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Misc says

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Milei may be just proposing extreme measures hoping there is some compromise so at least there is slight austerity for the next 4 years.

I wish the same would happen here such as grow the federal government budget by 1.5% below inflation each year for 4 consecutive years without requiring drastic tax increases.

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The problem with that idea is that the Federal government has a pension problem. Every year there are more and more retirees with a Federal pension, and the ones already outstanding get their COLAs. This is on top of the 10000 people per day hitting age 65 and retiring with their Social Security. This pretty much assures that government spending has to increase every year.

One slight austerity example is to reduce Social Security payments (on a sliding scale) to those earning more than 3 times the poverty level.

Those earning more than 5 times will get less than 40% of their original Social Security payment.

Implement a means test for Social Security.

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UkraineIsFucked says

No it doesn't. When the music stops, it stops.

Just curious: what is your definition of the music stopping?

Misc says

Then you gotta add in Medicare/Medicaid, military healthcare (both retired and current) and civil servant healthcare. Also, since the demobilization from WWII there has never been a year where the number of government employees has dropped (go figure).

(This isn't aimed at you, but the government fucks)

Don't touch my medicare and social security. I paid an eighth of every paycheck into that shit. I was old enough to work starting in the very early 90s, my whole life has been under the high withhold rate, so the "But before the 1980s it was only a few %" doesn't apply to me.

For any senator considering, I am Joe Pesci on this: "Fuck you, pay me. You put my money to sleep. Go wake it up!"

You know if they steal it, it's going to bail out banks.

If they cut Soc Sec, the grey panthers will shoot once and go home. It's literally life or death for tens of millions, and, since they paid in outrageous sums over an entire life of earnings, good luck telling them it's for the greater good. Think of the self-employed, too. They should be more pissed than anybody.

Worst of all, if they cut or disappear social security, guess who will be getting big fat pensions still? Yep, government employees from their federal pension. Fuck that shit. No fuckin' way those slimy fucks will be collecting 80% of the average of the last 7 years salary while they take all my lifetime of paid up annuity contributions away. They stole my money while using my tax money then and now to pay off bureaucrats to live in luxury? No way.

"Hurr Durrr... you should have saved more.. hurr durr".

Asshole, they took almost 10% of my PRETAX money out of every paycheck. You know, about the amount a person should be saving. That's not including any wages or benefits I didn't get because of my employer having to pay his side.

It has to stop somehow though, cause it will go bk. What's the solution? I'd be ok with getting paid out the contributions plus inflation and get my own healthcare rather than continuing this shit. But there needs to be sweeping govt reform first for anything to happen, not just govt employees, all the way up to govt, repeal all special favors/benefits, disallow insider trading etc.

The new rule of law is "if a thing can be done, it should be done" regardless of right or wrong. They do not care. G.R.E.E.D. is the motivation and government has force behind it.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/12/argentinas_milei_proves_to_be_the_worlds_strangest_dictator_handing_out_freedom_all_over_the_place.html

Are they suggesting Milei might be one of the 'Boys From Brazil', a HitlerSpawn for real rather than just metaphorically?

https://twitter.com/FromKulak/status/1738645242574688719/photo/2

GNL says

Just curious: what is your definition of the music stopping?

Maggie Thatcher's and Stein's Law.

ad says

Implement a means test for Social Security.

How about I get to stop paying into it if I don't get to get it back. I can invest it better anyway.

just_passing_through says

ad says

Implement a means test for Social Security.

How about I get to stop paying into it if I don't get to get it back. I can invest it better anyway.

Agreed

just_passing_through says

How about I get to stop paying into it if I don't get to get it back. I can invest it better anyway.

Unfortunately, there is no way of telling who a good investor is. The whole reason SS came about is that the majority of the population has proven to be too irresponsible to save for retirement. If everyone is allowed to opt out, then we will have the situation where most people not invest at all, some people will invest in the myriad of scams that will come about, and just a few like you who will invest wisely. Without SS, we would have a seriously increased mass of elderly poor. "W" proposed a plan when he was President to allow people to choose the investment vehicle for their SS deductions. That plan would have led to Solyndra level scams where the invested money would simply vanish, and we would still have the problem with elderly poor victims.

Another reason SS is broke is like welfare, it went beyond the deserving to too many situations.

