proof again that the government could severely curtail homelessness if they wanted to-- they just don’t.
Something something bootstraps.
The disparity in wealth should grow instead of shrink.
As long as most people believe this, then that’s what’s going to happen.
Wealth disparity is not relevant to this discussion. It doesn’t say anything about where the bottom tier is.
If we had full UBI, free homes, free food, free healthcare, etc and some small portion of the country were quadrillionaires, we’d have massive wealth disparity and no loss of quality of life.
Wealth is not zero-sum, and the high and low do not necessarily have anything to do with one another.
Bruh, not to shit out an old conservative adage, but that money has to come from somewhere. You’re missing the entire nuances of how the monetary system works, and the whole argument of where the money should come from for these things. A country where wealth disparity is increased because the tax comes from the middle class looks very different from one where it comes from the upper classes and massive corporations.
A country where wealth disparity is increased because the tax comes from the middle class
This also has nothing to do with the money disparity.
Like, I agree with you regarding taxation in broad terms. But the objective reality is the wealth disparity does not have any impact, on its own, on anyone’s individual well-being, the same way me acknowledging that it doesn’t has no bearing on whether or not wealthy people should pay more taxes.
If we cannot discuss things in a real world framework, were basically just writing fan-fiction of reality. That is a MAGA way to create policy, not a real world methodology.
The way you’re trying to frame this is magical thinking where wealth disparity within our society doesn’t come with sets of nuanced issues that don’t directly effect the wellbeing of society as a whole. After a certain rate of wealth disparity, for instance, those with the most can directly control those with the least with any number of creative ways that mostly amount to “I have money so I can buy people.”
From controlling government officials, to controlling individual level situations like law enforcement and judiciary measures so that they can essentially do whatever they want, which is never used for the betterment of others and always to the detriment of the masses. To leave these things out of a conversation about wealth disparity and quality of life is just disingenuous man.
The way you’re trying to frame this is magical thinking where wealth disparity within our society doesn’t come with sets of nuanced issues that don’t directly effect the wellbeing of society as a whole.
This isn’t magical thinking, it’s simply understanding that wealth is not zero-sum.
From controlling government officials, to controlling individual level situations like law enforcement and judiciary measures so that they can essentially do whatever they want, which is never used for the betterment of others and always to the detriment of the masses.
This is indeed bad, but is a measure of the strength of institutions, not wealth disparity. Wealth doesnt win elections on its own - 2012, 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022 all featured out-spent candidates who won. Trump famously won despite being outspent handily in 2016
I’m genuinely flabbergasted that some people perceive this as some sort of hot take and not just acknowledging the reality at play here.
Another awful take courtesy of you.
It’s not a take. This is just correct information that you don’t like. There is 0 opinion in the above.
You would be delusional enough to believe that.
It’s okay, I’m going to put you on my ignore list now. You’re not worth arguing with because every post you make is asinine.
Goodbye.
Have a good one!
The rich people who go on TV and say “people don’t want to work for me anymore, that’s why we need to cut benefits” certainly see wealth as zero-sum. They know if we had all those things you listed their business would stop working.
Or they’re lying for their own gain
Also this is a question of incentives, not wealth. They believe people who get benefits are incentivized not to work. This has been proven soundly false in recent tests of UBI.
What are they seeking to gain if not wealth?
Elected office.
We can invent billions of dollars to give away during the pandemic, and billions more to give Israel to continue its genocide against Palestinians, but solving student debt or homelessness or universal health care? We don’t have enough money for that!
Because interest payments make profit, and reducing people’s ability to not live paycheck to paycheck increases the workers dependency on the system.
universal health care? We don’t have enough money for that!
Universal healthcare would, ironically, save the government, businesses, and consumers money all at the same time.
Is Hamas/IDF genocide against each other some kind of meme that must be mentioned in every comment section now or is this just propaganda?
Hamas isn’t in the West Bank. And yet Israel is demolishing houses right now so that settlers can move in. Only one side is perpetrating a genocide.
Sweet, what’s that have to do about US homelessness?
Nothing. It has everything to do with your comment. This isn’t a “both sides” moment. It may have been in the past but Israel is commiting war crimes at a breathtaking pace now.
Proof that the military needs more money, you say? That’s correct!! 😅
How else are they going to keep all those homeless people in check
Or accurately place a missle within 5 meters of Amhed and his little sister as they walk home from school.
No Democrats or Republicans actually get voted out for voting for shitty things, so where’s the motivation?
What did you do the last four years that should make us vote for you again Biden?
“I’m not Trump”
Democrat voters cream their pants and run to the voting booth so Genocide Joe can have another 4 years
Well considering Trump ( by his own words) literally wants to become a dictator and destroy any democracy in this country.
I mean unless someone wants to live in the second coming of Nazi Germany… But hey they’ll have “shown those libs!” when being drug off to camps.
I gotta keep voting for the people I don’t want to vote for else I won’t be able to vote anymore!
This but unironically
The Build Back Better plan is basically a progressive wish list. Biden has done some great things that make him worth voting for.
What’s the point of thinking of our government as “the government”? Or changing “We could solve this.” to “They could solve this.”?
