to achieve the party’s long-held dream of ushering in health coverage for every American.
The problem is that many voters are not focused on such lofty goals. They want something simpler — to pay less for their own health care.
Voters have plenty to sort out, with nearly two dozen Democrats running, each offering a raft of proposals on many issues. But in public opinion surveys and interviews, people rank health care as their top concern. And with insurance deductibles, prescription drug costs and other medical charges squeezing the middle class, they consistently say they want elected leaders to lower their out-of-pocket costs.
The disconnect between those views and candidates’ talking points has left voters such as Democrat Ron Jungling of Raleigh, N.C., eager for a nominee who can defeat President Trump — but feeling his party is not speaking to him on a centrally important issue.
“I don’t think it’s probably the right time to push Medicare-for-all,” said Jungling, 57, an electrical engineer whose wife, an insurance broker, has enrolled uninsured clients in Affordable Care Act health plans. His in-laws just went into an assisted-living facility that costs $20,000 a month.
“Medicare-for-all would be great if we could do the other side of the coin — get the cost down,” Jungling said. “I don’t see that happening here.”
Such misalignment — in candidates’ focus and, in some cases, their level of attention — is striking because surveys show that health care is the issue on which the Democratic Party holds the greatest advantage over Republicans. In three polls this year that have asked which party voters trust more to handle health care, Democrats have had an edge over the GOP that averages 19 percentage points.
For his part, Trump, seeking reelection, has repeatedly said he will issue his own health-care plan. For now, he is drawing attention to a series of actions federal agencies can take, including an executive order, expected to be issued as early as Monday, to promote greater transparency in medical costs.
According to pollsters, policy analysts and political strategists, the Democrats’ emphasis on Medicare expansion plans is partly a missed opportunity and partly a reflection of the slice of the electorate that participates in Democratic primaries.
Candidates are failing to recognize that “the debate is not going to be 2008 or ’16 over again. It’s going to be about the price of insulin, hospital charges and insurance premiums, with, ‘What are you going to do about them for me?’ ” said Robert J. Blendon, a Harvard University professor of health policy and political analysis who studies public opinion on health care.
The candidates’ focus on universal coverage, including a plan by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to eliminate private insurance in favor of a single-payer system, “is a replay of earlier elections [when] it was about getting everybody covered,” Blendon said.
Celinda Lake, a veteran Democratic political strategist, said the candidates could, for instance, capitalize on the fact that public concern about prescription drug prices is a hot issue with both primary and general-election voters. “In my opinion, we’re not talking enough about it,” she said.
Lake said that candidates are playing to the values of Democratic primary voters, who tend to lean further left than others in the party. Unlike the party as a whole, primary voters typically want political leaders to promote access to health care, as well as its affordability.
In a new poll that asked respondents which health-care topics they want candidates to discuss in the first primary debates this week, nearly one-quarter of liberal Democrats said they are most interested in hearing about a single-payer system, compared with just 9 percent of party moderates and Democratic-leaning independents.
Still, lowering the amount that individuals and families pay for health care was the topic of greatest interest to every one of those groups, according to the poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health policy group.
Once a winner emerges from the primary field, the nominee will need to pivot to the theme of affordability, Lake said. The focus, she said, should be on the concerns of insured Americans, given that 98 percent of general-election voters have coverage, while people without coverage are unlikely to vote.
“It is going to be tricky to do,” Blendon said. “It’s going to have to be a shift.”
For now, with the exception of Sanders, who has updated a Medicare-for-all bill that was a centerpiece of his first run for president, in 2016, the candidates have not produced detailed health-care proposals.
“We’re at the stage in the campaign where candidates are mostly speaking in bumper stickers,” said Larry Levitt, a Kaiser senior vice president.
That contrasts with the most recent Democratic presidential primary season when there was no incumbent and health care was a dominant issue. Running for the 2008 nomination, then-Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards each issued a detailed health-care plan by May 2007 — before now in the current election cycle. Ideas from the Obama and Clinton plans became ingredients of the Affordable Care Act, which Obama pushed through a Democratic Congress in 2010 as president.
In 2016, the next presidential election without an incumbent, the GOP wielded the ACA as a club, with Trump vowing to repeal it and Clinton, the Democratic nominee, pledging to improve it.
This year, candidates perceive that at least for now, they have more to lose than gain by laying out specifics, including the price tags of their ideas, analysts said.
Former vice president Joe Biden included in his April campaign kickoff speech a position that is regarded as moderate in this Democratic field. Even for the majority of Americans who get insurance through their jobs, Biden said, “you all should have a choice to be able to buy into a public option plan for Medicare” before 65, the program’s traditional eligibility age.
For the most part, however, Biden is focusing on preserving the coverage expansions and consumer protections created by the ACA. Talking of “total health care” recently, he broached the idea of letting younger people join Medicare, with no insurance premiums, if they would qualify for Medicaid under the ACA but live in a state that has not expanded the program.
Although polls, including by The Washington Post, show voters’ eagerness for political leaders to improve health care, some candidates are giving the issue little attention. On his campaign website, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) includes the phrase “fulfill the promise of universal health care” in the middle of a sentence that sets out eight other policy goals, from breaking the power of Wall Street to tackling climate change.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) regales audiences with a thick stream of policy prescriptions that so far do not delve into health care, although she is a co-sponsor of Sanders’s Medicare-for-all legislation.
A few candidates are mingling talk of expanding insurance with empathy about rising consumer costs.
“If you’re uninsured, you’re paying too much for health care,” South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg says on his website. “If you’re insured, you’re still paying too much.” He heralds guaranteed health coverage as a form of freedom — unleashing people from jobs they keep only because they need the benefits.
In interviews and campaign speeches, Buttigieg says he favors what he terms “Medicare for all who want it,” in which consumers could buy public insurance that, if it proves popular and efficient, could serve as a glide path to a government-run system.
Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) often laces her discussion of Medicare-for-all with memories of her mother dying of cancer a few years ago. During an MSNBC town hall in Spartanburg, S.C., she said she thought at the time about other families burdened with the logistics of care and grief — “and on top of that, [to] have to worry about how they’re going to pay a hospital bill is immoral.”
When Sanders talks of Medicare-for-all, still near the core of his campaign’s rationale, he contends that a single-payer system would be more efficient and would lower the nation’s health-care spending. But reducing overall costs is not a priority with the public, recent polls show.
Although about half of respondents in one poll said they support the basic idea of giving everyone Medicare with little or no role for private insurance, just over 1 in 3 believe it would significantly reduce the nation’s health-care costs. Still other polling suggests people have little understanding of what Medicare-for-all would mean.
Some Democratic voters are drawn to Sanders’s goal.
“We have such wonderful modern medicine, and all these wonderful things are held away from people if they can’t afford it,” said Kisstrin Kaikkonen Cosier, 51, who lives in Marin County, Calif., where she has a small wine business and is a child-care provider and programmer at a local television station. She buys insurance for herself and her 16-year-old daughter through Covered California, the state-run ACA insurance marketplace.
When she caught Sanders on TV the other day, she thought he sounded on the right track. “We ought to have national, free medical insurance,” she said. “Why not? Is our life not important enough?”
Jungling sees it differently. As he listens to the candidates, “I’m hearing more about getting more people covered,” he said. “I think they should do what they need to do to get elected, [but] . . . getting the costs down is the most important thing.”
7:58 polish my knob essex. I’m a GenX who paid his student loan, current on my mortgage, enjoys my 2nd Amendment, and votes mostly Republican. The avocado toast eating barista is plugging your ugly wife. But if the gravy train is leaving the station, I’m hopping on this time. The lawyers and finance guys made a killing after 2008 getting that government cheddah, time to get me some for mine.
Democrats are still to sold out to big pharma/health. Trump is mercurial, and will sell anyone down the river to win.
Trump will win, all he has to say is Medicare For All. (M4A).
From Washington Post,
Medicare-for-all. Medicare for all who want it. Health care as a form of freedom. As they campaign, most of the 23 Democratic candidates for president are trumpeting bold ideas to achieve the party’s long-held dream of ushering in health coverage for every American.
The problem is that many voters are not focused on such lofty goals. They want something simpler — to pay less for their own health care.
Voters have plenty to sort out, with nearly two dozen Democrats running, each offering a raft of proposals on many issues. But in public opinion surveys and interviews, people rank health care as their top concern. And with insurance deductibles, prescription drug costs and other medical charges squeezing the middle class, they consistently say they want elected leaders to lower their out-of-pocket costs.
The disconnect between those views and candidates’ talking points has left voters such as Democrat Ron Jungling of Raleigh, N.C., eager for a nominee who can defeat President Trump — but feeling his party is not speaking to him on a centrally important issue.
“I don’t think it’s probably the right time to push Medicare-for-all,” said Jungling, 57, an electrical engineer whose wife, an insurance broker, has enrolled uninsured clients in Affordable Care Act health plans. His in-laws just went into an assisted-living facility that costs $20,000 a month.
“Medicare-for-all would be great if we could do the other side of the coin — get the cost down,” Jungling said. “I don’t see that happening here.”
Such misalignment — in candidates’ focus and, in some cases, their level of attention — is striking because surveys show that health care is the issue on which the Democratic Party holds the greatest advantage over Republicans. In three polls this year that have asked which party voters trust more to handle health care, Democrats have had an edge over the GOP that averages 19 percentage points.
For his part, Trump, seeking reelection, has repeatedly said he will issue his own health-care plan. For now, he is drawing attention to a series of actions federal agencies can take, including an executive order, expected to be issued as early as Monday, to promote greater transparency in medical costs.
According to pollsters, policy analysts and political strategists, the Democrats’ emphasis on Medicare expansion plans is partly a missed opportunity and partly a reflection of the slice of the electorate that participates in Democratic primaries.
Candidates are failing to recognize that “the debate is not going to be 2008 or ’16 over again. It’s going to be about the price of insulin, hospital charges and insurance premiums, with, ‘What are you going to do about them for me?’ ” said Robert J. Blendon, a Harvard University professor of health policy and political analysis who studies public opinion on health care.
The candidates’ focus on universal coverage, including a plan by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to eliminate private insurance in favor of a single-payer system, “is a replay of earlier elections [when] it was about getting everybody covered,” Blendon said.
Celinda Lake, a veteran Democratic political strategist, said the candidates could, for instance, capitalize on the fact that public concern about prescription drug prices is a hot issue with both primary and general-election voters. “In my opinion, we’re not talking enough about it,” she said.
Lake said that candidates are playing to the values of Democratic primary voters, who tend to lean further left than others in the party. Unlike the party as a whole, primary voters typically want political leaders to promote access to health care, as well as its affordability.
In a new poll that asked respondents which health-care topics they want candidates to discuss in the first primary debates this week, nearly one-quarter of liberal Democrats said they are most interested in hearing about a single-payer system, compared with just 9 percent of party moderates and Democratic-leaning independents.
Still, lowering the amount that individuals and families pay for health care was the topic of greatest interest to every one of those groups, according to the poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health policy group.
Once a winner emerges from the primary field, the nominee will need to pivot to the theme of affordability, Lake said. The focus, she said, should be on the concerns of insured Americans, given that 98 percent of general-election voters have coverage, while people without coverage are unlikely to vote.
“It is going to be tricky to do,” Blendon said. “It’s going to have to be a shift.”
For now, with the exception of Sanders, who has updated a Medicare-for-all bill that was a centerpiece of his first run for president, in 2016, the candidates have not produced detailed health-care proposals.
“We’re at the stage in the campaign where candidates are mostly speaking in bumper stickers,” said Larry Levitt, a Kaiser senior vice president.
That contrasts with the most recent Democratic presidential primary season when there was no incumbent and health care was a dominant issue. Running for the 2008 nomination, then-Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards each issued a detailed health-care plan by May 2007 — before now in the current election cycle. Ideas from the Obama and Clinton plans became ingredients of the Affordable Care Act, which Obama pushed through a Democratic Congress in 2010 as president.
