Politics and economics

[fredtoast]

Ever wonder why the stock market is booming while so many businesses are closed or severely limited by the current pandemic?

Ever wonder how "wealth transfer" to the poor is supposedly "bankrupting America" yet the poor have no wealth? (Due to debt they actually have "negative wealth")

Well here is how it works. Government benefits paid to the poor are all spent. They are not given enough money to save or invest. They have to spend every penny to live. And when they spend it that money does not disappear. Instead it is injected into the economy and eventually becomes corporate profit. Then that corporate profit is distributed to corporate stock/bondholders. The problem with this is that just 1% of the population owns over 50% of all stocks, and the top 10% own over 90% of all stocks.

So look at the recent $2 trillion CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, Economic Security) Act. It was signed at the end of March and almost every adult citizen got a check for $1000. Most people had to spend the money to pay bills. So they end up with no new wealth. But SURPRISE the Dow Jones Index has increased almost FORTY PERCENT since the first of April. So all that wealth has already been "transferred".

I am sure that some people will say that since the wealthiest people pay the most in taxes then it is okay for them to receive all of this benefit. But the problem with that is that this money from the CARES act was actually not taxpayer money. It was money borrowed by the national government. The federal government runs a deficit every year. They spend more than they take in. So the federal government has become an ATM for the wealthy. And Trump has really been swiping that credit card heavily to line to pockets of his wealthy friends.

I don't blame the pandemic on Trump, so I will not include the CARES Act or any other government spending form 2020. But just looking at the deficit spending from Trumps first three years in office you will see that on average his deficit spending was $300 billion more per year than the last three years of the Obama administration ($809 billion to $504 billion). Most of this is due to unfunded tax cuts to corporations and record military spending. And BTW the biggest portions of military spending go to private companies the government contracts to develop weapons programs. So, again, this money goes to lining the pockets of corporate shareholders.

[fredtoast]

(08-31-2020, 01:38 PM)fredtoast Wrote: I don't blame the pandemic on Trump, so I will not include the CARES Act or any other government spending form 2020.  But just looking at the deficit spending from Trumps first three years in office you will see that on average his deficit spending was $300 billion more per year than the last three years of the Obama administration ($809 billion to $504 billion).  Most of this is due to unfunded tax cuts to corporations and record military spending.  And BTW the biggest portions of military spending go to private companies the government contracts to develop weapons programs.  So, again, this money goes to lining the pockets of corporate shareholders.

BTW the average growth in GDP the last three years of the Obama administration was 2.43% while the average growth rate the the first three years of the Trump administration was 2.5%.  Over the last three years of the Obama administration unemployment dropped 29.9% (from 6.7% to 4.7%) while over the first three years of the Trump administration it has only dropped 25.5% (from 4.7% to 3.5%).

Trumps "greatest economy in history" is a fraud.  It is all based on borrowing money.  It is like a person who gets a million dollar credit card and then claiming he is a millionaire.

[Dill]

(08-31-2020, 01:38 PM)fredtoast Wrote: I am sure that some people will say that since the wealthiest people pay the most in taxes then it is okay for them to receive all of this benefit.  But the problem with that is that this money from the CARES act was actually not taxpayer money.  It was money borrowed by the national government.  The federal government runs a deficit every year.  They spend more than they take in.  So the federal government has become an ATM for the wealthy.  And Trump has really been swiping that credit card heavily to line to pockets of his wealthy friends.

I don't blame the pandemic on Trump, so I will not include the CARES Act or any other government spending form 2020.  But just looking at the deficit spending from Trumps first three years in office you will see that on average his deficit spending was $300 billion more per year than the last three years of the Obama administration ($809 billion to $504 billion).  Most of this is due to unfunded tax cuts to corporations and record military spending.  And BTW the biggest portions of military spending go to private companies the government contracts to develop weapons programs.  So, again, this money goes to lining the pockets of corporate shareholders.

"Wealth" isn't just money, but also material/mental resources.

I think what you are describing here is the circulation and extraction of "value."  

Transfers help put buying power in the hands of those who otherwise would not have it, keeping them alive and spending/working, and thereby keeping the ecomomy viable and producing extractable valuable--mostly for those with the means to extract it and who can save or re-invest it.

It is the latter group which mostly benefitted from the Trump tax cuts. Borrowing as you describe looks to essentially save them from losing more of that accumulated wealth via taxation.

This system should anger the vase majority as it creates a wealth "rentier" style class who can just soak in more and more wealth at the expense of people who actually produce it. But enough people will accept that disparity if voting to keep this system in place is also voting pro-life and anti-immigrant policies.