SS was created to help the elderly who could not work pay for the last week of every month's groceries. That's why it's supplemental.

Over the decades, it was expanded to the disabled, mentally ill, and a bunch of others.

Just like welfare was for the maimed or the widows, but expanded to Leg Spreaders. Once it was expanded to leg spreaders the whole thing became a disaster.

Social Security was set up as social insurance for the poor elderly.

It is now more than just that as mentioned before, and also treated as a retirement plan for those who make more than 2 times the poverty level.

The federal government wants and needs the Social Security tax receipts also to buy US Treasury assets.

The Social Security fund is like the Federal Reserve, as both help finance the US federal government by purchasing US Treasuries.

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HeadSet says

Unfortunately, there is no way of telling who a good investor is. The whole reason SS came about is that the majority of the population has proven to be too irresponsible to save for retirement. If everyone is allowed to opt out, then we will have the situation where most people not invest at all, some people will invest in the myriad of scams that will come about, and just a few like you who will invest wisely. Without SS, we would have a seriously increased mass of elderly poor. "W" proposed a plan when he was President to allow people to choose the investment vehicle for their SS deductions. That plan would have led to Solyndra level scams where the invested money would simply vanish, and we would still have the problem with elderly poor victims.

Phase it out then for the older folks and during the phasing reduce our burden so we can start investing it. After that working on good relationships with family and friends and others will be a lot more valuable. Tent cities for the morons.

AmericanKulak says

Another reason SS is broke is like welfare, it went beyond the deserving to too many situations.

SS was created to help the elderly who could not work pay for the last week of every month's groceries. That's why it's supplemental.

Over the decades, it was expanded to the disabled, mentally ill, and a bunch of others.

Just like welfare was for the maimed or the widows, but expanded to Leg Spreaders. Once it was expanded to leg spreaders the whole thing became a disaster.

Chick I knocked up in the 90s fits this superbly. (fortunately she miscarried) From New Orleans I call her the Louisiana Fruit Fly. Since then 7 or 8 baby daddies, I really don't know anymore as I ignore her but did have to interact with her maybe 10 years ago. I started getting all sorts of SSI shit in my apartment mailbox addressed to her and a voicemail.

Called her and she was trying to act like she was living in CA with me to get more $ from SSI and she could get from Oregon where she lived at the time. I threw that shit in the trash and told her I'd report her if she didn't change that shit right away.

Saw lot of that in Louisiana amongst the pidgins. Get knocked up by the next boyfriend, thinking it will secure his loyalty, when it never worked with the previous eight boyfriends. In addition to the welfare and court takes, the recurrent cycling harassment of the boyfriends would yield occasional additional guilt bounty.

https://twitter.com/BowTiedMara/status/1737814656075411657

The Open Skies policy included in yesterday’s measures:

- Enables airline companies from all over the world to begin offering domestic flights within Argentine territory
- Enables airline companies from all over the world to offer international flights to and from Argentina without the need for prior agreements (e.g. direct flights São Paulo-Bariloche or Madrid-Mendoza, without having to go through Buenos Aires first).
- Limits on flights per route and who can fly them are eliminated
- Airline operators will be able to freely set prices (the disastrous FLOOR prices they put on low cost airlines end, so now they actually become low cost

https://twitter.com/JMPresidente23/status/1739531107299656005

And: https://twitter.com/JMPresidente23/status/1739451365116588448

Argentina's President Javier Milei has a major victory today.
He has proposed a law that affirms a right to self-defense in Argentina, which they do not currently have.
This will be applies in cases where someone tries to cause bodily harm to you or where they try to invade your property.
It also affirms that if the person trying to attack you dies, their relatives cannot sue you after the fact for defending yourself.
He has banned woke pronoun usage from government text, enacted reforms that will remove welfare benefits from anyone protesting in the streets blocking traffic and ban the usage of the word "free" to promote taxpayer-funded government programs.

https://twitter.com/JoeyMannarinoUS/status/1740223474558275706

He also
Eliminated 12 out of 21 cabinet posts
-Fired 5,000 government employees
-Ended 380k government regulations

Better than Trump who did not pardon Assange, created warp speed vaxx, etc, and who may, at this point, just be the best of bad choices.

And MORE Milei Porn!

