phoenixvoice
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JB-hb
the “creative process” consists entirely of how to do something bad and get away with it
Hunh? “The creative process” is how I approach IT problems every day. It is what I do when a music student is struggling to learn a concept, or my daughter is struggling in math, and I must find a way to teach. It is how I have managed to create an upbringing for my children that is akin to what I had — just on the upper side of middle class — on an income that is half the federal poverty limit for the past decade. (And, no, I didn’t break laws. I did seek to understand rules and exactly how they applied to my situation, and I am willing to pull useful stuff out of “bulk trash” piles left on the curb.)
The “creative process” is no more “bad” than a gun is “bad.” The “creative process” is what was used by the US founding fathers to create the Declaration of Independence, fight & win the ensuing war, and write and ratify the Constitution. No doubt, the British saw that as “bad.”
JB-hb
You frame insurance as socialist vs. non-socialist (is the opposite capitalist? Libertarian?)
I don’t see it that way. The concept of insurance is that people pool their resources so that individual members of the group are not devastated by individual losses that are beyond their direct and immediate control — it is a way to deal with the conflict of man vs. nature. If “socialism” is defined as “any time when people form a group to do something,” we get an overly broad definition where the traditional family unit or religious and civic organizations may be labeled as “socialism.”
There are many approaches in the world today about how to structure healthcare. I don’t think that there is a one-size fits all solution for healthcare.
I believe that “bureaucracy” is a more apt term to describe the problems with both the Canadian and US healthcare systems. Bureaucracies can easily lose the mission of the organization and take on a life of their own — often becoming very corrupt. Canada’s healthcare system is analogous to a monopoly — it has lost its vision about providing quality, timely healthcare to Canadians, and instead is trying to weigh who is most “worthy” of healthcare, or of the best way to ration a scarce resource among many. The US healthcare system is behaving akin to an oligopoly — several behemoths (both private industry and FDA, CDC, and NIH, etc.,) are colluding together to “juice” the system for personal gain, rather than for the purpose of providing quality healthcare to the US citizenry. Both systems have grave problems. Both systems need to be thoroughly revamped. I think that trying to compare/contrast right now and weigh which system is “better” – the “socialist” Canadian healthcare system or the “private” US healthcare system is a specious argument. A more useful discussion would be about which little parts of each system are actually working and why so that successor systems can incorporate, rather than lose, those parts.
“Plaintiff American Oversight brings this action … to prevent the unlawful destruction of federal records and to compel Defendants to fulfill their legal obligations to preserve and recover federal records created through unauthorized use of Signal for sensitive national security decision-making,” the lawsuit reads. Trump’s senior national security officials accidentally shared sensitive details about strike plans on the Houthi group in Yemen with editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg through the encrypted messaging app Signal.
There is an interesting angle to this. Before the advent of audio recordings, typewriters, and the special typewriter machines court reporters once used, the most efficient way to record spoken word was “shorthand.” Even this might strain to keep up with spoken words – and it required specialized training. As a result, “official records” were of “official meetings” — not of every communication under the sun. Now, we have technology that can record every communication. So the question is…where is the line drawn between “informal” communication of government officials — “casual conversation,” not recorded — and the “official record?” When there is recording there is accountability. When these records are available to the public we have transparency, and this helps the public keep the government in check. At the same time, people need space to brainstorm, and accountability during the brainstorming process can hinder creativity. There needs to be balance between what is recorded and what is not (or what is deleted immediately after…or can it ever be deleted?) Perhaps there is only a delay on the recordings of “casual conversation” of government officials — it comes out, but after 2 years or 5 years, etc.
This conundrum parallels the situation for private citizens whose devices are listening in on — and, we assume — recording and transcribing their conversations. Although, for private citizens, it would appear that the 4th Amendment makes it clear that private citizens are “to be secure” in their private lives. No such privacy is afforded by the Constitution for the public lives of government officials.
“..the FBI investigating attacks on Tesla cars and facilities is nothing but “lawfare” and “political weaponization.”
