I don’t know if I would call them a voting bloc per se, but otherwise, yeah, that would count.

Name another voting bloc with fewer principles and more outsized influence.

Yes.

Thanks, now I hate farmers even more.

It’s not just a question of growth. It’s also a question of wealth inequality and the accumulation of liquid capital, of the velocity of money, avoiding liquidity traps, etc etc etc etc.

I don’t know the specifics of what’s happening in Venezuela

Maduro is deeply unpopular and the authoritarian regime in Venezuela has been trying to avoid having actual elections.

Yes, absolutely. The number of reasons why inflation is good for the general economy is… rather vast.

That’s an argument to peg social security to inflation, not to get rid of inflation.

Theft from… creditors?

“Democracy is Bad, Actually” - Terminally Online ‘Leftists’

Unfortunately, you can defeat an organization like Hamas purely through violence. It’s just that the only level of violence capable of doing so demands a total genocide. Which Israel looks likely to attempt to complete while the world wrings its hands.

The lack of interest in even an unequal peace on Israel’s part in favor of genociding Palestinians would, in an ideal world, open a great number of eyes. But I’m not particularly hopeful. People have short memories and little interest in foreign affairs.

Obama wasn’t pro-China. You see, that’s the problem - NOT being a frothing-at-the-mouth loon is actually bad for China, because China looks like a pretty unappealing alternative to aligning with the US in South-East Asia right now. If America looks racist, moronic, and on the brink of collapse, China looks more appealing to SEA nations by comparison.

You literally don’t for long-term capital gains.

“Trump is easily manipulated, but Biden isn’t an insane manchild who will start economic turmoil because he shat his diaper that morning. Who will be better for extending anti-democratic ideology and Chinese imperialism in our ‘sphere of influence’?”

If you only paid $100,000 and you made $1,000,000; you’d have $900,000 profit; of which you’d probably only see ~60% to ~40% of, if Capital Gains taxes are anything near what I think they are. If we assume a “worst case”, where the Federal Government takes 40% and the State takes about 20% more, that means your tidy profit is only about $390,000. That means you’ve probably got to secure another $140,000 in financing on average to pick up a more modest $500,000 home (in today’s market) to retire in.

Capital gains taxes range from 0-20% Federally, depending on your income. In Cali, the addition is up to 13%

Which means that worst case scenario, you sell a property in Cali, you would pay 33% of the profiit above the original price of the house and the 500,000 exemption. So on a house you bought for 100,000 and sold for 1,000,000, you’d pay the awful, awful price of… 133,000, leaving you with a paltry $867,000.

Condos generally aren’t much cheaper than houses. They would have the same issue if their region’s real estate was half as expensive. They would have had this problem 10, 20, 30 years ago if they were retiring. If you sell a house in an expensive area and want money left over, you either have to choose a shittier house/apartment to live, or a cheaper area.

Most homeowners don’t have to pay capital gains on their home when they sell. Thanks to tax legislation from the ’90s, a gain of up to $250,000 for a single tax filer or $500,000 for a couple filing jointly is exempt from tax. That’s providing the sale is of the homeowner’s primary residence and that they meet other requirements such as living in the property for two of the past five years.

That means if a couple bought a median priced home in 1987 for $100,000 and they’ve lived there as their primary residence and are selling it today for $550,000, the $450,000 gain from that investment is not taxed because it falls under the $500,000 exclusion to capital gains taxes.

However, if those same $100,000 homebuyers lived for 37 years in an area that has seen enormous growth in home values — as is the case for many parts of California — and their home now sells for $2 million dollars, that’s nearly $1.9 million in profit, of which only $500,000 is excluded from taxes.

Oh, how horrible. /s

Yes, but the distinction is legally important. Like I said - the issue is general attitudes towards how it’s ‘okay’ to treat prisoners rather than the wording of the 13th Amendment.

I believe they’re using it sarcastically, especially considering that they say prison labor is vile.

In most states, it’s not involuntary. It’s just horrifically sub-minimum wage. The issue is less that clause of the 13th, and more the general attitude and laws towards prisoners.