@zachweinberg The “tax” is not being “spent” in the old people. They paid in that exact tax. Yes, Medicare is but so what. Our standard of living is so high that those two reasons are rendered irrelevant. We DO feel the benefits.
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Michael Pratt
22.9K posts
Michael Pratt
@mikepratt
CEO @panamplify | Host TV Show @digitalfightclb | USMA '87 | Duke ‘94 | former Goldman trader | reluctant warrior | intrepid gardener
Dallas, TX Katılım Aralık 2007
206 Takip Edilen4.4K Takipçiler
The reason normal people don't feel the benefits of America being super rich + having high taxes is because we spend the vast majority of the tax revenue on old people.
Medicare + Social Security.
The wealth and taxes are there, the beneficiaries are just 65+.
John Arnold@johnarnold
Very good op-ed: "How Can America Be So Miserable When It’s So Rich?" @DavidAFrench gives 2 reasons: (1) scarce goods like land in desirable neighborhoods and NFL game tickets and (2) positional goods - there is always someone who sits in the front of the plane and someone who gets on last. As wealth rises, demand for scarce and positional goods increases, and businesses focus more heavily on serving that demand. Seating on Southwest Airlines was originally based on when you arrived. Then they created one premium tier. Now every seat has a distinct price. This evolution went from no positioning to near perfect positioning. Most people can afford many everyday comforts, like a large TV or meal delivery, so competition for scarce and status-linked goods intensifies. That dynamic can leave people outside the top wealth tier feeling worse off, even as their material standard of living improves. "No one is the clear villain in this story, and that’s one thing that makes the problem difficult to solve. We can’t target and defeat a specific set of bad actors who are immiserating America. Everyone is acting in rational self-interest." The growing discontent, almost impossible to reverse, drives the move towards populism as voters demand solutions to problems that can't be solved.
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@michaelshermer Because immigrants commit far far fewer crime than citizens so constantly pointing that out only stokes the flames of your base of political reasons. You’re not actually calling out crime. And second, the were killed by the freaking Govt without cause. There’s two reasons.
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Everyone knows the names of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the two protestors killed in Minneapolis while protesting ICE actions there.
How many know the names of Kayla Hamilton, Jocelyn Nungaray, Rachel Morin & Laken Riley, who now has an act named after her, which requires immigration officials to detain undocumented individuals who are charged with or arrested for crimes like shoplifting, theft, or burglary, to ensure mandatory detention without bond for these offenses and allows states to sue the federal government for failing to enforce these rules.
Too bad it didn't apply to a Venezuelan national and illegal immigrant named Jose Medina, who last weekend murdered Loyola University Chicago student Sheridan Gorman, age 18, for no apparent reason, ambushed her with a mask on and shot her in the back as she fled for her life. He was, in fact, apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol on May 9, 2023 and released in the U.S. under the Biden administration. He was then arrested for shoplifting in Chicago, then released on June 19, 2023.
To my liberal friends marching with signs bemoaning the deaths of Good and Pretti: can you at least acknowledge that, you know, maybe a completely open border isn't a great idea?
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@RVAwonk Why the hell does a quack like Benny Johnson even get an audience with the VP? We’re in a clown show
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Why is everything bad a “demon” or “satanic” all of a sudden? Everywhere I look, someone is describing something in those terms (“evil,” etc) and I don’t understand where it’s coming from or why everyone decided to start speaking like that.
Disclose.tv@disclosetv
NEW - U.S. Vice President Vance on UFOs: "I don't think they're aliens, I think they're demons."
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I also forgot to mention: you know Thune has the authority to eliminate the filibuster so counting to 60 didn’t help. But alas, filibuster was irrelevant, DHS funded by senate without ICE provision … problem solved and Freedom Caucus has Johnson by the short hairs and here we are again. Ideology trumps common sense and practicality once again.
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@mikepratt I control nothing but I do know how to count to 60 and it’s sadly more than 53.
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@asymmetricinfo Yes. But the morons in charge are focuses on maximum lethality and warrior ethos. Surely we’re good
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We are getting a wakeup call. We should wake up.
Ari Schulman@AriSchulman
This should be the biggest story in the country right now. Barksdale is the HQ for our B52 nuclear bombers, it's where Bush sheltered on 9/11, and the drones are reported as "far more sophisticated than anything seen in Ukraine ... and well beyond Iranian capabilities."
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@StephenPunwasi @mountain_ted We have backpacks nukes. You are incorrect
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@mountain_ted Dirty bombs (combining radioactive material with explosives) aren’t nuclear by definition. It’s a regular suicide vest w/toxic dust.
US calls the radiological dispersal devices, and the head of the “department of war” definitely knows the difference.
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FYI a nuclear suicide vest isn’t feasible due to basic physics.
Nuclear explosions require critical mass, which means slamming the particles together. It needs space, so containers are large & heavy.
This isn’t limited by tech. It’s limited by physics and reality.
Gerhardt vd Merwe@realgerhardtvdm
🚨🇺🇸🇮🇷 NEWEST WAR PROPAGANDA TO TRY AND SELL THIS ILLEGAL WAR RO THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER: JD Vance says: "Iran was about to use NUCLEAR SUICIDE VESTS in supermarkets." "NUCLEAR SUICIDE VESTS" 😂🤣😂 (This is nothing but Hollywood fiction)
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Why, just fifty years ago, we would have thought UFOs were alien beings, or perhaps swamp gas or weather balloons. But nowadays we know that they are demons - or perhaps a toad or a small dwarf living in the clouds
Disclose.tv@disclosetv
NEW - U.S. Vice President Vance on UFOs: "I don't think they're aliens, I think they're demons."