In 2016, the next presidential election without an incumbent, the GOP wielded the ACA as a club, with Trump vowing to repeal it and Clinton, the Democratic nominee, pledging to improve it.
This year, candidates perceive that at least for now, they have more to lose than gain by laying out specifics, including the price tags of their ideas, analysts said.
Former vice president Joe Biden included in his April campaign kickoff speech a position that is regarded as moderate in this Democratic field. Even for the majority of Americans who get insurance through their jobs, Biden said, “you all should have a choice to be able to buy into a public option plan for Medicare” before 65, the program’s traditional eligibility age.
For the most part, however, Biden is focusing on preserving the coverage expansions and consumer protections created by the ACA. Talking of “total health care” recently, he broached the idea of letting younger people join Medicare, with no insurance premiums, if they would qualify for Medicaid under the ACA but live in a state that has not expanded the program.
Although polls, including by The Washington Post, show voters’ eagerness for political leaders to improve health care, some candidates are giving the issue little attention. On his campaign website, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) includes the phrase “fulfill the promise of universal health care” in the middle of a sentence that sets out eight other policy goals, from breaking the power of Wall Street to tackling climate change.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) regales audiences with a thick stream of policy prescriptions that so far do not delve into health care, although she is a co-sponsor of Sanders’s Medicare-for-all legislation.
A few candidates are mingling talk of expanding insurance with empathy about rising consumer costs.
7:58 fellow GenXer here – you seem like a bitter cunt. Tbh
I am more than willing to pay more for goods because of higher tariffs if it means keeping or bringing jobs back to the USA or at least leveling the playing field with China. The Dems should be behind this but because it’s Trump they are not.
10:05 Dems are just behind.
3b,
That’s the bottom line. They never even gave us that option: Jobs or low prices? They just assumed we want low prices. Sure, we want low prices, but at what cost? If it means no jobs, screw the low prices. Jobs first…
I’m sure in hindsight, most people would not have supported the big box stores or the Amazon’s of the internet if they knew it meant their small business or decent job going poof. Business sold them a rotten deal. Sucked them in with low pricing before it was too late for them to realize the personal cost incurred.
Even fast food adopted this model. Fast food wasn’t always cheap, it was just fast. It was healthier and not as bad for you. Then cheap became the name of the game sometime in the 90s. Did everything they could to lower the price and now we are left with an inferior product that cost our nation a ton of money in health costs. The cost was not worth it, but people are short term thinkers.
“There is ZERO chance though that Bernie will somehow be able to magically erase all student loan debt with no personal consequence to the borrower.”
Of course not silly…those erased loans would have to be declared as income and subject to tax.
Bernie will magically erase the debt AND nullify the tax obligation!
He does look like some batshit crazy wizard half the time.
China has us by the balls. Americans are addicted to cheaply made junk. Just take a look at all the cars parked in your neighbors driveways. A large percentage simply cannot park their car in a garage because it is full of floor to ceiling junk. 4.4 percent growth this year in retail sales, 4 trillion total which is bigger than the GDP of all countries except Japan and China.
Tens of millions of wasteful compulsive shopaholics who can now feed their addictions in the privacy of their own homes with eCommerce and same day delivery.
How many are leveraged with credit? Average balance is somewhere north of 6 grand of revolving credit card debt from month to month and it has been rising recently to 38 percent of US Cardholders.
Most of the debt is for junk!
Pumps standard indoctrination reading these days in skool is Ritzer’s book McDonaldization of America, it a Kafka fictional world that has come into being and we are all trapped in it.
So Quickly sell your double wide on the highway and head to the hills to live off the land before it’s too late!
Speaking of debt, home equity is now at an all-time high (15 trillion) but lenders aren’t lending.
A decade after the bust and banks still cannot find a buyer for the RMBS for HELOCs.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RHEACBW027SBOG
BMY/CELG bitch slapped this morning, thanks to FTC forcing divestiture of Oteszla….
Still have a stub BMY position, out of the rest for a while now…need to find some time unfortunately won’t be today to see if there’s an opportunity….
Big hit for the Mergeco…Oteszla is hot, among all the biologics for these indications its mechanism of action is further downstream and more specific meaning the adverse effects (“warning, cancers are more prevalent when you knock back your immune system to fight psoraisis…”) are much less pronounced.
CELG back at offer price in Jan, effectively…spread still tight ($48, loosening only a little from $49) indicating no one believes the deal is in danger…however…likely sale price of Oteszla may indicate CELG was sold on the cheap….
Ex, any thoughts?
How refreshing……. from Duke University no less…. to be clear, I only take issue with the word “fresh”….. because this stinks…..
And stimulate a fresh narrative in the public
discussion of racial inequality to educate
Chicagoans about the ruinous monetary impact
of redlining and contract selling. Together these
practices impoverished the city’s main black
communities, leaving them vulnerable to ills of
all kinds–for which generations of whites then
blamed the victims, not recognizing that the true
culprits were other whites.
https://socialequity.duke.edu/sites/socialequity.duke.edu/files/The%20Plunder%20of%20Black%20Wealth%20in%20Chicago.pdf
War on drugs is such a waste of money. It seriously does nothing. It’s the equivalent of digging holes in the ground to create jobs.
https://reason.com/2019/06/23/why-drug-interdiction-is-doomed-to-failure/
The real estate market is peaking and actually has started to decline on the high end luxury market in NYC. Lots of people with little to no knowledge on the topic or markets in general pontificating on people should buy. Renting is a waste of money nothing to show for it great tax write offs. It’s de ja vu or vu ja de all over again!!
Does it have big pictures and scratch-n-sniff?
Wow, this article was written for Pumpkin.
“He does look like some batshit crazy wizard half the time.”
Yeah. Like when he voted against the Gulf War. Or the 2nd invasion. Or against the patriot act. Or against the bank deregulation in 99 or NAFTA in 93.
