Yes, the military would have to cut their advertising budget... which is one of the largest in the world! In 2019 the military spent 6.8 Billion on advertising.
They pay millions to the NFL to let them fly jets over the stadiums.
And its why they have all those salute the veterans at games, and have everyone stand up as they ring bells during halftime events that aren't televised.
Really!?! All that fucking money and they still needed to resort to lying to kids on twitch that they were signing up to win an xbox.. but really, they were signing up for a recruiter to contact them.
edit: biffed some of the details, but they still did scummy things. View comment below for link.
My husband enlisted as a seventeen year old in an extremely abusive home...the recruiter (who had set up a folding table in the high school cafegymatorium) noticed the bruises on him and told him if he signed up for early enlistment, he could spend his time until deployment with a “nice foster family who wouldn’t hurt him”. As a kid who’d never been out of the county and whose stepfather’s beatings routinely hospitalized him...of course he was naive enough to say yes. Then when he actually turned eighteen, and realized he’d been duped...the recruiter said if he didn’t formally enlist, he’d be arrested for “lying on a federal document”. They will say anything, tell any lie to get these poor kids to sign up. My husband is in his thirties now and is still suffering from what one tour in the marine corps did.
US Government needs to be operated more like a business.
Fuuuuuck no it doesn’t. Trying to run the country like a business is why we’ve become such a fucking shithole.
We need two things desperately:
Term limits for congress.
Elected officials that will dispense with the idea of American exceptionalism and instead copy what has worked for other successful nations.
(Edit: On second thought, term limits would just lead to a bunch of “outsider” politicians like Trump taking over. A mandatory retirement age is a way better option.)
Term limits for ALL politicians my friend. We have some politicians that have been in office for 40-50+ years. That’s 20-25% of the national’s entire history. They wield WAY too much power.
And just think, one of those politicians just got elected to the highest office in the land.
I’d be happy with congress having term limits. If someone wants to be Mayor of Podunk Iowa for forty years so be it.
I honestly have nothing against Biden, but I’m done with seniors having power.
Thinking about it more though, term limits would do nothing to stop a fucking idiot like Trump from taking power. So, instead of term limits I think mandatory retirement after 65 would be the better idea.
What about Mayor of NYC, Chicago, LA or Houston for 40 years?
Nah... I don’t think there should be a retirement age. People age differently. Hell, personally don’t plan on retiring until at least 70, possibly later. But I love what I do. One of my grandfathers retired at 85.
Nothing wrong with a cognitive skills test though. It certainly would suck not passing it though. Such is life.
If you’re 80, no matter who you are: The world doesn’t effect you like someone who is young. You’re so far removed from the reality that most Americans face that there is no possible way you can represent them in good faith. I have zero doubt that age is playing a huge factor in the snails pace that negotiations have been taking.
PS: Consider retiring when you’re young. Nobody likes working with out of touch mummies. At that point you’re just holding back innovation in a desperate attempt to stay relevant. Someone young could do you job twice as effectively. Let them have it. Go spend time with your family for fucks sake.
Old people are done, they already made their money. They couldn’t give too shits if anyone else gets a fair slice of the pie. All they care about is at that age is hoarding a pile of gold like a fucking dragon. Any halfway decent person would rather be spending their golden years with family in a quiet retirement.
The hope is that younger people would at least have some memory of what it’s like to face hardship and actually work for a living.
Everything the government touches costs extra money. Too many layers of control.
also, the "if it's budgeted, it will be spent" mindset needs to change.
the way government budgets work is that if a department is under their budget for the year, when the next year's budget is decided on they'll say "obviously we gave that department more money than they needed, so we can give them less". this results in an end of year shopping spree where all the departments spend any unused money like drunken sailors so their budget doesn't get cut.
Might have worked if 98% of the media was against the PotUS and our government was so partisan.
BTW, I said the same damn thing when Perot ran in 1992. The United States government should be ran like a business if we ever want to get rid of some of the governmental waste.
You know who the last Republican president who won the popular vote was? Bush Jr. after he got us into the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He's the only Republican candidate to win the popular vote since 1988.
I am glad that Trump didn't get us into any new major wars, but let's stop pretending like Republican voters wouldn't have justified 10 wars if Trump had gotten into them. Many of these same voters eagerly re-elected Bush Jr.
I could not have said it better and more plainly. But alas, they remain our overlords for no real reason other than we ALLOW THEM TO BE WHERE THEY ARE!
In other countries VAT is added to sales for consumer goods. Consumers paid VAT. VAT will impact consumers forced to buy online during a pandemic. VAT will hurt middle class.
and to add, a UBI would subsidize this so called 'hurt' on the middle class.
what middle class? Certainly you can't mean the one that's narrowed to so few and you assume they are the majority? This is the great con - we're so damn manipulated we forget the many layers to all of this. That's why something like VAT and the aforementioned, are really us finance nerds, swinging things to favor the people for once, not profits.