So….the *appropriate* government response to a seemingly coordinated vandalism and violence towards a business and the private property of citizens is to *ignore* it, rather than investigate and prosecute?
The government should throw in jail for years protestors from Jan 6, 2021, who walked into the Capitol due to the press of the crowd, mostly gawked, with a few committing minor vandalism, (that may have been initiated by agents provocateurs, it is hard to know,) but ignore deliberate property destruction?
I am starting to see some left-leaning types start to shake off the trance and uncomfortably notice that the very important Dem shills are making less and less sense. I hope that the trend quickens.
Presidential Actions
Protecting America’s Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse
Executive Orders
March 25, 2025…and thus we usher in digital ID. The government’s EFTPS program requires digital ID, and single accounts per individual — if you work for a company and make EFTPS deposits you must log in with your digital ID, not with one for the business.
And, individual tax refund checks not by preference but only for those individuals who do not have access to banking services or electronic payment systems;
Um. How is this going to be determined? I have a bank account, but barely use it. There are debt judgments against me. They could be used to seize funds from my bank account. Tax refunds already can only be electronically deposited into a bank account that bears the recipient’s name. Because of these judgments I don’t have a joint bank account with anyone. My spouse’s credit union won’t deposit my federal tax refund check into my spouse’s account. They say that they cannot, as if it were against the law. It is not against the law, it is the policy of that credit union. Walmart won’t cash the check — because I don’t typically cash checks with them, they decline to do it, even though it is a government check. So, the last few years I have gone with my father to the local branch of his banking institution, I sign the check to him, and he deposits it. Another day he goes, withdraws the funds, and gives them to me. Last year, the assistant branch manager where we had done this in the past explained that they cannot do this. My father called his broker, his broker did some asking around, and no, this isn’t bank policy, but appeared to be the policy of that branch. My father found a branch that was for “investors,” located 2 miles further. We went to that one. They were polite, and had no problem with me signing the check over to my father. My only other option would be check cashing places that take cuts of the check. But, technically, I have “access.”DBS
there is nothing inherently wrong with Capitalism IF it is used with the purpose and intent of doing unto others as you would wish done unto you in similar circumstances. If you love your neighbor as well as you love yourself, and can use Capitalism to accomplish those purposes, then great.It is my observation that many -isms and human organizations work well when the participants follow traditional morals. Hence, the importance of such morals.
It’s *possible* that one of the alleged Tren de Aragua deportees is a case of mis-identification. However, let’s look at this:
So, should there be a way to appeal due to the possibility of mis-identification? Sure, but it does not need to be in the US and it does not need to be while these men run free. There are various possible issues of mis-identification: (1) not affiliated with a criminal/terrorist gang. (2) Not guilty of criminal activity. (3) Actually has legal status in the US. (4) Is a citizen of a country other than Venezuela. Ok, fine — give the men the ability to make these claims from the Salvadoran prison. If they are the citizen of a different country, arrangements can be made with their own country about what to do with them. If they actually have legal status in the US, then that can be explored — if they are a US citizen, they can be transferred back to the US and tried for any crimes. I don’t like “guilty until proven innocent,” but unless one of these deportees is actually a US citizen or has legal status to be in the US, quick deportation is an acceptable remedy. Proving legal status should be relatively simple for anyone with legal status.The reason why I saw no to merit pay for public school teachers is *because* the children are the only people with true direct knowledge. Since they are immature, they can’t really understand the idea that “merit should mean more compensation.” As a result, if they are expected to evaluate their teachers’ merit, the children will inevitably be exploited by adults, (some well-intentioned, some less so.)
Peer teachers could also evaluate to a degree — but because rating another teacher higher could mean lack of advancement for the individual, we inadvertently create a “Prisoner’s Dilemma” in the process.
We’ve been trying to evaluate teachers by their students’ test scores for quite some time. However, this can lead to teachers preferring to work with brighter children, while it is the struggling children who need extra help. Also, education is a lot more than test scores — much of education is ignored by focusing on test scores.
