Originally posted by: Jerry Ice 33
Kevin, you said "News flash: people who receive unemployment insurance have PAID for it, via payroll deductions." There is no such thing. Show me one W2 where U/C is taken out of a person's paycheck as a deduction. Just admit that was wrong. That is why I said they are not directly paying for it. Now if you said through payroll reductions they are indirectly paying for it, that might make a little more sense. Even then it is a pretty big jump to say companies would put that right back into employee wages if not paying U/C. I've yet to see a company whose U/C reserve % has fallen just shuttle that $ right back into employee wages.
Rest of your argument is good though. Let me clarify. The "lazy asses" are the ones that were doing the $15/hour jobs that will leak off U/C forever and ever instead of doing those jobs. That is why I don't like it. We can't just give $ away forever and not have socialism. Show me where socialism works well?
And PJ, I never said we are having trouble finding healthcare workers. The place I work at is increasing wages and going above and beyond the normal pay ranges to attract and retain people because of a lot of what you said plus the fact inflation is off the charts do the "handout-way" of Biden and where he wants to take things. You realize all these give-aways and huge proposals have to be paid somehow, right?
I explained to you why employees are effectively the ones who actually pay UI. Employees are paid less because their employers have to pay UI. It's not a matter of "admitting" anything. I would argue that yes indeedy, employees are paid less by pretty much the exact amounts employers have to pay in taxes as a consequence of employing them. Employers calculate the total cost of employing a worker when calculating how much salary to offer that worker.
The idiotic socialism debate is so tired and sickening, I don't really want to engage in it. But to answer your question, I can think of two places where socialism indeed works well: Sweden and the United States. Sweden has one of the highest standards of living and life expectancies in the world. Its citizenry is continually reported as being very happy. The United States' economy and society is considerably socialist. Free education is socialist. Government-maintained retirement accounts are socialist. Free libraries are socialist. A nationwide free-to-the-public highway network is socialist. Government agencies that inspect food and drugs at no cost to the consumer are socialist. Shall I go on?
You see, this silly fear of SOOOOOOOCIALISM dates back to Soviet Rusiia calling itself The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Of course, that government was never socialist at all. But the term became associated with them COMMIES...the boogeymen of all old white people who grew up during the Cold War.
And before some moron starts screaming "VENOOOZWAYLA." let me point out that it's possible to fuck up a country with terrible leadership using any socioeconomic system. That doesn't mean that the system itself is necessarily bad.
Inflation is currently happening not because of, as you inaccurately term them, "Biden's handouts" but rather, the simple fact that demand for virtually all goods and services has sharply increased in the last several months. That was preceded by very low inflation due to low demand during the worst of the pandemic. The current period is simply an adjustment. To illustrate, prices now are almost exactly where they would have been had the inflation rate as of Dec. 2019 continued without disruption (i.e., no pandemic) to today. So we have high inflation and high demand now because those were so low for over a year.