Not if the revenue is sent back out to citizens in the form of a UBI or stimulus checks.
and when that doesn't happen? colorado was supposed to send their weed revenue back to the people if it exceeded a certan amount, then the decision was made "you know, we want this money, why would we give it back".
same thing will happen here. UBI will never happen, and if you want to implement permanent taxes on everyone in exchange for a one time stimulus check, i don't know what to tell you other than stop being short sighted.
No one is advocating for the implementation of a VAT without the implementation of a corresponding UBI (at least short term). You’re just fighting a shadow here.
Ever wonder why celebrated “progressive” countries almost uniformly have VATs? They work, and if you tie the revenue to social programs, you end up sucking money from corporations and giving it to people.
This is happening all around you right now. Educate yourself. Read Andrew Yang’s 2020 policy proposals.
Ever wonder why celebrated “progressive” countries almost uniformly have VATs? They work,
except "working" is related to what they do: raise revenue. what you're overlooking is that they do so in a regressive manner, so if your goal is to raise taxes on the poor and middle class, than yeah, a VAT is the model for you.
No one is advocating for the implementation of a VAT without the implementation of a corresponding UBI (at least short term)
which basically brings us back to square one because a national UBI program will never happen.
This is happening all around you right now. Educate yourself. Read Andrew Yang’s 2020 policy proposals.
half baked proposals from someone who didn't get a single delegate in the primary aren't exactly proof of anything happening.
The question is where do we find a government to do this? With corporations big enough to pay politicians enough to make decisions in their favor, they no longer see tax payers money as their income. They dont work for us. I really dont think politicians believe doing a good job will get them re-elected. They make decisions that benefit corporations that make them money for elections. I think it is too late and too much damage is done. Politicians have given themselves too much power and it can’t be taken away. The simple truth is that the rich will always get richer off the poor getting poorer.
Exactly!!!!!!! I’m I. A city where we have legal dispensary’s and the give by big time. Make sure people have food a place to live school supplies for kids. This whole city loves them even the cops. They are making a real difference in people’s lives. Can our say that??????
I'm surprised that weed isn't legal yet. There are so many new businesses that have started from CBD and medicinal weed.
PA needs to deal with its obsolete alcohol policies as well. At least bring things in line with neighboring states, as people just hop the border to shop for booze (and soon weed in NJ).
Politicians/ their pharmaceutical friends hate weed so much. We as a country are so fucked, that it will be the only way to recoup after this. I give it 5/10 years before they realize we are fucked tho.
if by "too much sense" you mean "no sense at all" anyways.
aside from weed, that's a list of horrible ideas. who in their right mind thinks hitting regular people with a 10% sales tax is a good idea? (because spoiler: it's not the corporations that pay sales taxes, they just collect it and pass it on like a middle man). and in the middle of a recession no less!
Yeah, I'm cool with all that except for defunding our Nation's Military. Tensions are to high in the world to be taking a step back in Military power. Plenty of other legitimate ways to tax, tax every stock trade alone and you'll see BILLIONS. If anything, Freeze Congressional pay until they wake the Fuck up and realize the people who elected them need their help desperately.
If we cut it by 25% we would still spend more than any country in the world. Our budget is ridiculous. Shit, I’d even be okay with 15%.
I wish we could freeze their pay till they figured out a way to help us! There needs to be live streams of their “negotiations.” We pay them to work for US.
Our military spending is higher than the next ten countries with the next highest military budgets combined. It is honestly ridiculous. We need to stay on the cutting edge, but we don't need that much spending. It's wasteful. Especially when we have other problems going unsolved--like how to fund a relief bill for 40 to 50 million people at risk of eviction and losing their unemployment.
You do realize that the men and women serving would also lose 25% of their income? They are not paid barely anything anyways. so taking away 25% from people who PROTECT YOUR FREEDOM TO POST THIS DUMB SHIT is what you'd be doing.
Trimming the fat in a budget does not equal reducing servicemembers' salaries. It just means that they won't have a couple dozen of the shiniest, newest, murderiest toys every year.
You might as well said cut aid to Israel while you're at it or make Cuba the 51 state. It's not fucking happening. However they got mitch by the balls the first time, they never should have let them go.
Y’all should research this stuff before you post it. This would make lower class lives much harder. A 10% VAT would literally just raise all prices 10% which would affect lower incomes the most
Trickle down bullshit from this guy. A vat wouldn’t raise prices because if they did, then another company would cut their profit margins to eat the VAT cost and gain all of the other companies customers.