I had an honors social studies teacher in 8th grade who frequently won awards. He got his two honors classes to each write a bill for the state legislature, and got industry to pay the airfare to fly both classes to the state capital to lobby for one of the bills. In class, he belittled students. If they stuttered or said “um,” too frequently in a required verbal presentation, he publicly criticized them on the spot. Some students, in tears, could not finish the presentation, and received a very low grade. At the end of each year, he selected several of his students to receive an award that he had created — “The Taco Bell Award,” which he gave out to the students who, in his estimation, were most likely to never have a job that was better than a job at Taco Bell — basically, he was predicting which 13-year-olds would fail in life.
But, oh, he racked in the awards.
Merit based pay for public school teachers
No
They are teaching children. Children are not capable of evaluating a teacher’s merit, nor of communicating it to others.
The Department of Homeland Security is seeking to deport Khalil for national security and foreign policy reasons. Activists who believe that noncitizens should be free to preach the destruction of Western civilization or support terrorism sued the government to let him stay.
I think most Americans agree that the president of the United States should be able to remove foreigners who hate our country or victimize our citizens.
Hunh? Since when does support or lack of support for Israel or Palestine have anything whatsoever to do with “hating our country?”
Witkoff
Why do the Israelis really want to occupy Gaza for the rest of their lives? They don’t. They want stability there. They don’t want to deal with that.”
Eh. Not a very good analogy. Israel has occupied Gaza for longer than I have been alive. The former Ukrainian oblasts that have joined Russia had many ethnic Russians living there, held referendums, and wanted to leave Ukraine for Russia. To my views, there are more similarities between Gaza and Donetz/Lugantz and Israel and Ukraine. Ukraine was shelling D&L, just like Israel shelled Gaza.I think that the Democrat Party may fracture.
There is the wing in power that cares little more than maintaining that power.
There are the Dem constituents that are being enriched by the current system and who will do anything to maintain the gravy train.
There are the Dem constituents who have been manipulated into a belief that they are victims of the majority, that they are fragile and that without the protection of the Dems, they will be exploited. (In reality, they have been manipulated by wokism into fragility.)
There are the Dem constituents who have voted in the past in practical ways, but currently have TDS. Something sufficiently disruptive can wake them from their TDS trance.
There are Dem constituents who are compassionate people, and the Dem machine has manipulated their compassion against them. Again, something sufficiently disruptive can break their minds from the mind-loop that they have become trapped in.
There are erstwhile and current Dem constituents who are fed up with Dem shenanigans.There is some overlap in these camps.
I am unaware of any current Dem leaders who have sufficient credit with disaffected Dems, or those who may yet become disaffected Dems, to lead the disaffected.
Giza
Well, it would be fascinating for someone to do some excavating and find out whether or not these eight cylindrical posts on top of two large cubes is real or fantasy. Much more interesting than watching warmongers in Ukraine and Israel continue war making.AOC, The Squad, Sanders…several years ago I would have liked to see them take over the Democrat Party. But I saw them go along with all of the lunacy from the past 5 years: lockdowns, masking for “the help,” vaccine mandates, TDS — I have lost every shred of respect and trust I once had for them. If they “take over the Democrat Party,” I believe that we’ll just have much of the same.
Yes, TDS is real.
Now, can we get onto “IDS” — Israel Derangement Syndrome — where people are obsessed with supporting Israel, no matter what immoral or illegal act Israel commits?
@ mpsk
Thank you for the better video — the others were so blurry and tiny that I couldn’t tell anything except blood flying when JFK was shot. Once I had seen the closeup of the driver shooting the gun several times, I could identify the entire sequence in the un-enlarged video, clear as day.Ok, so Trump Admin got their CR, government is funded.
When do the recisions start?
Because that sounds fun to watch.God Bless Stephen Miller
Yes, he brings up important points.
He also often fails to answer the questions posed and gets very emotional in the process.Musk— ai – extreme prosperity for all…
Yeah, right.
That has been stated so many times about technology — it never quite worked out that way.
