And I put my head down and work. (a millenial's perspective)

[Kinser79]

(05-17-2020, 11:11 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote: As for China, here's my 2 cents.  Neoliberalism was the impetus for the rise of China. After all, China didn't put a gun to corporate America in order for the jobs/factories to leave. Trump has it right wrt. tarrifs, but he's wrong on not blaming greedy fat cats. They shipped the jobs, they shipped the factories, and they have too much money and power.  So, that's why the US needs to bring back the 1960's tax rates.  The jobs need to come to the US, not some other cheap place like Vietnam or Mexico.

I think Social Security can be fixed by popping the cap and some other tax like a Tobin tax.  Medicare is a whole other issue. I'
Free market principles like repealing all rules and regulations that are propping up our Medical oligarchy.  Medical facilities need to advertise their stuff. IOW, medical shit should be regulated like food.  The FDA can still do this without playing favors. The FDA also needs to test herbs and see how those work.  That should reduce the price of Medicare. I'd put something like 50% of the defense budge. I hear nobody complaining about this obvious rats nest waste, fraud, and abuse.

Well, for MMT, that's for yes, FED destruction. It's also to destroy the reserve currency status.  Reserve currency status is bad for exports outside of the needs for autarky.  The empire, I reckon will keep chugging cause it's too far gone for reform.

I mean, we're already Brazil with nukes, next stop in a stair step fashion over a period of 500 years.







As it was for our ancestors, so it will be again for our descendants.

Neoliberalism is a major reason why China is the threat it is. That said while it feels good to "blame the fat cats" the question should be are they really to blame or are they merely acting in their class interests, like everyone else does. For much of the past forty years or so the corporate and other tax structure made it more profitable for them to manufacture in Turdworldistan (my fill in for China, Vietnam, Mexico, Wherever in the third world) and maintain their white collar structures in the US. Tariffs are one way to reverse that trend but it isn't the whole story. The tax structure needs to be revised, perhaps completely and I'm not convinced merely returning to tax rates of the 1960s will do that.

I fully support removing the cap from social security if we absolutely must keep it. Personally as someone who has never expected to get any purchasing power from it am not relying on it for my retirement should I ever actually retire. Indeed I view it as part of the cruft that needs to be burned down. Same thing with Medicare, and Welfare. They need to absolutely go unless the states take them over. I'm fine with States playing around with social welfare if they want. California can do X and New York can do Y but I don't have to live there when I can live in Florida, Texas or even Mississippi.

I agree on major deregulation of the medical cartel however I'm skeptical of the FDA having the ability to be fair here. Their funding is largely drawn from fees extracted from Big Pharma and not from the central General Fund for government spending. As such the FDA is going to be dependent on and favorable to those interests.

We already know how and why herbs work. Plants make chemicals. These chemicals do X, Y and Z in the human body. It is no great mystery. Rather what the FDA should be doing is regulating for purity and strength here. Indeed I'd even say in some cases requiring prescription. I find it interesting that Valium requires a prescription under penalty of law but I can buy vallarian root (from which Valium is extracted) as a tea in my local grocery for not much. Both are equally effective and in my tendency toward insomnia I was recommended the latter by a MD.

The best way to end reserve status of the USD is to simply decouple it from oil. If OPEC is allowed to do their oil accounts in gold, Yen, Pounds, Euro, and whatever, then the need for everyone to hold dollars and dollar denominated debt ends and then we can have all that debt come home to roost and deleverage by inflating the currency and then replacing it with a "New Dollar" and knocking off say 3 or 4 zeros.

[Ragnarök_62]

(05-18-2020, 05:46 AM)Kinser79 Wrote:

(05-17-2020, 11:11 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote: As for China, here's my 2 cents.  Neoliberalism was the impetus for the rise of China. After all, China didn't put a gun to corporate America in order for the jobs/factories to leave. Trump has it right wrt. tarrifs, but he's wrong on not blaming greedy fat cats. They shipped the jobs, they shipped the factories, and they have too much money and power.  So, that's why the US needs to bring back the 1960's tax rates.  The jobs need to come to the US, not some other cheap place like Vietnam or Mexico.

I think Social Security can be fixed by popping the cap and some other tax like a Tobin tax.  Medicare is a whole other issue. I'
Free market principles like repealing all rules and regulations that are propping up our Medical oligarchy.  Medical facilities need to advertise their stuff. IOW, medical shit should be regulated like food.  The FDA can still do this without playing favors. The FDA also needs to test herbs and see how those work.  That should reduce the price of Medicare. I'd put something like 50% of the defense budge. I hear nobody complaining about this obvious rats nest waste, fraud, and abuse.

Well, for MMT, that's for yes, FED destruction. It's also to destroy the reserve currency status.  Reserve currency status is bad for exports outside of the needs for autarky.  The empire, I reckon will keep chugging cause it's too far gone for reform.

