I am going to say it, I told you so.

 

Today on CNN online there are two articles, well one is a video. The first headline is for a poll that says: “Majority of voters want to unseat most of Congress”

The second appears to be a follow up to the first poll stating American voters are hungry for a change.

Well, yes they are because the duopoly failed us. I just wish they had woken up to this reality sooner. I spent decades telling people the duopoly fails us and now we are in a political abyss. It is too late in most races to get qualified independents or a new major party going, yet hopefully this frustration carries over so people start preparing for 2028.

In a weird way Trump was the first sign voters were tired of the status quo. He was elected in 2016 saying he would drain the swamp. Of course he was all talk and no action, but it was what people wanted to hear.

Now he is part of the problem because the Republicans are worthless. Yet neither party has any new plans. Well the so called democratic socialists say they are new, yet actually they are ultra liberal democrats trying to wrap themselves up in new shiny paper. They are not new. They are not change, they talk a good game, yet the reality on the ground is we need political leadership that can make hard decisions and get really creative in public policy.

We have major problems, fixable yes, but major so we need people that can stand up to the lobbyists, the current duopoly, the billionaires, the extremists and settle us down with some very specific budget planning, resetting priorities, getting us out of this totally insane Iran war situation, rebuilding trust with our trading partners and allies and more.

If you read through previous posts over the years there are multiple ideas written and rehashed, hopefully to improve, and more. If I can think beyond the crap the duopoly dumped on us, I’m sure there are other ideas too that can be utilized to improve our current needs such as improving social security, healthcare (I know many want universal healthcare and honestly I am not a fan, but if someone can come up with an AFFORDABLE option, I am all ears), improving education, changing the tax code so it favors small and medium size businesses along with the working and middle class.

There is more and if you reread the above litany of issues, you will say isn’t that what the Democrats and Republicans promised they were going to do. And yes that is why you are frustrated because they haven’t done it. Over and over again we heard the same promises election cycle after election cycle and nothing changed because the duopoly only cared about re-election, not you.

So the polling shows what I warned you about starting in the 1980’s, people made fun of me. Yet the truth was showing as far back as then and after four decades of being lied to, we have a horrible Congress, a Supreme Court that cannot apply the Constitution to anything Trump does and a President destroying our country from the inside. 

Yes you want better and I am glad, just what are we going to do about it.

And what is scary, the first issue to work on is our budget because we need to get handle on that to know what we can do going forward. It may take a few years to level off the disaster the duopoly is leaving us.

Secondarily, we need to invest heavily in renewable energy because oil and it’s by products are poison to the human body. And it always remains a geopolitical nightmare and the current quagmire is more proof that oil is our enemy no matter what Trump and the oil industry tells you. We may never get completely off it, but over a decade ago I started writing ideas to transition us off oil that would make the economic change work.

Problems can be solved, who do we elect to solve them is the first step, yet right now it is not the Democrats and Republicans creating answers.

Here’s a strange thought

 

Donald Trump keeps telling everyone he is the only one that can fix everything.

If you know anything about Judeo-Christian teaching there is the obvious flaw. Only God can fix anything and everything especially completely. So what would God think about Donald Trump saying this?

God is forgiving so maybe he laughs whole heartedly at Trump and since he sees Trump so lost he shows Trump the truth and Trump listens and changes his ways. It is kind of what we all want, some saving redemption at whatever level we believe.

Or God invited Trump to Heaven and Trump went so rogue that when it comes time for the four last things for Trump that the fourth is staring down hard on Trump. Who knows?

 

 

 

 

And for those of you who don’t know, the four last things are death, judgment, heaven and hell.

 

And if you ask what about purgatory, well it is part of the heaven route. Purgatory just cleanses our soul to go to Heaven so that is why there are only four last things.

The irony of Republicans, Social Security and AI

 

We all know Social Security needs major overhaul to be a valid resource for retired Americans going forward. It is an ongoing headline in the news.

Republicans tend to suggest one solution or part of the solution is to raise the retirement age.

Nowadays people worry about job reductions overall in society due to AI replacing so many workers.

So shouldn’t we look at lowering the retirement age.

Why?

This allows gainful employment for workers in the prime years and protects the job market from being over saturated with the reduction in the labor force due to AI.

 

And how? And this how is just another reason our societal mindset needs to change. This isn’t socialism or just tax the rich to tax the rich, but to level out the long term playing field and allow people who create jobs etc to continue to do so, while allowing our society to continue to prosper overall and have even just a basic quality of life.

First and it is just a reality corporations and businesses need to accept. Wages need to increase. If people are making billions on top of billions the workers wages can increase. It is just common sense for a better society.

Second the social security top tax limits need to be eliminated and all tax brackets need to have social security contributions. You can say after a certain level you start reducing the rate or percentage being used. For example raise the full taxable limit to $250,000 or $300,000. ( and depending on a few factors we may not increase the employer’s responsibility past a certain amount or eliminate it entirely for small and mid size businesses, but then you are getting into how do you determine small and mid size companies,  something to be worked out in the details) I stole some of this idea from a letter to an editor and that person said regressive tax. I am not sure if that is the right definition yet generally you lower the percentage withdrawn up to a certain income level. So by let’s say $750,000 or $1,000,000 the percentage withdrawn is 1 or 2% and then is zero above that. Again the exact figures get worked out in the details.

Third you lower the potential age you can start taking social security. If people have done well and they want to do something different in life or even start their own business they would be young enough say 60 to start receiving benefits. You could keep the benefit amount on a similar sliding scale where you start at 60 with a percentage of full benefits then at a later age you receive your full benefits. And we even lower this to 65 maybe. And possibly if more are paying in, benefits might increase also. Again this is worked out in the details.

The biggest issue that needs addressing is most people that rely on social security are in service industry jobs or similar which historically have been on the low end of the totem pole. This is why the overall corporate pay rate needs to increase. More people paid higher allows them to save more, allows them to have more flexibility in their retirement and both the higher wage earners and corporations contribute to the overall health of society by allowing lower wage workers a basic decent end of their life opportunity. This is not socialism. This is society overall respecting the dignity of life.

The goal is not to say we cannot have rich people or AI, but to shift some of the responsibility of protecting their workers onto them and not just on the government protecting a workforce that is stretched to their limits under paid with no quality of life. Even rich people like going out to eat or whatever. They just need to respect the people that are there serving them and not treat them as serfs.

Or the people with excessive billions can be hated and eventually pitchfork economics come into play and that doesn’t do anyone any good.

 

And yes this is I don’t know how many ideas or variations of a theme (including my last post) I have to actually make social security work now and in the future.

Cheers