Considering the military budget is now up to 1.2 trillion a year and we pay for other country’s wars, the government clearly exists to make warmongers wealthier.
Oy. Arguing with nihilists is about as useful as pissing into a black hole. You’ll just get your dick turned into spaghetti for the effort, so why bother?
All I care about is that people can see what kind of mentality pairs with rhetoric like, “They control us!” It’s not a productive, insightful perspective that speaks helplessness into themselves and others.
except nobody said that
proof again that the
governmentpeople could severely curtail homelessness if they wanted to-- they just don’t.That’s why we formed a government, to handle shit like this. A government of the people by the people for the people. it’s their fucking job.
The government is just doing what its people want.
If the people want something different, then they should do something different.
Haven’t you heard how good the economy is doing?
you dropped this: /s
I think you’re just trying to agree with the downvoters.
don’t sprain something with those mental gymnastics
Homeowners pulling the ladder up after them is the single largest driver of our housing crisis. You literally cannot build more housing in the areas we most need it, due to regulations pushed for, and at times written by, local homeowners.
44% of single family homes were purchased by private equity in 2023. Some analysts expect institutional investors to control 40% of the SFH rental market by 2030.
And when are the American people going to demand an end to this shit? They represented less than 3% of sfh ownership in 2012. How long until everyone must rent? How long until people are forced to sell due to taxes driving them out of ownership due to inflated pricing from these ghouls?
While I’m not 100% about it, Prop 13 in California has some good effects.
People shouldn’t be tax hiked out of their living quarters. I think most states should have something similar and limit it to only the property you reside in so that property taxes are predictable instead of the incalculable beast they are today in most areas.
Let us not forget apartments, which are invariably occupied by less wealthy folk on average, who definitely can’t afford the cost.
It’s okay guys. The government is (checks notes) giving money to your land lords with no strings attached.
I’ll be at the bar if anyone wants to join me.
Wait people were getting aid? I thought we all got a couple thousand dollars and thoughts and prayers… That shit dried up in one month.
My best guess is the ending of eviction moratoriums related to covid.
Don’t forget, Biden never wanted to give Covid relief checks either, it was only the threat of Trump promising to do so that caused him to actually do it (in order to win in places like Georgia if I recall correctly). Then he shortchanged everyone on the actual amount he promised (I don’t care if when you read the fine print he was technically correct, that was not how the promise was pitched to voters).
Trump is far worse, but let’s not forget how pathetic the Democratic Party is at actually helping desperate people.
You are definitely correct in the general sense. People actually to the left HAVE to remember: Democrats are allies only against the right. They are not ideologically aligned and no matter how many individuals you can pull left, “Democrats” will never be left or progressive.
They HAVE to be pushed to do good things. That doesn’t magically make Trump good. Fuck that wannabe dictator and everyone who supports him, but Democrats are allies only against the right.
Why are you trying to speak on behalf of all democrats?
And why do you feel democrats are only allies against the right?
I speak on behalf of the label. Like I said: “no matter how many individuals you can pull left…”
The party itself is not a specific person. MAYBE people like AOC and others will succeed in shifting the whole party left, but as it stands, it is a heavily center-right organization on the global scale of politics as far as how they vote in-house, on actual legislation.
Most Democrat voters are not leftists, so it stands to reason that Democrats would not be leftists.
Biden never wanted to give Covid relief checks
Where did you hear this?
Then he shortchanged everyone on the actual amount he promised
I thought Congress decided the amount?
I mean, am I in Biden’s head? No.
Is there any other reasonable conclusion to draw from his behavior and rhetoric in the political context he was in? No.
The process involved congress but the president had most of the power to frame and shape what the covid relief checks were.
It’s almost like the president doesn’t have absolute authority to implement ideas exactly how they like, and have to work with other branches of the government, which usually means compromising.
Wow. Guess we really should pivot to authoritarianism. Then campaign promises can be implemented to the letter. /s if that wasn’t obvious.
I mean, am I in Biden’s head? No.
So you made that up.
Is there any other reasonable conclusion to draw from his behavior and rhetoric in the political context he was in? No.
Republicans said they wouldn’t let the full $2000 pass. If Biden tried it anyway it wouldn’t pass and Americans would be left with nothing. That’s common sense. But you claim there is no other conclusion to come to…
The process involved congress but the president had most of the power to frame and shape what the covid relief checks were.
And Republicans in Congress said they wouldn’t let the full $2000 pass.
Republicans said they wouldn’t let the full $2000 pass. If Biden tried it anyway it wouldn’t pass and Americans would be left with nothing. That’s common sense. But you claim there is no other conclusion to come to…
Source on this? Even if it is true democrats did nothing to publicize this fact, the fight for this shit is like Biden’s “fight” for a $15 minimum wage. Even if he technically fought for it, the strategy is so poor and so halfhearted it hard to count it for anything meaningful.
What was poor about his strategy?
The only other strategy would be to write a bill that will go nowhere.
How is that a better strategy?
Something needs to be done. Housing is a nightmare.
