Political rants

I believe the whole taxing less a "philosophy issue" and more of a "law structuring issue". After all you said yourself it's a loop hole. You can't loop hole a solid contract. I'm more for the people doing what they preach topic. Plus I love talking about these sort of things, I'll hold that particular what-about-isms for another time. We just both agree that people should do what they say. Rather then not doing it at all, or even worse contradicting their ideologies. Imagine you say, a "socialist" didn't pay his taxes. Would you wish for him to still represent you. Same goes with a "capitalist". Would you respect a "capitalist" that pay his taxes? Which they should cause a influx growing economy is the "capitalist" philosophy. Sargon started a business, and gave jobs to people with a capitalist structure. It be really weird if he just horde all that money, and still say people should start more "business ventures". There is something beautiful about that kind of integrity, and we should inspire more of your idols to do the same.

The serious problem with socialism, especially in the U.S. is that our government is presiding over where the wealth gets distributed. In a country that focuses too heavily on bipartisan participation in government, which there is a wider gap between the parties now than in previous years, where the wealth gets distributed is going to cause major conflicts. Also, the idea of taxing the rich higher rates is great and all, but it doesn't go into detail and nuance about how tax systems work. There are avenues that wealthy people have taken for years to take less tax burdens, and these avenues will still exist in a socialist economy. One thing we need to realize is that the rich have the resources (can hire experts to find loopholes) to lower their tax rates. This involves putting money into corporations, real estate, or other assets that cannot be taxed as heavily. So, while the idea of taxing the rich so heavily is a very utopic theory, it's not necessarily the case. In socialist economies, the rich often are the ones in power. In socialist economies, the government is supposed to treat everyone as equal, and the wealth is supposed to be distributed equally. It's been hammered into our heads many times that this is a ridiculous idea because it is. This does not benefit the middle class like you believe it does, it benefits the lowest class in society. The middle class will still have to work, only to have more money taken from them to keep the lowest class afloat. We're seeing aspects of this now, with a large amount of people on unemployment and more and more people leaving their jobs. Why work when you can collect $1,000 plus a month in unemployment while workers salaries are paying for you to do nothing? Now, again, this a good idea in theory, the freedom of time and money can maybe motivate you to spend it wisely and make something of yourself, but where's the motivation to do so when if you 'make something of yourself, you have to work and join the suffering middle class? Socialism also means that the government manages the means of production, and resource distribution. This sounds great and all too, but is prone to corruption. It's not secret that big organizations are in the pockets of many politicians, and this wouldn't change under a socialist economy. The problem here is that the government that is under the thumbs of these big organizations will be the ones deciding where all the goods are allocated. We've seen this play out during 2020 and even now where small businesses are being destroyed partly because of the lack of distribution, whereas companies like Amazon and Walmart and such, can more easily get their hands on goods. This is the problem with a socialist economy and our current government, is that the government is already showing signs of allocating resources to the big corporations and leaving little to the little guys. Personally, this is one of my biggest gripes with a socialist economy. Distributors should be the ones handling their own products and the government should have no hand in telling producers and distributors what they should be doing. Our government, both sides mind you, are incredibly incompetent and unreliable with these things. Another major problem I have with the U.S. pushing towards becoming more socialist is where the wealth is being allocated. Our money goes to free public education and to things like welfare and social security, but these are broken systems in their current state. Simply allocating money to it is pushing the problem further down the line instead of reforming these systems. That's a huge issue. The U.S. public education system is a mess right now, actually our education in general whether public or private is not where it should be. My problem with this is that we are just going to end up pumping money into broken systems without looking for repairs. This is also a problem with Capitalism, mind you, and I'm not blind to the issues of capitalism either. Capitalism definitely hasn't benefitted the middle class as much as it claims, it keeps the workers as workers and not much more. Workers are like the builder ants in a colony, in terms of being a worker in capitalism. Now, I do think that socialism can work here in the U.S., even alongside capitalism, but for me, there needs to be major changes in our government, education systems, and a lot of other things related to government and society at large. Before pumping money into broken systems, they need to be reworked and repaired, or else we're going to just push the problems down the line. So far, I haven't seen either branch of government do anything other than argue about which side has the bigger pair (there are a few people in politics, in both parties that I think have pushed for positive changes). I never see them actually come together and try to iron out the issues, so I don't trust the current state of our government and society to make steps towards the necessary changes to make things work. I think there needs to be checks and balances put in place to keep big corporations out of the pockets of politicians to make socialism work more efficiently, but I also don't trust that to change. Hell, it hasn't changed under our current capitalistic state. I think states and local government still need to hold higher power than a federal government deciding everything for the masses. So, I'll say in closing that my issue is not with socialism and it's ideas, it's mainly the execution. I think it could work with proper changes in place, but I also don't trust the government enough to push for the proper changes to be made. I fear for the current state of the U.S. becoming a socialist economy, but that doesn't mean I lack fear of the way it is now in our current capitalistic society. Regardless of how we progress, I think a lot of things need to change in our government and society. I'm not so hopeful that it will, unfortunately.

