Friends
Thursday, May 2, 2024
A person I have known since 8th grade posted a video where a woman was quoting how much various things like groceries, gas, and rent have gone up. It finished with a thank you to either Joe Biden or Brandon. Okay, let’s review the snarky video and let’s consider a few other economic items.
Yes, prices, etc. have gone up. Why? Well, the standard economic model would say that when people have money they are more willing to pay more for things. Hence inflation. Hence prices go up. Well, more people are working, and unemployment is way down. Low wage jobs are going wanting because those who can work have found better paying jobs. So, it’s not that “people don’t want to work,” it’s that those who can work have found better jobs.
Now, it is true that people with cash have probably driven up the price of things because they have money. However, the bigger reason may be that businesss have little competition and can charge whatever the “F” they want.
And let’s not forget that the big buinesses have made record profits and by and large didn’t pay taxes. The rich don’t pay taxes either. So how is the government able to function? Who is paying to keep the government running? Well, it is “the working poor.” Yup, the people who work and get a W2. They are the one supporting our government. Remember, Donald Trump said not paying taxes was smart. He gave the super rich and big corporations gat a two trillion dollar tax break. Who paid for this? The working poor. So, while the same people who are complaining about how much prices have gone up, are the same people who say people should have to pay their student loans that were forced on them by the Republican Congress to balance their budgets. And these same people who are bitching seem to have cleverly forgotten, or not known, that much of their education was covered by the Federal government, Remember the GI Bill after WWII? (No? Look it up. Passed by Democrats over the objections of Republicans.)
Or Land Grant colleges under Lincoln?
These people who post stuff complaining about the price of this and that and are blaming the President and saying kids should pay the usurious rates forced upon them that they weren’t allowed to renegotiate are actually the ungrateful people, not the ones trying to struggle to survive. Because the ones bitching got their student loans, their education, their health care by and large taken care of by the Federal government. Most of them probably don’t even realize this.
Michael Lewis wrote of an incident in his book The Fifth Risk of a Fox News host who had a farm and made big improvements. At the ribbon cutting he gave a speech how he had done it all on his own without any help from the government, etc. There was a woman standing to one side of the event and he asked her who she was. She told him she was from the Department of Agriculture. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
“I’m the one who approved your loan.”
You see the Fox News host had no idea that the Department of Agricuture (ie The Federal Government) had a loan program. This loan program worked with local banks to give farmers low interest loans.
Guess what the Trump Republican bankers wanted to do? In fact, all Republican bankers? They have been slobbering to get their hands on this multi-billion dollar portfolio. Why would they want to do that? Ask the students who took out college loans and have been paying them off for decades and still owe.