I have ongoing debates with people that are on my-side of the political fence that are determined to keep demanding that the system that supports them being high income and high wealth is fair enough and that the rest just don't work hard enough or make the right decisions, and that is why they are stuck in lower income and wealth.
While certainly there are plenty of lazy people prone to making bad life decisions, my peers of conservative libertarian economic thinking are fooling themselves that we have not gone far passed the time that we can claim we have a well-functioning democratic capitalist system. What we have today is a globalist corporatist system... maybe a global corporatocracy. It is powered by Wall Street, and it is focused almost exclusively on wealth creation for the top 10% from higher investment returns and higher corporate profit... and the expense of almost everything else.
We need massive new rules to stop the corporate consolidation that is killing competition and cutting out too many people from access to the real economy.
I think Trump Accounts are a good example of much that is wrong with our economy and our country: it’s a program that is unserious, nonsensical, mostly sloganeering, and where the benefits mostly accrue for many years primarily to the wealthy.
Sure, let’s have yet another vehicle to help people save money for the future. That’s fine. But that can be done – and mostly already existed before this latest law. The only new twist here is the government contribution. So let’s focus on that.
Here’s what it is: the federal government prints $1,000 in new money, which is inflationary, and adds it to the existing federal debt. For the rest of history, our children and grandchildren will pay interest to the rich people and governments who buy Treasury bonds to finance this debt.
That new debt is then handed out to a child, and sits for 18 years, further propping up the S&P 500 equity bubble that overwhelmingly benefits the top 25% of Americans (and distorts our economy). Wall St. bankers will generate fees for managing these Trump accounts for 18 years before a child can even touch it.
Then, 18 years from now, the account holder will turn 18, and have perhaps $7,000 in the account handed to them to do whatever they want with. (Of course, these are nominal dollars. Who knows what buying power will remain after inflation continues to do its dirty deed for the next 18 years.) The newly-minted 18 year-old can cash it out immediately by paying a 10% fine, using the remaining $6,300 to pay tuition, put towards the purchase of a car, create the next Tesla, or spend on DraftKings and vape products. There will be some wonderful conflicts in families as Uncle Sam hands a teenager $6,300 cash beyond his or her parents’ legal control.
The simple question that obliterates the Trump Account fantasy is this: if printing $15 billion in new debt over the first 10 years (one program estimate) and dropping it into the S&P 500 in $1,000 increments makes sense, why not print $150 billion – or $15 trillion – and drop it into the stock market?
To even ask the question is considered unkind – why be a killjoy?!?! Printing money today and sending the bill to future Americans is THE AMERICAN WAY!
But someone has to speak truth to nonsense. Printing money and stuffing it into the stock market does NOT generate wealth, even if no one has the cojones to admit it. But it sure helps the wealthy and rich keep the bubble bubbling.
A total scam. Conservatives should admit it. And maybe they will, once they get done talking about our great new victory over Iran.
This is just another proposal to make poor and lower middle class people think that the current administration cares about them. It is in the same category as lowering taxes on Social Security (which does not help the poor because most are not paying taxes on this income) and "no tax on tips". Meanwhile the federal deficit is growing rapidly and income tax dodges for the risk go untouched. How about taxing investment income the same as labor income? How about dealing with our very high overhead health insurance system. This is just a diversion and not a good one.
The poor will often put this money in a savings account or a high-risk equity investment with big time fees.
It’s a stupid idea. Just contributing $1,000 to a 529 account would be more useful. How many of those accounts will have just the original $1,000 plus gains, if any, when the child turns 18. We already have ways to do what these accounts purport to do. Trump just wants his name on something. Screw that.
This is actually not a bad idea. I went looking for things like maybe contributions are deductions like the IRA, nope. Makes it more fair for lower income. Also looked for withdrawals for emergencies like dad's beer fund. Nope. I went looking for bad parts, and found none.
Every poor mom in America dreams of good things for their kids. Especially during infancy, toddler, and pre puberty. All the time before they drive you to the poor house. Moms would put money in these accounts. With compounding the money adds up.
I have a real hard time even convincing adults to invest. They think it's complicated, it's not. Knowing how to manage your own money can change one's life
Nice idea in theory. But unless we get people out of actual poverty, most of this will be consumed as soon as the beneficiaries turn 18. The people pushing this have never studied economics, particularly behavioral economics, sociology, psychology etc. Bet.
