Quote (thesnipa @ Dec 5 2022 03:49pm)
That machine is already too far on course to change. society can't stop it no matter what we decide, whether we watch Wall-E and think being fatties is good or bad. whether we watch Ready Player 1 and think that's good or bad. neither matter. we're too far into this to stop now, especially in a country that can only operate on incremental change. we can't turn the ship fast enough to avoid the rocks, all we can do is get as many lifeboats ready as possible.
we as a society, rightfully, built our country around capitalism and the stock market. neither one of those have a brake pedal, and even the gas pedal has only 1 option, floor it. the market will demand cheaper goods, cheaper goods are provided by automation, automation creates more poor people, more poor people demand cheaper goods. We cannot get out. A shadow moves in the dark.
the longer we take to aggressively tax corporate America to build our own safety net the more likely it looks that they'll be our only savior. and they're driving towards a cliff they know is there, but anyone who tries to stop is replaced by their board of directors.
"but we'll make new jobs" is the lie anyone opposed to this message has eaten whole, and they in turn will see in due course. we cant avoid it, we can only prepare. instead deluding ourselves into thinking that debating gender pronouns prepare us for this is insanity. i dont have to worry, nor do my children or grand children. it is all of you that are doomed, unless private land ownership is outlawed, then we're fucked too.
I don't think it's too late at all. Our capitalist, market economy has given us all the tools we need to steer clear of icebergs. Unlike Europe, we haven't squandered all of our potential revenue on social welfare systems that will prove impossible to change. We have three egregious ones in the United States today, but there are politically feasible solutions to all three that could free up hundreds of billions of dollars per year and close the deficit. Some modest tax increases would help close it faster, but the key is to keep spending below the inflation rate and watch as the power of US debt slowly disappears. We did this in the aftermath of WWII, it's achievable in our lifetime.
The largest change we need to make is to implement a broad-based VAT. Whether it's at 5% or 10%, it can free up hundreds of billions in annual revenue. That wealth can be directed towards building sovereign wealth. At an annual return of 5% and a VAT of 10%, the United States could control $21 trillion in assets within 20 years. In 30 years, the United States could have more sovereign wealth than the top 1% of the United States. As the numbers get bigger, it will become harder and harder for the United States to achieve measurable real returns on those assets, and the $600 billion annually will contribute to asset price inflation, but the goal is a world where the United States passively controls ~20% of US production, and some measure of global production besides. If kicking back $100-200 billion per year is necessary to keep ourselves happy in the short-term, so be it. That's the only world in which I see a UBI as achievable. We need to desperately avoid a world where the United States is 100% reliant on taxation of the wealthy. It's not about "poor rich people", but providing the United States with a stable and independent revenue source that makes it less reliant on external control.