cleanhands posted:

i thought laika was a soviet space dog alt but dm being back is good too. take it easy dm

he's too cool to be me

cleanhands posted:

ps the bbc reported the reinhardt/rogoff spreadsheet business as a matter of academics overrepresenting the effect of something which is accepted by everyone as being true economic fact. nothings changed, or will change

it does

Negative, SS goes on to the federal budget where it's payed for by borrowing and taxes.

it's not necessarily more distortionary than bank loans except for like wars

You're right, it's not necessary, but bank loans go to investment whereas SS goes to handouts.

Additionally it exterminates the white race, but because the incidence of payments is progressive it exterminates the black race even more, so taking fertility effects into account it's actually racist.

Edited by mustang19 (May 2, 2013 05:24:18)

libelous_slander posted:

Squalid posted:

Could someone go into more detail about the effects of social security on birth rates? I mean it makes since that there is a relationship between social safety nets and fertility but I've never seen the issue discussed academically.

social security is a ponzi scheme, meaning existing contributors are paid with the earnings from new contributors. As birth rates declined post-baby boom, there are less payers into the system. This is unsustainable. SS relies on the population increasing at a flat rate forever. Either the framework must change, the fertility rate must go positive in relation to historical rates, or payees need to die sooner, so they aren't collecting on their benefits anymore.

actually its a pure redistribution scheme, well i guess its ponzi in that people are dumb and think its about intertemporal saving when it isnt, well it might need to be to save up foreign reserves if you are a country that relies on imports for the old

it's like neoliberalism is about basically the cultural genocide of the second group.

That's pretty fucking dramatic.

a major canadian economist released a report on private retirement savings and it sort of used basic math to argue what each person should save at each level. and his recommendation for poor people was basically don't save at all. and his recommendation for well-off people was to save like 30% of your income for retirement. imagine how much extra money those people have if they can afford to put away 30% just to maintain their lifestyle.

Usually what people do in those situations is have 8 kids because, statistically, one of them will turn out not to be a deadbeat and will pay for your retirement. This is why fertility consistently falls a lot when social security is introduced. It's an inevitable feedback mechanism, there is no alternative. Contrary to cultural genocide theory, cutting SS actually increases differential fertility and makes poorer groups reproduce faster.

actually its a pure redistribution scheme, well i guess its ponzi in that people are dumb and think its about intertemporal saving when it isnt, well it might need to be to save up foreign reserves if you are a country that relies on imports for the old

You're both wrong, it's not a ponzi scheme because ponzi schemes are voluntary.

Crow posted:

How about caffeine?

i can only have two cups a day which lasts me until afternoon

getfiscal posted:

mustang19 posted:

That's pretty fucking dramatic.

i'm dramatic. i'm also kind of a big deal. *flips hair*

it's just that i'm boring and unfunny now or maybe i was manic/grandiose or maybe both (schizoaffective disorder)

Edited by laika (May 3, 2013 03:08:08)

mustang19 posted:

SS spending is not contributing to the deficit.*

Uh yeah it does unless you think the money to run social security comes out of thin air.

It doesn't, it comes from payroll taxes, which more than fund social security each year. In fact the federal government frequently borrows from social security administration and then tries to say that "oh the SSA runs at a deficit." well it doesn't. so STFU.

mustang19 posted:

Usually what people do in those situations is have 8 kids because, statistically, one of them will turn out not to be a deadbeat and will pay for your retirement. This is why fertility consistently falls a lot when social security is introduced. It's an inevitable feedback mechanism, there is no alternative. Contrary to cultural genocide theory, cutting SS actually increases differential fertility and makes poorer groups reproduce faster.

hahaha yeah thats exactly why impoverished high school dropouts end up popping out 8 kids: an overabundance of rational, decades-projected financial planning

mustang19 posted:

You seem ruffled. Why would fascists care about "deficits" or "socialist security" when the fastest way to export Third World conditions to America would be to disband all social programs and privatize education to religious fundamentalist institutions? Your precious communist revolution would be inevitable at that point.

if Third World conditions within First World technocracies resulted in spontaneous Communist Revolution then Raúl Castro would be rolling missiles up to the southern edge of the Mason-Dixon line right now

the accepted narrative of fascism is like the state strongarming reluctant/unwilling corporations under its dominion, but surely if corporations willingly sneak into the state through the backdoor (as has happened this time around) then the same effect manifests - albeit in a harmonised way rather than the nation-centric antagonisms of WW2 (which just goes to show how essential violence is to identifying fascist moments)

Forgive my limited vocabulary, but there's nothing wrong with violence in moderation, the countries with the highest mortality rates also have the highest population growth. Fascism is based on consensus between all social groups; it's a practically applied form of anarchosyndicalism which discards the trotskyist elements.

Fascism is also generally not going to result in global harmony, it's associated with autarkic economic policies that maintain national autonomy by reducing reliance on foreign investment. You can't kill Jews while global semitic capital is breathing down your back.

Edited by mustang19 (May 3, 2013 14:44:43)

He confirmed that al Nusra is generating loyalty in Aleppo, a region battling for months with Assad, by providing financial support as well as setting up charities.

Aaron Zelin at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in Washington says al Nusra's ability to provide security and basic needs such as bread and fuel to Syrian civilians, as well as to reopen shops and restart bus services, has won gratitude from people who would not usually adhere to its strict ideology.

Zelin says some Syrian people have criticized al Nusra for banning alcohol, forcing women to wear a full veil and whipping men who are seen with women in public.

"This illustrates the need for American leadership in the Syrian conflict, particularly with regard to helping non-Qaeda-aligned rebels contain the growth of (al Nusra) and similar groups," he said.{What?} "Washington should also try to take advantage of cleavages within the rebellion and civilian population, since al Nusra is outside the mainstream and more concerned with establishing a transnational caliphate than maintaining the Syrian state."

slumlord posted:

littlegreenpills posted:

slumlord is tape speed

slumlord is my esteemed colleague

uh no that's me