POLITICS & DONALD Annoying Orange MEGATHREAD

[Red Spy]

I'll put it this way: Conservatives like you always piss and moan about how transgender people are getting special treatment from the government despite having such a small population. It's like that, except the top one percent actually directly controls most, if not all, political trends / legislature. Ain't it weird that every single time Mickey Mouse's copyright is about to expire, a new Copyright Extension law is passed?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act

you know the 1% is just people who make like 200k a year, right? most of them are old people. you look like an idiot when you piss your pants about people you know nothing about. it's definitely not most people in the 1% are smart with money, it's that they're evil because they have more money than you. stop being a jealous starfish

[Ad Bot]

[Magus]

If our economy continues down the same road it has been travelling, how will would an economic collapse be unfathomable? It's not like the system is a stranger to economic recessions/depressions. Here's some theoretical scenarios:
1. The top 1% continues to amass wealth uninhibited, labor reforms come slowly if at all. The middle class collapses, unable to keep up with the widening wealth gap.
2. Capitalism inevitably continues to expand, consuming resources faster than they could ever be replenished. The environment is destroyed, society collapses.
3. Major companies go bankrupt as the resources they sell begin to run out, the economy loses a lot of steam.
4. Major countries get into violent conflicts over scarce resources, which would end up about as well as you would expect it to.
5. Government becomes more imperialist / fascist in order to strong arm resources from other countries or to enforce a status quo as civil unrest arises. Both would probably lead to revolution.

At least there's capitalist incentive to go to space here: go to space to expand capitalism or the revolutionaries will have your head when you run out of terrestrial resources.

[Karl Marx]

you know the 1% is just people who make like 200k a year, right? most of them are old people. you look like an idiot when you piss your pants about people you know nothing about. it's definitely not most people in the 1% are smart with money, it's that they're evil because they have more money than you. stop being a jealous starfish

Are you really boiling down me being displeased with a ruling class acting against my interests to "Lol somebody's jealous!"

[Red Spy]

Are you really boiling down me being displeased with a ruling class acting against my interests to "Lol somebody's jealous!"

how many people in the 1% are actively working against the middle class

[Karl Marx]

how many people in the 1% are actively working against the middle class

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lists_of_American_politicians

[Kearn]

Do I have to spell it out? A group staunchly opposed to coughing up the working peoples' wages necessary for their survival gaining more and more political power would slowly kill the middle class.

not sure how them simply sitting on money makes things worse for me. if they were actually just sitting on the money and not investing it in newer enterprises then you'd wind up with deflation and an increased value of the dollar

Nothing about Socialism inherently involves the mismanagement of resources. You're referring to the individual failings of different states.

yeah it's just kind of ironic that basically every communist state winds up poor and starving because for some reason a centralized government didn't magically quota everything correctly

Yeah thank god there's no dying industries holding significant power in the government actively preventing the transition to sustainable energy.

they're not running out of resources dummy, they're lobbying against competing technologies (which inevitably happens regardless of economic sector)

Last time I checked, nuclear warheads weren't involved in these disputes, historically.

and what makes you think turning an opposing country into a radioactive wasteland is going to be a useful way to obtain new resources?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Catalonia
It's not impossible.

By 1938 the Communist party was also in control of the newly created Military Investigation Service. The SIM was virtually dominated by Communist party members, allies and Soviet agents such as Aleksandr Mikhailovich Orlov and used as a tool of political repression.[78] According to Basque nationalist Manuel de Irujo, "hundreds and thousands of citizens" were prosecuted by SIM tribunals and tortured in the SIM's secret prisons.[79] Repression by the SIM as well as decrees which eroded Catalan autonomy by nationalizing the Catalan war industry, ports and courts caused widespread discontent in Catalonia amongst all social classes. Relations worsened between the Generalitat and the central government of Negrín, now based in Barcelona with the resignation of Jaime Aiguadé, representative of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) party in the government and Manuel de Irujo, the Basque Nationalist minister.[80] There was now widespread hostility amongst Republicans, Catalans, Basques and Socialists towards the Negrin government. As the Communists were forced to rely more and more on their dominance of the military and police, morale declined at the front as countless dissenting anarchists, republicans and socialists were arrested or shot by commissars and SIM agents.

lel

[HellHound]

if the rich people paid their taxes instead of hiding their money in panama maybe the budget deficit in the United States would not be so bad.

