All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[JackDaw]

Absolutely true. But the system I was born into had a big emphasis on the middle class and a high tax rate for the wealthy. We had unions to keep wages and benefits up and spending on things to help working people and the country in general. Since Reagan the emphasis has been to tax the Rich less and less and to put more onto working people, while keeping wages stagnant. Taxes have been cut for the investor and inheritance class while constant pressure has been put on working people. The GOP has managed to return us to the time of Robber Barons of the Gilded Age.

In UK, I started work just before Margaret Thatcher came to power, and her governments certainly reduced union powers, and of course put back substantial Nationalised Industries back into the private sector. (When the process started Gas, Electricity, Coal, Water, Telecoms, Railways, and Post Office were all state controlled, all now in private sector. I actually worked for a massive state controlled company at the time, and naively welcomed the change on the grounds it would make it more efficient. Do not think it did!)

The successive Blair governments did not really roll back any of the fundamental Thatcher changes.

Governments since? I am much less interested in politics than I was, but I do not think they have really changed things massively either way. (Possible exceptions being Brexit and possibility of Scotland exiting the Union, of course. But personally, I do not think either of those will affect how equitable or not British society will be in long term. I voted to stay in EU, but do feel any less free as a result of leaving.)

So I guess..in a long winded way…I’m saying I think my own country has regressed a bit in same time period in which you think yours regressed. But maybe not as far back as to the “Robber Barons of the Gilded Age”.

[Tendrin]

Name calling does not appear to be exclusive to the right.

Good thing that wasn't the point he was making.

[Mister Mets]

Just my opinion, but conservatives are blaming Biden because they believe Putin wouldn't have attacked Ukraine if trump was still in office.

The other argument is that if Biden and Democrats had made different energy policies, we would be in a position to not only produce the energy that we need, but to sell it to other countries so that Russia would have less leverage.

Biden scuttled work on the keystone pipeline, and refused sanctions against the Nord-2 pipeline.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/21/polit...eal/index.html

https://apnews.com/article/donald-tr...d2dab8165812f2

[The Cool Thatguy]

The other argument is that if Biden and Democrats had made different energy policies, we would be in a position to not only produce the energy that we need, but to sell it to other countries so that Russia would have less leverage.

Biden scuttled work on the keystone pipeline, and refused sanctions against the Nord-2 pipeline.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/21/polit...eal/index.html

https://apnews.com/article/donald-tr...d2dab8165812f2

Err, the Keystone pipeline was Canadian oil, traveling through our sensitive environmental areas to international markets. I don't see that helping us at all, especially when the pipeline would only transport the oil

[Tendrin]

Err, the Keystone pipeline was Canadian oil, traveling through our sensitive environmental areas to international markets. I don't see that helping us at all, especially when the pipeline would only transport the oil

It doesn't.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...sing-keystone/

[Mister Mets]

Err, the Keystone pipeline was Canadian oil, traveling through our sensitive environmental areas to international markets. I don't see that helping us at all, especially when the pipeline would only transport the oil

The pipeline would just make it easier to use Canadian oil. We probably don't need to worry about Canada sending tanks into Greenland.

There are further steps we can take to increase energy production at home, like more next generation nuclear power plants and fracking, in addition to increases in renewable energy (one argument for why Putin did something so bold is that he recognizes that there's a finite amount of time before Europe produces enough renewable energy to no longer be dependent on Russia.)

[Kirby101]

Good thing that wasn't the point he was making.

Of course it wasn't, but strawmen are a raison de voyage.

[Jack Dracula]

On the other hand, have you ever considered that one of the reasons for America’s success in the world is an emphasis on wealth creation, and a system that uses greed as an incentive to maximise that wealth?

That maybe there is ultimately some advantages to having a right wing as well as a left wing to balance it?

Put it this way…although there are always a great deal of posts about various injustices in the US here, there’s no real appetite for the regular posters here to emigrate to other countries!

It may seem that way initially, but a system that incentivizes corruption is ultimately unstable. Remember that, compared to other nations, the US is still relatively young so it’s success can be considered short-term. In the long run, greed and corruption always seem to erode every system to its point of failure. We may well be witnessing that failure now.

[Kirby101]

The other argument is that if Biden and Democrats had made different energy policies, we would be in a position to not only produce the energy that we need, but to sell it to other countries so that Russia would have less leverage.

Biden scuttled work on the keystone pipeline, and refused sanctions against the Nord-2 pipeline.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/21/polit...eal/index.html

https://apnews.com/article/donald-tr...d2dab8165812f2

Read your article, the Nord Pipeline was a done deal and we would only hurt Germany and our alliance with it. Not stop the pipeline.

“Nord Stream is 99% finished. The idea that anything was going to be said or done was going to stop it was not possible,” Biden said in Kentucky after a CNN town hall before returning to Washington. “But I had, as you know, very, very fruitful discussions with Angela Merkel and she’s working, and the German government, on a commitment that suggests that if in fact Russia takes pains to deliberately inflict pain on Ukraine or other countries they will respond.”

