Where will inflation stop?

In reply to frenchyd :

Have you ever read anything I've ever written here?

If so, why would you assume I blame it on one particular flavor of politicians?

National debt and heavy inflation are largely - not entirely, but largely - caused by the same thing: excessive government spending.

Address that fundamental issue and you address both problems at once.  All three problems, if you count high taxes as a problem.

And before the inevitable condescending, uh, person comes in to tell me about roads and libraries and fire trucks, I am NOT a "taxation is theft" Libertarian.

Generating inflation is not the way to successfully reduce national debt.  Unless you think burning it down is a great way to reduce the clutter in your garage.

In reply to porschenut :

Republicans are more concerned with making the other side look bad and catering to the way upper echelon of income brackets.  Democrats are trying to correct the path but not all ideas have been good.

While I would absolutely love the opportunity to correct this, it's not something to discuss here. I do find interesting that one side is frequently accused of favoring the successful. But the accusers frequently fail to ask the question- is it catering to the successful, or to the paths that lead to success? Both would appear the same. 

In spite of all this most of us are employed and able to meet bills.  Things have been worse in my lifetime and probably yours too.  
 

I agree with this. While the big picture does have a direct affect on us, the choices we make still have the the most impact on our lives. 

In reply to frenchyd :

And... again, forget I ever said anything.

I will try to also.

frenchyd said:

Duke said:

In reply to frenchyd :

Have you ever read anything I've ever written here?

If so, why would you assume I blame it on one particular flavor of politicians?

National debt and heavy inflation are largely - not entirely, but largely - caused by the same thing: excessive government spending.

Address that fundamental issue and you address both problems at once.  All three problems, if you count high taxes as a problem.

And before the inevitable condescending, uh, person comes in to tell me about roads and libraries and fire trucks, I am NOT a "taxation is theft" Libertarian.

Generating inflation is not the way to successfully reduce national debt.  Unless you think burning it down is a great way to reduce the clutter in your garage.

 

Duke, 

   It's very simple. ...

Cool story.

Back to Govt spending: What does the Constitution authorize the federal government to spend money on? What is the federal government Currently spending money on?

In reply to Boost_Crazy :

I'm afraid you and I have to disagree here.  Maybe it's perception, the way I interpret  what you are saying. 

is it catering to the successful or the paths that lead to success.  

  If you are only suggesting wise use of money. You must realize that doesn't always lead to success.  A certain level of income is required to achieve success.  
It's rare that even high levels of intelligence and ambition can overcome  a poor school and lack of opportunity. 
        Getting into good schools and colleges has more to do with your ultimate success than what percentage of your money is saved. 
     Access  through those Gates  requires  the success of your parents than anything you can bootstrap your way into.

  Legacy and endowments open up far more gates than hard work and good grades do. Top schools do admit some brilliant kids but also a lot more average and even less than average legacy and endowment children.
       Once in a leading school the connections you make are far more important  than the grades you earn.  
     I'm not talking about the 1% Here I'm talking about the top 20%. 
    

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

Some politicians are more concerned about banning books in high schools that kids can still find on their phones than they are failing banks and overpriced housing.

Books, Are you talking about the the pornography that can't be read in a public setting or are you talking about the Dr Seuss books that are now gone?

Roku had $486M cash in that bank. Ouch. 

In reply to frenchyd :

I went to a Cal State University for both undergrad and graduate school between 1982 and 1989 which cost under $750 per semester for tuition, books, lab fees, parking, the whole shebang.

I just checked this calculator and it sez' that I'm at the 94th income percentile nationally.  I'm sure I'd be at a significantly lower percentile if my age (58) and state (California) were factored in but that's not the point I want to make.

The system in its current form has worked very well for me...I'm ahead of schedule to retire early (hard stop at 62), live comfortably (175K annual budget), and reliably leave a nice legacy for my two daughters (2M+ each in today's money); who could ask for more?

I haven't inherited any money, I have no connections, I'm just a rank and file engineer with no remarkable talents...I've just worked hard, lived modestly, and invested wisely my whole life.

If it ain't broke...   

RX Reven' said:

I've just worked hard, lived modestly, and invested wisely my whole life.

Everyone wants to know the "secret". There it is, in writing. 

Steve_Jones said:

RX Reven' said:

I've just worked hard, lived modestly, and invested wisely my whole life.

Everyone wants to know the "secret". There it is, in writing. 

There can be more to it than that...

 ...but chance definitely favors the prepared.

But I love hearing how hordes of underqualifed overfunded rich brats are shoving deserving poor students away from the national Ivy League gates - and by extension, away from a place in whatever secret society is currently running the planet.

In reply to frenchyd :

It's very simple. Cutting taxes reduces income for the government.  
 

So how much "income" should the government have? If you can't answer that, then you cannot answer what the tax rate should be. 
 

