I’d change it to poor people don’t have disposable income and therefore can’t save money. If you’re poor, 100% of your income goes to just making it through another week.

Understanding that simple fact reveals the flawed logic in so many conservative economic positions. If you give $100 to a billionaire, they’ll put it in their offshore tax haven, but if you give that same $100 to a poor person, they’ll spend it, so someone else can spend it, and that’s how you maintain an economy. I wouldn’t be surprised if this “50% of spending” figure has less to do with rich people spending more and more with poor people spending less as the screws get tighter, it’s not like the rich just suddenly decided they need more stuff.

Once the oligarchs squeeze every cent they can out of wages, public services, and the environment, the military is about all that’s left. Gotta get that infinite growth from somewhere!

Not necessarily. They’ve still got all those cool toys, and a bunch of simpletons with an excess of arrogance and delusions of being “alphas” are going to want to play with them.

This is cool and normal. I don’t think the fact that the administration that despises DEI policies firing a highly qualified black man to replace him with what I’m sure will be a tragically incompetent white man is anything to comment on. Carry on with the top notch governing, maga. 👍

Yeah, if I were American the urge would be to shoot them! 😉

Nah, too old, poor, and bad tempered. Plus I’ve already moved to a new continent twice, which is enough. And my kids would kick up all kinds of stink. But if we go the way of the states it’s going to be tough living out my normal life resisting the urge to punch a lot of people in the face.

So do I. Polling for the upcoming federal election is very concerning right now. Our right wing isn’t shy about their admiration for trump and it seems like the average Australian isn’t learning anything from what’s going on in the US right now.

I moved to the states in 2005. Got married, had kids, bought a house. Moved my family back to Australia in 2015. Had our difficulties since coming back here and often wondered if it was the right thing, but zero doubts since last November. Even my red blooded American wife says she’ll never set foot on US soil again and is going to apply for Australian citizenship.

I feel bad for decent Americans and every day appreciate how lucky I am that myself and my teenage daughters aren’t stuck in that collapsing empire.

I think this goes a bit beyond a unitary presidency. He’s not just assuming control of the executive, but supposedly independent regulators as well.

This could turn out to be the most significant moment in a presidency full of disastrously significant moments. Of course the courts will tell trump he can’t do this, but if he doesn’t listen and nobody stops him, the US is officially a dictatorship.

It does, thanks. And I agree. I don’t claim to know what the perfect system is, but I believe it would be some form of democratic socialism with some sort of magical built-in safeguard against wars of misinformation of the type we’re seeing now.

What do you mean by “these things”?

What about them?

Without an educated, informed population and effective, constantly maintained checks and balances on those in power, the end results of either communism or capitalism are going to be exactly the same.

When I was a kid, people would get jobs, then stay in those jobs for years and years, getting promotions and raises. Then they’d buy things like new cars, houses, and vacations, just with the money they earned by working their jobs. So I thought that that is how life would work for me. Boy was I wrong!