I mean, we're already Brazil with nukes, next stop in a stair step fashion over a period of 500 years.







As it was for our ancestors, so it will be again for our  descendants.

Neoliberalism is a major reason why China is the threat it is.  That said while it feels good to "blame the fat cats" the question should be are they really to blame or are they merely acting in their class interests, like everyone else does.  For much of the past forty years or so the corporate and other tax structure made it more profitable for them to manufacture in Turdworldistan (my fill in for China, Vietnam, Mexico, Wherever in the third world) and maintain their white collar structures in the US.  Tariffs are one way to reverse that trend but it isn't the whole story.  The tax structure needs to be revised, perhaps completely and I'm not convinced merely returning to tax rates of the 1960s will do that.

I fully support removing the cap from social security if we absolutely must keep it.  Personally as someone who has never expected to get any purchasing power from it am not relying on it for my retirement should I ever actually retire.  Indeed I view it as part of the cruft that needs to be burned down.  Same thing with Medicare, and Welfare.  They need to absolutely go unless the states take them over.  I'm fine with States playing around with social welfare if they want.  California can do X and New York can do Y but I don't have to live there when I can live in Florida, Texas or even Mississippi.

I agree on major deregulation of the medical cartel however I'm skeptical of the FDA having the ability to be fair here.  Their funding is largely drawn from fees extracted from Big Pharma and not from the central General Fund for government spending.  As such the FDA is going to be dependent on and favorable to those interests.

We already know how and why herbs work.  Plants make chemicals.  These chemicals do X, Y and Z in the human body.  It is no great mystery.  Rather what the FDA should be doing is regulating for purity and strength here.  Indeed I'd even say in some cases requiring prescription.  I find it interesting that Valium requires a prescription under penalty of law but I can buy vallarian root (from which Valium is extracted) as a tea in my local grocery for not much.  Both are equally effective and in my tendency toward insomnia I was recommended the latter by a MD.

The best way to end reserve status of the USD is to simply decouple it from oil.  If OPEC is allowed to do their oil accounts in gold, Yen, Pounds, Euro, and whatever, then the need for everyone to hold dollars and dollar denominated debt ends and then we can have all that debt come home to roost and deleverage by inflating the currency and then replacing it with a "New Dollar" and knocking off say 3 or 4 zeros.

I agree with
a.  Yes, Neoliberalism is the ideology behind how fat cats rationalize the act of outsourcing.  The ideology is simple. Neoliberalism is how a corporation/hedge fund/family wealth, etc.  organizes labor,natural resources, and capital in such a way to maximize the return on capital. The "liberal" part refers to liberalized trade treaties, labor mobility,, and capital mobility across barriers like borders.

b. Class interest. Why of course.  The American proles need to acquire such an outlook.  I mean, I see it from said fat cats, and it makes me go off and do likewise.  France can teach us a lot. The yellow vests are one source, while Degaul is another excellent reference wrt nationalism done right.

c. OPEC: I don't think the MIC will allow them to chuck the dollar. Qaddafi and Saddam did this trick and look what happened.
"Human rights and democracy" are US bullshit slogans to cover for taking other nations' stuff.  That's why I think something needs to happen to force the dismantling of all of those military bases.  The corona virus may be enough to break the stawk market.  Jerome Powell ain't pushing off negative rates for no reason.  The Fed, is a private organization, own by banks. Negative rates screw banks. With that said, if political forces make the Fed eat some shit sandwiches, Hey , it's all good. I'd love the Fed to choke on a bunch of junk bonds  and especially frackers. Fracking has never turn a profit.  There are Okies why want the Fed to eat fracker bonds. It keeps the paychecks coming.

d. Valerian is actually the source for valproic acid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valproate
Berberine is the one I like. I can get from bushes in my front yard. 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6291723/
I just need to get some milk thistle to make it more absorb able to the body.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28685558/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5428400/

It's one of those old time liver cleaners.

[Bob Butler 54]

(05-19-2020, 08:25 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote: "Human rights and democracy" are US bullshit slogans to cover for taking other nations' stuff.

My father was a great fan of Smedley Butler.  (No relation.)  He was a great war hero of the late Gilded Age, who later wrote the book "War is a Racket" to condemn how much corporations used the military to get a profit, especially in Central America and China.  Let's just say your opinion is not new and I agree with it.

Still, some believe in it honestly.  In Bush 43's war there were at least three factions with conflicting ideologies and objectives.  The Neo Cons wanted to prove we could go in, kick butt, and get out.  The oil faction wanted to go in and take permanent control of the infrastructure for profit.  And some actually believed the talk about the superior culture, that the locals would ignore the Neo Cons rolling up the kill count against innocents, or the oil schemes that ignored the deals which Saddam had already made with Russia and France.

The big problem was that Bush 43 could never seem to get the three factions on the same page.

But, again, I agree with you generally, especially in conservative administrations.