And, Musk is completely overlooking the costs associated with resources, energy, depletion, etc.Trees and fire
Trees (plants) don’t just kick out the oxygen. Simple sugars are made of building blocks of CH2O. Half of the oxygen of CO2 is retained. Burning brings back the other half.
Stephen Miller gets too carried away. He does not want to answer a question when he worries that the legitimate, full answer may undermine his position, so, instead, he digs in his heels.
He does make a valid point. The judiciary cannot be micromanaging the executive. The judiciary is supposed to clarify the laws and Constitution when there are disputes…not order planes to turn around. When the judiciary orders planes to turn around, it is acting in opposition to the Constitution, usurping the executive role.
That is all he needed to say: ”Clarifying the law” cannot extend to taking the executive role.Multiplication trick
I think that there are some specific reasons why this is not generally taught.
(1) This trick does not explain what is happening — it can be followed while having no understanding of the underlying math. As such, the novice can get the correct answer, but will not achieve mastery. (A similar thing happened last year when tutoring my son with math — he needed to do long division with polynomials. He didn’t know how to do long division, period. I insisted on teaching him long division for ten minutes before applying it to polynomials.)
(2) Calculators! The reason for using the trick is to speed the human computation process. Prior to the use of calculators, tricks like these would be a godsend. Now, we simply outsource the task to a machine. The tricks are never taught to most people.
I believe that if we sit with this for a while, understanding the result of a technology with which we are familiar (the calculator), we can make educational decisions that reflect our understanding of what is being taught (how to think!), available technology (which makes obsolescent some forms of thought), and wisdom that comes from life experience.
Yesterday, my daughter was retaking a math test because she was not satisfied with her initial score. She has a math learning disability, and therefore leans heavily on a calculator for some aspects of algebra. A setting changed on her Texas Instruments (TI) calculator while it was in her backpack, and the factoring capability she relies on was not calibrated as it needed to be. No adult instructor in the “learning center” where she was taking the test had a clue about how to help her with her fancy TI calculator. They offered her a Casio calculator, but they didn’t know how to get the Casio calculator to display factors. She went to an expert math teacher who was on her prep hour and available. This math teacher understood what my daughter was wanting from her TI calculator, but explained that she had no idea how to fix the setting on the TI calculator — this teacher was only familiar with the school’s fancy Casio calculators! Eventually, my daughter found where to change the setting, made a lucky guess on what it should be, and was able to use her calculator again.
I don’t have time to fully flesh out where I am going with this right now — perhaps I’ll write it all out this evening — but the irony! A math-whiz teacher can’t suss out an unfamiliar calculator? What does this say about people in general, the state of education, and how all of this intersects with technology?
Envy
The opposite of envy is complacency, or satisfaction with one’s station in life.
I realized this at about age 12. And then realized that telling a population that envy was wicked was exceedingly beneficial for those who already had wealth and power — because it means that it is “evil” to disrupt the status quo.Envy can lead to stealing and plotting to take something that currently belongs to someone else. However, that is most likely to occur when the population is living in a “zero sum game” economy, where those who have-not cannot improve their station without taking from those who have. Conversely, when the general perception of the economy is one where anyone who does the work can improve his or her position, envy can lead to personal drive, ambition, hard work, and healthy competition.
@ John Day
Thank you for the update on Khalil.
My domestic partner assures me that there are many Jews who oppose Israel and Zionism generally — including most Orthodox sects. I think that the Jews who oppose Israel and Zionism need to speak up. Just like whites cannot currently “say the n-slur,” (as my horrified daughter reminded me yesterday at a thrift store when I used the term while explaining to her brother why Huck Finn has fallen into disfavor,) non-Jews cannot criticize Israel publicly without being branded “anti-Semitic.” Years ago a Jewish ACLU lawyer successfully defended the right of an openly Nazi group to have a presence at a public event. We need something similar now. It will take a vocal group of Jews defending Khalil to wake people up from the trance they are under regarding Israel. The incongruity has to be so great that it makes people’s heads spin.@ RIM
I noticed a change in the Twitter/X stuff today, and I am passing along my observation in case you find it helpful.I typically read TAE in the mornings on an iPad with Firefox. The Twitter embed feature has not worked right for a very long time, so I have to click the links to open them. Today, with this new Twitter/X issue, when I clicked on the link I received “oops, something went wrong.” I got around it by logging into X. (I had avoided this on the iPad before now — why be tracked if I don’t have to be?)
