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    igotwordsHamilton Nolan
    2/24/16 3:03pm

    1. Increase minimum wage.

    2. Increase taxes on higher wage earners.

    3. Use the increased taxes to pay for hikes in social security and universal healthcare.

    Done. Who wants chinese food?

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      Fresh Courage Takeigotwords
      2/24/16 3:07pm

      Me. I’ll pay.

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      Margog 'The Hammer' Shapiroigotwords
      2/24/16 3:10pm

      You just described Canada.

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    Jujymonkey3Hamilton Nolan
    2/24/16 2:59pm

    We all got $300 from W. back in, what, 2003 or so? Gee thanks, that paid my cable and cell phone bill that month.

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      BrocephalusJujymonkey3
      2/24/16 3:02pm

      How much free money do you feel you should be entitled to? I’m not necessarily saying HamNo’s solution is a bad one, I’m just wondering what the dollar value is that you would be satisfied with.

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      Jujymonkey3Brocephalus
      2/24/16 3:04pm

      I personally am doing fine, so I don’t need any “free” money. There are others who are not as fortunate. I can’t speak on their behalf, but I wouldn’t mind if some shekels reach people living paycheck to paycheck.

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    burnerburneradinfiburnerHamilton Nolan
    2/24/16 2:58pm

    Well, as populations increase in conjunction with a decreased demand for human workers, something will have to be worked out.

    Likely it’ll be Elysium-esque in nature, but the alternative is to accept that when we have a contrived economic system, we can in fact do what we want with it!

    However, I think it’s probably as simple as paying people a lot more to do a lot less work. That might be a bit more palatable for everyone.

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      Montoviroburnerburneradinfiburner
      2/24/16 3:13pm

      The definition of “doing less work” is going to be interesting. Working fewer hours at the same rate of productivity? Hanging out at work for the same amount of time, but producing fewer goods or less services during the day? Will the U.S. adopt a maximum number of weekly hours, as France did, and punish those who try to work harder or longer? Decades ago it was predicted that the distant future would include more leisure time for all, but there are always those pesky sorts willing to work nearly 24/7/365 to create as much personal wealth as possible—whether it’s at a corner grocer or a multinational conglomerate.

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      Wile_Eburnerburneradinfiburner
      2/24/16 3:18pm

      The only way we will truly “fix” the system is when we are able to move to a post-scarcity economy. When we have an “unlimited” source of clean energy like fusion, robot labor to take on the menial labor jobs and manufacturing jobs, global food production and distribution, etc. Then the labels like socialism and capitalism will be meaningless. All economics is about managing scarcity of resources.

      When we get to the point that all basic needs (energy, food, shelter, clothing) can be met regardless of how many humans are fully participating in the work force and without regard to quantity of available resourves, then all these concerns will end.

      The only scarcity will be things like how do we decide which 30,000 people get to fit into the stadium to see the concert tonight.

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    Fresh Courage TakeHamilton Nolan
    2/24/16 3:04pm

    A. Your question is not a silly one at all. B. But for the rapaciously greedy — and crooked — IRS, it could happen. Remember: the government, as vomitous as it is, wants its money. And if they’re not getting their money, they’re watching their money (it’s not yours or mine; it’s theirs.) in the name of the IRS.

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      BrianGriffinFresh Courage Take
      2/24/16 3:23pm

      It’s not the IRS’ fault that CONGRESS passes the tax code. CONGRESS is also attempting to defund the IRS and limit their ability to collect the taxes that CONGRESS has legislated.

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      IanFresh Courage Take
      2/24/16 3:26pm

      You do understand that the IRS’s sole responsibility is to make sure people are lawfully paying their taxes...right?

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    TheEvilAttorneyHamilton Nolan
    2/24/16 3:02pm

    Honest question, did the Fed literally give the banks that money? I was under the impression that it was basically zero interest loans, more or less.

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      Fresh Courage TakeTheEvilAttorney
      2/24/16 3:06pm

      The latter.

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      ghostandgoblinTheEvilAttorney
      2/24/16 3:15pm

      Zero interest loans, which they used to invest in yield-earning treasury bonds. There’s really no reason why they couldn’t have set up accounts for every American and done the exact same transaction.

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    PucksrHamilton Nolan
    2/24/16 4:21pm

    Negative Income Tax is really a good solution that makes everyone happy.

    I can solve the abortion debate pretty quickly too. Make abortions past 20 weeks illegal, however make birth control/prenatal care a RIGHT.
    1. No abortions past 20 weeks
    2. All women have free and unfettered access to ALL forms of birth control
    3. Sex ed with a focus on birth control is mandatory
    4. All pregnancy care is state-funded at private hospitals via a credit
    5. Higher tax deduction for children
    6. Large increase in state-funding to deal with wards-of-the-state(the mentally handicapped and impaired)

    IF a pro-life advocate argues that my 6-point plan is unrealistic, then they aren’t really pro-life. They are social conservatives who just want to bitch about shit.

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      helgaperezPucksr
      2/24/16 4:59pm

      24 weeks would be more reasonable, and I’d argue you still need to allow late-term abortions for medical reasons. You don’t want women being forced to carry a baby without a brain to term, or dying of sepsis.

      ETA: almost all late term abortions are medical, anyway, so I would just leave abortion totally legal, otherwise you wind up with people doubting women’s reasons for abortions and denying them abortions when they truly need them.

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      FridayFridayPucksr
      2/24/16 5:11pm

      Close but if you did the research you’d see that the abortions happening that late are just plain necessary. Banning them means sentencing women to, for example, carry a nonviable fetus without a brain or other vital organs and go through the trauma of physically giving birth to it, which is just horrifying (not to mention unconstitutional and morally abhorrent). Which is actually happening in some of our states as I type, because Republicans can’t seem to cope with the fact that Roe v Wade has already been decided and made law.

