• angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com
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    10 months ago

    I have mixed opinions. Would I rather elect someone else? Yes. But also, lack of faith in their current leader doesn’t usually mean good things for incumbent parties.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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    10 months ago

    Not a bad idea, and pushing “Bidenomics” isn’t resonating with people.

    When there are articles about “The economy is good! Why don’t people care??!??” I think about my own story.

    My wife totalled my car last week. She’s fine. We pulled the dashcam footage, insurance determined the other driver was 100% at fault (speeding, crossed a double yellow line, no license, no insurance, baby in the front seat with no car seat).

    So they just cut me a check. I have $12K in the bank and another $2K coming when they get the title.

    Went shopping for a new car. Not bragging, but I have a REALLY good credit score, and even my credit union can’t get me an interest rate lower than 8.3%.

    I saw one quote as high as 12.25%… on a CAR LOAN.

    Thank god I work from home and we don’t technically NEED two cars. But now, I feel kind of trapped in my own home. I’d like the freedom a car offers, but I just can’t justify 8.3% on a car loan.

    These are the sorts of pocketbook issues people are talking about when they say they aren’t happy with what Biden has been doing.

    • Anamnesis@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I’m working three part time jobs and still don’t have health insurance. This country fucking blows.

    • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Biden doesn’t set the interest rate. That’s the Fed. The Fed Chair was appointed by Trump. He printed a shitload of money during Covid (which imo should have never happened) and now the chickens have come home to roost. The interest rate hikes are to combat inflation. They are trying to decrease the money supply to unfuck everything and get us back to normal. They are there to make you, in your situation say, this is a bad financial decision paying the same price as 2 years ago with a substantially higher rate maybe I don’t need this, or I’ll wait for prices to come down since the payment is not affordable. People then consume less and it decreases demand for goods and services, and prices should in theory stop going up or even go down a bit. Your example is proof that what they want to happen is happening. I was trying to buy a house, and gave up after being outbid numerous times during the pandemic. At these rates, I’ve pretty much decided to shelve the idea of homeownership at least for now.

      It absolutely sucks ass, but if we’d let the low rates continue, inflation would have spiralled out of control by now. And while we are certainly in a short term period of pain, I have to hope that it will work out in the end and we can get back some semblance of affordability and pop the everything bubble we created. The low rates were as bad if not worse for the economy. Every home in my area was going $300k over asking with multiple offers sight unseen, and asking price would be 20% higher yoy . New and used cars went crazy in price, groceries practically doubled and everything was getting really bad. This shit sucks, but it’s because of our fiscal policies of covid under Trump. Yes, you can say that helicopter money didn’t help with inflation, but it was kinda a drop in the bucket compared to what Powell did.

      I personally don’t think the Fed has done enough, and needs to go full Volcker on us and jack the rates even more. The Fed aims for getting inflation back to 2%, but imo we need to aim for a brief period of deflation to make up for the inflation we’ve suffered the last 3 years. It sucks to say, but we need a full blown recession to get us back to normal, otherwise it will stay shitty and the rich will get richer while the poor get poorer. We need to force investors out of the housing market and bring them pain. Unfortunately, that only happens when people lose jobs and don’t pay rent. Then owning property to rent is less desirable, and property owners sell and put their profits into HYSA’s and other safe investments. More inventory gets put on the market, supply goes up, demand goes down, price goes down and we can celebrate actually being able to afford stuff again. If we don’t go full recession, you will own nothing and be happy and corporate landlords will continue to jack rent and sit on property for an eternity. Enjoy serf life. There’s no way to fix this without pain unfortunately. It’s a shitty situation all around.

    • sleepy555@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Even with 12k down? That’s crazy, I just got 4% in the same situation about a year ago. My credit is decent, but I’m not financially savvy in the slightest, so idk.

      My biggest problem with the whole situation was the state I’m in requires you to pay registration and taxes in full when you buy a car. So through no fault of my own, I lost $5k. I also was one day late getting my insurance swapped over, so my insurance went from $100 to $450 monthly. Never been at fault for an accident and my only ticket was like 7 years ago. Yet now I spend more on insurance than some people I know dealing with DUI charges on a SR71.

      Also had no choices at the time because used car market was in shambles at the time, so I settled on a car I don’t love. The car I did love, I made my final payment on the week before I got hit.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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        10 months ago

        Yeah, I was looking at $42K for the car, $12K down, finance $30K… 8.3%… it’s nuts right now.

        • sleepy555@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          That is total ass man, sorry to hear it. Hope you’re able to figure something out or you enjoy your payout to the fullest atleast.

          • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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            10 months ago

            Well, money isn’t going anywhere. Banking the cash, saving money, if interest rates go down, great. If they don’t? Pay cash in '25.

  • PeleSpirit@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I would like more details on that poll that was run. We know a Catholic college ran it that has an 85% average of being right when it’s 30 days within an election, that’s not enough to know anything except we’re months away from an election. How many people did they ask, what were the demographics, and what were the questions.

    • SatanicNotMessianic
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      10 months ago

      This far out, polls are not guesses about election results, but rather estimates of sentiments. That’s how they’re read.

