Coronavirus Diaries

@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

I will tell you, buying a bottle of good Bourbon sure makes being stuck in the house a little easier. I don't drink much, but it is somewhere between nice to have and essential.

I don't know the difference between medical and recreational marijuana any more. Does it matter? I assume that if I walk into a medical marijuana store to buy something, they aren't going to ask any questions.

Actually, I have no idea. I don't use pot... but if there was ever a time to start .

Medical marijuana you need a prescription for it.

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@Linkat,

Huh? So if I walk into a store tomorrow, they won't sell me anything? I think the governor's orders are about which businesses can be open, not which customers they can sell to. I am skeptical that anyone even asks for a prescription now that it is legal (I suspect that many of the prescriptions were bogus anyway before).

Now, I want to try just to see if they will Wink

I will tell you if I try and succeed.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

Huh? So if I walk into a store tomorrow, they won't sell me anything? I think the governor's orders are about which businesses can be open, not which customers they can sell to. I am skeptical that anyone even asks for a prescription now that it is legal (I suspect that many of the prescriptions were bogus anyway before).

Now, I want to try just to see if they will

Nope better start growing your own

1 Reply

@Linkat,

Do you have some plants for me Linkat? If you could leave them outside your door, I will come pick them up.

(Actually, if I were to try it, I think I would try edibles first... I don't smoke).

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@Linkat,

Quote:

Big change coming in Massachusetts. On Monday morning, March 23, Gov. Charlie Baker issued a stay-at-home advisory for the entire state, which goes into effect at 12 noon Tuesday.

What this means for you: Recreational cannabis sales will end at noon Tuesday, March 24.

Medical marijuana sales will continue, per the governor’s order. You must have a Massachusetts medical card to purchase after noon on Tuesday.

Interesting Linkat. You are mostly correct. If I want to, I can get marijuana products until Noon tomorrow (i.e. 3/24). After that I am supposed to have a medical card.

I am so glad we had this talk Wink

.

1 Reply

@roger,

roger wrote:

I'm not even speculating on the final bill, but it's better than an even money bet that those of us already on social security will be exempt. It might even limited to those who are unemployed due to the virus.

On the other hand, it might really include everyone if the idea is to keep the economy somewhat working. If they offer it to me, I'll take it if only to make up for the inflation caused by the giveaway, itself.

What gets me is that the government can lavish trillions of dollars on unneeded military adventures and they can give untold amounts of welfare to the wealthy - No questions asked. But if it's a thing to help those who actually produce that wealth, taxpayers, the hand wringing over how it can be afforded starts. I don't consider it good economics to pay people this money, but I don't consider it good economics to award the rich at all. We're expected to make do, but a couple of weeks of down profit gets big business moaning about bankruptcy. How come they aren't expected to make do also?

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@edgarblythe,

I mostly agree. I do have a real concern about mortgages and other loans defaulting, causing problems at the banks, big ones and small town banks. I don't feel competent to get into fractional reserve banking, but it works real good as long as the general economy holds up. I'm afraid it may not not hold up so well. I do hope the FDIC works as planned.

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@maxdancona,

Yeah I would hate for you to be embarassed.

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@edgarblythe,

I think this is a little naive.

If companies go under then employees lose their jobs. If big corporations go under, then large numbers of employees lose their jobs. Our economy depends on companies big and small.

The government is going to have to bail out some parts of our economy. The airlines are a good example. If they fail, the economy breaks in a way that will take much longer to put back together.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

I knew you would take their side. They thrive on our free tax dollars and keep the workers poor.

2 Replies

@edgarblythe,

edgarblythe wrote:

I knew you would take their side. They thrive on our free tax dollars and keep the workers poor.

I am a worker. I am not poor.

0 Replies

@edgarblythe,

Let's be really how silly the extreme left is...

1. If you drive a car, it is from a big corporation.
2. If you use a Microsoft computer to read this, it is from a big corporation.
3. If you fly on an airplane, the airline is a big corporation. So is the company that built the airplane.
4. If you own a cellphone, use the internet, watch a TV series or movie, these are all big corporations.

