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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   30496 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 12, 2024

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New homes and end to price-gouging: Harris sets economic goals

The Democratic presidential nominee's plans build on ideas from the Biden administration and aim at addressing voter concerns after a surge in prices since 2021.

The campaign's proposals include a "first-ever" tax credit for builders of homes sold to first-time buyers, as well as up to $25,000 in down-payment assistance for "eligible" first time buyers, a move that her campaign estimated could reach four million households over four years.

She has also called for capping the monthly price of diabetes-drug insulin at $35 for everyone, finding ways to cancel medical debt, and giving families a $6,000 tax credit the year they have a new child.

She is supporting a federal law banning firms from charging excessive prices on groceries and urged action on a bill in Congress that would bar property owners from using services that "coordinate" rents.

Though analysts say some of Harris's proposals, such as the ban on price-gouging, are likely to be popular, they have also sparked criticism from some economists. Bans on price-gouging already exist in many states, applied during emergencies such as hurricanes. But economists say the term is difficult to define and widening such rules could end up backfiring, by discouraging firms from making more at times of short supply.

Everyone likes free money, right? Building houses is good, having kids is good, paying less for life saving medications is good, taking power out of large landlords hands is good. But maybe trying to apply emergency price gouging laws to non-emergency situations is not so good. Maybe write a law that you have to lower prices when things are good as quickly as you raised them when they weren't so good. What are Trump's plans?

With populism ascendant in both parties, that cost has not dissuaded Trump's choice for vice president, JD Vance, from backing an even bigger tax credit expansion.

Economists predict that increased drilling would have limited impact given the global nature of energy markets and have warned that Trump's pledge to impose a tax of 10% or more on imports would drive up prices.

We're already producing a boatload of oil, but with russia somewhat out of the picture our european friends might appreciate it. Not sure about bringing down prices though.

A few months ago I commented on how vote buying is becoming commonplace of late.

Kamala's latest salvos have taken this to ridiculous new heights. It's hard to keep track but so far I see:

  • Student loan forgiveness
  • Medical debt forgiveness
  • Payments for people buying new homes
  • Payments for people paying more than 30% of their income as rent
  • Payments for newborns
  • Price controls on groceries !?

She even copied Trump's rather feeble attempt to buy votes with his "no taxes on tips" idea. (Not direct vote buying since this only offers relief from taxes, not direct payments).

Needless to say, subsidizing demand and price controls have a disastrous track record wherever they've been tried. Her policies, if implemented, would create huge disruptions in the market and likely to lead to high inflation as well as a serious and deep recession. If you are a net contributor to the tax system, things will become much worse for you as your taxes go up massively to pay for the freeloaders.

In other news, the price of gold hit an all-time high today.

On an semi-anecdotal note, this might tank support for Harris amongst Latinos, which was already weakening.

I’m hearing the word “Venezuela” a lot bandied about in TikTok & Instagram when taking about the rule of the Democratic Party, and none of it is flattering. Rather, it is dripping with absolute dread and seething hatred.

Unlike the college freshman types (both literally and in spirit), most 1st gen Latinos have extensive direct experience with left populism and this type of shameless vote buying and looting of the treasury. And contrary to what some segment of the anti-immigrant crowd likes to say, those amongst the immigrants that go through the bother and expense of naturalization very much do not want their adopted homeland to resemble the country they escaped.

I used to get a lot of pushback from my Latino part of my social circle for my open support of Trump, but not anymore. I’ve witnessed almost all of the blue-leaning Latinos slowly flip in the last eight years to at least tacit support for Trump. And I’m not in any way a bubble; my own family is a mixture of Amerikaner with some ADOS sprinkled through it. And my Latino family connections are very geographically widespread. I was even shocked to hear one of my friends, a very feminist coded Latina from New York, say she’s voting for Trump. Four years ago my views upset her deeply, but the reality of our situation has sunk in.

Although I personally am very in favor of heavily restricting immigration, it clearly comes with many benefits; one of which is a rich and varied experience with the many possible failure states in which a society can find itself. Much how people with direct experience of the Soviet Union are overrepresented in the vocal part of the anti-woke movement, so too it seems that 1st gen Latinos are populating the opposition to this profligate left economic populism.

What does Amerikaner mean?

The genetic swirl of Scots / Irish / English / Germanic / Nordic blood that eventually settled as the “generic white” main European ethnicity of the USA. Often the people who list “American” on the census as their ethnicity. The main population of Appalachia & The Midwest.

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