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Half of the United States are on government assistance. How do we fix this?


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Half of the United States are on government assistance. How do we fix this?

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 Money1017 
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In total, the Census Bureau estimated, 151,014,000 Americans out of a population then estimated to be 306,804,000 received benefits from one or more government programs during the last three months of 2011. Those 151,014,000 beneficiaries equaled 49.2 percent of the population.

How do we get these people off government assistance and increase our total unemployment rate from thirty three percent to something closer to ten?

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 GFIs1 
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Money1017 View Post

How do we get these people off government assistance and increase our total unemployment rate from thirty three percent to something closer to ten?

One: reduce budget for military and limit the war machine all abroad
Second: Reduce the costs of government (elections included) and reduce spying costs
Third: Start to motivate your people and companies to do something positive for manhood
Fourth: look how some other industrialized countries do exactly this since decades

In other words: LEARN from others instead of dictating* how things need to run in other countries

GFIs1

*what is the goal of the last Obama travel right now to Europe? Think about... yourself

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 sptrader 
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The solution is to make the incentive to work, instead of sitting home collecting a check...there are jobs available, most are part time, due to our current liberal administration, so work 2 or more jobs if necessary..
Make government assistance temporary- 6-12 months then no more..work or starve.
Make it a personal responsibility society, instead of a nanny state taking care of you..
Give tax incentives to business for bringing jobs back to the US...
No more government subsidies... no more bailouts. no more pork programs ..
Finally- mandate a federal balanced budget, no more debt ....
Reduce the horrible Obama 20% capitol gains tax, back to 5% or 10% to give an incentive for long term investing, thus giving much needed capitol for business to invest in new equipment, expansion, research and hiring more employees ...
This is only the beginning of what should be done to fix our massive unemployment-underemployment problem...

Remember, people that "gave up" looking for jobs, are NOT counted in the phony unemployment numbers put out by the government... the real unemployment numbers are massively higher....

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 tflanner 
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GFIs1 View Post
One: reduce budget for military and limit the war machine all abroad
Second: Reduce the costs of government (elections included) and reduce spying costs
Third: Start to motivate your people and companies to do something positive for manhood
Fourth: look how some other industrialized countries do exactly this since decades

In other words: LEARN from others instead of dictating* how things need to run in other countries

GFIs1

*what is the goal of the last Obama travel right now to Europe? Think about... yourself

I would strongly encourage u to pay little if any attention to politics if u want to make sound investing and trading decisions.

I think it is the most overlooked mistake in trading and investing. Been in this racket since the mid 80's...it was never much an issue until the financial crisis in 08/09. Not sure if it is the result of social media, Santelli, or Fox news. Anyway, fear sells and focusing on politics can only lead to rage and emotional decisions making...which leads to bad trading and investing decisions.

I sense you are angry at the USA. Not going to help u make money in the mkts. I sent this video to a friend of mine who was overcome by political rage on a daily basis. It was destroying him. You can replace Morning in America with Morning in Switzerland...Reagan with Obama (or whoever your leader is). I watch this video every morning.


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GFIs1 View Post
One: reduce budget for military and limit the war machine all abroad
Second: Reduce the costs of government (elections included) and reduce spying costs
Third: Start to motivate your people and companies to do something positive for manhood
Fourth: look how some other industrialized countries do exactly this since decades

Given @Money1017 is from Texas, and given his question, I'm just guessing that wasn't the answer that he wanted.

sptrader View Post
Reduce the horrible Obama 20% capitol gains tax, back to 5% or 10% to give an incentive for long term investing, thus giving much needed capitol for business to invest in new equipment, expansion, research and hiring more employees ...
This is only the beginning of what should be done to fix our massive unemployment-underemployment problem...

Were you calling Obama horrible or the tax rate horrible? Given that the long term capitAl gains rate at 20% is the second lowest in about 70 years I'm guessing you revealed your politics and that it was the first.

While I strongly agree that a low capital gains rate is exactly what the US needs to promote growth, the bottom line is that the people who benefit from this who are the people who are wealthy enough to make those investments. The claim then becomes that they are underpaying their tax's (aka Buffet's rants) because capital gains rates are below income rates (39.6%). This Wikipedia graphic illustrates the problem nicely. But given that interest rates are the lowest they've pretty much ever been and companies are predominately using the cheap cash to repurchase shares rather than invest in new business, I'm less of a believer in the argument than I used to be.


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sptrader View Post
Reduce the horrible Obama 20% capitol gains tax, back to 5% or 10% to give an incentive for long term investing, thus giving much needed capitol for business to invest in new equipment, expansion, research and hiring more employees ...

You have to be kidding, American corporations are awash with cash as it is. They have so much cash that they are desperately looking for every mattress around the world to hide it in. And what are they doing with the cash not squirreled away? Stock buybacks are at all time highs. Yes, instead of investing in equipment and R&D, innovating to create new industries and jobs they are buying back their shares to prop up their stock price which would otherwise be falling due to declining earnings and revenues caused by lack of business investment and innovation.