I have ongoing debates with people that are on my-side of the political fence that are determined to keep demanding that the system that supports them being high income and high wealth is fair enough and that the rest just don't work hard enough or make the right decisions, and that is why they are stuck in lower income and wealth.
While certainly there are plenty of lazy people prone to making bad life decisions, my peers of conservative libertarian economic thinking are fooling themselves that we have not gone far passed the time that we can claim we have a well-functioning democratic capitalist system. What we have today is a globalist corporatist system... maybe a global corporatocracy. It is powered by Wall Street, and it is focused almost exclusively on wealth creation for the top 10% from higher investment returns and higher corporate profit... and the expense of almost everything else.
We need massive new rules to stop the corporate consolidation that is killing competition and cutting out too many people from access to the real economy.
I think Trump Accounts are a good example of much that is wrong with our economy and our country: it’s a program that is unserious, nonsensical, mostly sloganeering, and where the benefits mostly accrue for many years primarily to the wealthy.
Sure, let’s have yet another vehicle to help people save money for the future. That’s fine. But that can be done – and mostly already existed before this latest law. The only new twist here is the government contribution. So let’s focus on that.
Here’s what it is: the federal government prints $1,000 in new money, which is inflationary, and adds it to the existing federal debt. For the rest of history, our children and grandchildren will pay interest to the rich people and governments who buy Treasury bonds to finance this debt.
That new debt is then handed out to a child, and sits for 18 years, further propping up the S&P 500 equity bubble that overwhelmingly benefits the top 25% of Americans (and distorts our economy). Wall St. bankers will generate fees for managing these Trump accounts for 18 years before a child can even touch it.
Then, 18 years from now, the account holder will turn 18, and have perhaps $7,000 in the account handed to them to do whatever they want with. (Of course, these are nominal dollars. Who knows what buying power will remain after inflation continues to do its dirty deed for the next 18 years.) The newly-minted 18 year-old can cash it out immediately by paying a 10% fine, using the remaining $6,300 to pay tuition, put towards the purchase of a car, create the next Tesla, or spend on DraftKings and vape products. There will be some wonderful conflicts in families as Uncle Sam hands a teenager $6,300 cash beyond his or her parents’ legal control.
The simple question that obliterates the Trump Account fantasy is this: if printing $15 billion in new debt over the first 10 years (one program estimate) and dropping it into the S&P 500 in $1,000 increments makes sense, why not print $150 billion – or $15 trillion – and drop it into the stock market?
To even ask the question is considered unkind – why be a killjoy?!?! Printing money today and sending the bill to future Americans is THE AMERICAN WAY!
But someone has to speak truth to nonsense. Printing money and stuffing it into the stock market does NOT generate wealth, even if no one has the cojones to admit it. But it sure helps the wealthy and rich keep the bubble bubbling.
A total scam. Conservatives should admit it. And maybe they will, once they get done talking about our great new victory over Iran.
This is just another proposal to make poor and lower middle class people think that the current administration cares about them. It is in the same category as lowering taxes on Social Security (which does not help the poor because most are not paying taxes on this income) and "no tax on tips". Meanwhile the federal deficit is growing rapidly and income tax dodges for the risk go untouched. How about taxing investment income the same as labor income? How about dealing with our very high overhead health insurance system. This is just a diversion and not a good one.
The poor will often put this money in a savings account or a high-risk equity investment with big time fees.
It’s a stupid idea. Just contributing $1,000 to a 529 account would be more useful. How many of those accounts will have just the original $1,000 plus gains, if any, when the child turns 18. We already have ways to do what these accounts purport to do. Trump just wants his name on something. Screw that.
This is actually not a bad idea. I went looking for things like maybe contributions are deductions like the IRA, nope. Makes it more fair for lower income. Also looked for withdrawals for emergencies like dad's beer fund. Nope. I went looking for bad parts, and found none.
Every poor mom in America dreams of good things for their kids. Especially during infancy, toddler, and pre puberty. All the time before they drive you to the poor house. Moms would put money in these accounts. With compounding the money adds up.
I have a real hard time even convincing adults to invest. They think it's complicated, it's not. Knowing how to manage your own money can change one's life
Nice idea in theory. But unless we get people out of actual poverty, most of this will be consumed as soon as the beneficiaries turn 18. The people pushing this have never studied economics, particularly behavioral economics, sociology, psychology etc. Bet.