so you and the other PP from post-soviet countries mention 'being aware' and 'being prepared.' Being aware is not preparing. so what are you doing to 'prepare'? |
I think I’m one of those people and to be honest the reality check is helpful. I’ve gotta get off this site! |
Really? |
NP - FFS, can we please stop drawing parallels to job loss and uncertainty with what is happening now? We are witnessing people who have sworn an oath to defend the constitution flagrantly violating that oath, while going out of their way to make the lives of civil servants a living hell. That’s not “job loss or uncertainty.” Acting like these things are apples and oranges is also detached from reality. |
I’m in another major metro area and a similar vibe here. |
Agree |
That must be why consumer confidence is cratering. |
I live just in Loudoun County and yes we have some fed workers around, but the for most people the commute to DC is too far from here so we don't really have that many. Things are largely just carrying on as usual out here too. I went out today for errands, stores and restaurants are as full as ever. |
Yes but that’s just because we are the canaries in the coal mine. |
in all seriousness, what is your plan? |
medicare/medicaid. But the R budget plan is to cut nearly 1 *trillion* from medicare/medicaid. There are going to be even more hospital and nursing home closures, especially in rural areas. Our whole economy ultimately rests on the velocity of money. If it's circulating, wobbles can be dealt with. When it's circulated through the working class, most of it goes straight back into the economy: where an NIH grant funds a research department at a university, that in turn employs a few dozen people in research and computing and admin and post-docs and building services, who then go home and buy groceries and pay dog walkers and babysitters and hair stylists and bartenders, who themselves go home and spend money on doordash and peloton and meal prep and pizza and everyone buys stuff from target and walmart and amazon.... you circulate that money into a billionaires bank account, and that's basically where it stays. so yeah, sure, you "saved" the federal government $5 million by axing that grant. In return you 1) trashed the research, and then 2) probably eliminated $15 million in economic output, and then those people don't have income to pay taxes on either. Cancelled grant by grant, contract by contract-- all originally voted on and authorized and directed by congress, btw-- that cascades into a recession. Then all those people start spending as little as possible, and stop paying the mortgage or rent, and try to take cash out of the bank, cash the banks don't actually have on hand because they lend all they have on the books, and then you have a banking crisis. Oh, and you add tariffs for the raw materials like steel and timber and plastic and everything gets more expensive, and what manufacturing we do have collapses because no one is buying. anyway. yeah, just like covid. so just like you could see the dire economic consequences of covid in NYC's chinatown in late january 2020, and the freezer trucks of dead people in March, and rump declared that it would be over by Easter-- instead, it just kept rippling outward. Just because this is hitting DC first doesn't mean it's not going to get to the rest of the country. 85% of federal workers are outside the DC-baltimore-nova corridor. And to be clear, the billionaires WANT the dollar to collapse, temporarily. Musk told you it's going to happen. They want housing to collapse. They'll be able to buy it all up for cheap. And no one will have advance warnings of bird flu, or hurricanes, or tornadoes, because the NIH and CDC and FEMA and NOAA will have all been neutered. Enjoy. |
|
To the above poster:
You realize the vast majority of people didn't die of Covid or even get very sick, didn't lose their jobs and saw their investments and home values go through the roof. So it actually ended up fine. |
sure, except for the 1.5 million excess deaths and commercial real estate failure. and of course the recession was primarily averted by direct stimulus-- again the velocity of money. |
The six-step plan. Butterfly Revolution Step 1: Campaign on Autocracy Step 2: Purge the Bureaucracy Step 3: Ignore the Courts Step 4: Co-Opt the Congress Step 5: Centralise Police and Powers Step 6: Shut Down Elite Media and Academic Institutions Step 7: Turn Out the People https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpPTRcz1no Good luck to you. |
If private clients are not earning money, how will they pay $300/hour for lawyers? |