Of course, he doesn’t take PAC SPAC or any corporate blood money.
You think the press is hard on Trump? They bend over backwards to paint Bernie in a bad light when he ALWAYS lands on the right side of history. Shame everyone is so friggin’ brainwashed by the S-word as they attend public schools, collect SS and participate in a whole sh1tload of social programs.
Libtard,
Your comment is correct except people do not “participate” in SS. They are forced.
Joyce true but most people love SS.
Thank you DemocRATS Bill and Hillary for making student loan debt non dischargeable in bankruptcy. The dems are now complaining about an issue their leader created. Unbelievable.
Can’t make this stuff up.. I’m so sick of democrats and republicans. They are insane. How many more hypocritical positions can both of these clown shows take on?
Joe says:
June 24, 2019 at 12:43 pm
Thank you DemocRATS Bill and Hillary for making student loan debt non dischargeable in bankruptcy. The dems are now complaining about an issue their leader created. Unbelievable.
I 100% agree with you, Pumkin
“The Great Pumpkin says:
June 24, 2019 at 1:01 pm
Can’t make this stuff up.. I’m so sick of democrats and republicans. They are insane. How many more hypocritical positions can both of these clown shows take on?”
Rats Eh? Everyone knows it was 2005 law signed by George “W” Bush the “Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act.” It introduced the Chapter 7 means test for “undue hardship” for student loans. Whether you can afford to pay $1 per month or $2000 a month towards your debt is based on a formula that includes your monthly income, your expenses, and the total amount of your debt.
All people want their debt erased, why should your loan be any worse than mine? The means test was to prevent abuse of bankruptcy law which was occurring prior to the changes.
Bernie won’t win any way he is not on the bankers’ side, and unless you Cowtow to finance you won’t win the top job.
I’m still standing pat at 750 shares BMY, 1500 shares CELG. I saw the $10K hit pre-open in my account and said “WTF?”, then I realized what’s what. It’s not really that much of a hit because both BMY and CELG are back where they were just a couple weeks ago. I’m wondering if the recent run-up wasn’t a gift to insiders.
That said, I was thinking about increasing my BMY position on the drop this morning, but figured I’d give it a few days and see if an overdue market pullback helps me get a better buy.
It’s not like they have to give Otezla away, I’m sure they’ll get pretty good price for it. In the interim, sometimes no trade is the best trade.
BMY/CELG bitch slapped this morning, thanks to FTC forcing divestiture of Oteszla….
Still have a stub BMY position, out of the rest for a while now…need to find some time unfortunately won’t be today to see if there’s an opportunity….
Big hit for the Mergeco…Oteszla is hot, among all the biologics for these indications its mechanism of action is further downstream and more specific meaning the adverse effects (“warning, cancers are more prevalent when you knock back your immune system to fight psoraisis…”) are much less pronounced.
CELG back at offer price in Jan, effectively…spread still tight ($48, loosening only a little from $49) indicating no one believes the deal is in danger…however…likely sale price of Oteszla may indicate CELG was sold on the cheap….
Ex, any thoughts?
“It was the Clinton Administration that aided the bankers for on October 7, 1998, when President Clinton signed the Higher Education Amendments of 1998 (the 1998 HEA), which provided federal funding for education loans at a reduced rate of interest. However, Clinton sneaked in the 1998 HEA two specific changes regarding the collection of student loans that is a brewing part of the Sovereign Debt Crisis today for students cannot discharge student loans in bankruptcy and 65% cannot find a job in what they paid for.”
Should be fired? Y or N?
https://www.nj.com/news/2019/06/top-rutgers-leader-apologizes-after-video-catches-her-yelling-im-the-chancellor-at-campus-cops-after-fender-bender.html
Come on ya’all. Let’s be honest here. The Trump tax cuts of 2017, which were not even necessary, cost more than discharging the entire lot of college debt. Now many here would argue that the Trump tax cuts boosted the economy, but the market now actually accelerated more under Obama than it has under Trump. The right will also argue that the 1.5 billion in cuts was supposed to result in 1.8 billion of revenue. For which I would argue that erasing the 1.5 billion of college loan debt would cause a lot more discretionary spending in the hands of 20 something year-olds than it ever would in the hands of people who are so rich that it barely amounts to another drop in the bucket of their net savings.
But what do I know. I’m just a stupid janitor with an expert eye for complete bullsh1t.
Speaking of pharma interactions, here’s something that hit me in the last couple weeks. As previously discussed, I take not medications except for fish oil capsules and a plain regular adult aspirin(325mg) daily. I think it was around Christmas time my MIL gave me an unopened bottle of Bayer low dose aspirin (81mg) which is really what I should take. Her doctor told her that she shouldn’t take it anymore, so she gave me her unopened bottle.
I waited for my giant size bottle of regular aspirin to run out and then I switched to the brand new bottle of low dose about 2 weeks ago, so now I’m taking 81mg instead of 325mg per day. 5 days later I got gout in my right big toe! I’ve never had it ever in my entire life before! I started hitting the pain with my favorite NSAID, ibuprofen. The ibuprofen helped the pain, but it didn’t seem like the flexibility was coming back in the toe as I couldn’t curl it like I could my other one. Then I started getting it in my two smallest toes on the same foot. Then a light bulb went on, “Could it have something to do with the low dose aspirin?” Answer: Yes it can!. Being that I’m an engineer with a broadband connection to the internet, I’m practically a doctor already, so I did my own research. Here’s the crazy shit I found out:
1. Low dose aspirin can cause gout because it causes your kidneys to not remove uric acid from your bloodstream, which can lead to gout. In practice, your kidneys should remove 60-70% of uric acid and your intestines can get rid of about 30% by themselves.
2. High Dose aspirin does the exact opposite! It “cures” gout because it not only your kidneys to remove uric acid from your blood at a greater rate, disolving urate crystalss (acts as a ucoseric), it also causes your kidney to not “reuptake” filtered urate from your urine, where it might go back into your blood. Aspirin is a fu.cking toll gate in both directions!