The workers who program your computer, or fly your airplane, or act in your movie, or design your cellphone are often quite well paid. And there are hundreds of thousands of them.

If these big corporations go to ****, you not screw the economy... you screw these workers.

There is a balance here. I would like to see aid go to low income workers. I especially want to see unemployment beefed up and extended. I am a high income worker, I don't want a check from the government.

But this "let's shoot ourselves in the foot" form of lefty socialism doesn't make sense.

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Corporations and individuals that hold their investments for longer than one year pay the capital gains tax. The rate of the capital gains tax is 15%, or 20%, depending on a complicated formula. Those who pay capital gains tax are prone to whining about a loss of value, due to inflation. The inflation rate in the United States has not risen above 3% at any time in the last decade, as can be seen at this page, which lists it sources from data published by the Federal government. Effectively, even with the inflation rate, neither corporations nor individuals are losing any significant amount of their capital investments to inflation. Those who do cash in their capital gains, almost always do so in the customary sell-off of securities in late September, before the end of the most commonly used corporate fiscal year.

It is total bullshit to claim that corporations need a bailout in order to help employees. If there is anything naïve in this thread of discussion, it is the belief that corporations either care about or provide for the economic futures of their employees. All they care about is the bottom line of their likely capital gains, on which individual investors will pay a lower tax rate than almost all the employees below the management level of said corporations pay on their individual income taxes.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Quote:

It is total bullshit to claim that corporations need a bailout in order to help employees.

It is a simple question...

If the choice is either bail out a corporation in a time of economic crisis, or let it go under (meaning all the employees lose their job), what do you choose?

The rest of what Setanta wrote is irrelevant fluff. It is a fact that corporations that fail lay off large numbers of employees.

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@maxdancona,

Just for the record...

There are quite a few prominent liberals who are sensible enough to reject this extremist anti-corporate stance. You will see solidly liberal democrats embrace measures to prop up the economy that include aid to corporations. Even Obama understood this principle.

What Edgar and Setanta are selling isn't liberalism, it is a fanatical denial of reality.

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@maxdancona,

It is a fact that the ordinary working class carry the largest tax burden, which the Republicans propose spending to bail out corporations, which may well not be obliged to repay the bailout. F*ck that claim about fluff. Something is not fluff because it is beyond your comprehension. Our system of taxation benefits those who are already wealthy, and relies on the income taxes of the working class and the middle class to finance the Federal government. The Republicans are now trying to engineer a bailout for the corporate entities and thereby individuals who pay capital gains taxes, who pay nothing on their investments unless and until they cash in their securities or sell their assets, and who have been under no significant inflationary pressure since Mr. Obama was elected.

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@Setanta,

Are you taking an extreme position, or a more moderate one? With all your anger it is hard to tell.

The question is do you let corporations fail?

I am all for it if the if the issue is making the bailout fair, or balanced. That's what negotiation is for. I do think the workers who work for big corporations count too, mass layoffs don't help anyone.

I am not rejecting the principle of fairness. I am rejecting the extremism that puts some partisan political war against corporations over the good of the economy (and the worker who work in it).

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

There is no anger from me, you're just not that important. The question is not whether corporation will be allowed to fail, but whether or not they will fail. If they have not retained sufficient capital to weather a financial crisis, they don't need a bailout, they need a financial reorganization to avoid bankruptcy insolvency. It's obvious that you really don't know squat about the economy and corporate structure, investment and responsibility. That doesn't surprise me, you consistently appear to be an attention whore who is more interested in seeing how long you can keep an argument going than in the actual substance of a conversation. Conversation? Silly me, that's not what talking to you is about. So long, sucker.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Ok bye.

Hahaha

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The corporations no longer have to look out for themselves. The government gives them as much taxpayer money for free as they ask for and instead of conducting good business with it they invest in their own shares. Then when things get tight they look to the government to handle it for them again, over and over. I'm for making them carry their own weight and also for them to start paying taxes again.

1 Reply

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