I literally just told you the middle class is shrinking and most were moving up and the rest moving down in my post. The point is the middle class should be expanding, not shrinking, and that the bottom rung doesn't have segments of the population stuck in the cycle of poverty that has cemented as an outcome of US law and policy for its entire existence. I didn't say it was all bad. Much of it quite good rather, but there are glaring problems we do nothing about

As for the question, I'm pretty sure there's plenty of blame to go around. If you don't think corruption in the free market contributed to this, then I have a (deteriorating) bridge for sale

I didn't blame Trump for anything. I'm making a point that paying attention to solely the elite who own the vast majority of the entire stock market literally ignores everything and everyone else. It is like saying pour more oil and gas into the car and put in a more powerful engine while doing nothing about the one flat tire and two others low on tread

You don't get it.

It doesn't matter how monumentally stupid anybody is you still have to govern them. You still have to give incentive to behavior conducive to both productivity and well being

Your response is basically, "they're stupid and gullible so ignore them" and that can lead to...more protests and riots

You also don't seem to understand that riots don't happen "based on lies," they happen because people are angry and frustrated for a multitude of reasons and any event in particular sparks the public outrage en masse, through which the public speaks their mind and breaks ****

It doesn't matter how much you disagree with or how wrong you think the actions of those within public uproar are. What matters is that it can happen, will happen, and will happen again, and that it is on everyone else to do something that ensures it doesn't happen again. Otherwise, you better believe you're going to see another bout of insanity like CHAZ or complete wackjobs looking to hang the Vice President of the United States

Exactly. Even something like no access to the GI Bill lends to the shaping of that landscape. You have those with access who now have kids and grandkids who are way ahead in life relative to the kids and grandkids of those who had no access. That's just one simple example

Boils down to access to education. Universal broadband, in my mind, is part and parcel to bolstering that concept for the bajillion rural towns all across the nation. As I said before, the internet is a powerful tool and not everyone has access to it. Nor is it affordable for all. I would imagine that while yes taking money from rich hands to put in poor hands may do one thing, poor hands with access to education among other uses for the interwebz can increase the productivity of the rural, especially the poor and the generations that follow them

Okay no one thinks that militias or Antifa or wackjobs X, Y, and Z are going to topple the US government lol. What is concerning is that the protests have grown more widespread over time, continue to be violent and destructive, and in the case of what happened at the Capitol, extremely dangerous for more reasons than just the physical. What should be worrisome, should politicians had actually gotten killed, is the aftermath and its implications. I have a hard time thinking it's all much ado about nothing...

I think this is one of your core mistakes where you're not understanding the world and people very well.

There are few components of prolonged rioting and civil unrest:

1. Not having a job/being idle/being supported by someone else rather than yourself. If you have to get up and work you don't have time to riot about non-serious things.
2. Having notions of entitlement and envy rather than gratitude and personal responsibility. Being told false narratives which feed this (such as "systemic racism").
3. Having an external locus of control: the outside world is to blame and you need to petition it rather than believing that individual direct action is more important
4. Being told that rioting works and is noble and desirable
5. Having actual legitimate grievance from being kept down

You're claiming only (5) is the problem or the cause, which is laughable and actually a hilarious intellectual fail on your part. It's multifactorial, and your narrow-vision take on what causes rioting and civil unrest doesn't capture reality at all. 1 to 4 are far more important than 5. And far easier to address. Instead the Democrats inflame 1-4 while not fixing 5 with their policies.

Yes, 1-4 is how you ensure it doesn't happen again. They're also the easiest to fix. Your craven cowardice where "people are mad and want my stuff and I should give it to them so they don't hurt me" is pathetic and makes the problem worse. Weakness, both moral and physical such as you're displaying, merely emboldens and validates the mob.
This is because they've been openly encouraged by Democrats* for Machiavellian political ends, and for no other reason. There was one single right wing riot, and that was directed at the highest political class, not communities.

*And lawlessly funded and supported through prosecutors and politicians openly supporting the riots and refusing to charge rioters.

A year of that ruining neighborhoods and cities all over the US and you got a single right wing riot in response, and not toward individuals or communities, but toward the Machiavellian Democrats politicians who caused it all.

Again this is just bad analysis. The bottom staying at the bottom is not an education problem. It's a few things:

1. (Genetically) low IQ in the bottom quintile, combined with the loss of available low IQ jobs to China and automation, and made far worse by illegal immigration. There is simply a smaller range of jobs available to lower IQ people, and capitalism has done a good job of stratifying wealth by economic output. A meritocracy creates a permanent underclass over time.