When I read this I prescribed myself high dose aspirin. Since I didn’t have any, I skipped the ibuprofen and took 12 low dose aspirin every 4 hours for two days. It cured the gout almost instantly and since then I’ve said fu.ck that to aspirin in general.
As a side note, all through and preceding this bullshit, I hadn’t had a single alcoholic drink. Ironically, since giving up the aspirin two days ago, I’ve woken with a mild headache each of the last two mornings.
re: “discharging the entire lot of college debt”
Well then do I get a refund for paying off my debt? Plus interest?
Juice,
Should have never been hired!
Lib – You do know that billions and trillions are different things, right?
But what do I know. I’m just a stupid janitor with an expert eye for complete bullsh1t.
Juice,
What do I get for paying in full at inflated prices due to your cheap ass needing a loan and the government making it readily available.
Both are in trillions. My typo. Good try though.
Lib – selling yourself on the street corner is not a path all of us travel in life.
Tariffs are a good economic tool used to achieve political ends. Executed correctly, the positives outweigh the negatives.
China has far more to lose than the US does in a trade war.
Just checking that you knew they aren’t generally interchangeable;-)
Both are in trillions. My typo. Good try though.
I paid off my student debt 20 years ago. I better get that money back along with everyone else that has had student loans.
We also should pay descendants of deceased family family members who had loans.
Free money for everyone. Just vote Democrat for free money.
BTW, new research indicates low dose aspirin might be worthless for most guys:
Pouring over data from 10 previous randomized trials researchers found that a low-dose aspirin (75-100 mg) taken daily did lower the risk of a cardiovascular event for those individuals by 23 percent. But that was for those who weighed 154 pounds or less.
For individuals weighing more, not only was there no positive effect detected but, according to the study “the case fatality of a first cardiovascular event was increased by low-dose aspirin in people weighing 70 kg [or 154 pounds] or more”.
The authors continued, writing that low doses of aspirin “had no benefit in the 80% of men and nearly 50% of all women weighing 70 kg or more.”
Further, they found that for those weighing more than 154 pounds, a higher dosage taken per day – ranging from 325 to 500 mgs – was shown to be effective in lowering cardiovascular risk.
While getting away from a one-size-fits-all approach is welcome news, our expert couldn’t help but wonder what took so long.
https://www.acsh.org/news/2018/07/20/aspirin-dosage-battle-heart-disease-may-depend-your-weight-13210
I never took on any student debt, where’s my pony?
Pumps never took on any adult education. I guess he gets as much financial help as he gets for a sewer main break in his rental? I guess I actually like that part.
Hahahahahahhahahahahahahahahaha
Hope the new pipe can withstand the constant vibrations from the megapingpongpalace.
Old ping pong joke..
3 men die and go to heaven, meeting them at the gates of heaven was god himself.
“Evening gentlemen. Unfortunately, there is a simple trial require to enter heaven. Each of you must return to earth, gather ping pong balls, as much as you can, and return with them in hand.”
The three men set off on their mission. The first returns with a bag of a thousand ping pong balls. God nods to him, and he is allowed inside.
The second shows up with five hundred ping pong balls. God hesitates, but reluctantly allows him to enter heaven.
The third man shows up with broken bones and bruised skin. God asked, bewildered. “What happened? Where are your ping pong balls?!?”
The man stares at god in disbelief. “Ping pong balls? I thought you said king kong’s balls!”
Yikes….. sorry to say ABC you later….. except if she was African-American, then all the cops involved should resign without pensions…..
Juice Box says:
June 24, 2019 at 1:37 pm
Should be fired? Y or N?
https://www.nj.com/news/2019/06/top-rutgers-leader-apologizes-after-video-catches-her-yelling-im-the-chancellor-at-campus-cops-after-fender-bender.html
Lib you are right . It would stimulate the economy. But it’s a matter of simple fairness if that counts for anything any more.
3B,
Fairness went away in 2007-2008. You know this.
18 TRILLION was the total reward of money loaned out at 0% interest for lying, cheating and stealing.
You want to see soc1alism? Join Wall Street.
Watched the video first and then read the story….. she easily should know better…. complete fool….. lacks discretion ….. heave ho….
Not in general, but given who she is, where she was, the fact that it is a high profile public university, the times we currently live in, and the precedent IN NJ that you should refrain from this type of public behavior with law enforcement and body cams.
True: but we did not benefit nor we will benefit from this forgiveness of student loan debt if it were to happen.
Are you still crying about your bad decision to not go to college? Don’t confuse me with yourself.
The Original NJ ExPat says:
June 24, 2019 at 2:18 pm
I never took on any student debt, where’s my pony?
Pumps never took on any adult education. I guess he gets as much financial help as he gets for a sewer main break in his rental? I guess I actually like that part.
Hahahahahahhahahahahahahahahaha
“They bend over backwards to paint Bernie in a bad light when he ALWAYS lands on the right side of history.”
International views, yes. Civil liberties, somewhat. Economic policies, not a chance.
LOL, I was going to ask you how in the world you could justify his student loan idiocy but, well, then I read on…..
“Were Student Loans Ever Dischargeable In Bankruptcy?
Yes. Prior to 1976, you could discharge your student loans in bankruptcy.
Congress then changed the law: student loans were dischargeable if they had been in repayment for five years. Subsequently, that period was extended to seven years.
In 1998, Congress removed dischargeablility except if a debtor could show that paying back the student loans would create an undue hardship. In 2005, Congress extended this protection to private student loans.”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2018/06/18/bankruptcy-student-loans/amp/
Agreed. Wtf is the message we are sending? Do the right thing and you get f’ed in the ass. Great lessons for the future generations.
I’m about to start doing the same thing. Start a business, get loans, buy myself nice things, and declare bankruptcy for the LLC. Get a home with a low down payment loan, start renting it out from day 1, and never ever make a payment to the bank or govt. Wait till they come to take the house, and then change my name, and do it all over again.
