@cicerone imposter,
cicerone imposter wrote:
It's about motivation to improve oneself with hard work and education. The opportunities are open for everybody, but I can understand how opportunities have been decreasing over the years compared to when I was of working age.
Economically, everyone cannot get a high paying job avoiding basic labor that is required. Buildings need cleaning and maintenance. Not everyone eats at home or brings their lunch with them so restaurants require personnel. Garbage gets picked up and managed. Agricultural work produced food. Machines require operators and repair techs. If all the people who do those jobs would pursue jobs in higher education, who would do the less desirable work?
Nevertheless, people should take advantage of the educational resources available at public libraries regardless of how it relates to their pay grade. People should maintain active critical intellectual activity, rather than just being slaves to whatever they get paid to do.
Quote:Trump's tariffs is an unnecessary added tax for the things we buy; it's stupid and hurts people's pocket books and jobs. An increase of 25% for necessary purchases just doesn't make any common sense; it hurts consumers and businesses.
It puts pressure on businesses to get the prices back down. They can try to pressure their suppliers to lower prices and eat the tariffs, but if they don't want to, they may just stop doing business with them.
Their other option is to seek other suppliers who can meet their price demands. It would help if minimum wage laws and other laws that block competition in the US were modified to allow suppliers to take up the slack left by foreign businesses that don't want to pay the tariffs.
Quote:China retaliated with their tariffs, and so will other countries. Less sales, less jobs, less income. It doesn't help anyone.
As I understand it, there were always tariffs for US businesses exporting there anyway. They may be trying to cause misery to push the government to stop the tariffs, but what they should be doing is deciding whether or not they want what's being produced, and if they don't, don't buy it.
If the US ends up with gluts of soybeans or whatever else gets blocked as tariff retaliation, it will be a terrible waste and when hunger happens in the world, it will not be because that food wasn't available for trade. It will be because of a failure to recognize the unfairness and exploitation that led to the tariffs in the first place.
The real stupidity is that no one is discussing what it would take to end unfair trade patterns. They are mostly in denial in order to restore a situation without tariffs.
Do you not understand/believe that Europe uses China to exploit US markets for revenue? It is not only European investors doing it, but there is a problem when so many European governments have protected their citizens against the kind of exploitation that goes on via American consumerism, yet they continue to make money in American markets that lack the same protections they enjoy. Isn't it just obvious how wrong that is? Why should Europeans be able to enjoy a higher standard of living and greater security than Americans while using American markets to do so? And why should Chinese be bearing the brunt of polution and labor exploitation caused by industrial technologies designed and engineered in the US and Europe? Don't you see that there are social-economic failures going on that can't be solved by taxing the rich more to pay for loan forgiveness, cash4clunkers, or whatever else the Democrats come up with to give the economy its next fiscal stimulus boost?
Quote:Our economy is very fragile; many are already deep in debt - especially from loans to attend college. When they start working, they're not going to be in any position to buy cars or homes in order to pay off their college loans.
Ubiquitous car-ownership is an economic plague that drives up prices and costs on everything. Far fewer people should own cars and infrastructure should be much smaller and less costly. Transit has been underutilized for decades because of a false belief that everyone buying cars and paying all the expenses that come with them is good for the economy. It's not. It's only good for the people making money off the cars, including all the global auto makers that cash in on US driving addiction. Some people need to drive, but for everyone to drive is a waste. It drives up consumer debt and cuts into disposable income; and that doesn't even begin to address the main problems, which are the land-waste due to sprawl and infrastructure costs that burden people with more time wasted commuting and running errands, all to create a situation where the demand for automotive business is more inelastic because keeping up with the rat race requires driving.
Quote:It'll be impossible in city like ours in Silicon Valley where homes are now costing an average of $1.7 million. There was an article recently in the San Jose Mercury News about two professionals living here that can't afford to buy a home, so they rent at $3,000 per month. That translates to $36,000 a year, and that has to come from net income (after income taxes). How many earn over six figures to pay that kind of rent? Not many.
These inflated prices amount to economic pork. High prices create large transactions, which allow businesses to borrow more with the promise of high returns. If the mint printed and gave away million dollar bills and everyone went around paying a million dollars to buy houses, no house would cost less than a million dollars. If demand supports inflation, inflation happens while the real value of the commodities hasn't changed.
