Donald J. Trump (For everyone else)

I would rather sift through rubble than eat hummus with Elon while basking in the glow of a giant gold Trump statue.

This is such a childish way of thinking about the economy. By this logic, we could improve per capita gdp growth by giving a headshot to everyone who delivers food to supermarkets and everyone who stocks the shelves in supermarkets.

Can you spot a flaw in that economic plan?

He actually wants to deport almost everyone picking crops and working in meatpacking in the USA and probably a quarter of the people doing construction, so my guess is that he can't spot the flaw.

Find a quote from any conservative saying growth was great in the Obama administration. That’s the point. Trump’s policies failed to deliver improved economic growth despite’s numerous promises they would. You can make excuses for why they didn’t but they are just that, excuses.

Obviously not everyone wants to move to the US, but hasn't the US been voted best country to move to for like 50 years straight according to immigration numbers?

It isn't childish to point out some group of people objectively, measurably, is poorer that the rest of the country, and so if they leave the country becomes richer per capita.

The same would be true if puerto rico got sold to another country and puerto ricans ceased to be american citizens. And many other such examples. The remaining population would objectively be better off.

Real per capita gdp is the actual correlates to everything we value in life, much more than nominal gdp for the country, and you know that. It isn't childish to admit that you can increase that (and so improve material conditions for everyone who is left in) just by kicking away poorer than average people.

What is he doing to restrict the workforce?

What did trump do to prop up the gas powered car industry?

You may want to go back and check the GDP growth numbers by president.

Of course you won't find any conservative saying obama had good economic growth. I'm not sure if you will even find an economist who is a dem who would say he did a good job growing the economy. He inherited an economy coming out of a recession and his growth numbers were bad compared to other post recession numbers. All he had to do was change the mark to market accounting rule and stop throwing money into the economy and he failed at both.

I've said this so many times here but it deserves being repeating - judging a presidents policies in terms of economic growth just during his time in office is insanely stupid.

Kinda dumb to just go by raw numbers. USA is more than 4 times the size of the second largest OECD country and it (Germany) has more international migrants per capita.

This is incredibly stupid. Just mind-boggling. It's like you think if you go to a factory and keep all the managers and fire all the line workers it would make the managers better off.

A company is not a country, that's the incredibly stupid, just mind boggling, consideration.

The company doesn't have to pay for the poor workers in old age , or for their kid schools and food stamps and so on.

You need to work on balancing your range.

It's really gross how upside down you are on who produces the wealth and who the rent seeking leaches are in society.

Congrats. You confirmed that you are completely missing the point.

Let's try this again. I previously gave the example of low paid workers who deliver food to the supermarket and stock the shelves? Is it possible that delivering a head shot to those workers (and all other similarly situated workers) would not result in a better economic world for those who did not receive a headshot? Is it possible that we need those workers in order to have access to affordable goods and services? It's a mystery, I know, but use your imagination.

Dumbo,

According to your "logic" deporting every worker in the entire country would instantly raise the GDP per capita and leave the management and ownership better off for it. It's breathtakingly dumb.

America really is for sale.

His goons laughing behind him is a nice touch.

Going to be amusing if this happens and the takers are all Russian Oligarchs.

Sure and that’s my point. The numbers don’t matter you only care about ideology. Same as Trump.

I don't oppose the idea of providing an expedited path to citizenship for people who are skilled in areas of great need (like some STEM areas).

But this Gold Card idea just seems dumb. It seems like the sort of thing that will mostly appeal to weathly retirees in turbulent areas of the world, not entrepreneurs.

I think basically only people who other countries are barring because they are criminals (like Russian oligarchs) would pay $5 million. Maybe some Saudis just trying to help Trump save face.

Maybe Elon will sponsor some Nazis.

My knee-jerk reaction is that I can't see any downside to selling a path to citizenship for $5M to vetted buyers as long as it's done without any disruptions to the existing citizenship process. The leading argument against it seems to be that it came out of Donald Trump's mouth.

If the lefties think America is a shithole on the edge of bankruptcy, then why would they possibly care that we're taking donations from foreign rubes who want to hitch a ride on our sinking ship? As long as 100% of that money goes to paying down the debt, why should we be against this?

I once paid $1000 to take my family to Six Flags Great America with their super turbo platinum fastpass that let us simply go directly to the front of any line we wanted, no questions asked and no restrictions. It was amazing and ruined amusement parks for me forever. As long as the price is high enough to not overwhelm the normal system with Pay to Win cheaters, I just don't see a problem.

I'd probably wear those shorts in 2010 too

There wouldn't be much downside because almost no one will do it. It's still dumb.

That's close to what I was saying. I'm sure that someone will point out that putting a price tag of $5 million on something doesn't mean you have to give them the card no matter who they are or what they have done.

That's true, but like you, I wouldn't trust a Trump administration to withhold the card from gangsters and human rights pariahs, especially if there was something in it for Trump personally.