Any investment in the future reduces current profits. It’s waste and fraud I tell you, waste and fraud

And placating Netanyahu and is better than finishing off that genocide with a nice ethnic cleansing

Though since treasuries are paid by the government is it not then still a ponzi scheme,

No, social security is investing in treasuries just like any other retirement fund might

in the fact the bonds must be redeemed to pay for shortfalls, in which case the government must tax the existing population

Well yeah, kind of. The government issues bonds to finance its debt. Some amount of that is a good thing, to fund large projects. However a poorly run government running a constantly increasing deficit and funding a constantly increasing debt with constantly increasing bonds is mortgaging its future to pay for its present. Think of the analogy of living off your credit cards. At some point you’ll hit a limit, everything comes due and you’re going to have a very bad time.

This is poor governance, regardless of who is buying the bonds. It has nothing to do with social security.

This is also why the idea of a smaller government is so compelling: we need to do something about ever increasing debt. However the political party that talks most about that is the one most responsible for that debt. You don’t reduce debt by more and more tax cuts for the wealthy nor ever increasing military.

There had been the expectation by some that our debt doesn’t matter as long as the dollar acts as the world’s reserve currency, but what happens when this stops? What happens when chaos spite and narcissism disrupts global trade and alliances, driving other countries away from trade with US, away from the dollar as an exchange currency? What happens when those countries no longer buy the enormous amounts of US Bonds they have been and no longer find our debt? And Social Security is at an inflection where it needs to pay out more than it’s bringing in do starts selling the bonds it’s invested in? We might be in for a very bad time, decades of government mismanagement under taxing the wealthy and overspending coming due at once, triggered by the idiot we voted for

The argument is it’s not a tax or insurance but a communal retirement fund meant to supplement private retirement benefits or keep the elderly out of poverty. It’s limited in what it pays out so your investment should be limited at the same place

People who earn $176k get the highest benefit, and they don’t get anymore no matter how much more they earn. They’re not getting more so don’t think they should pay in more.

I don’t know how the benefit is calculated but presumable if higher earners kick in more, the formula would need to change so it’s not all going back to them

Maybe someone told him it was the Bible

Are they already that stupid? Maybe I give everyone be too much credit but I assumed the ones putting money into $TRUMP are wealthy people playing the patsy to launder bribes

global de-dollarisation

This is the real problem for us in the US. Currently debt doesn’t matter: that’s stupid and short sighted but it doesn’t matter. I’m not entirely sure what global de-dollarisation means but US debt is going to matter a hell of a lot more when we’re treated like any other economy

As an end run around constitutional checks and balances, instead creating a new agency l they corrupted and took over an existing agency set up by obama

The president had no authority to create a new agency but seems to be getting away with a technicality

That is something, a small something. I’m getting really skeptical over checks and balances, the constitution, fundamental corruption and graft, government by tantrum and spite …… but at least this is getting to the point of making that lawyer regret his choices. He’s likely to discover the emphasis on “loyalty” is only one way

Found it: DOT gave final approval after extensive environmental analysis, and apparently is now claiming insufficient environmental analysis. I guess that demonstrates that they do need to give approval but you can’t just change your mind on a whim

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2025/02/20/what-is-ny-congestion-pricing-is-it-canceled/79311985007/

after four years and 4,000 pages of federally-supervised environmental review — and barely three months after giving final approval to the Congestion Relief Program — USDOT would seek to totally reverse course,” MTA chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said

The bridges and tunnels into and out of manhattan were already tolled and this doesn’t change that.

These tolls are within manhattan, although I don’t know if the plate readers are near a border

He hasn’t been found guilty yet. He sure as heck looks guilty but there is not yet a judgement saying so. I agree the governor needs to be careful removing a mayor because it looks bad. Is that really a precedent we want.

That assumes, of course that there’s no interference from a corrupt official to get the charges dropped. That interference and Those court members resigning are what makes this different

How do you manage that when the base list price starts at $44k? Model 3 base price is $35k and both qualify for federal incentive, so it seems a stretch to overcome that. Are you going for one of the formerly trash ones with bad software!

Brb, going to check egg prices

I know people like to harp on the self-driving promises, but the technology not fraud at all, except for the promises of how soon it will be self-driving. The early adopters especially must feel taken advantage of, paying for lifetime self driving that was only for as long as they owned the car and never appeared.

Anyhow, I still think it’s a valid approach to attempt. We don’t know what approach will succeed until one does, and Teslas approach does have advantages. Cameras are cheap sensors now, that can easily blend as part of a car, and humans do succeed in driving based only on sight. Now it’s a software problem - will we be able to create an ai that can drive? I don’t know, but I don’t see other approaches doing any better, and that’s with much more expensive and ugly hardware.

Until someone succeeds in creating a self-driving vehicle, I’m encouraged that we’re not all jumping into the same hole that may or may not succeed. Let them try something different, and we have a better chance of something working

I don’t believe such a reason has been given. The 30 day timer hasn’t started yet

I very much doubt it, and the white house press secretary holding up a contract that was lawfully fulfilled as an example of fraud, is not going to cut it

I’m more worried about future fraud, if we really do continue spending the money but at personal whim and with no one to manage the process. A no-bid procurement order describing $400M of “armored Tesla’s” is a much clearer case of fraud, as-is firing inspectors and watchdogs for doing their job

What a stupid article: of course this will happen. It should have been immediately obvious. It already was happening as we were already so miserly.

If they were actually concerned about Chinas influence, a better approach would be doubling down, or tripling, or more. Instead of spending untold billions on the next aircraft carrier, we’d do more for peace and security by investing that in the development of underprivileged friends abroad

USAID was a great investment, a cheap investment that returned good value, even beyond things like lives saved and people brought out of poverty. In many ways it was being a good neighbor.

It would still be a great way to spend our money if we doubled it or tripled it or more

Honestly if I had that power, I’d try never to speak again. Think of Black Bolt from the Inhumans. He was so traumatized by the damage his voice did that he just never opened his mouth