3b says:
June 24, 2019 at 2:45 pm
Lib you are right . It would stimulate the economy. But it’s a matter of simple fairness if that counts for anything any more.
Good people can do the same crap, but we choose not to for the greater good. Let’s just start shooting people dead for doing bad things and reward the good people doing the right thing. Wow, you can have a utopia on earth.
Moral hazard is seemingly the only thing the government is capable of creating. There needs to be consequences to bad decisions, to me it doesn’t really matter if it is bad bets on derivatives or a bad bet on an expensive gender studies degree. I can understand putting some programs in place to prevent total ruin but pain must be felt to dissuade the same bad decisions in the future.
“For which I would argue that erasing the 1.5 [tr]illion of college loan debt would cause a lot more discretionary spending in the hands of 20 something year-olds”
“Lib you are right . It would stimulate the economy. ”
If we are going to forego even a passing glance at fairness just for the sake of ‘stimulating the economy’ which, you already state, is not in need of stimulation why take such a roundabout way?
The direct path is always the most efficient…want more discretionary spending, why do it so inefficiently through loan forgivenes?
If you’re breathing and in your 20s here’s a $25k check. Only catch you must spend it. Add that it must be on a domestic product or service and you get two-fer.
DONE! Bravo!
I like Sanders actually, but his economic idiocy is NOT a figment of the press’s imagination. It’s real.
Plus he sounds like a fool when he rails against ‘billionaires’. There are 607 of them in the US. There are 315 million US residents.
Newsflash…if the lives of 314,999,393 people suck, it’s not because of the other 607.
Bernie never said he would provide student loan forgiveness btw. At least not from what I’ve read. Be careful of the press you read on him. Remember. He is hated by the Democrats (for having the correct anti-corporate/anti-lobbying positions) and Republicans alike. Heck, even the Democratic Soc1alists hate him because he is not a true soc1alist. Here’s his position on the whole college loan and skyhigh tuition debacle. You’ll see, it’s really not that bad and not that terribly expensive. I’m really not sure why Wall Street should profit from your education. But they do. From your retirement and pensions and community loans. Just shut that whole damn blood money business down. Will never happen.
https://www.studentdebtrelief.us/student-loans/bernie-sanders-student-loans/
“He is hated by the Democrats (for having the correct anti-corporate/anti-lobbying positions) and Republicans alike.”
Correction, Republicans love him for constantly shifting the Dem playing surface left thereby fcuking mainstream Dem candidates…..
Economically, I think you might find something different when you put more discretionary dollars in the hands of those who are willing to spend it rather than those who are likely to save it.
I agree his anti-billionaire attack is lame (but just as effective as Trump’s lies, though I don’t agree that two wrongs don’t make a right). The only way to save this country from turning into Mexico is to get the blood money out of government. He’s the only candidate I can think of that truly would do it. Perhaps he could make the government more accountable while at it.
Make’s no difference though. He has no friends in the press or on the hill.
And one last thing. Read his positions from his own website. Not from the press. He’s not nearly as progressive, nor soc1alist as everyone and their grandmother makes him out to be.
Said the same exact thing in my post two minutes before yours.
Punish crime severely, and you won’t have crime. American criminal system has lost its way, capitalism took it over, its run for profit now, not for the good of society.
Greed is a deadly sin…
JCer says:
June 24, 2019 at 3:31 pm
Moral hazard is seemingly the only thing the government is capable of creating. There needs to be consequences to bad decisions, to me it doesn’t really matter if it is bad bets on derivatives or a bad bet on an expensive gender studies degree. I can understand putting some programs in place to prevent total ruin but pain must be felt to dissuade the same bad decisions in the future.
Yeah, he does not help the Dems. But the red team can’t help themselves out of a paper bag. Don’t forget. Trump hijacked the party. There were so few Republicans behind him during the campaign and for the first two years of his office much like with Murphy and NJ. I swear, he’s dangling the abortion like a worm on a hook to get his way the rest of the way from the idiots that still don’t back him. Doesn’t matter much though. Lame duck.
I also think that the debates this week will be the last ones the Dems will ever invite Bernie to. He will eat every single one of those asses up alive.
Creepy Uncle Joe talking is the death knell to his campaign. He is better off calling in sick. I expect Warren to be aligned with Bernie, because she shares the same position and Kamala to act like King Kong Kamala. Buttgeek is just going to espouse bike lanes.
Agreed.
At the end of the day, a well balanced capitalist economy needs sufficient capital in both sides of the equation. You need enough capital to fuel demand, and enough capital to fuel growth to feed demand. It’s never going to be perfectly balanced due to competition, which is fine, but you can’t have the balance in the equation severely lopsided that one side is no longer able to fulfill their job/role in the system.
Low wage inflation combined with low lending rates is a scream that the equation has become lopsided and broken.
Libturd, seen crazy things done with ping pong balls. says:
June 24, 2019 at 3:40 pm
Economically, I think you might find something different when you put more discretionary dollars in the hands of those who are willing to spend it rather than those who are likely to save it.
*a scream for help
Lib you believe Trump is a lame duck?
“I’m really not sure why Wall Street should profit from your education. But they do. From your retirement and pensions and community loans.”
Wall Street exists, its sole product, is movement of capital. Liquidity. Loans and investments.
If money is being lent from Point A to Point B, they profit. It’s their business.
Homes, cars, business, personal credit cards, education….if you borrow it, they will profit from it. It’s their business.
Try to find a member of the ‘greatest generation’ still alive and ask them what it was like before the advent of personal credit cards and the MBS business….there was a reason for the saying ‘banks only lend money to people who don’t need it’. If your local/regional bank couldn’t (or wouldn’t for your family) lend to them then no mortgage – no home.
Education? I’d be pushing a broom if I couldn’t have taken student loans. In return, if I’m simply obligated to repay the moneys I borrowed on the terms on which I – underscore I – agreed, including an interest cut for ‘Wall Street’ well that seems like the trade of a lifetime.