Medical system
I don’t believe that there is a “one size fits all” solution. For immediate trauma, we need a system where anyone injured or suffering an acute issue can be seen right away and not be worrying about the cost. In the past 20 years for kids and I this has included: cuts requiring stitches, food impaction, appendicitis, skin infection that required IV antibiotics for 2 days, etc. One option is that the government cover the cost of this, so that low-income folks are not dissuaded from seeking aid. There are other options — however, the private medical insurance tied to a job route is not working all that well.
Next, there are more minor acute issues: uti, strep throat, jock itch, bronchitis, minor skin infection, pink eye, ringworm, etc. — all that is needed is diagnosis and medication. Often, a simple diagnostic test is all that is required — but these are firewalled behind expensive doctor visits, and the most effective medications are also blocked in the same way. It’s a racket. It would be useful for diagnostic tests to be publicly available for a minor fee (a couple of dollars), so patients could make their own informed decisions, rather than guessing with folk-remedies. I mean, sure, folks might self-medicate with antibiotics for a sore throat that isn’t strep — but my experience is that doctors routinely do this as well, so what is the point?
Then there are “well visits.” Yes, they have some use, because they can potentially find issues when they are minor and more easily treatable. However, currently the medical industry is using these as a cash cow. At age 40? Get a mammogram every year. 50? Get a colonoscopy. Cholesterol or blood pressure or blood sugar a little elevated? — here is a maintenance med for that. Funky skin thing? Have a biopsy, or two, or ten. Currently, the purpose of “well visits” is to find a “treatable chronic problem” that the medical industry can use to make a recurrent income from. Well visits have a place — but, currently, they are being exploited.
And then there is treatment of chronic conditions. The way the medical industry responds to these is just like how my ex used to dream of methods of recurrent income — because that is what they are for the medical industry. Why cure someone when their pain causes income? Hence, when I went to a doctor for hip pain years ago I was told it was bursitis, rest it — but not too much, take ibuprofen, and come back if it didn’t go away. Stupid advice. Back in October the bursitis came back and didn’t go away, not with rest, not with ibuprofen. And due to a documentation mixup, my Medicaid was temporarily halted. (I was eligible, and I’d turned in the documents requested, but it would take a few weeks to get through the system.) So, I couldn’t see a doctor, couldn’t follow up on the referral that I already had for physical therapy. I turned to the internet for “physical therapy” and found a yoga instructor on YouTube who had experienced bursitis and had several vids on exercises to do. Three days after starting these mild and brief exercise regimens I was going two and three days at a time with no hip pain — after 6 weeks of having some pain every day. Now I do these exercise routines regularly, and have only minor hip discomfort a few times per month — usually after a busy few days when I skipped the exercises.
The medical system is broken — it is designed as a holy gatekeeper that brings people in and then tries to get them to never leave. It should serve the people — right now, it is mostly the other way around, with people serving it.
