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Richest country in the world doesn't take care of its citizens. Funny how that works
Or it's not actually the richest.
So you're right. We are number 11 now
From the point of view of most people total country GDP is meaningless (only certain businesses get a "cut" of the total country GDP and hence it matters to them), and per-capita GDP is what matters and even then how much it matters depends on the level of inequality in a country since when a few get most of the wealth that per-capita value (which is the median) is quite different from what actually most people get (the mode).
2 economist walking in the woods.
Economist 1 says to economists 2: I’ll give you $100 if you let me kick you in the balls.
Economist 2 says “sure”
Then economist 1 kicks economists 2 in the balls and gives him $100.
They continue walking and see a big pile of shit.
Economist 2 says to economist 1: I’ll give you $100 if you eat that pile of shit.
Economist 1 says “sure”, eats the pile of shit and economists 2 gives economists 1 his $100 back.
They continue walking, eventually economist 2 asks “What was the point of what we just did?”
Economist 1 responds “We just increased GDP by $200.”
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It is almost like we are being scammed.
Hunter Thompson wrote "Hell's Angels" in 1967.
There's a passage about the economics of being a biker/hippie/dropout.
In those days, a biker could work six months as a union stevedore and then hit the road for two years. A part time waitress could could support herself and a live-in boy freind
Then Nixon/Reagan came in to save us.
Of course, a true kingdom requires impoverished serfs. Welcome to techno-feudalism.
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America was a great experiment in maxing out capitalism and rugged individualism. Now all other countries know how it will end and to oust any politician even hinting at doing the same.
America and the UK, together they show the world what not to do. Conservatism and oligarchs are poisons that kill civilizations.
I really think we need a sublemmy dedicated to specifically tracking the high stakes competition between the US and UK to spectacularly faceplant in the stupidest possible fashion.
It is a very close competition so far and there have been a lot of upsets in the sense that it has made us all upset that the world is burning.
"...Stupidity, Phobia, Greed, Wrath, and Traditional Values...from your powers combined, I am Captain Conservative!"
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I like your optimism, but sadly I cannot share it..
you all best buckle up, because it's gonna get a lot worse
That’s because we haven’t cut taxes for the rich quiiiite enough yet
Those trickle down economics, I'm still waiting on them since the fucker beat Decocus.
Trump is certainly trickling a golden shower upon humanity. The guy is an ass, and will tell us to thank him for the opportunity to eat the few rancid seeds found in his shit.
"The middle class has been declining — we just haven't recognized it fully," LISEP Chairman Gene Ludwig told CBS MoneyWatch. "It's really dangerous because it's the kind of thing that leads to social unrest, and it's not fair. The American dream is not that it's given to you — it's that if you work hard, you have a chance to get ahead and achieve the things in life that you want to achieve. It's not living in a tent, not having to steal."
The wealthy always forget this, because they're convinced they're a special unique snowflake and smarter than everyone else, instead of understanding they were just lucky.
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But you have millionaires who play kids games on tv and billionaire celebrities made famous by their looks or money, that go on to play government in real life in all your major political offices. Multi millionaire actors and starving paramedics. What an advanced society.
I have been saying this for a while. It seems like a really bad idea to push the most armed populous on the planet to the breaking point. One day the shooting is going start and it isn't going to stop.
Theyve been getting away wiith it for so long i'm sure they don't think anything will ever happen
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Looks like it's time to eat the rich.
They have too much power and resources now. We aren't going to get a better quality of life through peaceful means.
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By design, I'm sure. Can't have those poors even thinking about saving money.
Can't have them having the time and education necessary to think. Ideas are dangerous.
Stock market gambling games and communism for the billionaires.
Social darwinist, survival of the fittest, ruthless exploitative capitalism for the poors.
No shit….
It takes $44,737 for a one-person household to maintain a "minimal quality of life"?
Stagnation of wages and increasing prices are causing a crisis, no doubt, but is that really the number we're looking at for a minimum?
According to this, I've only ever personally known (at least well enough to know their income) two people affording a 'minimal quality of life'.
Reverse inflation says that 1970 dollars that would be about $5400. Don't know how useful that is without knowing (remembering, which I don't) the cost of things then.
On another note, the current poverty line is $15k for a single person. I can't see how someone could afford a place to live and eat with that in most places. I guess if you share a place with a few other people.
I live under the poverty line. It's doable with a 'nonstandard' way of life (ie I don't own a car and work online), a low CoL area (though even here rent eats up most of my income), and government subsidies from living in a Blue State (thank you, Medicaid), but otherwise I'd be screwed.
It's also not great, in case that needs to be said.
I've been underemployed with health problems, but hey, the government gives me $5 a day to cover my food costs.
The only reason I can even afford to be sick is because I have a partner, live half an hour by car from the grocery store and rent would be more than twice as much in the city. We pay a little more than a half of our combined income on rent.
Its fucked up, because I really need to go back to work, but Medicaid patients get sent to the end of the line. I woke up today shitting blood and puking, then check my phone and see a voicemail letting me know that my June 3rd appointment got resheduled to June 30th, and this is to discuss biopsy results from April.
Luigi did nothing wrong.
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Now imagine being in a red state. Add being a minority in the Deep South. Undocumented immigrant even. No public transportation. Food desserts. This is what hyper -individualism and entertainment culture did for us, on top of how bad it could be for then. Farther south, the worse it gets. That's why slaves feared being "sold down the river." Speaking of which check out the difference in prison/jail conditions and treatment the farther south. I won't speak on more right now except to add women not having bank accounts, charge cards, right to vote or divorce and the legality of beating them by the rule of thumb.
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They can't afford bread?
Let them eat cake.
I have friends in their 30s who were surprised about maxing out their IRA because where are they going to get an extra $6k?
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To convince more people, it may help to have an analysis that doesn't include celebratory dinners, eating out, physical television, etc. The inclusion of those things are either a drop in the bucket or have good enough rationales, but too many Americans are too dumb to accept that.
If Americans stopped doing that the economy would crash, people would lose their jobs, and most people wouldn’t be able to afford to live.
So it’s the same thing in the end.
Y'all needed a study to find this out! Y'all could have just asked me and saved a whole bunch of time!
Studies like this are important so that politicians can't as easily dismiss it, at least in theory. In practice it's so that those doing the study can shout "Called it" when shit inevitably hits the fan. Still useful though.
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"For the bottom 60% of U.S. households, a "minimal quality of life" is out of reach"
Is this for real? Sounds odd to me.
Your experience isn't everyone's experience. Where you are 60% probably looks different than innercity 60%.
Confirmation bias for you situation.
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Really? It pretty accurately reflects what I see every day.
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this post was submitted on 13 May 2025
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