Lefty's Cheap Hotel

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Lefty's Cheap Hotel

Lefty's Cheap Hotel

@JrWannamaker

The mountain might get 'em, but the law never will

Tham gia Temmuz 2020
896 Đang theo dõi128 Người theo dõi
Lefty's Cheap Hotel
Lefty's Cheap Hotel@JrWannamaker·
@conor64 (1) The CDC performed so poorly that we would have been better off without it. (2) The public health officials who declared that BLM protests were an exception to lockdowns because "racism is a public health crisis" forever destroyed my trust.
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Conor Friedersdorf
Conor Friedersdorf@conor64·
A question for everyone: survey data suggests that by the end of the Covid-19 emergency trust in public health institutions had decreased significantly. If you are among the people who reacted that way, why specifically? I'm hoping for long, diverse, individualized answers.
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Lefty's Cheap Hotel
Lefty's Cheap Hotel@JrWannamaker·
@conorjrogers Why is that radicalizing? Above the cap you stop making contributions *and* earning benefits. It very intentionally was not designed as a welfare program.
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Conor Rogers
Conor Rogers@conorjrogers·
One of the most radicalizing moments of my life was when I learned that they just stop collecting social security taxes on money earned over like $150K. Like you just suddenly keep 3-6% more money on all money over that threshold.
Fuck You I Quit@fuckyouiquit

Every dollar earned below $184,500 a year has a Social Security tax of 12.4%. Everything after that cap is exempt. If we lift this cap on the wealthiest earners, Social Security would be fully funded till 2070. The cap should not exist.

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Nick Maggiulli
Nick Maggiulli@dollarsanddata·
A lot of this comes down to poorer kids just not knowing what to do. I didn't know that I had to apply for an internship in the WINTER of my sophomore year to get a sophomore summer internship to leverage into a junior summer internship to get a full-time offer senior year.
Resolution Foundation@resfoundation

Even after graduating from university, people who grew up in poverty face significant pay gaps when compared with their more affluent peers. @annastansbury explains 👇

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Lefty's Cheap Hotel
Lefty's Cheap Hotel@JrWannamaker·
@jgmac1106 @charlescwcooke Maybe the answer is that high earners get screwed, but you said they are currently getting a "big break". They aren't. That's like saying they get a break on plane tickets because they pay a lower percentage of their income. Everyone is paying the same tax for the same benefit.
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Jgmac1106
Jgmac1106@jgmac1106·
@JrWannamaker @charlescwcooke What is your answer to solvency? I think we have to look at both sides of the balance sheet. You raise retirement to 67 and you move the FICA cap to 500K
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Charles C. W. Cooke
Charles C. W. Cooke@charlescwcooke·
This. It’s wild watching the casual way in which people say “just raise or abolish the Social Security cap.” Leave aside what it says about the logic of the program, have you seen our politics? Have you looked at the math? “Just”?!
Megan McArdle@asymmetricinfo

It's a 12 percent tax hike on all income above $184k which pretty much exhausts our fiscal space to raise taxes on those earners and likely pushes you past revenue-maximizing rates in blue states.

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Lefty's Cheap Hotel
Lefty's Cheap Hotel@JrWannamaker·
@jgmac1106 @charlescwcooke They don't. Everyone pays tax *and accrues benefits* up to the cap. FDR did this on purpose so it would be politically untouchable. It might be inevitable that it just turns into another welfare program, but it will lose a lot of political support.
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Jgmac1106
Jgmac1106@jgmac1106·
@charlescwcooke Why do rich people get a big break on the FICA that normal folks can't get?
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Lefty's Cheap Hotel
Lefty's Cheap Hotel@JrWannamaker·
@charlescwcooke Social Security is already a terrible return for anyone making decent money. The idea is that you pay taxes *and accrue benefits* up to the cap. People want to keep (or lower) the benefits cap but eliminate the earnings cap. At that point it's just a welfare program.
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Megan McArdle
Megan McArdle@asymmetricinfo·
Last year I dubbed this “dark leisure” washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/…. But while I think this explains some of the gap, I also think folks who are using AI productively underestimate the number of folks who still aren’t.
rohit@krishnanrohit

