...I guess that explains their atheism, beamish. And Deism doesn't mean a non-existent G_d, dervy. Just the existence of something "Infinite" in a circumscribed world of finites. An Absolute in a relativistic multiverse.
For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land... Deuteronomy 15:11.
Thou shalt not covet; thou shalt not steal (private property rights affirmed)
14And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered. 15But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils. 16And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. 17But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. 18If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. 19And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges. 20But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. 21When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: 22But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. 23He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. - Luke 11:14-23
(Private property and the right to keep and bear arms)
Socialism divides a house against itself, and never stands :)
34Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 35For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. Matthew 10:34-36
...the poorest individuals haven't seen an increase in wages since 1980
So let's imagine a particularly stagnant "individual" 18 years old in 1980 worked for minimum wage ($3.10 / hour; $10.67 / hour in 2022 money after inflation), never got raises other than minimum wage increases and never got a better paying job over the last 42 years. He worked 40 hours a week, every week, never missing a day other than vacations paid at his hourly rate. He is now 60 years old making the minimum of $7.25 / hour ($2.11 / hour in 1980 dollars)
But hang on. In 1980 he made $6,448, putting him in the (then) 24% tax bracket, so he got around $4900 before state, local, Social Security, and Medicare got their bites.
Now he's going to make $15,280 in 2022 before taxes, in a 12% tax bracket, so before state, local, SS, and Medicare get their bite, he'll get around $13,446. Wait, he gets an earned income tax credit too, so (filing single, no kids, 60 years old) he gets $946 knocked off his federal tax bill. So $14,392 before the other bites.
He's gone from taking home $4,900 in 1980 ($16,871 in 2022 money) to taking home $14,392 this year, $946 of that he didn't even work the 131 extra hours straight time to get from clocking in and doing his minimum wage thing. He probably lives in Section 8 rent-assisted housing (free 70% discounted rent), and eats tax-free groceries with SNAP benefit food stamps of $200 a month. The free food and rent assistance alone reduces his cost of living by $620 a month, so now he's at $21,832 a year, after being fed and housed, and $8,386 a year of that (34%) he didn't even have to flip a burger for. Not only is he taxed less (and given free money) for doing nothing to improve his income over 42 years, he can buy things today that were science fiction in 1980.
Everything else, he should have done more with his life lol.
Inverse/Science: There's a common thread tying together the most disruptive revolutions of human history, and it has some scientists worried about the United States. In those revolutions, conflict largely boiled down to pervasive economic inequality. ...a study in Nature, showing how and when those first divisions between rich and poor began, suggests not only that history has always repeated itself but also that it’s bound to do so again — and perhaps sooner than we think.
In the largest study of its kind, a team of scientists from Washington State University and 13 other institutions examined the factors leading to economic inequality throughout all of human history and noticed some worrying trends. Using a well-established score of inequality called the Gini coefficient, which gives perfect, egalitarian societies a score of 0 and high-inequality societies a 1, they showed that civilization tends to move toward inequality as some people gain the means to make others relatively poor — and employ it. Coupled with what researchers already know about inequality leading to social instability, the study does not bode well for the state of the world today.
"We could be concerned in the United States, that if Ginis get too high, we could be inviting revolution, or we could be inviting state collapse..." said Tim Kohler PhD... Currently, the United States Gini score is around .81, one of the highest in the world, according to the 2016 Allianz Global Wealth Report.
...half of the world's wealth really does belong to a super-rich one percent, and the gap is only growing. Historically, Kohler says in his statement, there’s only so much inequality a society can sustain before it reaches a tipping point. Among the many known effects of inequality on a society are social unrest, a decrease in health, increased violence, and decreased solidarity.
Wikipedia: Inverse is an online magazine from Bustle Digital Group, covering topics such as technology, science, and culture for a millennial audience.
So the young activist sits in his air conditioned and heated home office in a comfy chair and logs onto to his high speed internet connection to order groceries so he can munch and surf for examples of egalitarian socialists societies and only comes up with video of starving brown people too lazy to swat flies away from their faces.
38 comments:
It's weird how crypto is always valued in dollars, isn't it?
Unless you're in Japan...
Its value is still measured by fiat currency.
Going "off the grid" with a computer was a fail from the start. You're better off helping the Amish raise a barn for a potluck dinner.
Or giving your neighbor a 12 pack of beer to change the brakes in your car...
Or growing your own pot to avoid taxes at the dispensary...
Precious Gems, Gold, Silver, and Art have always been the "moveable" havens for "wealth". You can't move "acres".
...and you can't subdivide it and sell it by the square inch.... yet.
:P
:)
Those things are only worth what people are willing to pay for them.
A ski mask and tire tool can get you a used gold watch faster than Ebay.
Absolute freedom thereby trumps concrete freedom (liberty).
Where do you think the used gold watches on eBay come from? ;)
Someplace outside MY garden...