(I swear he makes me want to learn Spanish)

Btw, this is a good Xer to follow:

https://twitter.com/Milei_Explains

https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/do-you-dare-even-look-forecast-2024/

The other new face on the scene, under a comical mop of hair, is the feisty Javier Milei, Argentina’s new president. There is no other way to account for this rich country’s protracted disastrous collapse except seventy-five years of intractable, half-assed Peronista socialism that drained the nation’s will to live. Mr. Milei has started a mass eviction of bureaucrats and the departments they infest, and massive de-regulation of business. The place might actually wake up and start doing business again. A hundred years ago, it was one of the world’s upcoming leading nations before it fell under Juan and Eva Peron’s spell.

Bd6r says

https://twitter.com/JMPresidente23/status/1739531107299656005

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/too-few-regrets-tuesday-january-2nd

Africa News ran a story yesterday headlined, “BRICS expansion: five countries join ranks.” For some reason, U.S. corporate media has completely ignored the story.




Yesterday, Saudia Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Ethiopia officially joined the alternative-currency BRICS group of nations. (They were approved to join back in August.) Argentina was also slated to join, but — fortunately for America — Argentina’s new chainsaw-wielding, US-aligned, “far-right” president Javier Milei cancelled the country’s BRICS application last week and bowed out. (Is that why the CIA let him win?)

Could be.

I don’t really see how BRICS threatens US of A or what is the benefit to Argentina in joining it. The two serious players - China and India - hate each other’s guts and claim each other’s territory.

The US weaponized the dollar and under Biden we had a period where the dollar did not come close to maintaining its value.

Everyone holding Treasuries is a little concerned about Congress just printing a couple trillion one day to cover one of our Too Big To Fail Banks failing, or for further Green initiatives or Wokey/Doke student loan cancellation, Black reparations or "free" money for disadvantaged Gen Z'ers to be able to buy homes.

We're already running deficits of about $2 trillion per year and we haven't even looked at Pension bailouts yet.

Everyone is looking for something that will hold value as faith in the dollar is plummeting.

Misc says

Everyone is looking for something that will hold value as faith in the dollar is plummeting.

Yes, as you don't want to be holding cash unless it is appreciating or earning at least 1% above annual inflation. Putting cash under the mattress is one example to avoid.

Real assets like property and silver coins will protect against a weakening dollar. Even a S&P 500 fund is a safe haven also.

I read that Russia holds a lot of Indian currency after India buying oil in 2022 and 2023. Russia needs to turn around and buy goods with that India currency like whatever India exports such as electrical equipment, sugar, etc.

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https://nitter.cz/JMPresidente23/status/1744864544583815189#m
Things that we have no idea for what they are used

Bd6r says

I don’t really see how BRICS threatens US of A or what is the benefit to Argentina in joining it. The two serious players - China and India - hate each other’s guts and claim each other’s territory.

China and Russia dispute territory as well.

https://open.substack.com/pub/someunpleasant/p/one-month-in

Rental Prices drop 20% as Milei deregulates housing market.

https://www.cronista.com/negocios/murio-la-ley-de-alquileres-ya-se-duplico-la-oferta-de-departamentos-en-caba-y-caen-los-precios/

Bd6r says

Things that we have no idea for what they are used

Ventilation, a loop ones wife can slip her long nail into more easily to drag your ass out of the electronics section guys hide out in while she "shops", reduction in electrical noise, the over through of the US of A.

https://betonit.substack.com/p/will-milei-make-argentina-great-again

On Property:

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/swiped-thursday-february-1-2024-c

I’m not sure what to make of this story. Barron’s covered it in an article yesterday headlined, “IMF Authorizes $4.7 Billion For Argentina After Milei's 'Bold' Reforms.”

In a statement, the International Monetary Fund’s chief Kristalina Georgieva, if that’s her real name, praised Javier Milei's "bold actions to restore macroeconomic stability and... address long-standing impediments to growth." Accordingly, the IMF approved a $4.7 billion “aid program,” which is probably an onerous loan with tons of strings attached, but it signals official approval of Milei’s anti-socialist reforms. ...

I was surprised at the news of the IMF loan, since I expected global organizations like the IMF would oppose Milei’s anarcho-capitalist reforms. But something in the zeitgeist seems to have changed. Maybe, revealed by the harsh light of potential post-pandemic financial collapse, socialism is finally looking unaffordable.

I'm suspicious of anyone the IMF supports. This is not a good look for Milei.