Welcome to the New Socialism

[_Icarus]

[_Icarus]

[_ajax18]

There's a big difference in the government shutting down peoples employment and people collecting unemployment because they're holding out for a management position or just bridging the gap to social security collecting age through SSI/Disability.

Icarus are you Kevin Graham?

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

[quote=ajax18 post_id=1221142 time=1585519540 user_id=21]
There's a big difference in the government shutting down peoples employment and people collecting unemployment because they're holding out for a management position or just bridging the gap to social security collecting age through SSI/Disability.

Icarus are you Kevin Graham?
[/quote]

Trump -> non-WHITE H1B Visas

[_Icarus]

There's a big difference in the government shutting down peoples employment and people collecting unemployment because they're holding out for a management position or just bridging the gap to social security collecting age through SSI/Disability.

That's a false dichotomy. Millions were put out of a job in 2007-2009 and the solution was government stimulus which did in fact stimulate the economy despite being too little. Trump and Republicans are now sounding exactly like the Obama administration of 2009 by talking about dumping money into the economy IMMEDIATELY to keep Americans spending money because they now acknowledge that we're a consumer driven economy which was contrary to what they argued back in 2009. Did you notice that another corporate tax cut wasn't part of the stimulus? Any way you slice it this runs contrary to traditional conservative economic philosophy. Borrowing your way out of a crisis, except instead of a mere $545 billion which drove you nuts just ten years ago, we're talking about roughly four times that amount with the potential of another package making the total exceeding $6 trillion according to Larry Kudlow, Trump's economic advisor.

[_ajax18]

Well I once said, "If unemployment benefits are so great for the economy, why don't we all get on it?" I guess we're about to learn the answer to this question in real life.

[_Icarus]

The problem with Republicans is that they don't even understand how unemployment benefits work. Republicans were holding up the stimulus bill in the Senate over their own ignorance. They have absolutely no problem handing over a half trillion for corporate expansions, etc, but the thought of a few billion to hold workers over just drives them nuts. They were actually making the ludicrous argument that Americans would become too dependent on money for nothing and wouldn't want to go to work afterwards. It amazes me how they are constantly talking about how the American workers are the greatest in the world when it suits them but then these moments reveal how they really feel about them. You're all a bunch of peasants to them, looking for handouts at all times. You're nothing, and the thought that you should actually benefit from unemployment insurance which was designed precisely for moments like these makes Republicans uncomfortable because you may forget your place.

[_ajax18]

They were actually making the ludicrous argument that Americans would become too dependent on money for nothing and wouldn't want to go to work afterwards.

This happened during the great depression. Programs that were perhaps necessary at the time never ended nearly a century later. You can start giving money out but after that you never get to stop.

Kevin this is such a global economic catastrophe, I'm not sure our money is going to be worth much if this goes on for 6 months or even a year. I'll surely get exposed to this virus if I go back to work. Perhaps I already had a case of it and didn't realize. I do have life insurance but how are they going to pay my family if nobody is working? There's going to come a point rather quickly where we'll have a choice to either go back to work and risk getting sick and dying from this or just stay shut up in our houses and starve to death.

[_Analytics]

Hi Ajax,

Do you think Trump should have vetoed the stimulus bill?

[_ajax18]

Do you think Trump should have vetoed the stimulus bill?

No. This is a very different situation than 2008. I don't think we're going to get far talking partisan politics. I do have a more nonpolitical question for you that I'd like to pick your brain on. At what point does the cure for this become worse than the disease. Eventually we're going to have to come out of our houses. Many of us will get sick and many will die but not everyone.