re: China
Just wait for a couple of months until the effects of their current, widespread lockdowns in economic hubs become visible. From April 2020 until March 2022, their ZeroCovid policy was able to stamp out all local outbreaks, so their economy was doing comparatively well. This policy was of course no real solution and just delayed the inevitable. Now, ZeroCovid is forcing them to sink their own economy while they still don't have an exist strategy. Essentially, they lag the rest of the world by about 12-18 months when it comes to moving on from the pandemic. They are currently at the worst stage, the one we in NA/EU had back in the winter 20/21. Inflation didn't accelerate until the following fall, 6-9 months later. I expect a similar timeline in China, with their inflation rates surging in the spring of 2023.

Increasing taxes to a sustainable level is not "strangling the economy." You act like I want to increase taxes to 70% when I'm simply proposing something that Sen Rick Scott wants. I know you have Boomer mentality and just want to kick the can down the road but we really need to think about the future.

Look, nothing would make me happier than to see working class on the streets, the inefficient mom and pop shops decimated, etc. However, things would have been SIGNIFICANTLY worse if we didn't have minor shut downs.

china's approach might be the one thing to bring some manufacturing jobs back.. It will continue to feed the supply chain/inflation issue.

We are not living in normal economic times right now. Both the economy and the people are sandwiched between the covid era, supply chain issues and soaring inflation. There is a major war going on which has repercussions for the global commodity and food markets. Growth projections keep going down while inflation projections keep going up. So yes, in the current, extraordinary situation, tax hikes would almost surely strangle the economy and trigger a full-blown recession. If there ever was a time to kick the can down the road and ignore the deficit, it is now.


You keep acting like the current inflation woes were exclusively demand-driven: too much money in the hands of consumers. In reality, it's a combination of three factors: excess savings from the lockdown periods plus the stimulus programs, supply shortages as a result of disrupted supply chains and also higher producer prices due to higher costs for energy and raw materials. Increasing taxes would only tackle one of these three root causes of inflation while leaving the supply-side factors unaddressed.


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On a more general note: do you think it will ever be possible for elected officials in the U.S. to get the people to accept significant and permanent reductions in their standard of living without being booted out of office at the next best opportunity? The last time a president argued that there's "nothing I can do about inflation and the struggling economy" and that the people might just have to "do with less", it led to a landslide loss and handed the other party the sovereignty on economic policy for 28 straight years. (On economic issues, president Clinton seamlessly continued the policies of Reagan/Bush Sr.)

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on May 16 2022 09:31pm

People like you have been saying the same thing for decades. Enough is enough. Raising taxes will fix the supply chain issues because the people will be forced to spend less on necessities like food/gas which will drive prices down. It's extremely unethical for people who don't deserve a lavish lifestyle to borrow from the next generation so that they can live like kings.

No, I don't think it's possible for Americans to do the right thing. This is why I support abolishing primaries and having the parties choose the candidate.

Rather than work to restore pre-covid levels of productivity, trade, and stability through having a proper and legitimate government again, you'd rather take a sledgehammer to crush a grape, when it was the sledgehammer that largely got us in this malaise in the first place.

Thats a good line, you should save it for your future manifesto.

"Tax hikes for the middle class - because you don't deserve the lifestyle you've grown accustomed to" - #Thundercock2024


Man, that's gonna be such an electoral juggernaut!

Pssst, only incels and rejects from society go on shooting sprees. So when you finally snap and end up in federal max, I highly suggest cozying up to the biggest meanest black dude there. I'm sure at this point, that comes naturally to you.

Fuck Jose and Ping's grandkids b/c I'd rather cater to leaches to get votes
-Black

I never pegged you to be a Bernie/squad supporter. Again, doing the right thing is NOT popular and won't win you elections. This is why the Democrats should just rip the band aid off now since they won't win in 2022 and the American people will simply forget by 2024.



What policies are you advocating here?