An observation from a discussion earlier tonight that I dont think I've shared before: AI has already changed most white collar jobs, and the reason it's not shown in macro productivity stats is because while it's saved time for folks individually this ends up as leisure for them

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Lefty's Cheap Hotel
Lefty's Cheap Hotel@JrWannamaker·
@SenateBudget Because over the wage cap you stop earning benefits. Go ahead, turn it into just another welfare program so it will lose political support.
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Senate Budget Democrats
Senate Budget Democrats@SenateBudget·
MURRAY: Is it true that people making under $184k pay a 12.4% Social Security tax rate? DAHL: Yes. MURRAY: And the rate for someone making $1 million? DAHL: 2.2%. MURRAY: So, a 12.4% tax for people making less than $184k, but 2.2% for a millionaire or .0002% for billionaires.
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Josh Barro
Josh Barro@jbarro·
I have a dentist in Manhattan who runs a no-frills practice, never tries to upsell me, gets me in and out of his office in 30 minutes every six months. A unicorn.
Billy Binion@billybinion

Dentists are the used-car salesmen of healthcare. A lot of practices look at what they can juice out of your insurance—extra X-rays, for example—and then try to upsell you on additional cleanings & totally unnecessary procedures. Been dying on this hill for years. It's a scam.

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Lefty's Cheap Hotel
Lefty's Cheap Hotel@JrWannamaker·
@ATabarrok I like to ask, "If the x-ray is so safe, why are you putting a lead vest on me and leaving the room?"
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Alex Tabarrok
Alex Tabarrok@ATabarrok·
Went to the dentist for a cleaning. Refused the blood pressure check, refused redundant x-rays, refused to sign a waiver for refusing the x-rays. Three nos to get one teeth cleaning. I am now known as a troublemaker.
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Lefty's Cheap Hotel
Lefty's Cheap Hotel@JrWannamaker·
@avidseries @Noahpinion I can't think of a good Democratic comp for Vance. He's extremely intelligent, and he knows exactly how flawed and corrupt Trump is but cynically sold out to advance his own career.
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i/o@avidseries·
@Noahpinion This makes him a more slightly appealing villain to me. No one likes a dim villain.
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Lefty's Cheap Hotel
Lefty's Cheap Hotel@JrWannamaker·
@Noahpinion I have a lot of negative things to say about Vance, but he's vastly more intelligent than Harris.
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Lefty's Cheap Hotel
Lefty's Cheap Hotel@JrWannamaker·
@asymmetricinfo It seems as though the NYT just did profiles on many people in NYC at different income levels and of course Twitter people decided to turn it into rage bait.
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Megan McArdle
Megan McArdle@asymmetricinfo·
Also a lot of people in NYC are getting various subsidies, especially housing (rent control/stabilization/IZ + public/section 8). Folks in market rate housing may see only modest visible difference between their consumption and that of someone making a quarter of their income.
Alex Yablon@AlexYablon

The proximity and visibility of the truly rich in manhattan (along with housing and childcare costs relative to burbs and other metros) tends to drive the borough’s merely very affluent insane

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Lefty's Cheap Hotel
Lefty's Cheap Hotel@JrWannamaker·
@avidseries My impression is that Claude and Gemini are better at most things and Chat GPT is becoming Boomer-coded.
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HappyMerlot2025
HappyMerlot2025@happymerlot2025·
@iowahawkblog WTF is that disgusting creation? The only reason why the British Empire expanded was to find eatable food that isn't this cursed abomination.
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Lefty's Cheap Hotel
Lefty's Cheap Hotel@JrWannamaker·
@kevin_nealon Apropos of nothing, my late father and I used to randomly do the SNL subliminal advertising bit for years. "Mets tickets" was code for asking for a favor.
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Kevin Nealon
Kevin Nealon@kevin_nealon·
I never broke character on SNL. I knew how much time the writers put into those scripts. You don’t want to be the one who throws it off. Lorne doesn’t like when the cast breaks. Even if the audience laughs, it doesn't work for the sketch. If I could get through the Chippendales sketch, I could get through anything.
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Khám phá

@conor64 @basinmusic @Noahpinion @conorjrogers @dollarsanddata @avidseries @jgmac1106 @charlescwcooke