State pension plans are primarily funded (in order of what comprises the most) by 1) the government 2) investments and 3) employee contributions.

Pay as you go is about employee contributions, which is typically the smallest pot being contributed. I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.

When did I ever say the problem goes away? I am saying it is not a Ponzi scheme. You were saying it is a Ponzi scheme. Don’t move the goalposts here.

This is a fundamental misunderstanding of how these funds work.

The goal is not to pay people with the money from new people paying into the pot. They invest the money and then the pot grows and that money is used to pay out. When the pot is not growing enough - whether because investments aren’t doing well enough, or you designed a you designed an bad system where people can withdraw from it for too long, or any other many possible issues - then yes you functionally end up dipping into the money given by new people, but this is not how it was designed to be used.

You are acting like this is a one-to-one system where you just put money in, then you get money out later, and all of the money given out is 100% the money that people put in in the first place with no intention of growing that money or finding a sustainable way of disseminating it long-term.

Mismanagement/poorly built systems are not the same as Ponzi schemes. Unless you think, I don’t know, US Social Security is also a Ponzi scheme?

That’s still not a Ponzi scheme even if it isn’t sustainable.

There are a myriad of fantastic organizations doing great work and if 5% of the disillusioned crowd got involved they’d make huge gains. They just want a single President to magic wand everything they want into existence, if they can even define what they want half the time.

I get what you’re saying I really do but we do this same song and dance every 4 years since 2012

Yes it’s a privilege to be able to do what I do. But I guarantee you almost every person who goes online writing comment after comments about how “there are simply no good candidates” could’ve donated a few dollars or phone banked at least once for someone. If you ask them who they would have wanted instead they can’t even answer that because they don’t know. They just get mad at the establishment during the final hours then disappear for a few years and never try to do anything about it.

I currently volunteer with and donate to the EFF and CSE, and I worked both of Bernie’s campaign. If your goal is to flip the script on me you’ll need to find another approach. Or you could try actually engaging the points.

Yes it was overly angry and ranty but I am tired of repeating it and this election was frustrating as fuck.

Don’t patronize me asshole

Trump is not the person to learn this lesson with. Romney, McCain, all of those would’ve been fine. Trump is an incredibly unique threat.

What a shit take. If you wanna get away with just making shit up like that then you should just go on right wing talk shows and pretend to be a pundit. They’ll love you

Let’s see your tune in 4 years lmao all you fuckwits who stayed home did was force everyone to live under the authoritarians right now. You sacrificed marginalized groups because of a complete lack of perspective and selfish bullshit.

You have four years every year to push for candidates you like. Local and state offices. So many opportunities to volunteer and donate. Then you all show up having done NOTHING during that time, strolling up in the general election endlessly complaining and moaning. I’m so fucking sick of it.

Change takes work and time. Sitting around whining online doing nothing for 3.5 years then showing up in the general is not putting in the work. It’s being entitled brats.

Truth

Unfortunately their ability to decide their own fate is limited while they are reliant on resources from countries that are threatening to pull the plug.

Yet we still give Israel bombs 🫥

I don’t disagree with any of this, all I’m saying is that Ukraine only has a war so long as its friends are giving them the means with which to wage war.

I completely agree the US would be foolish to stop helping them. We should be ramping it up. Russia is a rogue state, it should be treated like one, with the relatively modest investment we put into it we have seen Russia take crippling blows that will take them easily decades to recover from. This is an opportunity to contain a major world threat and it is not lost on me that Trump and co are determined to squander the opportunity.

While I do agree that this is all kind of bullshit and contributes to that issue of supporting Putin and the Russian mafia fantasy, the reality is that the entire Ukrainian war effort is propped up by the resources provided from western countries, which means that they do in fact the ability to continue or end the war pretty unilaterally. We can chest pound all we want, as can Zelenskyy, but he knows this. This war cannot continue without armaments from the US and Western Europe

I’m not sure where you got the idea that 1) I didn’t think he was a major enabler of the horrific genocide of the Palestinian people or 2) that it is at all relevant. You’re just flinging shit at the wall and seeing what sticks now to paint me as some evil dem bootlicker because you’re behaving like a petulant child who doesn’t understand how government works. Fuck Biden and fuck Israel for the genocide they are committing. Happy? Is that the slam dunk you were hoping for?

He can’t remove the filibuster. He can’t force legislation on Congress. He can’t executive order that kind of rule for Congress. The democrats and republicans in Congress have to end this practice. This is basic civics. He can vocalize it all he wants but he can’t make them do anything.

You can’t pass that with a simple majority.

I agree they should not be able to trade stocks. I think the democrats are being rat bastards for participating in it too. But I also understand that Biden could not single handedly solve that nor was it remotely a high enough priority to burn political capital and fight his own party over it.

If the US stopped giving armaments and money to Israel once it became clear what they were doing and then followed up with actual punitive measures yes it would have stopped it. Israel is committing genocide with the approval of the US.

what…?

I largely agree but let’s not forget Afghanistan. Trump contributed but the Biden admin was elected to be the adults in the room and they looked totally disorganized and incompetent during that.