There is a lot of hullabaloo out there about RFK Jr “flip-flopping” on the measles (MMR) vaccine. There are a lot of mis-leading phrases — including the sub-title of the published op-Ed. (Note: authors generally don’t choose their headlines nor subtitles — editors do that.). I decided to actually read what RFK Jr wrote:
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/robert-f-kennedy-jr-measles-outbreak-call-action-all-us
Despite the strong link between MMR vaccine and autism, it is considered a very effective vaccine. Some “in the know” practitioners simply recommend that it be given after the brain has developed sufficiently so that an autism regression is highly unlikely. For some parents, they want the reassurance that their kid be vaccinated. (Of course, those parents likely already vaccinated their kids according to the CDC schedule.). RFK Jr, in the op-Ed, also validates the position that good nutrition is a viable way to deal with measles, and that it is up to parents to choose the course of action against measles for their kids. So…the secretary of HHS just equated publicly vaccination with good nutrition regarding measles. This is AMAZING! In my memory, it has never happened before! So — then why is it that so much of the “no-vax” crowd is railing against RFK Jr? Because he suggested that the MMR is effective against measles? Well…it is effective. It is just difficult to know which young recipients will be adversely affected by the vaccine itself, with lifelong implications when, with good nutrition, the same child could have had a few days of discomfort with measles and zero long term effects.
Russia did expand in the 1700s under Catherine the Great:
she governed at a time when the Russian Empire was expanding rapidly by conquest and diplomacy. In the south, the Crimean Khanate was annexed following victories over the Bar Confederation and the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War. With the support of Great Britain, Russia colonised the territories of New Russia along the coasts of the Black and Azov Seas. In the west, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth—ruled by Catherine’s former lover, King Stanisław August Poniatowski—was eventually partitioned, with the Russian Empire gaining the largest share. In the east, Russians became the first Europeans to colonise Alaska, establishing Russian America. (from Wikipedia)@ oxymoron
Regarding Trump foreign policy in Ukraine…
I agree with you. I suspected that I would be at odds with many elements of Trump’s foreign policy. However, if we can stop the needless killing, and move towards elections happening in Ukraine…well, it’s a step in the right direction.Golden Retriever & tigers
I often wonder if the big cats really are much different than “house cats.” Have the small cats that live among us really been “domesticated?” Or are they just safer to be around because humans are so much bigger than they are? When I watch videos of large cats I notice the same attitudes and behaviors that I see in my small cats. It is funny to see a small cat with the same attitude as a lion or tiger.
Census
Most of the census is already conducted through the USPS — forms are mailed to each home. Census workers follow up on the homes where the form is not returned. This task is pretty labor intensive — I should know, I worked for the census for a few months in 2000. Postal carriers do not have the time to do this task. Additionally, the census is designed to be an agency that is separate from other agencies so that it’s mission — an accurate census — is not muddied by competing political interests. That separation needs to be maintained so that the census can be trusted.
USPS
Okay, sure — postal workers could become a type of “customer service” for the federal government. But to do that, there would need to be more postal workers.
That might be a good thing — I usually like the mail carrier — we’ve had some nice ones over the years. I live in a neighborhood from the late 1940s, it is a “walking route” and so the postal carrier goes to my door. But in the Southern California neighborhood where I lived as a teen, built in the late 1980s, there was a big metal box with smaller locked mailboxes up the street and around the bend, I.e., no “door service,” we never met the mail carrier face to face. So…to make the postal service the “face” of the federal government, well…it would require a lot of changes and perhaps more workers.
I ran into this new song by Five Times August a few days ago and I love it!
Liars, Cheats, and CrooksIt is called “Liars, Cheats, and Crooks,” and the lyric video that goes with it is almost on par with the song itself.
The chord structure is very simple, as is the melody, it has some catchy refrains, and the message is on point.
@ oxymoron
That is insane! Perhaps follow the model that Jimmy Dore has done to stay monetized on YouTube — he parrots the “official lines” framing them in a dry, somewhat sarcastic way. His viewers understand that he doesn’t believe the official lives at all — but he states them again and again. As a comedian, he can do this and remain true to his values. (Many others whom I respect on YouTube were demonetized because they could not find a way to honor their values and stay monetized.)
