economy
Vox: Paul Ryan’s Long Con
Anybody still giving the benefit of the doubt to Republicans needs to go outside and break off a switch. Republicans keep playing this “fiscal responsibility” card, and too many of us keep falling for it to debate its merits as if their positions ever hold fast once they get elected. “Fiscal responsibility” is a catchphrase to bring two groups to the polls: rich people and poor whites.
House Speaker Paul Ryan’s legacy can be summed up in just one number: $343 billion.
That’s the increase between the deficit for fiscal year 2015 and fiscal year 2018— that is, the difference between the fiscal year before Ryan became speaker of the House and the fiscal year in which he retired.
If the economy had fallen into recession between 2015 and 2018, Ryan’s record would be understandable. But it didn’t. In fact, growth quickened and the labor market tightened — which means deficits should’ve fallen. Indeed, that’s exactly what happened in each of the five years preceding Ryan’s speakership; from 2011 to 2015, annual deficits fell each year.
As he prepares to leave office, Ryan says that debt reduction is one of those things “I wish we could have gotten done.” Ryan, the man with the single most power over the federal budget in recent years, sounds like a bystander, as if he watched laws happen rather than made them happen.
(cont.)
Anybody still giving the benefit of the doubt to Republicans needs to go outside and break off a switch. Republicans keep playing this “fiscal responsibility” card, and too many of us keep falling for it to debate its merits as if their positions ever hold fast once they get elected. “Fiscal responsibility” is a catchphrase to bring two groups to the polls: rich people and poor whites.
Rich people hear “fiscal responsibility” and they know their taxes will be cut. The GOP uses “fiscal responsibility” as part of their funny math to justify cutting taxes for corporations and rich people. The rich don’t actually care that the math doesn’t add up — they just know the politicians they elected are using that ruse to get over on the rest of the country, that their politicians are saying “we have to curb spending, and once we have less stuff to pay for, we don’t need as much tax revenue coming in” and then voila — the rich get richer.
Poor whites hear “fiscal responsibility” and they feel like the coloreds and the immigrants will be getting fewer handouts. Never mind the fact that it’s Republican states that take the most from the federal government and contribute the least, because facts don’t matter. Only perception matters, and the perception among poor whites is that they are struggling while Blacks & Muslims & Mexicans are living high on the hog thanks to welfare programs that taxes pay for. Why should they get free stuff from the government while Good Americans (white ones) are scrimping and saving to pay the bills? Those poor whites vote for politicians pimping austerity measures against their own self-interests because they’d rather suffer themselves if they can sleep soundly at night with the knowledge that brown people are hopefully suffering even more.
Then those politicians take office and have no interest in balancing a budget or keeping spending under control because, just like Donald Trump said last week, they won’t be in office when the bottom falls out. Democratic leadership will have to come in, fix everything, and then the cycle repeats itself.
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economy
CNBC: The budget breakdown of a 25-year-old who makes $100,000 a year and is excellent with money
Gen X & Baby Boomer media is about making millennials feel shitty about not being exponentially more successful and more educated than they had to be at the same age to maintain the same standard of living. Y’all had my salary with a HS diploma working at Auto Zone. Go away.
Trevor Klee, he admits, is a “terrible employee.” But he’s great at working for himself — and at taking tests.
So the 25-year-old entrepreneur started a thriving business of his own. As a test prep instructor in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he brings in $100,000 a year tutoring people for the GMAT, GRE and LSAT. “It’s one of those weird skills that turned out to be really monetizable,” he tells CNBC Make It.
Klee is the first to acknowledge he’s benefited from both luck and privilege: “Growing up in a family that talked a lot about money was a definite advantage,” he says. “In a lot of ways, I feel like I’m good with money, but I’m playing life on ‘Easy’ mode: I’m a single guy with no dependents and I make a pretty solid income.”
Here’s a look at how Klee earns, saves and spends his money, and how he gives it away
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He’s 25 years old and makes $100,000 a year paying $825 rent.
When I was 25 I made $30,000 a year paying $900 rent.
I don’t understand who these articles are for.
Gen X & Baby Boomer media is about making millennials feel shitty about not being exponentially more successful and more educated than they had to be at the same age to maintain the same standard of living. Y’all had my salary with a HS diploma working at Auto Zone. Go away.
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economy
WaPo: Workers are ghosting their employers like bad dates
Pay workers more and treat them like people. If your employees feel expendable, they have no problem ghosting on that spot that you’ll easily fill with someone else you don’t care about.
economy
ThinkProgress: Michigan GOP cuts paid sick leave, repeals minimum wage increase in lame-duck session
How do we impress upon our representatives that Republicans have no intention of playing fair and we have get in the gutter with them in order to clean it up? We can’t afford to go high when they keep taking a baseball bat to the knees of democracy.
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