      The position being taken here is that the national sentiment is against Joe Biden. You can think he could still power through. You can think that the undecided will break his way. You could think that people realize losing Roe will be the least of their concerns if Trump gets in.

      But these are legitimate measures of public sentiment. Biden has a national poll-of-polls approval rating of 39%. That’s Carter and Bush I territory.

      I will always vote Democrat but I had hoped he would be one and done. This is feeling like 2016 all over again.

  • Telorand@reddthat.com
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    10 months ago

    I would be okay if every current politician over the age of 60 did the same. Bernie included (that man deserves a good retirement, anyway).

      • Zippy@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Bernie praised Venezuela as a good model when Chavez was in power. It is easy to make promises and shit on policy when you don’t need to explain how it is paid for. I don’t think he has good policy at all.

        • Melkath@kbin.social
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          10 months ago

          Are you talking about higher education for all or healthcare for all?

          Because he did release full budgets for both programs.

          He proposed increasing taxes on millionaires and billionaires by like 4 percent.

          That was enough to fully fund both programs.

          • Zippy@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            His whole package.

            The uber rich billionaire do not make up enough people to even amount to a small amount of this additional tax so it is mainly the millionaires who make up much of the middle class. Effectively it is the middle class paying for it.

            And what he also failed to mention is that a great deal of capital leaves there country when you start to tax excessively. This is not a question if if but how much. And while that reduces the taxes gained from these individuals, it has a multiplier effect in that it reduces investment into the country thus resulting in less corporate taxes as well as all the personal taxes for that many fewer jobs.

            I understand wealth inequality is an issue but people like Bernie only put it simple solutions because he knows people with little economic understanding will eat it up. Worse he knows he is lying which really bothers me more than anything.

            • Melkath@kbin.social
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              10 months ago

              Just like when all of this originally happened.

              You say “he didnt say how he would pay for it!”

              Then you were directed to how he said he would pay for it.

              Then without pause you start throwing out make believe nonsense while completely ignoring the fully drafted budget.

              And at some point in the moderate future, you will start another conversation (or more accurately, scream your drivel into the void) by saying he never said how he would pay for it.

              Also, the unmitigated idiocy to say “millionaires who make up much of the middle class” almost guarantees you are a stooge making less than 100k a year who champions to make the rich richer and the poor poorer because you believe some day you’re magically not going to be poor.

              Millionaires are not middle class. Not even close. For the record:

              “Pew defines “middle class” as those earning between two-thirds and twice the median American household income, which in 2021 was $70,784, according to the United States Census Bureau. That means American households earning as little as $47,189 and up to $141,568 are technically in the middle class.”

              • Zippy@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                I stand corrected. I should have been more precise. Yes he said he would pay for it but he was lying that it could be paid for. The guy thought chevez’s Venezuela was something to praise after all. And many people making 141000 pre year have a million or two in assets. It will be this class that is paying for it and then some as capital leaves.

                • Melkath@kbin.social
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                  10 months ago

                  Alright. I see it.

                  Pretty sure his tax hike in “millionaires and billionaires” was in the context of income tax, not in the context of someone who saved 100k a year over 10 years.

                  So, I’ll say you sound selfish, greedy, and like you want to make the rich richer, the poor poorer, you want the masses uneducated, and you want the poor to die of easily treatable medical conditions.

                  But yes. On prompt “what does tax the millionaires and billionaires”, i dont know the deets.

                  And your hatred for a model of equal distribution of wealth doesn’t earn you any points with me.

        • Melkath@kbin.social
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          10 months ago

          At his core, he still says the right thing. He is the first to voice something that doesn’t sync up with the Dem party line.

          Obama was sitting back clammed up until Bernie made his statement that Palestine needs an immediate humanitarian break, and the world needs to figure out how we break this cycle during that break.

          Every time Bernie speaks up, his words still ring true as ever, but yes, every time I curse him for kissing the Democrat ring and letting Hilary rig him out of the general election.

          I still truly believe he would have been the first third party president and would have stopped BOTH Trump and Hilary from doing what they did to the federal government.

          • cmbabul@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Trumps weird appeal to folks that “just want to shake up the system” idiots would have been neutralized by third party Bernie, hardcore leftists that would have never vote for a neoliberal would jump at the chance to vote for him, that popularity and “across the aisle” appeal like that could bring in a bunch of centrists and those who don’t usually vote because “both sides”. He’d certainly have had a really good chance, he’ll even my conservative ass dad thinks Bernie is worth some respect because of how long he’s been doing it and saying the same thing

            • Telorand@reddthat.com
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              10 months ago

              Yeah, it’s that “how long” that gets me. I think he’s still a great person that genuinely tries to do the right thing for everyone, but he’s old (he’s older than Biden). As far as I’m concerned, he’s served his country well. He should not be on the front lines fighting Zionism and American Fundamentalism anymore.

              • cmbabul@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                Oh I 100% agree his time passed us by, we desperately need youth in all positions of government.

  • RotaryKeyboard@lemmy.ninja
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    10 months ago

    Biden can be an instant king-maker. All he has to do is hold a press conference where he endorses another Democratic candidate, along with an announcement that he is bowing out of the race to protect the country from Donald Trump. It would be the most potent endorsement ever made.