[otto-san]

not sure how them simply sitting on money makes things worse for me. if they were actually just sitting on the money and not investing it in newer enterprises then you'd wind up with deflation and an increased value of the dollar

i'm not too read-up on marxist theory here, but what i'm understanding here is the theory that if the wealthiest individuals/groups continue to grow wealth disproportionately to the rest of the population, they would own such a significant share of finite resources that they would be able to gain a pretty significant amount of power through economic pressure alone. and it seems reasonable to be unsure about trusting power gained in that sort of way

[Red Spy]

i'm not too read-up on marxist theory here, but what i'm understanding here is the theory that if the wealthiest individuals/groups continue to grow wealth disproportionately to the rest of the population, they would own such a significant share of finite resources that they would be able to gain a pretty significant amount of power through economic pressure alone. and it seems reasonable to be unsure about trusting power gained in that sort of way

we all know how well marxism works in practice

[Drydess]

karl marx is my spirit animal

[otto-san]

we all know how well marxism works in practice

obviously there are practical problems with both capitalism and marxism. i don't think the real solution is going totally in either direction, but the line of logic at least makes sense and provides a basis for thinking about other solutions

[Karl Marx]

not sure how them simply sitting on money makes things worse for me. if they were actually just sitting on the money and not investing it in newer enterprises then you'd wind up with deflation and an increased value of the dollar

Jesus christ. Let me make it more clear. As time progresses, the cost of living goes up. No amount of deflation will stop this. Preventing the adjustment of wages for people who need it to keep up drives them into poverty. The middle class is already feeling the effects of this. Not sure if you realized, but the middle class' average household income is anywhere from around $35,000 to $75,000. Most people end up stuck near the $35,000 zone.

they're not running out of resources dummy, they're lobbying against competing technologies (which inevitably happens regardless of economic sector)

They're lobbying against the only resources with any sort of future. I.E., delaying progress.

By 1938 the Communist party was also in control of the newly created Military Investigation Service. The SIM was virtually dominated by Communist party members, allies and Soviet agents such as Aleksandr Mikhailovich Orlov and used as a tool of political repression.[78] According to Basque nationalist Manuel de Irujo, "hundreds and thousands of citizens" were prosecuted by SIM tribunals and tortured in the SIM's secret prisons.[79] Repression by the SIM as well as decrees which eroded Catalan autonomy by nationalizing the Catalan war industry, ports and courts caused widespread discontent in Catalonia amongst all social classes. Relations worsened between the Generalitat and the central government of Negrín, now based in Barcelona with the resignation of Jaime Aiguadé, representative of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) party in the government and Manuel de Irujo, the Basque Nationalist minister.[80] There was now widespread hostility amongst Republicans, Catalans, Basques and Socialists towards the Negrin government. As the Communists were forced to rely more and more on their dominance of the military and police, morale declined at the front as countless dissenting anarchists, republicans and socialists were arrested or shot by commissars and SIM agents.

lel

The reason that Revolutionary Catalonia collapsed was because of joint cooperation between the Soviets, Fascists, and Liberal democracies. The anarchists didn't do this to themselves, this was an orchestrated destruction. What you've pulled out as a "Gotcha!" card is the aftereffects of this destruction.

[Renderman In A Bowl]

Someone at Burger King does not need $15 an hour, kimon

[HellHound]

Someone at Burger King does not need $15 an hour, kimon

But at the same time, wages have not kept up with inflation since the 90s.

[Karl Marx]

Someone at Burger King does not need $15 an hour, kimon

I don't care if $15 looks like a big scary number (God forbid someone out there might receive something they don't deserve), you cannot live on minimum wage. Minimum wage was designed to be the minimum amount you can be paid in order to survive. Thus, it needs to be raised.