A larger issue is this:
I listen sometimes to podcasts where someone is extolling the virtues of AI, how it is going to displace so much human capacity, etc. — the most recent one was a Tucker Carlson interview. (Don’t remember the interviewee’s name ATM.) In some ways, this is probably true. Currently, I am quite resistant to AI — but much of my income-producing work is in technology services, so I wonder whether, eventually, I will have to embrace AI to some degree to “keep up.” However…I suspect that we are going to find that there are some areas where AI is terrible — and I think the article that you shared is one of these. AI may do well flagging potential problems in posts/comments, based upon stated criteria, but it is terrible at actually making any sort of determination. It fails to understand nuance and human values.@ oxymoron
Wired video, surveillance, normalizingPerhaps. I teach technology classes at a local retirement community. On multiple occasions, I have touched on the topic of surveillance. The seniors are somewhat aware — even the left-leaning ones — and they are concerned. They ask me questions, they start talking about it in the class. Many want to know more. But they are hampered by the fact that most barely understand the technology in their pocket, and making changes to protect privacy requires a somewhat more thorough understanding of their devices than they currently have. Not to mention, even those without dementia have their minds somewhat clouded by years of statin use, plus all of the other prescription drugs they are on. Our culture largely ignores privacy issues, and daily life lulls into complacency about it.
I am typing this out on an iPad…and I remind myself that I should shut off the friggin’ WiFi when I’m leaving home with it so that it doesn’t record every WiFi SSID that it encounters when I take it from the house. I’m probably better off slipping it into a faraday cage bag — I won’t remember to shut off the WiFi.
To change the surveillance, it has to become a subject of regular conversation, so that people are reminded about it, day in and day out.
@ JB-hb
I have long believed that a better tax system would be one where citizens pay taxes for specific programs. So, for example, if the tax bill was $10,000, the tax payer might be obligated to that amount, however, the tax payer could allocate 10% to roads and transportation infrastructure, 10% to military, 5% to programs for the poor, 0.5% to cultural programs, 5% to government officials’ salaries, etc. It would be a very interesting system! Of course, it could still be gamed — transparency would be very important.
I think that it is important for people to understand how anti-poverty programs actually work, rather than people simply resenting those who benefit from such systems. Reagan’s “black welfare queen” was not very accurate. There are people who game the system — my ex does, with the help of his boss. (My ex told me years ago that he chose his current employment because his boss would help him avoid paying child support. Of course, the commissioner at the child support hearing was not interested in this.). But there are others who are simply in unfortunate situations, and these programs do a lot of good.
I have always enjoyed being responsible and paying my own way. My parents contributed some towards my college education — they helped get me to campus and home again at the start and end of semesters and for holidays (it was in a different state), and contributed about $100/month towards rent the first 3 years. The bulk of my expenses were covered via merit scholarships and employment. When I moved back in with my parents after college for a couple of years, I immediately proposed that I pay them a monthly rent — I needed to know that I was responsible for myself, and not being given a “free ride.” But back in 2012 my ex lost his job due to alcoholism and illness while we had 3 kids who were at the beginning of elementary school. Both of our sons turned out to be (high-functioning) autistic — but I didn’t know that then, I just intuitively knew that the children needed their mother to parent them, and one of the kids could not be put into daycare because his behavior was not “normal.” So I had to swallow my pride and accept help from whatever quarter it came from. I told myself, “This is okay. It is expected that a single parent needs help. Usually, the other parent does the help. My “other parent” partner is abdicating his role, therefore, it is morally acceptable to receive help from others.”
While I resent people who game the antipoverty system (such as my ex,) I also get very frustrated with people who see all, or most, antipoverty programs as an affront, or as people “taking advantage.” I like merit based systems — I tend to do very well in them. I also understand that the economy is far from being a “pure” merit based system. I accept that, despite my effort and work, I will probably never have a home comparable to the homes that my parents or siblings live in. I will likely never have a “secure retirement” and, unlike my parents and grandparents and two of my siblings, I am unlikely to ever visit Europe or Asia or anyplace that I cannot easily get to by driving. I will never have these things not because of any personal failing or “laziness,” but because I unexpectedly shouldered the parenting and financial burdens alone, without a functional “coparent.” My ex gamed so many systems deliberately to advantage himself at my expense — and I am left with the repercussions of his bad actions. I continue to try to get from under these burdens, but I understand that, short of a miracle, I am unlikely to fully succeed. It is okay — I am well and the children are well. These are what matter most, not a fine home nor globe-trotting. However, the idea that “all” or “most” recipients of antipoverty programs are lazy and don’t deserve the help — it doesn’t sit well with me, as it does not comport with my life experience.