One can have many issues with ‘Wall Street’ however the advance in standard of living because of the liquidity developed there and provided to the average American (and yes, the horror of it, from which they profit) far outweighs instances where they’ve had a swing and a miss.
It is, quite frankly, what distinguishes the US from the artherosclerotic states of Europe…..
Until the debt must be paid and we end up looking more like Africa economically.
“Economically, I think you might find something different when you put more discretionary dollars in the hands of those who are willing to spend it rather than those who are likely to save it.”
Again, don’t disagree.
But then just ‘fess up and be honest. Stop banking the eight ball with this student loan BS.
If you were born after this date in 1999 here’s $25k. Go spend it.
Two different topics. Loan forgiveness and economic stimulus.
And Bernie is taking the student loan route not out of equity, not because of stimulus….because he is 77 and needs to buy the youth vote. Pure and simple. Which makes him no different than the other political hacks, spending YOUR money for HIS personal ends.
The only reason Wall Street exists is because the average person has no friggin clue about finance. It’s like H&R Block to taxes. It should be soc1alized.
“The only reason Wall Street exists is because the average person has no friggin clue about finance. It’s like H&R Block to taxes. It should be soc1alized.”
Yeah, there’s a solution in search of a problem.
You’re right, I’d much rather have Murphy & Co making personal credit judgments about each citizen’s ability/right to borrow moneys…..
You’ve been unusually cranky for a bunch of months now Lib. You OK?
I do think Trump will lose. Simply because he barely won last time and the blue team is incentivized to vote like I’ve never seen before. Plus, I know a good number of Trump voters that are not as enamored with him as they were originally. I think it’s enough to turn the scales regardless of what twit the DNC nominates unless it’s AOC, who I don’t think is old enough.
Just my opinion of course.
Lib AOC is too young and of course dumb.
Wall st got their bailout so it’s going to be difficult to argue that point with Bernie re SL forgiveness.
Trump could lose if the Dems had a decent candidate.
Right now I see the Dem voters sitting this one out pretty much what occurred during the last election. They have the numbers on paper but are just too damm stupid and lazy to take advantage, even with 12 million more registered voters.
Housing getting antsy lower those rates in July stimulate the housing market yet again inflate the prices so more then lecture those millenials to buy or be priced out forever!! This country is a mess!!
Juice who do you define as decent? Biden?
Election will be interesting….as usual it matters not what we or our peers think but what a bunch of Midwesterners do….
Biden buys the Dems more of that vote at the expense of some hard lefties and millennials sitting it out. He may not get them enough of the former given his propensity to gaffe and his long record subject to scrutiny.
But, that seems the math to me. Dems decision….fcuk CA, NY, and NJ, they already own it.
Real question is what are the permutations that concurrently maximize hard left, millennials, and Midwestern housewife turnout? Should be interesting.
I’m fine. Just kind of slowly watching all of my well laid out financial planning slowly head into the toilet over my kid’s costs. I’ll be fine down in Costa Rica. Not as well off as I would have liked to have been up here. NJ sucks royally if you have a sick kid. Throw in the lack of infrastructure investment due to gubmint corruption and the work/personal life balance is also over-fukced too.
I spent this past weekend at a respite on Lake Harmony PA for dads that have cancer kids. Some lost theirs, fortunately, most of their kids are in the no evidence of disease stage. Since we went to CHOP in Philly for the D’s treatment, it’s been all Pennsylvania-based foundations that have found us. In speaking with the other 11 dads, all living in PA, their kids sicknesses have not cost any of them a single penny besides potential lost income from a mom or dad who had to quit work to take care of their kid. I’m down well into the 6 figures now. NJ just plain sucks elephant c0ck. And the federal gubmint ain’t much better. I took out a 50K loan from my 401K to pay the retainer on my lawyer, my educational spec1alist and for the retainer to hold a spot at the school I need to pay for to keep D from becoming a man-child under the great tutelage of the NJ public school system. The kids been through enough. All our school system cares about is next year’s budget. At the settlement hearing, even the judge uttered, come on, the kids been through enough already! It matters little. I’m fairly certain we will win our case, but the taxpayer could have paid a lot less if the school system smartly settled with us. Fukc them and my neighbors. Our government is simply corrupt and unaccountable. On the bright side, my older son is still maintaining straight A’s now through the end of 8th grade. Not easy for a travel soccer, travel hockey, travel lax kid. No dumbass Kum0n either.
Hope this answers your question Leftwing and thanks for your concern about my crankiness. Life is kind of annoying right now. I just gotta make it eight more years. Both mortgages paid off, kid out of college and I’m off like a used condom.
I hope things turn up for you Lib. Sounds like you and your family have been through enough, more than anyone should bear.
I can’t possibly know what you are going through but I have seen how difficult it can be. Close friend had a child with special accommodation needs due to an injury at birth…he spent so much time fighting the school system, it was ridiculous. I’m pulling for you.
3:23 Pumps – it’s common knowledge that your sister has a college degree and nobody else in your immediate family even has a high school degree. Cheer up. Just that you aren’t incarcerated is pretty good for you. Baby steps. Maybe one of your mixed race grandchildren will graduate from somewhere if your daughter mixes some intelligence into the bloodline.
Lib: the best to you and your family. You have all been through so much. You have every right to be cranky to say the least.
We’ll be alright. I planned for this kind of thing. Most don’t. It still sucks flushing hundreds of thousands of dollars down the toilet. My 105 year old doodle may be dying too. Though, this I’m kinda happy about. He lived 2.5 years longer than he should have already and he has been really bad lately, eating all kinds of crap he shouldn’t. Thanks for the concern. I know many of us don’t agree on politics, but we’re all good people here. Except for Pumps, of course. Even if he tries to be.
Lib The fact you have kept it all together says a lot about you. As for politics I hate them all . They have destroyed this country and will continue to do so. I worry about the younger generation. The geezers have made a mess of it all. And it’s the future generations who will pay. At some point it will collapse.
3b – decent as in decent chance not decent person.