In an attempt to prevent Russia from using the pipeline to increase European dependence on its energy supplies, Germany has agreed to take a series of measures meant to mitigate the risks to European energy security, to Ukraine, and to European Union and NATO countries close to Russian borders. In the past, Russia has cut off energy supplies to other countries, including Ukraine.

And Germany has done so,

https://www.reuters.com/business/ene...on-2022-02-22/

So this is a positive for Biden. Not a copunt against him as you say. You are 0 for 2 here.

[The Cool Thatguy]

The pipeline would just make it easier to use Canadian oil. We probably don't need to worry about Canada sending tanks into Greenland.

There are further steps we can take to increase energy production at home, like more next generation nuclear power plants and fracking, in addition to increases in renewable energy (one argument for why Putin did something so bold is that he recognizes that there's a finite amount of time before Europe produces enough renewable energy to no longer be dependent on Russia.)

The pipeline would be 100% risk and little reward for the US, no thanks.

As for fracking, I'd rather not needlessly increase earthquakes and destroy the environment. Maybe more effort oughta go into renewable energy

[Johnathan]

Absolutely true. But the system I was born into had a big emphasis on the middle class and a high tax rate for the wealthy. We had unions to keep wages and benefits up and spending on things to help working people and the country in general. Since Reagan the emphasis has been to tax the Rich less and less and to put more onto working people, while keeping wages stagnant. Taxes have been cut for the investor and inheritance class while constant pressure has been put on working people. The GOP has managed to return us to the time of Robber Barons of the Gilded Age.

True - this is essentially the problem in that it is not productive work that generates wealth but a kind of rent-seeking in terms of investment. Like we see in cases such as Boeing's criminal acts in regard to the 737-MAX for a recent example, there was a switch in the mindset of management from quality production to return to investors. So, we had failures that hurt the society on the whole, but that is the mindset for all companies. When the most important people to the company - the investors - have no interest in the quality of the business since they can simply move their money to some other company when the share price falls, then the social system disintegrates.

Especially since, eventually, there will be nowhere to invest money as all businesses will start to perform poorly and the various economic activities required to maintain social order break down -- especially in unexpected catastrophes from natural disasters to pandemics or, most likely, financial misbehavior on the part of the investment and financial entities (the aptly named FIRE sector).

So, we end up with a social system where social mobility momentum or pressures push a few people at the top upwards rapidly though they only contribute money and little productive results to the system on the whole and take out much more than they put in. Meanwhile the majority of middle and working class that contribute the most in terms of actual economic input find increasing pressures pushing them generationally downward to support the growth at the tip top.

That's okay, but if we want a system where it is easier and easier to become poor, then the system should also make it easy to BE poor. The ways a system like this is sustainable is if we have regular "culling" of the poor through poor health care, wars, violent crime, famine, etc. or we work toward a low cost society where housing, food, clothing, education and employment/retirement are guaranteed by a "welfare state" social safety system.

[JB]

When Elon Musk is calling for an immediate increase in oil and gas production, we are truly living in the Twilight Zone.

Elon Musk: US needs to increase oil, gas production 'immediately'
https://thehill.com/policy/technolog...on-immediately

“Hate to say it, but we need to increase oil & gas output immediately. Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures,” Musk tweeted on Friday.

“Obviously, this would negatively affect Tesla, but sustainable energy solutions simply cannot react instantaneously to make up for Russian oil & gas exports,” he added.

It's a tough situation we're in. Last year we imported around 245 barrels of oil from Russia, up from 197 in 2020. The last estimate I saw stated that's about $75M paid to Russia per day.
Some in Congress are calling to ban Russian oil and energy imports but we would have to find alternatives quickly to make that work. Gas prices have already been on the rise since last year and a ban would make them skyrocket.

[Catlady in training]

I have said, Musk is not a good guy. I don't get the hero worship of him.

Elon Musk Says Starlink Won't Block Russian News 'Unless at Gunpoint'

On the other hand, he promised Ukraine some satelites to ensure internet connection.

[Mister Mets]

Absolutely true. But the system I was born into had a big emphasis on the middle class and a high tax rate for the wealthy. We had unions to keep wages and benefits up and spending on things to help working people and the country in general. Since Reagan the emphasis has been to tax the Rich less and less and to put more onto working people, while keeping wages stagnant. Taxes have been cut for the investor and inheritance class while constant pressure has been put on working people. The GOP has managed to return us to the time of Robber Barons of the Gilded Age.

It is important to note here that working class people do not pay significant federal taxes so this is not an area where more is put onto the working people.

https://taxfoundation.org/publicatio...come-tax-data/

For the bottom 50%, the average tax rate is 3.5%.

Unions have less power when it's easy to send jobs overseas, or automate much of it.

[JB]

Due to the VISA and Mastercard bans, Russian banks are rushing to switch to the Chinese card system UnionPay, the second-largest and fastest-growing global credit card network.

Russian banks rush to switch to Chinese card system
https://www.reuters.com/business/fin...em-2022-03-06/

The Chinese UnionPay payment acceptance network has recently expanded to 180 countries, including to the United States, Canada and the EU region.




The same thing will happen with SWIFT. Russia will continue to move into China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) as they started to do a few years ago.
As this crisis continues, China is reaping the benefits and growing stronger.