Senior citizens owe over 18 billion in student loan debt.

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

LegendKiller

Lifer
Mar 5, 2001
18,256
68
86
Ok, so you know the things they have put in place to protect themselves. Which ones of their plans and policies do you want to see us lean towards? I highly doubt people are going to go for a 19% sales tax here and there very well could be riots in the streets when people see what the higher tariffs would do to the price of the iPhones and x-box.

I 100% support tariffs on Chinese goods. They are manipulating their currency to keep the labor/material arbitrage in place.

I would also like smaller regional banks backed by the regions that promote small business lending in those regions with very strict policies against extra-regional investment.

There also needs to be the promotion and education of America #1 in everything we purchase. Incentives to home-source production...etc.
 

Matt1970

Lifer
Mar 19, 2007
12,320
3
0
I 100% support tariffs on Chinese goods. They are manipulating their currency to keep the labor/material arbitrage in place.

I would also like smaller regional banks backed by the regions that promote small business lending in those regions with very strict policies against extra-regional investment.

There also needs to be the promotion and education of America #1 in everything we purchase. Incentives to home-source production...etc.

Oh I am with you on all that, especially what I bolded. Ever see the Tucker movie where he is referring to a "fictitious" future where all the stereos in our cars may one day be made overseas and everyone laughs? That was a different era back then but I guarantee if we had a little bit more of that and bring back demand for American made products, everything else will just fall into place.
 

waggy

No Lifer
Dec 14, 2000
68,143
10
81
Grand parents co-signing SLs and also taking out parent loans for grandkids. It's no surprise.

/this

My niece asked my parents to co-sign for her to go to school to do hair and nails. My dad mentioned while we were out fishing. i asked why her parents weren't co-signing or straight out paying for it (they can afford it). he didn't know. I figure it was because she flunked out of CC.

I laughed and said it would be a silly idea. but hell my parents can afford it.

My niece then went and flunked out of the hair school.

lol
 

Matt1970

Lifer
Mar 19, 2007
12,320
3
0
/this

My niece asked my parents to co-sign for her to go to school to do hair and nails. My dad mentioned while we were out fishing. i asked why her parents weren't co-signing or straight out paying for it (they can afford it). he didn't know. I figure it was because she flunked out of CC.

I laughed and said it would be a silly idea. but hell my parents can afford it.

My niece then went and flunked out of the hair school.

lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TOxhzAm7fY
 

Zaap

Diamond Member
Jun 12, 2008
7,162
424
126
That was a different era back then but I guarantee if we had a little bit more of that and bring back demand for American made products, everything else will just fall into place.
Yeah, it's almost like we have to cut the Pity Party bullshit and feeling sorry for ourselves and whining at douchebag politicians that created and promote most of the problems to wave their magic wand and fix everything... and get back to an attitude of doing for self.

I'll be right here with arms crossed, sleeves rolled up when my fellow Americans collectively decide on that.
 

werepossum

Elite Member
Jul 10, 2006
29,873
463
126
You don't think it's true?

Do you think Waltons give a shit about treating their employees like garbage and offshoring most of their goods to drive down costs?

Do you think Zuckerberg gives a shit about all of the illegal aliens flowing in?

Do you think Gates does?

Do you think Cook cares about the fact that making the iphone here in the US would cost $10 more per phone?


Do you think any one of these fucks thinks about the feedback loop they've put this country into. The fact that lower paying jobs results in the need for lower costing goods which results in less/lower paying jobs?

Do you think any hedge fund managers really give a shit?

This feedback loop is something nobody in the top 20% gives a shit about. They just want to keep circling the shitter.

They get theirs through favorable tax treatments, offshoring of their wealth and short-term compensation. The best laws money can buy.

Look at Germany. Better unemployment, better social structure, a manufacturing/engineering economy the envy of the world. What is the #1 policy they pursue, in all aspects of the economy? Germany is #1. Mittlestand. Middle class is #1. Manufacturing and local/small businesses #1. And now, what is their position?
Some good points there. Germany is excellent at arguing Germany's best interests in treaties; we are not. We took a position as the biggest, most powerful, most profitable market in the world and pissed it away.

We all also need to remember that the elites who lobbied for and got the dismantling of our tariff system did not do it for us; they did it to increase their own profit margins. I'm a huge fan of the profit motive, but not everything that increases profit is good. We gained a lot from cheaper consumer goods - those of us with relatively good jobs still gain a lot - but inexorably our nation is being pulled down, and more and more people move from benefiting from cheap consumer goods to suffering from the results of getting those cheap consumer goods.

Ok, so you know the things they have put in place to protect themselves. Which ones of their plans and policies do you want to see us lean towards? I highly doubt people are going to go for a 19% sales tax here and there very well could be riots in the streets when people see what the higher tariffs would do to the price of the iPhones and x-box.
I certainly would. My first national political action ever was trying to find out why memory prices had suddenly doubled. My representative's staff was clueless not only about the issue, but couldn't even work their own telephone system. One of my Senator's staff (Al Gore's) was interested only until they got my name; having determined that I was not a big donor, they blew me off completely, suggesting that "someone like you" should contact my representative. However, Jim Sasser's staff not only talked to me, they knew exactly why it doubled (a 100% tariff had been levied against Korean memory dumping) and put me through to the staffer in charge of that issue. With that knowledge, I was able to completely support the 100% tariff as bad for me in the short term, but good for my country (and therefore me) in the long term, even though I started out really, really pissed about government mandating a price doubling. I think most Americans are capable of such understanding and accepting a little short term pain for long term gain - IF the issue is properly explained and IF we're convinced that the powers-that-be are truly operating in our best interests.
 

Matt1970

Lifer
Mar 19, 2007
12,320
3
0
I certainly would. My first national political action ever was trying to find out why memory prices had suddenly doubled. My representative's staff was clueless not only about the issue, but couldn't even work their own telephone system. One of my Senator's staff (Al Gore's) was interested only until they got my name; having determined that I was not a big donor, they blew me off completely, suggesting that "someone like you" should contact my representative. However, Jim Sasser's staff not only talked to me, they knew exactly why it doubled (a 100% tariff had been levied against Korean memory dumping) and put me through to the staffer in charge of that issue. With that knowledge, I was able to completely support the 100% tariff as bad for me in the short term, but good for my country (and therefore me) in the long term, even though I started out really, really pissed about government mandating a price doubling. I think most Americans are capable of such understanding and accepting a little short term pain for long term gain - IF the issue is properly explained and IF we're convinced that the powers-that-be are truly operating in our best interests.

Being properly explained is the key issue. Without that people will just vote out the ones that support it. I know something has to change. Like you said, we can't go on forever being a country that consumes more than it produces. I am 44 years old, the shit probably wouldn't hit the fan till I am well dead and buried, but it will.