patrick.net

How long before the Dems claim Trump discriminates against those that can’t work?

I'm all for infrastructure as long as a bunch of dumb ass pet projects don't get pumped into the legislation. My wife and I would stand to benefit massively from any infrastructure bill that gets passed so I'm biased.

I hate debt, but infrastructure is one of the best government investments that helps American workers and it helps Americans to be more efficient with transport of goods and services across the country. Also saves lives through better roads, public transportation, etc. They get a lot of the debt paid back in the form of corporate and personal income taxes as well, as people/companies make more.

WookieMan says

I hate debt, but infrastructure is one of the best government investments that helps American workers and it helps Americans to be more efficient with transport of goods and services across the country.

The US government will never pay off its debt. The debt per US citizen is about $80,000.

https://usdebtclock.org/

While the rest of the world is stupid enough to continue to trade their valuable goods and services for the toilet paper that our government calls "money" - we may as well just keep printing and spending, until the dollar reaches its intrinsic value of $0 and have some good roads, factories, farms, and public buildings in the end.

The US went bankrupt in 2007. That's what QE and TARP are all about. We're at war primarily to protect the dollar - but there's other reasons as well. Repo failures began to happen in September of 2019 - the banks just got a 4 trillion dollar "emergency" bailout with this pandemic. How fortunate that happened.

You know what a repo failure is?

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/01/28/what-is-the-repo-market-and-why-does-it-matter/

"On average, $2 trillion to $4 trillion in repurchase agreements – collateralized short-term loans – are traded each day."

Gee, $4 trillion dollars was given to the banks in this bailout. What a coincidence..

DILLIGAF says

Senate Republicans are pushing back against President Trump's $1 trillion infrastructure spending push, warning that it's too "rich" and would be a "heavy lift" for Congress

The United States taxpayer just gave $4 trillion to the banking system to keep it solvent.

4 trillion was just added to the national debt, over night.

The country is bankrupt, the US dollar is worthless, may as well spend some money out of air on some useful infrastructure before people realize it is truly worthless.

richwicks says

the US dollar is worthless

Good. Send your worthless US dollars to me, if you have any.

FuckCCP89 says

the US dollar is worthless

Good. Send your worthless US dollars to me, if you have any.

I remember when the USSR collapsed on December 26, 1991 - I was in home in upstate NY at the time, but I have some idea what went down.

I've been preparing for decades for the same thing to happen here.

Do you think the leadership of either of our parties represent us? Do YOU want to have any of these wars that cost $2 trillion a year to fund? Do you believe ANYTHING from the Intelligence agencies or our "mainstream media"?

Well, that's what the USSR was like in 1985.

I keep some money around just because it's needed for short interruptions - but for when the shit hits the fan, you better have some high value, divisible, assets - that are easily recognizable in their elemental forms.

We are going through some WEIRD times, and there's NO WAY this is over the sniffles - we had a flu in the late 1950's which was worse than this "killer". I'll know in a few months if this is the big one. Maybe it's just a dry run. Time will tell.

richwicks says

FuckCCP89 says

the US dollar is worthless

Good. Send your worthless US dollars to me, if you have any.

I remember when the USSR collapsed on December 26, 1991

If I lived there I would accept any amount of useless rubles on December 15, 1991 as well.

So send these damn worthless dollars to me!

TrumpingTits says

richwicks says

The country is bankrupt, the US dollar is worthless, may as well spend some money out of air on some useful infrastructure before people realize it is truly worthless.

US government owns an estimated $125 trillion in assets. Buildings, power authorities, but mostly land.

US is not 'bankrupt'.

"Lookie at US debt!" has been rallying cry of Russian "patriots" for the best part of the last quarter of the century. Meanwhile Russia has no debt but literally 3rd of the population shits in hole in the ground instead of using indoor plumbing. Shocking but true.

FuckCCP89 says

"Lookie at US debt!" has been rallying cry of Russian "patriots" for the best part of the last quarter of the century. Meanwhile Russia has no debt but literally 3rd of the population shits in hole in the ground instead of using indoor plumbing. Shocking but true.

Do you not realize that it literally takes less than a day to find a Russian that will happily talk to you at great length about what Russia is actually like?

Russia in 1980 was a nightmare. It was a police state, it had continual propaganda, its economy was centrally controlled and it didn't work, and none of its citizens ever talked to anybody outside of the country.

40 years later, and that's the United States.

The US national debt is exponentially growing - doubling every 8 years. There is nothing that can grow exponentially without a catastrophic collapse. Not population, not wealth, not volume, nothing. Nothing in nature can grow exponentially without a catastrophic collapse Nothing.

I get tired of trying to wake people out of their dreamworld. I don't care anymore. People are naive, they are easily led into conformance usually, and they don't trust their own thinking. They follow herds and only a very few see it coming and have the fortitude to tell an entire crowd "you are wrong". Well you're wrong, but you will never believe me, regardless of what I say, because you follow the herd. It's comfortable to follow the herd, but the herd, always gets slaughtered in the end.

richwicks says

The US national debt is exponentially growing - doubling every 8 years. There is nothing that can grow exponentially without a catastrophic collapse. Not population, not wealth, not volume, nothing. Nothing in nature can grow exponentially without a catastrophic collapse Nothing.

Malthusean Nonsense - look at the world population since 1700. Look at Copper or Pork Belly or 6502 Microchip Production. Shit, look at the industrial output of China in the 90s and 2000s. Or Steel Production in UK/US in the past 1850-1950.

