Economy Flagging

[Gadianton]

The other thing is immigration. The wonderful Christian police force that is behaving according to the Bible, are now taking their toll on the economy. But what's the narrative? One goon-eyed forum member says "we've got to follow the law". Another cross-eyed member says "day took our jobs!" even though that is not part of the official narrative. The others have no clue and think about happier times with a more vibrant store front that Christ is sure to bring back to them, we don't need to understand the math. They all know spending 150B of debt on an extreme police force makes more sense than providing things like healthcare to their own family.

What are the options? Because even if Democrats win the senate and house, they can't do anything about Christians on the streets with guns and a mandate. They won't make immigration more sensible for reasons I've explained in the past and even if they want to, it's way to complex for them to reform in one year. And if Republicans retain power, they will close even more doors. Let's just say it's kept steady. Well, there's also a massive crackdown on "legal" immigration, making the process harder and investigating and arresting on any hint of abuse. There are so few doors available, people get creative. So legal immigration is bound to slow down. This leaves three main options. One is that our cross-eyed stalwarts will get what they hoped for: a living wage for white people. Any indications of that? Any jobs that had been performed by illegals for 5$ an hour now going to a good white Christian man for 50k a year with full benefits?

The other possibility is AI filling the gap. How much luck has anyone had with the new AI agents? Are robots now slaughtering and packaging fish now?

Without immigration we will move into population collapse because math (below 2.1 fertility) and an economic spiral because AI is not ready to take over. Twitter policies like bringing in white South Africans aren't a long-term solution. The most viable possibility for Republicans is slave labor. Perhaps a Dubai model could work for a while. But reality will probably win, and eventually the old model of turning a blind eye will return. Why this would make our Christian forum members among the best Christians who have ever lived, is for all the hell they caused for people for no discernable benefit.

[Doctor Steuss]

There's a certain kind of genius in destroying the economy again, and engaging in massive socialist deficit spending again, right out of the gate (only exponentially worse than last time he was President). Unless there's a global catastrophe, MAGA will literally just have to stop doing stuff somewhere around year 2, and the economy will naturally rebound to an extent. Then, Republicans will just have to point at all of the improvement and growth that happened during that time frame, and claim that it was the policies finally working to undo the damage of the Marxist Progressive Communist Leftist Democrats.

The only landmine Trump has to avoid is being taken to the woodshed and being made an absolute fool of by OPEC again. As long as he rides out all of the bankruptcies in the oil industry, and doesn't "negotiate" another "deal" that sets off a massive global inflationary bomb again, we'll probably coast into 2027-2028 with an economy that somewhat resembles 2024.

[Moksha]

If Democrats win the House and Senate, perhaps they can do something about the tariffs; I don't know.

What can be done about markets that have found new buyers and sellers and exclude the US in both instances?

[¥akaSteelhead]

I think recession is the goal. Then the oligarchs are going to buy up more of the hard assets at fire sale prices.

[Moksha]

I think the LDS Church is the largest single landowner, and they have both the desire and funds to buy more land.

[Kishkumen]

I think recession is the goal. Then the oligarchs are going to buy up more of the hard assets at fire sale prices.

I think you are right about that.

[Doctor Steuss]

Anecdotally, yesterday about 15% of the office was laid off, with the overall message that this is probably only the first round. Two of the people let go are people I've worked alongside for over two decades, so I know the decision to cut loose that level of knowledge and experience wasn't entered into lightly. The projection we had made for 2025 (set at the end of 2024) has been reduced to about 40% of what it originally was.

Are we great again, yet?

I'll never understand why people saw Trump's own alma matter tear into his policy proposals, and showing how disastrous they would be. Read the letters from ever single Nobel Prize winning economist that took time to comment, all saying Trump's proposals were going to be detrimental to America's prosperity and fiscal security. They saw all of that, and thought "Yeah, I know more about economic things than all of these people and entities that devote their lives to studying it." Not even to mention we already had one of his presidencies, and all of the economic data surrounding his last trade war. We didn't need "projections," as we already had history.

It's like the whole Tylenol debacle. The second Trump speaks, reality within the MAGA sphere begins to bend to keep his throne on high.

[canpakes]

Anecdotally, yesterday about 15% of the office was laid off, with the overall message that this is probably only the first round. Two of the people let go are people I've worked alongside for over two decades, so I know the decision to cut loose that level of knowledge and experience wasn't entered into lightly. The projection we had made for 2025 (set at the end of 2024) has been reduced to about 40% of what it originally was.

Are we great again, yet?

I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you, Stu. And I hope that your former colleagues’ families don’t endure too much hardship from this development.

I'll never understand why people saw Trump's own alma matter tear into his policy proposals, and showing how disastrous they would be. Read the letters from ever single Nobel Prize winning economist that took time to comment, all saying Trump's proposals were going to be detrimental to America's prosperity and fiscal security. They saw all of that, and thought "Yeah, I know more about economic things than all of these people and entities that devote their lives to studying it." Not even to mention we already had one of his presidencies, and all of the economic data surrounding his last trade war. We didn't need "projections," as we already had history.

Its hard to conclude anything other than the hoped-for outcome of a Trump presidency - in the minds of many MAGA fans - was much less focused on the state of the economy than on their desire instead to hurt the people that they don’t like.

If there’s a difference between MAGA and whatever ‘progressives’ are - or any other group - then this is a significant one.

[Doctor Steuss]

I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you, Stu. And I hope that your former colleagues’ families don’t endure too much hardship from this development.

Thank you. I don't know what the termination compensation was this go-around (we were bought out by a foreign company last year), but the last time Republican policies destroyed the industry, it was fairly generous, so hopefully that's still a thing to give people a padding. It just sucks because it's not like people can just move to another employer in the same industry because everyone is hurting. One of our "competitors" that is still public has posted net losses of almost 250 million dollars so far this year (not sure on how many employees they've cut).

This also means that all of our trade partners, and all of the various industries that are supported by the industry I'm in, are going to have to start shedding employees soon (if they haven't already). It's usually a domino effect that requires a very slow and long recovery to get back to "normal."

Vegas normally weathers economic funk better than a lot of places, but I'm guessing foreigners wanting nothing to do with America right now has tanked our tourism in a unique way. I know small towns around national parks have been hit pretty hard (Bryce Canyon this year was more dead than it was when I went during the pandemic).

[Gadianton]

Sorry to hear this Steuss, I know you might feel differently as you are a more forgiving person than I am, but the way that I see it, those on this forum who put this administration in did this to you personally. Being at the gun range and accidently shooting someone because you don't know anything about guns isn't an excuse. In your neck of the woods, I imagine many of these did this to themselves. Let's hope they starve for a short while to learn their lesson.