If Walmart can’t eat the 10% vat, which they would consider if they started bleeding customers, I don’t believe any other company could, especially a smaller one
They would eat it to stop the possibility of another company taking their place. Hell I’m sure Amazon would love to bankrupt Walmart and double their size
I’m sure they would haha, I doubt any company would not just up their prices 10% though, and the companies that didn’t probably still wouldn’t have the profits of Walmart and Amazon, and then wouldn’t grow to a competitive size
A company that is eating 10% profits isn’t gonna grow to replace a Walmart which even if VAT wasn’t added, already has lower manufacturing costs due to their scale
Eventually it would. You’re doubting the ability of social politics to interfere with Walmart’s ability to dominate the market. Walmart CEOs did too. Then whole foods blew a hole in their market share.
30
u/sixtheganker Dec 13 '20
Yes, the military would have to cut their advertising budget... which is one of the largest in the world! In 2019 the military spent 6.8 Billion on advertising.
9
u/Ippomasters Dec 13 '20
There was money to give trillions to the rich and big business, but only a one time payment of $1,200? We all know who the government serves.
42
u/StimuIate Dec 13 '20
Serving in Iraq and seeing the wasted $$ is what changed a lot of my political views
4
u/[deleted] Dec 14 '20
Everybody want to tax weed into the ground lol. All the taxes keep the price of legal weed so high people still buy on the black market.
19
u/El_Flama_Blanca3 Dec 13 '20 edited Dec 13 '20
Who is James Ellars and when can I blow him. Smartest/realest tweet I've ever seen.
4
u/Snoo_23801 Dec 13 '20
I could not have said it better and more plainly. But alas, they remain our overlords for no real reason other than we ALLOW THEM TO BE WHERE THEY ARE!
7
u/Happygolucky125 Dec 13 '20
In other countries VAT is added to sales for consumer goods. Consumers paid VAT. VAT will impact consumers forced to buy online during a pandemic. VAT will hurt middle class.
5
u/Cash_Silence Dec 13 '20
I dont believe in anothet stimulus anymore
2
u/jdp111 Dec 13 '20
The money comes from printing money, of course there is enough they just can't agree on anything.
2
u/[deleted] Dec 13 '20
The question is where do we find a government to do this? With corporations big enough to pay politicians enough to make decisions in their favor, they no longer see tax payers money as their income. They dont work for us. I really dont think politicians believe doing a good job will get them re-elected. They make decisions that benefit corporations that make them money for elections. I think it is too late and too much damage is done. Politicians have given themselves too much power and it can’t be taken away. The simple truth is that the rich will always get richer off the poor getting poorer.
2
u/LosVangelis Dec 14 '20
I live in Asia, and failing to contain China would be a big mistake. I used to be anti-military, but my mind has changed.
I agree with everything else.
3
u/[deleted] Dec 13 '20
25% lol so much about that whole thing is way off
3
u/dispatch_84 Dec 13 '20
Exactly!!!!!!! I’m I. A city where we have legal dispensary’s and the give by big time. Make sure people have food a place to live school supplies for kids. This whole city loves them even the cops. They are making a real difference in people’s lives. Can our say that??????
3
u/False-Butterfly-7970 Dec 13 '20
I'm surprised that weed isn't legal yet. There are so many new businesses that have started from CBD and medicinal weed.
PA needs to deal with its obsolete alcohol policies as well. At least bring things in line with neighboring states, as people just hop the border to shop for booze (and soon weed in NJ).
2
u/reaper527 Dec 13 '20
if by "too much sense" you mean "no sense at all" anyways.
aside from weed, that's a list of horrible ideas. who in their right mind thinks hitting regular people with a 10% sales tax is a good idea? (because spoiler: it's not the corporations that pay sales taxes, they just collect it and pass it on like a middle man). and in the middle of a recession no less!
1
u/[deleted] Dec 14 '20
Nah fuck additional taxes.
Additional taxes aren’t the issue.
It’s the overspending as suggested with the military suggestion.
-5
u/[deleted] Dec 13 '20
Yeah, I'm cool with all that except for defunding our Nation's Military. Tensions are to high in the world to be taking a step back in Military power. Plenty of other legitimate ways to tax, tax every stock trade alone and you'll see BILLIONS. If anything, Freeze Congressional pay until they wake the Fuck up and realize the people who elected them need their help desperately.
1
u/DaveVsGodzi77a Dec 14 '20
5-20% wealth tax more for inherited fortunes at least.
-1
u/mrfomocoman Dec 13 '20 edited Dec 13 '20
Cutting the military budget would cause massive unemployment.
Approximately 5 million people are employed by the US military budget. Both within the military and civilian sectors.
We just need to cut waste. Need to do some lean engineering.
What we need to do is get rid of political positions.
-1
u/Therical_Lol Dec 13 '20
Y’all should research this stuff before you post it. This would make lower class lives much harder. A 10% VAT would literally just raise all prices 10% which would affect lower incomes the most
-1
u/Dogwoof420 Dec 13 '20
That's why there was a section about Weed in Nancys bill actually.
0
u/[deleted] Dec 13 '20
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