Most of the entire field of two dozen to announced so far make me want to take a nap when they speak except for our very own Spartacus who is running on “civic grace” who still gets angrier than a 6 year old when he does not get what he wants. Imagine that guy running 1600 Pennsylvania ave.
4:47 reduced expectations. Depressing really.
Lionel Messi has declared that “another Copa begins now” for Argentina after seeing them scrape their way into the quarter-finals.
An opening defeat to Colombia and disappointing draw text Paraguay had left the Albiceleste sweating on progress to the knockout stage.
They were, however, to complete their Group B campaign with a welcome 2-0 victory over Qatar.
Best to you and little guy, Lib. Great daddy. Just find a way to scheme off fat dumb Americans in CR. Funny, guy at my son’s music class had a Pure Vida t-shirt on yesterday. Almost sounds like end of Shawshank..you remember the name of the town? Pure Vida.
I am starting my journey of fighting schools in two months as my 2 (almost 3) goes to early ed school for help. Should be interesting.
The only way Mr. Sanders can possibly pay for his agenda—not only free college and this student-loan amnesty, but also a Green New Deal, Medicare for All, an expansion of Social Security, a federal job guarantee, higher teacher pay, and more—is to soak the middle class. Bernie won’t admit this, but he knows it’s true. He isn’t a social!st for nothing.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/bernie-sanders-old-free-college-try-11561416462?emailToken=5b04d5bde8b54ca465a78d2bbb3c8fe8WEdDun+ogmeXWOdKZTZZ7ESXvTxNOywQ6TGYwKc092U90Chd91dHR1Vf1p4kXGyWUS7Jwb6h53Sw5Qr/59StRg%3D%3D&reflink=article_copyURL_share
Some analysts see a silver lining. They say stock rallies are more vulnerable to collapse when investor sentiment hits euphoric levels—something that can encourage what is called a melt-up rally, when investors rush into markets out of fear of missing out on further gains. In contrast, this year’s market gains have for the most part been accompanied by marked degrees of skepticism, with the S&P 500 only managing to notch its fifth record close Thursday.
“There’s no let-up in people’s doubt, and I think that’s actually a very healthy backdrop for markets, especially risky assets,” said Jeff Mortimer, director of investment strategy for BNY Mellon Wealth Management. “You have people who will not overprice assets.”
https://apple.news/A6O5b4yA6RAi5o2wpShuSlA
‘“America has a moral, ethical and economic responsibility to tax our wealth more.”’
“Taxing the richest of the rich will benefit all Americans, a group of the wealthiest Americans says in an open letter to the 2020 presidential candidates.
In a Medium blog post published Sunday, the group of 18 ultra-rich individuals — including George Soros, Facebook Inc. (FB) co-founder Chris Hughes, heiress Abigail Disney and Molly Munger (the daughter of Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK-B) Charlie) — argue that taxing the richest 1/10 of the richest 1% of Americans is not only fair, it’s vital.
“This revenue could substantially fund the cost of smart investments in our future, like clean energy innovation to mitigate climate change, universal child care, student loan debt relief, infrastructure modernization, tax credits for low-income families, public health solutions, and other vital needs,” the group wrote.
While not endorsing any candidate and addressing both Democrats and Republicans, the group singled out Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s wealth-tax proposal, which would tax 2 cents on the dollar for assets over $50 million, and 1 cent on the dollar for assets above $1 billion for the 75,000 wealthiest families in the country, raising an estimated $3 trillion over 10 years.”
https://apple.news/AL2DTAkhWTJWFlNdFoyqvfA
That’s a lot of revenue over 10 years.
“That a moderate tax on a minuscule number of Americans could raise so much revenue simply reflects historic levels of wealth among America’s richest,” they said. “The top 1/10 of 1% of households now have almost as much wealth as all Americans in the bottom 90%. Those of us signing this letter enjoy uncommon fortunes, but each of us wants to live in an America that solves the biggest challenges of our common future.”
Furthermore, it’ll be good for America, the group said. “We believe instituting a wealth tax would lead to political, social, and economic stability, strengthening and safeguarding America’s democratic freedoms. . . . We’ll be fine — taking on this tax is the least we can do to strengthen the country we love.”
It’s not the first time America’s richest have said they should pay more of their fair share. In 2017, a group of 400 billionaires, including Soros and George Rockefeller, issued a letter opposing President Donald Trump’s tax overhaul, saying it would exacerbate inequality.””
Oops, meant to include this in my reference to that’s a lot of revenue..
“While not endorsing any candidate and addressing both Democrats and Republicans, the group singled out Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s wealth-tax proposal, which would tax 2 cents on the dollar for assets over $50 million, and 1 cent on the dollar for assets above $1 billion for the 75,000 wealthiest families in the country, raising an estimated $3 trillion over 10 years.”
Another good article. Just eating them up, and spitting them out. Your welcome.
“today’s teenagers drink less than their parents’ generation did. They smoke less, and they use fewer hard drugs. They get in fewer car accidents and fewer physical fights. They are less likely to drop out of high school, less likely to have sex, and less likely to become pregnant. They commit fewer crimes.
They even wear bike helmets.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/23/upshot/euphoria-hbo-teens-sex-drugs.html
Article seems to be on point. How many times has our resident “Blue” allude to this epidemic.
“Teenage nicotine vaping has taken off so fast that it has alarmed public health officials.”
By golly, they get it. Taxation is not theft, it’s a f’en investment in our society’s future. Anyone saying otherwise in the bloody name of corruption is lying to themselves.
““This revenue could substantially fund the cost of smart investments in our future, like clean energy innovation to mitigate climate change, universal child care, student loan debt relief, infrastructure modernization, tax credits for low-income families, public health solutions, and other vital needs,” the group wrote.”
That’s the best way to solve the student loan crises. Don’t forgive the loans, just start sharing in the profits of growth more evenly. Throw a little more crumbs the workers way. Make that investment in themselves through education more worthwhile.
^^^^^^Lonely and Stupid is terrible way to go through life^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I’m guessing Nimfy has deported himself from human interaction and education because that’s the family business after all.