• inshallah2 [none/use name]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      Bernstein has been an advisor to Biden for a very long time - at least back to when Biden was VP.

      —————

      Ninja edit

      I had a very quick look at this Wikipedia page.

      Jared Bernstein

      He was considered to be a progressive and "a strong advocate for workers".

      [...]

      [He coauthored] The Benefits of Full Employment: When Markets Work for People, where he states that "[l]ow unemployment by itself cannot address all the inequities in society," and advocates that "[o]ther forms of intervention are still needed to assist disadvantaged populations."

      He's a bass playing ghoul.

      Bernstein graduated with a bachelor's degree in music from the Manhattan School of Music where he studied double bass.

      • corgiwithalaptop [any, love/loves]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Bernstein graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music from the Manhattan School of Music where he studied double bass.

        ahhhhh nerd

        • grey_wolf_whenever [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          extremely shit how the ruling class and anyone who existed before late stage capitalism was allowed to go to school for arts and passions and graduate into a job just fine but we all have to starve or be STEM lords

    • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      its batshit. we are constantly told 40% of Americans can't scrape together $400 in an emergency without needing to take on high interest debt.

      nearly half of americans pulling down more than $80k are carrying a credit card balance, which is nailing them at ~19% interest.

      maybe they are imagining all those fast food employees have cashed out their retirement accounts (lmao).

      • NaturalsNotInIt [any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        The reason is because those surveys are complete garbage. They rely on people self reporting data, and people have no fucking clue about anything related to their finances (by design).

        They poll people via Mturk or those marketing survey emails for $0.50, and it's literally just a Qualtrics form that asks "how much do you have in the bank?". "Do you have any stocks?". "If you have a big expensive, how would you pay for it?". Then if they say anything other than "cash", even if it's "pay a credit card then pay the bill in full at the end of the month", that gets counted as "borrowing money".

    • buh [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Imagine being a teenage chud joining the Marines right out of high school thinking you're gonna do cool operator shit, only to get owned in a John Deere factory

    • Bluegrass_Buddhist [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Bringing back the draft would be suicidal. I see prisoners being conscripted en masse (or even more en masser than now) instead.

        • Bluegrass_Buddhist [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          They have recognized it once before. But yeah, who knows, maybe Vietnam is distant enough now that the state is willing to try again with it.

          • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
            ·
            3 years ago

            They have recognized it once before.

            In the fucking 70s, when Boomers were all showing up on the voting rolls.

            Now they're retired and the majority of young people are unseasonably tan. Now is the ideal moment to re-institute Press Gangs and start shoving high school drop-outs into the military corps.

            • grey_wolf_whenever [he/him]
              ·
              3 years ago

              zero chance of a draft coming back because it actually makes people pay attention a little too much for their interests

              • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
                ·
                edit-2
                3 years ago

                This war machine isn't going to run itself.

                Politicians from Mitt Romney to Beto O'Rourke have already expressed support for Mandatory Service requirements on high schoolers. I could very easily see someone like Dan Crenshaw or Mikie Sherrill slide out a turd of a provision that makes Service a requirement for state college admission or access to UI benefits or even Social Security / Medicare.

                I don't know if we'll ever see "The Draft" as we knew it in the 70s. But what about a law forcing unemployed people with outstanding student loans to work off the debt in the National Guard? I suspect that could be made politically palatable easily enough.

    • pooh [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      With the amount of recruiter activity happening lately, it seems like the military might be short on people too... So, having do jobs domestically would could force them to cut back on imperialist adventures elsewhere (hopefully)

        • NaturalsNotInIt [any]
          ·
          edit-2
          3 years ago

          Yep, that's what's going on with the whole student loans/eviction moratorium/extended UI. You ungrateful leaches took advantage of the system, you refuse to deliver the treats, so now you're gonna suffer until Gen Xers get their fried meat in fusion sauce served promptly, with a SMILE. We simply can't have nice things if you misbehave when you get them!

    • ssjmarx [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      One of the largest professions in the military is vehicle operator, so they could really could put troops in trucks if they wanted to.

    • NaturalsNotInIt [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Unironically expect us to go to war with China in the next 2-3 years in large part "to give those kids something to do".

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        We privatized the MIC to such a degree that it isn't even a "War with China" we're gearing up for. It's another wave of post-9/11 paranoia that can justify enriching the assholes who profiteer.

        We're going to send aircraft carriers out into the South Pacific to do donuts and fire rockets into the air while CNN does another six weeks of "Shock and Awe!" coverage. If you don't cheer loud enough, you'll be booted off the airwaves and banned from social media. And then we'll cancel Social Security to pay for another salvo.

        • NaturalsNotInIt [any]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Nah, we are increasingly in a Britain pre-WW1 situation. Lots of middle-class fancylads with no skills and nothing for them to do all day, and the imperial profits aren't big enough to just pay them to push paper.

  • LeninsRage [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Since this has also risen to the top like the other one I'll echo my post from there that this is 1000% coping and guessing because the same advisers and lobbying groups definitely told Biden "if you end UI bonuses and eviction moratoriums it'll discipline the labor market back to normalcy" and surprise surprise it changed absolutely nothing because 700,000 people have died of the plague, inflation is increasing, and real wages haven't meaningfully increased.

    They're desperate and lying to cover their asses because they don't have any actual answers.

    • NaturalsNotInIt [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      The number one thing keeping people out of the labor force is the cost of childcare. The number of people working is about 1-2 million less than it was pre-Covid, and that basically adds up to "women with young kids. realizing that they were working for $2/hr net after the cost of daycare", plus some Boomers retiring early due to big stock gains plus disease fears.

      • LeninsRage [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Yeah I was thinking about that this morning. Not just the dead - those disabled but not killed by the disease, those who decided to retire because of it, those who went into independent work such as from home, etc. Like the supply chain woes its a thousand little cuts across the globe that have added up, and time will not fix it in the short term.

    • inshallah2 [none/use name]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      "Hey, everybody - listen up. New data just came in this morning and we just finished crunching the numbers. The workers have run out of money. They've got to return to work! Is the champagne on ice?" - a mid January celebration in the Oval.

    • 01100011101001111100 [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      They need us, they resent their need, they treat us like we're soil or a coal vein. We don't need them. We can run this shit on our own and for us.

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      3 years ago
      • I'm retired

      • I'm homeless

      • I'm dead

      "Listen, in three months all of this will be so much worse, so the labor markets will be better aktuly!"

      Like, it really is just this war between evil and stupid.

  • neera_tanden [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    And in February student loans come due again 😃

    America is back!

    • spicymangos51 [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I'm not looking forward to it 😑, while I wish covid never happened, the zero interest has been amazing, I even payed off one of my loans (out of like 11...) This is the first time I ever felt like I was making a dent and had a way out

  • Stancera [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    It's hilarious watching a bunch of old people try to go back to normal. Aka the 90s in their head