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    PapillonHamilton Nolan
    2/24/16 3:15pm

    I had my free Government health insurance cover about $50 of an eye exam — I didn’t know it could save me that much. I hadn’t had any insurance until last year so I wasn’t used to not having to pay the whole bill. It was such a relief, I got pretty emotional walking out of there knowing I had some extra money.

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      NicoPapillon
      2/24/16 3:19pm

      Really? Every time I've gone for an eye exam/glasses, as soon as I tell them I have no insurance they magically make $100-200 dollars disappear from the bill. I have insurance now, so I won't be doing that anymore, but I'm surprised they didn't help you out prior.

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      PapillonNico
      2/24/16 3:28pm

      I had always WISHED that happened, but no, my eye exams have always been ~$85 for a contact lens prescription. I think you have been going to a nicer-than-normal eye clinic or I’m just jealous.

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    XrdsAlumHamilton Nolan
    2/24/16 3:07pm

    A UBI is almost inevitable in the U.S. given factors like automation and outsourcing and the continued need to prop up a sham consumer economy. However, if and when a UBI ever comes to pass the GOP will attach so many conditions on how and where the money is spent that it will only end up profiting semi-monopolies and huge companies like Walmart. A new WPA focused on improving infrastructure seems like the better alternative.

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      OSU_NightfallXrdsAlum
      2/24/16 3:48pm

      This is the main reason I support a UBI. We’re going to need one, and probably sooner than we think. We can’t have a nation with %25 unemployment and no UBI.

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      XrdsAlumOSU_Nightfall
      2/24/16 4:01pm

      Yep. All you have to do is look at the 2014 version of this map of the most common job in each state:

      http://www.npr.org/sections/money…

      and then consider that Uber is already gearing up to build a fleet of the driverless cars currently being developed by Google, Tesla, etc. The moment that the trucking companies are allowed to replace in-cab backup drivers in self-driving trucks with remote drivers from India it's UBI time in America, whether conservatives like it or not.

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    RoseLizenbergHamilton Nolan
    2/24/16 3:08pm

    kinda OT but not really: I remember sitting at my grandparent’s dining room table with the whole family (probably someone’s birthday) and the topic of politics inevitably came up, as it always did. I think I was about 10 or 11 at the time and I popped off with, “why can’t everything just be free? free food, free homes, nobody gets or needs money. Constructions workers just build houses because that’s what they do. Farmers grow food because that’s what they do. Why do we need money?” My republican grandpa's face went pale for a moment before he said only, "Oh god. No."

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      KomradKickassRoseLizenberg
      2/24/16 3:51pm

      Find the easiest job: Everyone wants to do that.

      Find the most expensive product: Everyone wants that.

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      Arctic_AttorneyRoseLizenberg
      2/24/16 4:44pm

      Your grandfather’s response was correct. Construction workers don’t just build houses and farmers grow food because “it’s what they do”, they build them and grow it because of economic incentive. If everything is free that incentive disappears.

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    ThomasMooreHamilton Nolan
    2/24/16 4:46pm

    My parents are children of the depression. My mother, who’s family lost their farm in the Dust Bowl, remembers her parent boiling grass seeds and newspaper in a stew to feed four hungry kids. They almost ate the dog. But the dog miraculously brought in a rabbit on the day they were going to put him down. In the middle of harsh winter they packed up the the truck and decided to move from Kansas to California. Their truck broke down in Mountain West outside of Soda Springs Idaho. With no money to fix it - that is where they lived.

    My father’s family were scratching out a living in Soda Springs trying to keep a dairy farm going. But nobody was buying milk or butter. So they gave it away for free. That’s how my parents met.

    How my parents (and nearly everybody in Caribou County) survived was due to the New Deal, the National Recovery Campaign, PWA, WPA, CCC, subsidies, and the wisdom and compassion of FDR - who is veritable god in my family. They all became life long democrats.

    All my grand parents are dead now. They all lived into their 90's. They not only survived starvation but both families began successful businesses and sent my parent s to college (The first high school and college graduates in each family). Not to mention my grandfathers VOLUN-FUCKING-TEERED to fight the fascists in Europe. But without the New Deal they would’ve been stuck in poverty. With out FDR we would’ve appeased Hitler because that’s what the Republicans wanted.

    Hows THAT for repudiation of the so-called failure of the New Deal? Now that generation is dead or dying. The ones that remember. The ones that worked for a better world.

    Now that same part of the country votes Republican. Which is like spitting in the face of their great grandparents. Nearly all of my cousins is a Republican. And every one of them works the farms saved by New Deal policies and kept going by government subsidies.

    We need a third New Deal.

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      FridayFridayThomasMoore
      2/24/16 5:05pm

      I wish I could put this comment straight at the top.

      This is why teaching history is so important.

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      KinjaNinjaOnABinjaThomasMoore
      2/24/16 6:37pm

      My dad, born in 1936, had a pretty grim upbringing as well. His father and mother both worked to support 4 kids and two old-maid aunts who weren’t employed (but did the housework and cooking and cleaning). They’d eat nothing but boiled cabbage and potatoes for days/weeks on end sometimes (better than grass and paper, to be sure).

      And he’s been a lifelong Republican. 90% of that is due to a single issue - taxes (the rest is the Cold War / Strong On National Security b.s.). We’ve had lots of arguments about it. He genuinely thinks that when Republicans are in office, the country does better and all that rising tide business. He actually lived and suffered through the Great Depression, and can’t see the good that FDR did.

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