Conservatives: What are your principles?

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(motivated by a request from LandOLakes)

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I have varying degrees of issues with several of these, but this one in particular.

Wealth redistribution isn't a problem at all. The problem is wealth distribution in our country. The form of capitalism we have now is pushing our wealth to the very top. Look at any graph of the last 50 years and it is pretty obvious. And, the government is enabling this. We give all sorts of handouts to corporations in the name of promoting investment activity but all the corporations do is buy back stock and shove money to the ceo's and top corporate management and wealthy investors. They never use it to help "us" or anyone else in the corporation. It's unbridled greed and the conservative movement absolutely loves it. They cry about a few people maybe getting piddling benefits that they think are unearned while billions of dollars flow into the pockets of the ultra wealthy.

What do you mean by "our wealth"? That sounds like Bernie-land rhetoric, which has nothing to do with the underlying reality.

If we're the economy and you save $1/year for 50 years and I don't, you'll own 100% of "our wealth."

In other words, that the workers not only stopped saving as much as they did 50 years ago, but also took on a ton of consumer debt over that period and the rich didn't is why "our wealth" distribution looks like it does today.

That only applies to Grizzly Adams and the like, not to pre-tax iincome. That plumbers in Mexico don't have near the material well being as their counterparts in the US has nothing to do with their labor input.

"It's these damn workers, they're the problem!"

Love the part where you conveniently ignore all the trickle down policies shafting the average worker for decades that biggerboat pointed out. "Just save more and spend less!" Shut the **** up, dude. Quit defending the billionaires, you aren't one of them and they despise you.

Sure, they enable the problem--like a drug dealer. But the primary driver is an addiction to overconsumption. If people today practiced the same level of financial austerity as their grandparents or great-grandparents, their financial stress would be considerably lower, especially with regard to housing.

And to be fair, it’s not really the bottom 90% of workers driving the issue, but rather overconsumption among those in the 90th-99th income percentiles, which creates many of the pressures affecting workers. What the top 1% do doesn't significantly affect everyday living standards, since much of their income is reinvested into capital goods in one form or another. As the saying goes, someone like Musk can only eat one steak or sleep in one bed at a time, just like the rest of us.

Overconsumption is certainly a problem, such as the 1% overconsuming the wealth created by their workers. Overconsumption is also intrinsically tied to this late stage of capitalism that we’re in. Snip it entirely in one fell swoop, and several other dominoes fall.

Distribution is definitely the issue, not whatever excuse you’re trying to pin on the peasants.

The issue there is that they may only be able to eat one steak at a time but that have a lot of systemic influence throughout the market that can increase the burden on middle class people - like buying up housing and education costs, or the media, or influence laws.

Sure, but you could also have the income levels fall which matters more for the bottom 90% than musk's income dropping.

We want to have protections in place so we don't end up with China's medium income of 4,800 a year just so we can stick it to the billionaires.

True. But how that nature functions can be. Protestant work ethic is a good example of society shaping behavior without rewriting human nature.

Here's chatgpt spinning up some talking points ala Ben Franklin's voice:

THE 2026 PRODUCTIVITY ALMANACK:
A Plain Appeal to the Industry and Reason of the 90%

To my Fellow Citizens,

It is a common vanity to look at the ledger of a billionaire and feel robbed. But let us be as practical as a printer with his ink: a man’s digital billions do not eat your bread, nor do they drink your water. They are but a scoreboard of capital. The true thief of your prosperity is not the man who builds a better engine, but the "Financial Grifter" who builds nothing at all, and the "Influencer" whose excessive appetite for luxury bids up the price of your very existence.

I. THE TRUCE WITH THE TITANS
We shall let the 1% keep their mountains of gold, provided those mountains are used as a forge. We offer them a Great Bargain: your wealth is safe from the taxman only if it is lashed to the plow of Productivity. If you fund the AI that makes medicine cheap, or the energy that makes travel free, you shall keep your score. But if you seek to grow your pile by shuffling paper or hoarding the roofs over our heads, the Law shall treat you as a parasite upon the Commonweal.

II. THE DISCIPLINE OF THE 90%
To the doctor, the manager, and the successful merchant—those of us in the Top 10%—we must speak a hard truth. Our own "wants" have become a tax upon the poor. When we bid against each other for the latest vanities, we divert the mason from building a cottage and the farmer from tilling the field. A compulsory Guard Rail upon our luxury consumption is not a penance; it is the cooling of a fever. By spending less on the "superfluous," we ensure the "essential" is abundant for all.

III. THE END OF THE GRIFT
The man who flips a house for a profit he did not earn, or the trader who gambles on a decimal point, is a clog in the gears of industry. We shall tax the Grifter until his trade is no longer profitable, forcing his capital to flee toward the Inventor. When the "smart money" is forced to be "productive money," the cost of living falls faster than any wage can rise.

IV. THE LIVING WAGE RE-DEFINED
We seek not to give every man a mountain of paper dollars, for that leads only to the ruin of Inflation. We seek to make the world so productive that a modest wage buys a King’s comfort. When the 1% provides the Tools, and the 90% provides the Guard Rails, the "low-skilled" worker finds his table full and his home secure—not by the charity of the rich, but by the sheer Abundance of a nation that has stopped wasting its strength.

Industry and Frugality are the parents of Liberty. Let us stop chasing the billionaire's shadow and start directing his fire.

— A Productive Citizen

Who is that ugly, fat, unfunny whatever-it-is?*

Security guard was hysterical with his expression though. He almost made the 2m20s worthwhile.

*I'm also ugly, fat and unfunny so I can ask that.

Serious Question: Does anyone here other than coordi spend hours(?) a day on 'X'?

I have three monitors my guy I spend like 30 hours a day doing **** on the internet

Nice!

Can you take a look at the top 25, 50 or 100 richest people in the US and ask yourself how the money those people made was made? You will find that what all of them have in common is that the money they have now was at some point earned because they provided a service or good that helped millions of people. The closest we have to an exception to that rule is Elon because he helped millions but also Dem politicians worked their asses off to make sure he made even more than he otherwise would have by shoving EVs down our throats.

Can't really blame trickle down policies when we haven't had trickle down for a long time, if ever.

A lot of people like you (by "like you" I mean a very limited understanding of what the economy is) like comparing the price of a home today vs the price of a home 50 or 100 years ago in relation to the income of today and back then while ignoring the difference in sqft and many other amenities that today's houses come with. You should think about that and why this is a comparison of apples and hotdogs. This can be further expanded into what you said above that many expenses people face today are luxuries that weren't even dreamt about 50 years ago.

Druski. The handle on twitter should have been your first clue.

Too much stupid in here to address it all, but the living wage segment I find particular amusing. Think about the line, "We seek to make the world so productive that a modest wage buys a King’s comfort."

How many kings throughout history lived better than the working class American today? I would argue very few, if any.

How many kings throughout history didn't have running water, a toilet, a warm shower every morning, a handheld device that could answer nearly any question he had, yoga pants, modern medicine if he or a loved one got sick, access to a car, ability to rent a seat on a plane to travel, access to an insane amount of food options, indoor AC and heating and an endless amount of entertainment from a TV, computer, radio and internet. This is not meant as an complete list of course because there is no way of listing every advantage a poor to middle class worker in America has over some of the richest kings through the world's history.

Maybe think of that line in Franklin's time.

I could tell Druski posted the video. Didn't know s/he was posting him/her self, since s/he looks nothing like the 'lady' in the video.

I want to know who the security guard is. He was legit funny, unlike Druski imo.