Willihammer
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Everything posted by Willihammer
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I could not have written a more short-sighted opinion if you'd paid me to. Thanks for helping prove my point.
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Dammit, ok well I wasn't aware. And its such an elegant presentation too.
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Short. Sighted. http://d352pwrn2herc5.cloudfront.net/cdn/farfuture/KuXyxOJu65Sj1qWc5Jr_GIrXGIhSygqeMChd-4mJBTE/mtime:1453996453/sites/taxfoundation.org/files/docs/All%20Charts_1.pdf
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Its not just that liberal ideas tend to be short-sighted (and they are), they’re too often aimed at fixing problems that don’t exist. Case in point, all of Sanders’ economic platform is predicated on the “occupy Wall St” outrage over the system of trade and foreign investment. But outsourcing has lifted millions more into the middle class than its eliminated; median Chinese income has more than tripled since 2000 while US incomes have basically flatlined. So, as a conservative, I’m skeptical there’s a problem, and doubly skeptical of any solution designed to “fix” it. Where do you think their wealth is, land? If those folks leave, the wealth follows them. There is no void.
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This is an overstatement. Conservatives are slow to change, but not averse to it. Liberals have come up with good ideas, great ones even, and plenty of crappy ones too that have cost us. Which would be the case If President Bernie accomplished his platform of jacking up the minimum wage, driving away the rich through overtaxation, and making education free while backing out of trade agreements and isolating the United States from China. There would be about 15 minutes of bounty followed by a depression. It would be a disaster.
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No I don't disagree. I'm not thrilled by the GOP platform atm. I also recognize there are some good ideas mixed in and I would rather entrust the long term health of the country to any one of them before Sanders. I made a mistake connecting long-term and short-term to the parties. I should have said "conservative" and "liberal."
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Don't forget cutting spending on the poor.
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More like finishing the thought. The question is still the so-called decline of the middle class, aka inequality (unless its not). There are short-term long-term tradeoffs between what the candidates propose. Dems tend to lean towards short-term, R's towards long-term.
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And Sanders' plan would hurt the poor in the long run.
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As China catches up, the US will again be an attractive destination for investment. And we'll have more buyers than ever. But people need to stop blaming the rich for their problems or thinking that raising taxes on them will solve everything. Free trade is working, we're just in a painful phase of it atm. Its temporary.
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Its true that the US middle class is in a sense subsidizing Chinese growth. That problem will fix itself naturally as the Chinese middle class grows. In the short term we may need to get creative about helping displaced American workers. And its true that China uses unfair practices to give itself an advantage, including currency manipulation. What we shouldn't do, is push away US corporations by raising taxes, or isolate the US through tariffs, etc. Companies will just move and then we get nothing. And other countries (ie China) will reciprocate with tariffs of their own, driving up the prices of everything and killing exports.
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The reason the middle class is stagnate in the US is because its growing in China instead. This is obviously a win for millions of Chinese and also the US economy long-term as more Chinese buy US Products. http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-25/what-s-destroying-middle-class-wages-china
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I admit I'm being a tad pedantic but you're also being more and more vague. To be clear, your first reply was "the elimination of the middle class started with Reagan's work." But I think we agree that by and large, his work was to cut taxes on upper incomes and raise federal spending on military spending and star wars, so we can move on.
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So Reagan was a hawk and a spender, in other words, not actually that conservative. And yet he is responsible for the so-called "decline of the middle class?"
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The only person we are talking about is Ronald Reagan. You said he convinced people that unions were taking their money. The implication seems to be that people didn't know that until he told them, and that resulted in the decline of unions. Ditto taxes. If I misunderstood, please clarify.
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Its unfair to suggest SS was a position of strength. There was no Buxton type prospect behind Santana. Just Eddie the Esco-bear and his moustache.
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This is a key point I think. A year ago fans were split about 50/50 on whether Santana or Escobar should break camp as the starting SS. Most of us considered each of them to be huge question marks but Santana had the most upside. Trading Santana for comparable value would weaken what was already considered the weakest spot in the infield. This discussion is really hindsight-is-20/20.
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It kinda sounds like you're saying Reagan brainwashed people. Are you saying Reagan brainwashed people, and that ultimately lead to the inequality situation today?
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Which of Reagan's actions, specifically, do you think should be undone?
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That being said I'd be happy to discuss wealth inequality too. But its kinda hard when you are already framing it in "reverse Robin Hood" terms which is not actually true. Most of the wealth that has made the rich richer, is new wealth. And median incomes have flatlined for the last 15 years, not 40.
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A few times during this discussion I've made an apolitical comment that gets a political retort. Sanders is a one trick pony in the same way Paul was. You don't need a conservative bias to see that. Whether redistributing wealth would be good or bad for the country is a separate question. The other time was when I had the audacity to suggest, based on polls, that Trump might not fall out of contention before caucus time. Obviously the polls are still favoring him today but we'll know soon enough.
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La Velle: Sano Lost 5 Pounds This Offseason
Willihammer replied to Nick Nelson's topic in Minnesota Twins Talk
Pretty sure I head TR tell Reusse this weekend that Sano was at 15% body fat. An additional 15 pounds, which he was asked to cut, would have him at 9.9%. -
The Tea Party is/was a mishmash of conflicting ideas about religious freedom, military unilateralism and free markets. Sanders has a more cohesive philosophy of everything that reduces to redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor. He's more like the left wing version of Ron Paul, IMO, whose thoughts on any topic could be reduced to the need to abolish the Fed.
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La Velle: Sano Lost 5 Pounds This Offseason
Willihammer replied to Nick Nelson's topic in Minnesota Twins Talk
I'm bracing for some high school level miscues out there, but I think his bat still makes up for it. -
I learned the hard way that 2 or 3-times daily returns (ie. leveraged) ETFs aren't all they're cracked up to be. For one, they don't usually achieve that, the expenses are high, and volatility kills them. If an index starts at 1000 and after a year returns to 1000, a straightforward ETF/index fund will match but the leveraged ETF will have lost money. You really need to be confident in an unbroken bull/bear run to make money, and I don't know how anyone possibly could be.