Just wait until Starship. You don't want to be holding precious metals when the asteroid belt starts getting mined. Probably more gold and platinum in the first decade of asteroid mining than 20,000 years of previous human history.

Before 2060, I call Gold at less than $100/oz, and Platinum less than $300/oz in today's dollar adjusted prices.

We'll be orbiting a real great M-Class Asteroid very shortly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16_Psyche

NoCoupForYou says

Malthusean Nonsense - look at the world population since 1700. Look at Copper or Pork Belly or 6502 Microchip Production. Shit, look at the industrial output of China in the 90s and 2000s. Or Steel Production in UK/US in the past 1850-1950.

Food and oil production are directly proportional to human population, which is also directly proportional to energy use. We simply haven't hit the peak.

6502 production, has cratered - but I did enjoy the Futurama joke:

www.youtube.com/embed/UCXqw67pX5c

Industrial output of China was growing from the 1990s at the expense of European industrial output being in the decline. UK/US steel production have crated as well, that's why there's a rust belt. I lived in part of the rust belt. You're cherry picking and ignoring obvious consequences.

NoCoupForYou says

Just wait until Starship. You don't want to be holding precious metals when the asteroid belt starts getting mined

It costs about $20,000 per KG to launch something into low earth orbit from the energy expenditures alone. It will never ever be economically viable to mine an asteroid. Star Trek is never going to happen, neither is Space 1999, The Expanse, or BattleStar Gallactica - neither is Moon Zero 2 for that matter.

NoCoupForYou says

Before 2060, I call Gold at less than $100/oz, and Platinum less than $300/oz in today's dollar adjusted prices.

>shrug< - good luck!

NoCoupForYou says

We'll be orbiting a real great M-Class Asteroid very shortly.

So? Titan is covered in hydrocarbons - why isn't Exxon Mobile making plans to mine it? Because the energy is essentially unrecoverable.

richwicks says

It costs about $20,000 per KG to launch something into low earth orbit from the energy expenditures alone. It will never ever be economically viable to mine an asteroid. Star Trek is never going to happen, neither is Space 1999, The Expanse, or BattleStar Gallactica - neither is Moon Zero 2 for that matter.

Nope.

"For a SpaceX Falcon 9, the rocket used to access the ISS, the cost is just $2,720 per kilogram."

https://theconversation.com/how-spacex-lowered-costs-and-reduced-barriers-to-space-112586#:~:text=For%20a%20SpaceX%20Falcon%209,is%20just%20%242%2C720%20per%20kilogram.

Homeless living under the bridges and highway overpasses have no debts. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

FuckCCP89 says

Homeless living under the bridges and highway overpasses have no debts. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

They might have some gold fillings in their teeth though!

socal2 says

Nope.

"For a SpaceX Falcon 9, the rocket used to access the ISS, the cost is just $2,720 per kilogram."

https://theconversation.com/how-spacex-lowered-costs-and-reduced-barriers-to-space-112586#:~:text=For%20a%20SpaceX%20Falcon%209,is%20just%20%242%2C720%20per%20kilogram.

Believe what you wish.

There's no longer real accounting anymore. I've had to go through and calculate the actual energy involved, including using different propellants. The very last person I trust, is Elon, PT Barnum, Musk. People praise him as some sort of genius. I look at him as another Elizabeth Holmes - but with government support.

The US government is desperate to restart the Cold War - with anybody, this makes using Russia impossible to use to get to LEO. It's just political bullshit. Elon Musk claims to break the laws of physics all the time. It's just a Fermi Problem.

richwicks says

Believe what you wish.

There's no longer real accounting anymore. I've had to go through and calculate the actual energy involved, including using different propellants. The very last person I trust, is Elon, PT Barnum, Musk. People praise him as some sort of genius. I look at him as another Elizabeth Holmes - but with government support.

FFS - Elizabeth Holmes?

Recommend you read up on what SpaceX has accomplished as you apparently have no clue. Not only is Elon perhaps the biggest innovator/disrupter of the 21st Century - he is not your typical knee jerk Liberal SJW that dominates our big Corporations. SpaceX alone is saving the US government hundreds of millions each year no longer relying on paying Russia to send out astronauts to space.

When 80% of SpaceX's rockets are reusable by landing and reusing the boosters instead of letting them crash into the ocean, it dramatically brings down the cost of launches. How could it not?

richwicks says

There's no longer real accounting anymore. I've had to go through and calculate the actual energy involved, including using different propellants. The very last person I trust, is Elon, PT Barnum, Musk. People praise him as some sort of genius. I look at him as another Elizabeth Holmes - but with government support.

The big cost isn't the propellant. It's the Reuseability of the Vehicle.

Imagine you had to build a brand new 747 every time to fly between LA and Sydney vs. competing against a 747 that could be reused 1000 times for the same trip.

In the first case, all new engines, all new avionics, all new landing gear, all new fuselage, all new toilets, all new seats for each and every trip, versus reusing the same 747 and only doing periodic upgrades.

Or buying a new Toyota Corolla everytime you went to the supermarket vs. putting 100,000 miles on a Corolla with 1000s of unique trips before replacing it.

The Fuel cost not the driver in such cases.

Also, given the fact that Falcons have been reused multiple times, that's a bit of a demonstrated success, no?

Malthus is about to be proven wrong yet again