I realize you see the world through the lens of your political beliefs, but your list of things to do is what has gotten us in the position we are in now. More of the same is not going to fix things.

I don't have the answers but I know this country needs to become the land of opportunity again as it once was. Not the land of greed which it has become. Most people do not want to live on the government dole. People cannot survive even with 2 jobs making wages that have been declining in real terms since the 1970s.

If corporations will not do what needs to be done then it is the governments' job to level the playing field and provide the framework where people have the opportunity to succeed. Yes, I know the knee jerk reaction is to call it socialism but that is not what I mean. I mean loosening the grip corporations have on how our economy works to allow working people the opportunity to make a decent wage even if it is at the expense of corporate stock buybacks.

Case in point, there are many millions of jobs that could be created by developing and building out a solar energy infrastructure. But instead "Big Oil" corporate America is doing everything it possibly can to make sure solar power does not get a meaningful foothold until they make every last dime there is to be made by pumping oil.

I am not naive and do realize the US government is in the pockets of the corporations for the most part. So most likely things will continue to deteriorate for a long time until people become desperate enough, then the shit will hit the fan.

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This is a tricky subject, but perhaps it is best looked at as to how and why this number of people have come to rely on government assistance. In other words, perhaps it is not their fault, but a necessity of survival rather than laziness.

Our current framework, trickle-down economics, does not work. Instead, we have seen the wealth divide continue to grow as the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, or in other words, trickle-up economics. Global economists have discussed various ways to reverse this, through low rates, QE, raising tax bands (for example the UK now allows the first £11k income to be tax free) and trying to target large corporations who evade tax (EU attack on US corporations). In recent months there has even been talk of 'helicopter money' in a desperate attempt to re-stimulate the economy and put money into the hands of those who will spend it.

In my opinion the main problem is that moves like QE and low interest rates never really reach the street. Rich investors inflate house prices and rentals in search of yield which further cuts into the lower and middle classes capital and further stifles spending, which in turn hurts the real economy. Further to this, the rise of robotics and AI has removed jobs from some industries such as manufacturing, but as it becomes more advanced, has begun to threaten other sectors, such as taxi drivers and lorry (truck) drivers with advances in self-driving vehicles.

You could argue that these jobs that are lost are replaced with more skilled labour, such as IT professionals manning the systems, but the ratio of employment is always lower and as proven, wealthier individuals never spend as much in the real economy on consumer staples as those in lower wealth brackets - hence why in the end, it is much more beneficial to have a smaller wealth divide if you want a functioning economy. This is a complex discussion and subject, but those are my brief notes on some of the issues I see.

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 GFIs1 
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Seahn View Post
Case in point, there are many millions of jobs that could be created by developing and building out a solar energy infrastructure. But instead "Big Oil" corporate America is doing everything it possibly can to make sure solar power does not get a meaningful foothold until they make every last dime there is to be made by pumping oil.

My first answer with suggestions was from a macro point of view.
Of course unemployment is not turned down within one generation.

The key word (written in capitals in my post) was: LEARN
Education, R&D, projects for a better world and more!
What is missing in your country is a VISION.

Example
As @Seahn says - US "development" is still based on oil. For all upcoming decades.
Until no more drops are to drill out. Sometimes the very big companies are behaving
like dinosaurs.

How one change the world's consumption and being no longer depending on oil
is well shown with the Swiss solar plane surrounding the world. You think this is impossible?
No? It is reality. Flying day and night only with solar power.
At the time of writing - the plane has reached USA (sic!).



The perception of historic events is easily to see: Above new thread has been read 16 times.
One can find on news channels in New Zealand, India and many in Europe. Googling
the term you can see nearly no news in USA. Only one found in New York Daily News:
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/solar-powered-aircraft-ends-three-day-flight-silicon-valley-article-1.2612721

As long there is no learning and looking over the fence there will be no progress.

On a micro level it begins with every oneself.

GFIs1

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Money1017 View Post
In total, the Census Bureau estimated, 151,014,000 Americans out of a population then estimated to be 306,804,000 received benefits from one or more government programs during the last three months of 2011. Those 151,014,000 beneficiaries equaled 49.2 percent of the population.

How do we get these people off government assistance and increase our total unemployment rate from thirty three percent to something closer to ten?

I don't think those numbers mean what you think they mean. Government assistance doesn't mean welfare or handouts. It just means half the population benefitted from a government program. That could be retirees drawing a social security check or a kid getting a discount on a library card. It's probably even higher now with government mandated healthcare. About 8% of the population is on the dole and unemployment is 6% so everyone stop freaking out.

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This link is interesting even if I do not share his "naive" optimism and some of his ideas.

https://www.ted.com/talks/yanis_varoufakis_capitalism_will_eat_democracy_unless_we_speak_up/transcript

Speaking of government assistance is speaking of the the least interesting/meaningful part of the problem. It is just a consequence not a cause. This problem is not a US problem but a problem shared by all developed countries today. It looks quite familiar in some aspects to what happened during the 30's.

R.I.P. Olivier Terrier (aka "Okina"), 1969-2016.
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