  If you are only suggesting wise use of money. You must realize that doesn't always lead to success.  A certain level of income is required to achieve success.  
It's rare that even high levels of intelligence and ambition can overcome  a poor school and lack of opportunity. 
        Getting into good schools and colleges has more to do with your ultimate success than what percentage of your money is saved. 
     Access  through those Gates  requires  the success of your parents than anything you can bootstrap your way into.

  Legacy and endowments open up far more gates than hard work and good grades do. Top schools do admit some brilliant kids but also a lot more average and even less than average legacy and endowment children.
       Once in a leading school the connections you make are far more important  than the grades you earn.  
     I'm not talking about the 1% Here I'm talking about the top 20%. 

None of that is true. None. If you were trying to state the exact opposite of reality, you could not have done better. I really don't even know why I'm responding to this. I've been trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, but you say stuff like this that makes everyone think that you are just messing with us. 
 

Just in case you are real and actually believe this nonsense- there is no such thing as lack of opportunity in this country. Some people may have more and some may have less, but even those that start with nothing have opportunity to succeed. Not taking advantage of the opportunities one has is not the same as not having opportunity. 

porschenut said:

Republicans are more concerned with making the other side look bad and catering to the way upper echelon of income brackets.  Democrats are trying to correct the path but not all ideas have been good.

You may want to recheck the demographics. The poorest still largely vote Dem, but Reps are gaining quickly in distressed districts. The 50K-over 100K votes Rep (in todays age of inflation I would consider this middle class) but this trend reverses when you get to the rich and ultra rich, which overwhelmingly vote Dem. It'd be awfully weird to think the Dem party doesnt cater to its wealthiest base and donors, which would literally be the upper echelon of income brackets.

I would also accept, "both parties cater to the wealthiest Americans." The argument comes in at what policies do the rich want that will help the average American, thats a debate to be had. The statement that Reps are for the rich, is largely outdated, and just shows you arent actually paying attention.

BTW SVB has (had) like 190B of uninsured assets vs 218$ total assets. 

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

Those books weren't banned, the publisher decided that there was questionable content that no longer reflected modern society...and ceased printing it on their own accord.

But let's not let that get in the way.

Appleseed said:

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

Those books weren't banned, the publisher decided that there was questionable content that no longer reflected modern society...and ceased printing it on their own accord.

But let's not let that get in the way.

 

'Ban' vs 'pulled from the shelves'. 'Pressured' and 'own accord'. quibble. ...but it's off topic.

AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) said:

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

Some politicians are more concerned about banning books in high schools that kids can still find on their phones than they are failing banks and overpriced housing.

Books, Are you talking about the the pornography that can't be read in a public setting or are you talking about the Dr Seuss books that are now gone?

I actually have some of those books that my parents bought for me years  ago. They are probably worth money now. 

But does it really matter what books are in a school library or on a teacher's desk now that all the kids have a phone where they can look at tranny porn or the Ku Klux Klan website all day long if they want and even do it in public. That horse escaped out of the barn a long, long time ago.

In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :

I generally agree with you, but one thing to consider are children are required to go to school, and for many that means a public school. It is a little different situtation. What we require them to learn vs what they do on their own.

I think its hard to tell a parent your kid must go to school here (unless you have the means or time to do home or private school) and then tell them, you dont have a say in the things we say or teach your child.

School library I dont necessarily have a problem with, but curriculum I do have a problem with.

In reply to frenchyd :

Frenchy your argument is asinine, and you are strawmanning the argument. No one is saying abolish the federal government, no one is saying taxes shouldnt exist. People are saying we dont have an income problem we have a spending problem. You use two political "third rails" to make your argument, defense and social security, and you act like thats a justification for all govt spending.

The govt spend less than 2T on social security and defense. Now I need you to justify the other 60% of the revenue the govt generates, much less the 70% of total spending you havent accounted for. Are you saying there isnt an argument about current levels of spending in any areas?

What you are essentially saying is even though the US govt has the largest national budget (and revenue) in the world, the only way to fix things it to get MORE revenue. It couldnt possibly be that, even though we have the most money, we spend too much?

People are advocating for spending less, not spending nothing. Your approach is what has caused our interest on debt to approach our national defense budget. Its not sustainable. Its sad that given the current state of thing you cant even recognize that.

A bunch of midsized banks are getting clobbered in the stock market.  Might be worth poring over some of their filings to see if it is worth taking the risk of catching a falling knife on Monday when the markets open, if the FDIC and the Fed haven't calmed things down by then.

Duke said:

Steve_Jones said:

RX Reven' said:

I've just worked hard, lived modestly, and invested wisely my whole life.

Everyone wants to know the "secret". There it is, in writing. 

There can be more to it than that...

 ...but chance definitely favors the prepared.

