There are plenty of resources to support retirees, even in the face of declining population. After all, people have been paying into the system their whole lives---what did the government do with all that money? Making New Zealand richer. Over the last 30 years, your GDP has quadrupled, and yet your population grew by less than 2 million people.

If our parents could support our grandparents with 1/4th of the GDP, our kids can certainly afford us in the future, when the GDP will be even higher.

Workers these days are incredibly productive. Trying to get everybody scared is just creating a false problem. True, instead of sending the dollars to defense contractors and billionaires (Its amazing how the U.S. was suddenly able to spend another trillion on the Iran war, eh? Always plenty of money for that.)

You can't expect capitalism to solve your addiction problems.

But inflation is most definitely a wealth tax, don't you agree? And here is the kicker--if we raise taxes enough to close the deficit (as Clinton did in the 90's) the inflation rate will go down. By enough to recoup a big chuck of the wealth tax in the first place.

During the dot-com bust, my 401k was cut in half. How is that for a wealth tax?

Cut in half again during the great recession of 2008. How is that for a wealth tax?

Dipped during COVID. Another wealth tax.

Inflation went up when Trump applied the first round of tariffs. Inflation is the ultimate wealth tax.

Went up again when he invaded Iran. Another round of wealth tax.

I saw him in a video saying that he had to sign the "memorandum of understanding" because if he didn't there would be a world-wide depression. So I'm bracing for another round of wealth taxes.

Bush did not continue the policies of Clinton. He cut taxes, which increased the deficit, which made interest rates rise, which made the subprime market collapse, which resulted in the worst recession since the great depression.

What gave him political cover to do this was 9/11. He took the opportunity to spend Trillions on oil wars, which we fought for the next 20 years, and which accomplished absolutely nothing.

The result was that for the first time in American history, the next generation had it worse than the previous generation. When I graduated from college, my biggest problem was choosing which stock option package to accept. When my son graduated from college, his biggest problem was deciding which meals to skip to afford his insulin.

Thank goodness Obamacare fixed my son's insulin problem. And Obama wasn't able to get rid of the deficit, but he at least put it on a path where it was shrinking relative to the size of the economy.

I can't bear to rehearse what the Trump administration has done. Absolutely incalculable damage to the budget, the deficit, civil discourse, our international goodwill, and to the rule of law.

It's hard to even convince people how bad it is, because nobody under the age 40 even really understands what a functional government and economy looks like.

There are a few things which have gotten better. Gay marriage. Marijuana legalization. But Entshitification is real and for the last 25 years has been relentless.

This seems obvious.....

There must be a dictatorship of the proletariat, because they obviously don't know what's good for them....

If the straight of Hormuz isn't opened in the next few weeks, stock markets are going to start to crash.

I really hate this timeline.