Bob_The_Buildist

it hasn't sunk in for most people. we already live in a post-scarcity society. UBI is already here. basic package: disability, medicaid, food stamps etc bonus package: literally getting paid for staying at home and hanging out with your relatives extra bonus: if you are willing to commit fraud, pretend your kids are autistic and get paid for that. get paid for watching your neighbor's kid. pretend you are taking care of your grandma. fake hospice clinic. fake rehab clinic. fake therapy clinic. giga bonus: during a time of crisis take advantage of PPP or CARES and open a fake business and get paid for existing people are shocked when they learn that defense is the FIFTH largest line item in the budget. ahead of defense: social security ($1.6T), interest on debt ($1.1T) medicare ($1T), medicaid + ACA ($1T), AND THEN defense ($0.9T) complain about defense all you like, but healthcare fraud is a way bigger factor. hundreds of billions per year. this is only going to get worse, because the fraud is a structural part of the system – payouts to client groups in exchange for votes (normally D). in the US, only 47% of the population actually works (fully 14% of the population is working age and does not work). retirees are 18% and children 22%. the system I described above subsidizes 50m non-working people absolute minimum, but really it's far more because people that are paid to stay home and take care of their relatives are considered "workers" of that 47% of "actual workers" maybe one third does real work, the rest are shuffling papers around or doing fake email jobs. so you have, rough math, 50 million actual workers supporting 300 million dependents. that's the nature of the economy today. it will only accelerate. eventually you will have 10 million using AI tools to do all the work and 340 million dependents. the reason no one roots out the fraud is because it's the system that keeps our extremely fragile polity intact. the fraud is the UBI. the purpose of the system is what it does. of course, it's a deeply unfair system, because you are allowed to commit fraud if you are a politically protected client group of the democrats. DOGE was killed faster than any government program ever, because it attempted to root out the fraud. if you are honest and unwilling to commit fraud, you are a huge loser in this system. your neighbor will have their mortgage subsidized by some government program. they will get favorable SBA loans due to DEI. they will open a fake hospice or autism clinic. they will get paid for taking care of their neighbor's kid and vice versa. the primary skill in the labor market is learning how to extract money from state and federal government programs, not gaining skills or making yourself employable. if you are just trying to work an ordinary wagie job you are a huge sucker. you are paying 40-50% effective all in taxes to everyone else who is a net taker. the sad part is because AI is such a substantial productivity boost, it will actually keep this system going for a while longer, and maybe in perpetuity. AI boosts the 15% of the population that is actually productive so much that the remaining 85% can coast by. no one in charge will change this because they can't think of anything else. the political costs of a real UBI program are too great and we don't have the money for it anyway. so we will keep this covert fraud-based UBI program running indefinitely. unfortunately, if you are an honest wagie, you lose.

Boomers don't want to hear this, but one of the (many) reasons why my generation isn't having as many kids? A lot of millennials feel they can't depend on their parents for help the way they saw their own grandparents pitch in when they were growing up

Conservatives have to accept the real possibility that doing what it takes to carry out mass deportations is more than the public will tolerate. The administration is clearly bending to that popular pressure, and it might be a political reality that can’t be changed.

Yes I’m “gravitating” in a certain direction by being skeptical of US interventionism as I have been loudly and publicly for as long as I’ve had a platform. This is a new development. This general point of view I’ve had for the past 15 years is an ominous sign. Yes good point David. You’re an astute observer.

Waiting for marriage is stupid. As a young man I was a Christian and I waited for marriage to have sex. It was a terrible decision that led to me getting married for the wrong reason - just to have sex. If we had sex before we got married I am convinced we would never have gotten married because we would have realized it's not worth it. Instead we went through with it and got divorced 5 years later. Young men can't make rational decisions when they're sex deprived.

Why are hospitals choosing fewer and fewer Americans to be residents/doctors? Is this DEI? Cost savings?

We owe $8,000 to the IRS because we withdrew money to take care of my wife's mother to move her near us so we can take care of her. Do you know how hard it is to see these stories showing the fraud and corruption taking place with our tax money when writing the check?

If you are a single Christian woman who used to be promiscuous, do not be discouraged. You are not damaged goods. Jesus has turned your ashes into a crown of beauty and transformed your promiscuity into purity.

🚨 381,000 Foreign Students Authorized to Work in One Year ❗️Flooding the entry job market with cheap foreign labor ❗️No wage controls (work cheap or go home) ❗️They pay ZERO FICA taxes (15% economic advantage over US grads) Meanwhile, US grads send out hundreds of resumes & can’t even get an interview as new grad unemployment & underemployment surges.

It’s because have allowed our entire healthcare system to become a multibillion dollar FOR PROFIT industry and the Citizens United decision made it so money flows freely to campaign coffers to keep it that way. It is literally that simple.