...best NOT to trespass.
...or covet thy neighbor's possessions.
Covetousness is bad? God is not a socialist?
It was a Commandment...
Good thing my G_d stayed silent on the issue.
Because he doesn't exist?
Coveting... Wanting something that belongs to someone else... is a central tenet of Socialism.
...I guess that explains their atheism, beamish. And Deism doesn't mean a non-existent G_d, dervy. Just the existence of something "Infinite" in a circumscribed world of finites. An Absolute in a relativistic multiverse.
...something that, like in Plato's "Parmenides", makes it Whole. For "if One is not, then nothing is".
I lean towards "panentheism" myself. All is "inside" of God. We're just a minor headache to God-as-a-whole. Or an idle thought.
or...
catchphrase
When you live in a simulation, the goal is to infect as many systems as you can ;)
Kafka needed a guitar
For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land... Deuteronomy 15:11.
don't place faith in human beings
Thou shalt not covet; thou shalt not steal (private property rights affirmed)
14And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered. 15But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils. 16And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. 17But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. 18If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. 19And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges. 20But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. 21When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: 22But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. 23He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. - Luke 11:14-23
(Private property and the right to keep and bear arms)
Socialism divides a house against itself, and never stands :)
34Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 35For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. Matthew 10:34-36
The revolution will not be homogenized
Capitalism divides a house against itself, and never stands :(
...the poorest individuals haven't seen an increase in wages since 1980
So let's imagine a particularly stagnant "individual" 18 years old in 1980 worked for minimum wage ($3.10 / hour; $10.67 / hour in 2022 money after inflation), never got raises other than minimum wage increases and never got a better paying job over the last 42 years. He worked 40 hours a week, every week, never missing a day other than vacations paid at his hourly rate. He is now 60 years old making the minimum of $7.25 / hour ($2.11 / hour in 1980 dollars)
But hang on. In 1980 he made $6,448, putting him in the (then) 24% tax bracket, so he got around $4900 before state, local, Social Security, and Medicare got their bites.
Now he's going to make $15,280 in 2022 before taxes, in a 12% tax bracket, so before state, local, SS, and Medicare get their bite, he'll get around $13,446. Wait, he gets an earned income tax credit too, so (filing single, no kids, 60 years old) he gets $946 knocked off his federal tax bill. So $14,392 before the other bites.
He's gone from taking home $4,900 in 1980 ($16,871 in 2022 money) to taking home $14,392 this year, $946 of that he didn't even work the 131 extra hours straight time to get from clocking in and doing his minimum wage thing. He probably lives in Section 8 rent-assisted housing (free 70% discounted rent), and eats tax-free groceries with
SNAP benefit food stamps of $200 a month. The free food and rent assistance alone reduces his cost of living by $620 a month, so now he's at $21,832 a year, after being fed and housed, and $8,386 a year of that (34%)
he didn't even have to flip a burger for.
Not only is he taxed less (and given free money) for doing nothing to improve his income over 42 years, he can buy things today that were science fiction in 1980.
Everything else, he should have done more with his life lol.
I say we quit feeding the mouth that bites is.
Capitalism divides a house against itself, and never stands
lol!
Inverse/Science: There's a common thread tying together the most disruptive revolutions of human history, and it has some scientists worried about the United States. In those revolutions, conflict largely boiled down to pervasive economic inequality. ...a study in Nature, showing how and when those first divisions between rich and poor began, suggests not only that history has always repeated itself but also that it’s bound to do so again — and perhaps sooner than we think.
In the largest study of its kind, a team of scientists from Washington State University and 13 other institutions examined the factors leading to economic inequality throughout all of human history and noticed some worrying trends. Using a well-established score of inequality called the Gini coefficient, which gives perfect, egalitarian societies a score of 0 and high-inequality societies a 1, they showed that civilization tends to move toward inequality as some people gain the means to make others relatively poor — and employ it. Coupled with what researchers already know about inequality leading to social instability, the study does not bode well for the state of the world today.
"We could be concerned in the United States, that if Ginis get too high, we could be inviting revolution, or we could be inviting state collapse..." said Tim Kohler PhD... Currently, the United States Gini score is around .81, one of the highest in the world, according to the 2016 Allianz Global Wealth Report.
...half of the world's wealth really does belong to a super-rich one percent, and the gap is only growing. Historically, Kohler says in his statement, there’s only so much inequality a society can sustain before it reaches a tipping point. Among the many known effects of inequality on a society are social unrest, a decrease in health, increased violence, and decreased solidarity.
Wikipedia: Inverse is an online magazine from Bustle Digital Group, covering topics such as technology, science, and culture for a millennial audience.
So the young activist sits in his air conditioned and heated home office in a comfy chair and logs onto to his high speed internet connection to order groceries so he can munch and surf for examples of egalitarian socialists societies and only comes up with video of starving brown people too lazy to swat flies away from their faces.
No.
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