@mrkingofspades If I could give a award, I would've given 3 for that particular post. Took the sweet time to read it, and a lot of it is well thought out and thorough. Maybe you should consider opening a political podcast of your own. Would give it a definite watch. You also hit it right in the nail what I have been trying to say with this. --- I think there needs to be checks and balances put in place to keep big corporations out of the pockets of politicians to make socialism work more efficiently, but I also don't trust that to change. Hell, it hasn't changed under our current capitalistic state. I think states and local government still need to hold higher power than a federal government deciding everything for the masses. So, I'll say in closing that my issue is not with socialism and it's ideas, it's mainly the execution. I think it could work with proper changes in place, but I also don't trust the government enough to push for the proper changes to be made. I fear for the current state of the U.S. becoming a socialist economy, but that doesn't mean I lack fear of the way it is now in our current capitalistic society. Regardless of how we progress, I think a lot of things need to change in our government and society. I'm not so hopeful that it will, unfortunately. --- This is going to be a definite favorite political post of mine.

Can we really trust anyone's political holding any position anymore? It almost seems to me that there is a lack of push on anything really, and we go on raving that the "CHANGE IS COMING". Anybody will easily do nothing, if everyone is too focused on the "IDEA" rather then fixing the infrastructure. One day it'll be cause it's "too hard to do". Next they'll say "nah too much work, I like ranting off and not actually doing anything". Finally it be like, "well it's prefect as is". When they have the kind of power to do actually do something. What peeves me off is that people clap to that sort of behavior, and think doing the switch is all it takes. Too focused on the win I suppose.

Change has been coming for 20 years and people thought everything was going to be different with Obama. BIG NOPE. To elaborate further, basically since I have been able to vote the hook they use for the general populace is that change is coming, things can only improve, wages will go up, etc. etc. I mean, the minimum wage is still where it was 10+ years ago.

The federal minimum wage in the United States has been $7.25 per hour since July 2009, the last time Congress raised it.[41] Some types of labor are exempt: Employers may pay tipped labor a minimum of $2.13 per hour, as long as the hour wage plus tip income equals at least the minimum wage. Persons under the age of 20 may be paid $4.25 an hour for the first 90 calendar days of employment (sometimes known as a youth, teen, or training wage) unless a higher state minimum exists.[42] The 2009 increase was the last of three steps of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, which increased the wage from $5.15 per hour in 2007 to $7.25 per hour in 2009.

@mrkingofspades -grumbles- There goes my afternoon. Now I have to go into detail about how you conflated nationalism with socialisms. Guhhhh this is going to take forever to type up and no one is going to read it by the time I post. Hopefully you will at least. I'll be back in a few hours, take care till then.

@verucassault I agree, it needs to go up. Imo if our gov. would make a real effort stop the invasion at our southern border and limit legal immigration to a reasonable level we wouldn't even need a minimum wage, but since they since don't, we do need it. And I know someone will probably point out wages have gone up recently, but inflation has gone up a lot too and given the rate at which we keep importing more cheap foreign labor (for example: the recent flood of immigration from Afghanistan) it won't be long until wages at least level off if not drop. The teen wage needs to be eliminated too. It is age discrimination against adults, since a teen can be hired for below minimum wage. This is especially bad for seasonal labor where a person may only be needed for 90 days anyways. Also, the whole tip system is something that has long needed to be abolished. Why should I have to pay extra for "good service" when I already paid for it in the first place? The only reason it exists today is so companies can abuse it via the minimum wage law to pay their employees less than minimum wage (tipped wage) and use social pressure to force their customers to pay for their payroll costs via tips. It's wrong and I'm sick of it. Worse, some restaurants force you to pay a tip for a group whether or not you get good service and isn't rewarding good service AFTER it is given the whole point of having tips in the first place? Walmart's delivery service tries to pull that crap on you. It adds a tip to your order by default unless you OPT OUT of paying it. I always do so too. I am drawing a line here with this tip BS. I don't pay tips to people who deliver packages from USPS, UPS or FedEx so why the hell should I tip Walmart's delivery service? I already pay a fee for the service so I shouldn't have to pay their payroll expenses too.

@thepandatyrant Lol I'd vote for Big Bird! He's gotta be a lot better than the ones we've got now and that goes for both parties.