Nov
28th
2021
Can some explain conservative politics? · 12:08am Nov 28th, 2021
Conservative politics from what I've seen is built on a complete lack of empathy for your fellow man. Obviously there's stuff like immigration and abortion and whatnot, which are complicated issues with complex solutions, but then there's really simple shit like raising wages so people actually have a decent quality of life. Wages have been stagnant since 2009, yet they still find a way to blame wage increases for inflation. Inflation's been going up the entire time. They've managed to convince themselves CEOs actually do more than sit on their ass all day and count their money while everyone else gets shit. That sort of hot take is literally indefensible no matter how you look at it. I mean, what the fuck, man.
I'm very socially and economically liberal, but I know a ton of conservatives because I lived in Ohio for 5 years. Kind of a complicated topic to discuss without writing a mini-book lol. That said, even as a shameless lefty:
If you increase minimum wages too much, employers will just lay off workers. I say this as someone whose family and relatives are all business owners. Besides, increasing the minimum wage won't fix much for more than a year at most. If you increase the minimum wage to $20/hour, for example, what will that do to counter the fact that inflation is skyrocketing, only a few majors offer good salaries anymore, and the internet allows us to cut 90% of the workforce while being more productive. Adding to this, the internet will make Americans compete with the global workforce, even for many service jobs. I say this from the employer POV. Higher minimum wage is only a band-aid lol.
Once again, even as a lefty, this doesn't make much sense to me. Not all work is equal. An owner or CEO doesn't work 1000x harder or longer than his employees, but he does do work thay none of his employees can do. No one is paid for hard work; they're paid for the money/"value" they create and/or bring in.
That said, the very high upper class do need to pay their taxes, but the problem is that they'll just base their business in another country. So if you tax them too highly, we'll net lose money due to them moving everything away from us. And then there's all the ways they can hide their money. Also, for many of them, most of their net worth is in stock holdings or assets. Take my uncle, for example. It's nearly impossible to accurately value all his real estate holdings, but he's minimum $50 million right now, and he gets over a $1 million passively each year (less from COVID, though). Even if you tax his $1 million/year "income," there's no way to accurately value his assets and tax them without then increasing taxes on most homeowners in America.
I think my brain just died from your blog and that one comment… .
Case in point; I don’t know much about this at all… .
5611869
What other solution is there? The pandemic exposed how easily our entire political and economic systems collapsed. Even the hardcore authoritarian countries held up better.
5611884
5611922
Regarding a solution.... I don't know
Seriously, this stuff is so complicated and honestly goes beyond dumb, vague titles like "liberal" or "conservative." Even before COVID, I was pretty pessimistic about the U.S. middle class. There's not as much social mobility as before for the average working class guy.
5611994
Tell me about it.
5612042
It's honestly much worse than most people think. For much of the 1900s, families built their wealth around home ownership (which was much easier back then), and you only needed a small amount of education to land a good job (high school until the 70s, then a bachelors). Now, there are like 5 degrees worth a shit anymore lol. And even then, they'll usually put you in hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. I know doctors who didn't pay off their loans until their 40s!
Honestly, I'll feel like I failed if my kids have to go to college (if they want to is a different matter).
5612044
We can't even run heat or air that much without worrying about the bill, and power companies out here charge double during the height of summer and winter. They're literally preying on vulnerable people in low-income areas. It's a fucking disgrace and an affront to basic human decency.
5611994
I see