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I don’t think that’s what is happening at all. We don’t need to imagine some vast and ridiculously improbable media conspiracy to explain this seeming disconnect. What I imagine is really happening is that the tools that economists and by extension the media use to gauge the health of the economy are no longer (if they ever were) calibrated to accurately reflect the lived experience of many/most Americans.
This is by far the simplest explanation.
The idea that this is somehow a conspiracy is simply an example of poor media literacy. It doesn’t work like that at all.
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It’s cute that you appear to imagine that anyone gets rich through journalism. No one goes into journalism because they want to get rich.
Journalism is probably the lowest paid “profession” there is because it’s highly competitive and in recent decades the bottom has entirely fallen out of local news organizations due to the Internet having destroyed their revenue streams.
Overwhelmingly people go into journalism because they want to make a difference, not because they want to get rich. If you want to get rich you go into finance or a STEM field or go to law school.
This idea of yours, that journalists use their own economic conditions when reporting on the economy is also objectively absurd.
To the contrary, they report what the economists and financial market experts are saying. Again, this “gaslighting” notion of yours makes no sense inasmuch as it implies something very like a conspiracy or a collective understanding that the truth is to be misrepresented.
This makes no sense in the reality that is competitive reporting in which one is rewarded for reporting “scoops” in terms of breaking news. Again, it just shows how illiterate you and many others are when it comes to understanding what actually happens in newsrooms.
While it makes sense to imagine that traditional economic indicators aren’t necessarily indicative of the lived experience of average citizens, it makes zero sense to imagine that the highly competitive news media is somehow in collusion to present an inaccurate picture of the economy.
That’s just plain stupid.
Source; I have a degree in journalism together with decades in the news business. It’s actually pretty difficult for me to emphasize how wrong-headed you are on this.
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But unemployment is at the lowest ever! We added 200.000 jobs. There was only a soft recession. Line goes up, and just in time for something important. What a coincidence. The economy is so great and we’re back in the bull market!
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And I need 199,999 of them to pay my rent.
See, the real problem is that people don’t know how good they have it.
Sarcasm or not? Hard to tell
In my case, sarcasm, but unfortunately too many articles are stating this without any sarcasm.
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Few seem to care…including those who will one day be there themselves.
Few seem to care…including those who will one day be there themselves.
What are those of us who care supposed to be doing?
Amidst deciding which bills get paid each paycheck, trying to find nutritional variety out of food banks (canned fish intake should ideally be less than 10 cans a month per person, for example, and even rinsing canned vegetables/beans isn’t doing wonders for sodium intake compared to fresh), trying to decide which medical and dental issues we can afford to address and which just get to be endured, and watching debt go to collections because food, insurance, automobile fuel, home energy, rent, and everything related to cars has gone up, what are we supposed to be doing?
In what way can we unite as a people and fix this?
I could not comment as I do not know you, but many people choose nice things like bigger cars, new phone, alcohol and such over quality food. Some however are in a place that they are trapped and have no choice and for those people I have no advice other than to really make some noise and vote accordingly if you are in a country you can.
Worker and renters unions are a good place to start. Talk to your neighbors and coworkers. Join the IWW if you’d like some help
Rents soar as government continues heavy suppression of new housing construction.
They just to apply themselves, get out there and hustle, bring value, and make others rich! /s
They can start by making me rich. I offer myself as tribute.
Problems also in the UK
But don’t forget it’s all Biden’s fault. Especially in the UK.
Both countries run by right wing partis. Coincidence?
okay, but the GDP…
Reminder that the both the Mormon & Catholic “Churches” could feed, house & clothe every single homeless person in the USA indefinitely & it would only cost them a fraction of their net worth.
They had rather sit on their wealth like the Dragon though, regardless of the punishments for that described in their “Bible”.
That’s how you know they don’t really believe in their own bullshit.
Reminder that the secular institution with the Democrats leading it can also fix homelessness with even less of a fraction of their net worth.
Atheism to the rescue again.
Oh. Wait.
It’s not about faith. It’s about corporations. Religious, commercial or government, none of them are working for us.
His comment was about faith though.
I keep having to read the dumb narrative that le atheism would fix everything here on Lemmy and everything is the fault of religion but the atheist institutions are doing just as little if not less than the religious ones.
But Biden fixed the economy it’s better than everrr!
The economy has little impact on price gouging and you better believe rent is being gouged to fuck.
They all collude too, example: https://m.slashdot.org/story/406219
Your post has “Biden did that” in relation to gas prices energy
Nah it’s a counter to statements like this: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/28/us/politics/biden-speech-economy-chicago.html
It’s probably more a tongue in cheek response to the “everything is fine” attitude they seem to have
I would be on the same page as you except Biden tried to take a victory lap on the economy. We’re in the backlash of that right now. You can tell because they’re scrambling to look like they’re lowering prices on anything they can.
Homelessness is a very complex issue encompassing things like mental health and climate change. The president has no direct control over rent prices, they may be able to influence them to a degree, but that’s all. This is an integral part of late-stage capitalism. People in need are being left behind because America is filled with greed. One of the many things to help alleviate this would be the construction of subsidized dense housing in areas with high levels of amenities.
Number go up!
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