2. Poor behavioral traits in the bottom quintile that are a blocker to useful to other people or yourself in terms of economic output. This is both genetic and cultural. The part that is cultural needs internal cultural changes, not education.

3. Personal life choices (partly caused by cultural norms) that are highly destructive. For example, 70% of black children grow up without their biological fathers present. Unpartnered people with children do far worse economically; they can't escape poverty

4. Welfare that removes the incentive for effort and personal responsibility, and the talent stack and personal habits that effort creates.

What educational ability is helped by 150 Mbps vs 3 Mbps? The youtubes? The people who need education and who have a decent IQ who can be helped by it can already freely get it. If anything, the US is probably wastefully overeducated in humanities and undereducated in real world technical skills.

The solutions to the problems you want to solve aren't anywhere near what you think they are.

Do you have citations for these two assertions?

Sure. For this one:

We had this discussion in another thread (which is a good read), post below:
For this one:
The data is less strong and based on a single study of family generational wealth of 3200 families (and general wisdom/observation).

70% of Rich Families Lose Their Wealth by the Second Generation
Singapore University School of Business citing the same study:

So take it with a bit of a grain of salt, but the standard of familial riches to rags is very known. It's actually not that surprising once you understand two concepts:

- Large wealth generation is a very hard thing requiring high level skills and sacrifice. It's extremely valuable for society that these individuals do this and get to geometrically grow their wealth generation engines; the positive externalities for poor are enormous

- It is very easy to waste and lose money over the course of a life if you didn't earn that money.

Fair enough.

Essentially being their slaves, oh boy, that's rich

TS , the fittest survive right ?
You know , I thought human were smart enough to find another incentive in life than the law of the jungle ...
As if maybe a mix of different solutions to different problem .
Your way to absolutist.

Sometimes the best program isn’t always the more appropriate, like today .
For now economically , peoples are in needs and corporations needs profits/yields.
Redistribute from top to bottom , increases purchasing power from bottom to the top , helped to make big nominal profits for corporations , pay all debts and once in a good position , you can apply a better plan to a freer market .
Basically inflation is needed .

The fittest thrive. Modern society ensures that the woefully unfit not only survive but are perfectly comfortable.

They're not. Or rather, the poor aren't (which is why they're poor). Plenty of people don't want to work (it's called work for a reason). The only thing that motivates a good portion of the population is the harsh reality that they'll be uncomfortable unless they work as hard as everyone else (which isn't hard at all - 40 hours/week is a joke compared to our ancestors).

It's not "absolutist", the rich and hardworking already give up $2.7 trillion per year to the poor. We're already at an "incredibly generous to the poor to point of substantially harming the economy and growth" level of redistribution. And I'm not suggesting ending it. Just that the level we're at is more than enough.
Ah yes, the free money myth. I broke down above the tradeoffs you have to make - future growth and plundering the middle class - to let the poor consume more now. If you want to harm future growth and plunder the middle class, we can have the discussion on whether that's desirable, but you're not even there. You're just wishing it all. Your position comes down to: "The rich have stuff! If we take their stuff many of our social problems will be solved and everyone will be better off". You're basically positing a free lunch, which doesn't exist. When enough citizens think like that it's very harmful.

What other word would you use to describe working for someone else you haven't even met, for free, against your will?

Idk get a thesaurus out. You know that's dramatic framing, and dismissive of the actual slave experience

I don't mind you regardless of some of your batshit crazy statements. I've asked some real fish questions around here, and you're usually the only one who replies without even trolling

It's you who's making batshit crazy statements, sir. A perfectly reasonable framing of "slave" and you go nuts.

Britney Spears: I'm a slave 4 U is now a "dramatic framing" that is "dismissive of the actual slave experience"

My girlfriend saying she wants be my sex slave is now a "dramatic framing" that is "dismissive of the actual slave experience"

"Man, I slave away in my job" is now a "dramatic framing" that is "dismissive of the actual slave experience"

"Wage slave" to describe the unhappy life of the proliteriat is now a "dramatic framing" that is "dismissive of the actual slave experience"

Could you be any more stupid/ridiculous? The slave experience (by the millions of kidnapped white child sex slaves in the Ottoman & Berber empires with muslim masters, by the millions of black laboring slaves in America with white slave masters, by the millions of blacks in the Congo with black slave masters), was what it was regardless of how people use words 130 years later.

In reality it's you who's dismissive of the actual slave experience by suggesting that the use of a word somehow diminishes the horror of that experience.

Yes I'm going nuts. I'm not qp you can relax. Framing the super rich as slaves to the poor is in fact a very accurate portrayal. I could be more stupid/ridiculous I'm sure of it. Ofc I forgot brittany spears said it

Hey can we go back and forth for pages and walls of text that will bury any and all other posts?