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@nancylacore You are right. But they don’t care. They are all giving the rest of us the middle finger and are getting away with it. It’s bad.
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Four highly qualified officers were removed from a promotion list. Secretary Hegseth continues on his path of politicizing the military, a path that is eroding the merit and trust that make our military the strongest in the world. Over the course of my 35 year career, I sat on dozens of promotion boards and they are rigorous, fair and grounded in merit. Yet again, we see a Pentagon focused on politics instead of personnel, and we need to have answers.
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@MtrejoG41242242 @PressSec I’m not a liberal. We need immigrants. Period. They contribute more than citizens and commit less crime. You cal look those facts up on Trump Govt websites. So you’re gaslighting is irrelevant
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@mikepratt @PressSec To bad when you are present with reality that all what you have to say, keep fighting for your liberal ideas and illegal emigrants I will keep speaking for the lower and middle class Americans citizens
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The whole world laughs at Democrats’ lame voter-ID claims
nypost.com/2026/03/27/opi…
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Agents assisting with patience and kindness. Taking care of passengers.
Shame on all elected officials from both sides putting @TSA agents in the middle of their chess game.
They have misinterpreted their assignment to serve others instead of themselves.
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Another story real true story family of 6 both parents illegals in Huston kids born here father work in the refineries very good salary, mother never have to work using all the above benefits, time for college government asking home income 0 because he is illegal and children get all the breaks my children from 2 American citizens children one in the army to pay for college the other do not get any assistance except school loans because I make to much money on my taxes I have to pay more than what i already pay in on federal? why Are we supporting other individuals from other countries so ther children have a better education than ours, this is f up. Why liberals cant see this.
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@mikepratt Because nothing I say will change their mind
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@UnderSecPD @HouseForeignGOP Why did we ease sanctions on Communist Russia ? Confused.
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As I told @HouseForeignGOP, it’s an honor to be part of a State Department that fights communism.
Department of State@StateDept
SECRETARY RUBIO: The only thing worse than a communist is an incompetent communist. 🎯
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@ArtemisConsort @elonmusk Ignoring the law isn’t radical. It’s wrong. And illegal. You’re praising ?
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To those who say Trump isn’t doing enough, isn’t serious, etc: this is radical. He is effectively circumventing Congress. There are plenty of reasons for stodgy institutionalists to dislike Trump, but if you want radical change he’s your guy. Truly wild, history-making stuff.
Rapid Response 47@RapidResponse47
🚨
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@PatAdams96 @PressSec Who are you and why did the Press Secretary follow someone with no bio and 600 followers that echoes her talking points. Oh, and they are not coordinating.
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We’re seeing a coordinated blackout of coverage from the legacy media about Sheridan Gorman’s brutal murder at the hands of an illegal alien criminal who came into our country through Biden’s open border and then was later released under JB Pritzker’s sanctuary city policies.
Pat Adams@PatAdams96
Sheridan Gorman should still be alive. Every single crime committed by an illegal alien in America is completely preventable.
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@MtrejoG41242242 @PressSec A. Your data is not correct. It was 9.6mm “encounters” under Biden. Not “let in” B. You haven’t shown how illegals have hurt the US.
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@mikepratt @PressSec lol not sure what you are talking about because what I remember that one let 10 million illegals to come in was Biden
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@MtrejoG41242242 @PressSec I’m talking about foreign policy. You’re talking about domestic. But at least we can agree that Trump has destroyed the working environment for the citizens you speak of
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Is not talking point is reality I work with people everyday that if they don’t work overtime they can’t pay their bills, I care more for this people that what Europeans think about us, if we cant look out for our citizens that ones that try to work who will, and that 80 % of our country.
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that is a big leap. No, I don't necessarily "care" what they think but I am wise enough to realize that out reputation and standing in the world IS the source of our power and has been for 100 years and we just threw that away. We owned the position as the most influential country and it wasn't close. How do you know that I don't know how it is to be a middle class citizen? I am one. You're just spewing talking points. I do not care to refute them all because there is no basis for what you just said
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You are the kind of person that care what everyone else thinks and not what our citizens had endure, do you think China cares about us or Russia, Europe is done with suicidal empathy, and that is what will happen with America if the liberals are in charge, how many illegal emigrants the democrats allow to come in while our children can’t buy a house and have to compete for jobs, and do you think we should care what other countries think, you f don’t know how is to be a middle class citizen in this country do you, maybe you should go ask the factory worker how difficult is to make it now days.
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@USMC_Razorback @IsaiahLCarter @WestPoint_USMA your research validated my claim it didn't refute it but whatever. You did it publicly. You didn't accept my reply. You wanted proof. It was a bit much
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@mikepratt @IsaiahLCarter @WestPoint_USMA I did a little research first before calling your claim into question - I don't just throw shit out there & hope it sticks.
I try to at least check stuff out first.
First rain on grad day in 25yrs at West Point.
If it hadn't been for the math error, would've never called you out.
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Explain to me how I, a Black man with a blue-collar Union job, benefit from all this illegal immigration, David.
Explain it to me like I'm five years old.
Which is how you white leftists talk to us anyways.
David J. Bier@David_J_Bier
@F10fromMAGArone Except for the 330 million Americans that benefit from immigration…
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