But I love hearing how hordes of underqualifed overfunded rich brats are shoving deserving poor students away from the national Ivy League gates - and by extension, away from a place in whatever secret society is currently running the planet.

 

For context, both of my parents just got general ed associate's degrees from a community college.  Granted that was in 1960 so apples-to-apples that would be somewhat closer to bachelor's degrees today but still, I clearly wasn't the product of a highly educated family.

The deal I got was "we'll pay all direct state university costs for four years so long as you maintain a "decent" GPA...I don't know if that meant 3.0 or stay off the academic probation list or ???.  What I do know is that I was on the hook to pay the difference if I went somewhere more expensive than a Cal State University and I was on my own if I took more than four years to graduate and if I didn't live at home, room and board was 100% on me and helping with grad school in any way was a complete nope.

Roll forward to the next generation and my daughters know that they can count on me for at least 150K each towards their educations.  My eldest daughter is a freshman biology major (technically pre med but that's just an administrative thing) at University Nevada, Reno and is doing very well and is absolutely loving it...my youngest daughter is a freshman in high school so a lot may change but she consistently indicates that she wants to follow in her big sister's foot steps so UNR may well be getting 300K+ from the Reven' family...fine, they deserve it, they made Mrs. Reven' and I make two trips onto their campus prior to admission to ensure they were right for us and we were right for them; sniff.

Bottom line, I'm calling BS on the elitist narrative (of course not you Duke)...I received no legacy privilege what so ever and very little parental guidance / financial support and yet I figured it out and got the job done.

RX Reven' said:

In reply to frenchyd :

I went to a Cal State University for both undergrad and graduate school between 1982 and 1989 which cost under $750 per semester for tuition, books, lab fees, parking, the whole shebang.

I just checked this calculator and it sez' that I'm at the 94th income percentile nationally.  I'm sure I'd be at a significantly lower percentile if my age (58) and state (California) were factored in but that's not the point I want to make.

The system in its current form has worked very well for me...I'm ahead of schedule to retire early (hard stop at 62), live comfortably (175K annual budget), and reliably leave a nice legacy for my two daughters (2M+ each in today's money); who could ask for more?

I haven't inherited any money, I have no connections, I'm just a rank and file engineer with no remarkable talents...I've just worked hard, lived modestly, and invested wisely my whole life.

If it ain't broke...   

I've too have done remarkably well for myself.   Two tours in Vietnam,  UCSD. U of M, I have invested wise,  lived modestly, saved scrupulously, worked hard, and had a few major set backs. Like 22 million fellow Americans  I lost my career.   It wasn't for a few weeks or month.  It was for good.  I went from 6 figure annual income and could not ( because of my age)  get another job.  Wearing out shoes. A lifetime of success overturned by 22 million people looking to get back to work.  Past 60 and the assumption was I was looking for a little more paycheck to get me to retirement: result?  Nope not you, next!!!  
        I took several jobs that cost me money instead of earning me  anything.   Eventually I took the only job that would pay me anything. A part time school bus driver.  For the last 10 years that's the best I could do.  Up at 5:00 am, home after 6:00 pm . With hundreds of children's lives in my hands every day.  Yes there is a shortage of us.  But I'm staying working because my wife is enjoying work more than she has ever done so it would've been wrong for me to quit. 
      

In reply to frenchyd :

I get it my friend...doing everything right is no guarantee of a good outcome.

Having said that, black Swan events are rare so most people won't suffer from them (at least not too much) but your timing was highly unfortunate...your wife got sick and then you lost your high paying job just as the economy tanked while you were moving into the too old to hire age group.

Mathematically that's:  Suck X Suck X Suck = Mega Suck!

I completely appreciate what you've had to go through...35 trips to Minnesota in 2019 alone means I totally get what driving a bus in minus 20 degree weather means...my friend I, we, truly feel for you however you're at the 95th percentile of bad timing...on average, most people aren't going to get hit with the perfect storm you got hit with IMHO.  

In reply to RX Reven' :

 I got my education thanks to the GI Bill and a Navy program called  NESEP 

       So I understand when you say you weren't cut out.  That somehow  there was room.   But there  are people in college, taking up space who's only qualification to be there is their ability to be accepted. Due to legacy, endowment, or connections.    While not everyone who is accepted by that path  is worthless.  Those who are effectively deny that space  to those worthy and who will actually benefit. 

In reply to RX Reven' :

Thank you.  I've still managed to do well. I'm content doing what I am. I think staying at it at my age is helping me to be strong and healthy. 
So I'm not saying I got cheated.
    I'm concerned about those coming behind.  Unworthy legacy's accepted and simply use college as a excuse to party.
    Not that only legacy's, connected, or able to offer an endowment  are the only ones to waste space in college. It's just that the space they occupy should go to someone who can actually use that space wisely.