I didn't bring up the off topic wokeness, you did. You could actually be helping an underprivileged person (if you actually cared about them rather than caring about dopey virtue signalling) rather than woke-policing on the Internet. There are about 40 millions modern slaves in the world right now, 10 million of them children. Go help some, or STFU about "diminshing slavery" from 130 years ago.

The rich do indeed spend part of their day as slaves to the poor - the poor get the output from their work (not to mention the externalities) and the rich get nothing in return. And the rich have no choice in the matter. Sounds like partial slavery to me.

Spending part of your working time to raise the children of a deadbeat who couldn't be bothered to work or even stick around to raise their kid rather than spending that money or time on your own children is a pretty crappy state of affairs.

I have nothing against you. Just thought was an odd choice of words. This broadband plan is a fat waste of cash. That's for sure

Carry on

I still find it better than bailing out Wall Street multiple times ....

-Forget education
-forget health care
-Forget pension plans getting screwed by low interest rates to cover the private sector debts and inflated stock market .
Is that really better ?
Certainly not for like the bottom 60%

The first bank bail out was arguably one of the best values tax payers have ever gotten on their money. It saved us from a potential complete collapse of the banking system - which the government/liberal policy should be mostly to blame for.

Were there any wall street firms that didn't pay back their bailout money plus interest in the same way most of the car manufactures didn't pay back the money?

The reason we have low interest rates isn't to inflate the stock market, but an inflated market is a symptom of low interest rates.

No, I'm not:

Again, you are stating things that are true and I don't disagree with. The problem is it doesn't end there. There is more to it than that and I've maintained that all along. It's not my problem that you refuse to acknowledge it and continue to harp on statements of the obvious

I'm not trying to embolden or validate anything. I'm stating that they exist for reasons and the arguments you are making completely ignore those reasons

You can spend all the time you want harping on Democrats. Many valid criticisms there and with which I agree with, but it doesn't change the fact that Republicans are a part of the problem too. I know you are not from the US, but you say a lot that reveals ignorance rather than understanding about the country itself. I get that you want to blame the left for everything, but in this country, the right has contributed massively to many problems here. Counting riots like a scoreboard and labelling each left or right isn't particularly relevant to the point I'm making. If nothing else, it has nothing to do with partisanship and everything to do with policy and law that ignores mainly the poor in a manner that is morally disgraceful and arguably suboptimal for an economy. Cities have been run and ruined by Republicans too, as well as entire states which lay at the bottom in rank for many metrics. Every state has rampant issues and the R or D finger pointing is a bit of a waste of time and nonsense. There's plenty of blame to go around

There are places in this country with no internet access at all.

There are many places in this country with worthless connections

You assume way too much and then act like that which you assume is true (and also go on to insult people in the process, unprovoked). Not saying you're always wrong imo, but the way you paint things is not always accurate

The stats don't back that up. According to the FCC, 99.9% of the US population has access to broadband Internet providers giving them 3 Mbps or higher. 98.7% have access to at least 2 providers.



Even if you're in some ultra remote place with no cellular coverage, satellite Internet gives you 30 GB month data limit for less than cable (starting at $12/week) with 25 Mbps speeds.

It is pure, unadulterated bullshit that US citizens don't have good access to broadband.
LOL given the stats above.

3mbps is really slow.

Even in NYC it has been a big logistical challenge to make sure all of the kids had access to the Internet for remote learning. Making sure they had internet service, a proper device to connect to the service, some tech support somehow to make sure they are connected.

I mean if you can get a 200 ping connection that's unreliable and has a laughable data cap then what is there to complain about?

Look at the actual numbers using that chart and not the bullshit ones that include satellite.

It's a problem all over the country

I'm sure the parents of all those kids will stop being concerned about their kids' education after letting them know that they have a 3mbps connection and are apparently too lazy and incompetent to get a stronger, faster connection while also enslaving Jeff Bezos and his 12 figure net worth

What does that change anything ?
who profits from it .......

And yes now the fed wants inflation and so they keep on purpose low interest rates for that and to prevent the system from collapsing because of the private’s sector huge debts and governments.

The bail out in 2008 was necessary but u think QE happened just once ????
And they could saved millions of people from the loss of their homes if they would just did the opposite .
Giving money to the people so they pay their billls to the banks .
No they pay the banks directly and they voted themselves billions of bonus lol .

Anyway point is and you never answered .
What you propose for always lowering taxes to 0 doesn’t work for 40 years but keep thinking it works .
Seem you see the system is gong better and better everyday .....