IRS
– Has anyone tried to actually *contact* the IRS in the past few years? The telephone wait queues are hours long — if you can even navigate the labyrinthine phone tree to get to a real person. In many instances, the only way to talk to a real person is to game the phone system, trying to figure out which prompts will lead to a real person. An$ now staff will be cut dramatically. Great. Can’t we instead reassign staff to the phone system and face-to-face appointments??
– The IRS collects more than income tax. They are also involved in collecting social security tax, Medicare tax, federal unemployment tax, etc. What about those?
– As I understand, it was in 1996 that “welfare as we know it” was discontinued. The replacement program, TANF, is one that I have never utilized, although I have often been eligible. (I found the requirements to be intrusive and controlling, and the amount and duration of the program to be very small — quite frankly, the requirements outweighed the monetary benefit.). Most impoverished folks with children receive monetary help from the government via the EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit.) This is administered via the IRS. If the IRS goes away, what happens to the refundable tax credits that benefit impoverished families with children?
– “Abolish the IRS” reminds me of when I learned that the author of the New Testament book of Matthew was a tax collector, and therefore despised by his peers. Well, he did a good job writing his book. We need to look a little deeper than gut-felt emotions when managing the affairs of the country.
JB-hb
Convenience store robbery comparison
I get your point, but I don’t find it apropos. Although we may resent taxes, it isn’t the same as robbery — it is more akin to feudal rent, which was written into the fabric of feudal society. Robbery, on the other hand, is a rupture of a society’s rules.
What the gentleman was proposing, to carry out your analogy, was that the convenience store charged people to enter and transact business and get what they need. The system used was weird: the wealthy generally pay more, but not a direct percentage. The wealthy often also profit from the system Often, impoverished folks pay little, if any. Sometimes, it seems that the middle earners pay the most, as a percentage of what they earn. The poor folks don’t dare complain, because they get fee rebates every so often, and these rebates make it possible to keep a roof over their head and their children fed.
What a weird system!
One day the convenience store owner cuts costs and decides to cut costs and give an equal rebate of a portion of the cost savings to everyone who pays into the convenience store, except for the poor folks.
Still a very weird system.
It would make more sense to return amounts based on percentages paid in. However, that wouldn’t sit well with Trump’s base. Elon’s rebate would be very large, (probably the largest,) and many would say that he did his work at Doge to increase his own wealth — and it would look like that was true, whether it was Elon’s intention or not.
So then we get to the fact that populaces are appeased when politicians give them stuff. And, in a democracy, the inclination is very large to give the people stuff. There is a large incentive to give stuff away in a manner that does not piss off large segments of the population. The only way to make this fair, really, is to simply collect fewer taxes at the outset. Anything given away by government becomes political.
It would also incentivize labor force participation, the investor said, noting that the rebate would be available only to net payers of federal income tax in 2025.
Because of the way that the child tax credit & EITC work, that would mean that impoverished families with children — even those whose parents work (like me) — would be excluded from receiving the “DOGE dividend.” Because “welfare” is now mostly just the EITC, (designed to incentivize work,) many impoverished families with children do not pay income tax, but do pay into social security, Medicare, etc. I don’t see how deliberately excluding impoverished families is helpful to the country’s well-being. I have found that most people do not understand how the EITC works nor how SNAP and Medicaid work. Most likely, Mr Fishback believes that those who don’t pay federal income tax don’t participate in the workforce. Also, Trump is talking about no longer charging income tax on social security checks — at which point many seniors would not be paying federal income tax — the ones who do not work and have no other taxable investments. I don’t support a plan that helps those who already have money and excludes those who are struggling at the bottom of the US’s economy. Just because someone makes little income does not mean that they do not contribute to the country.
