• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Inflation Is Worldwide, Not Caused By The President.

Capitalism has no responsibility to provide for everyone. It doesn't. It allows the more powerful to take advantage of the less powerful. Capitalism produces some fantastic wealth and lots of desolation. The only entity capable of preventing complete oppression is government. And it is in the preamble of our Constitution that one of the basic purposes of our government is to promote the general welfare.

Therefore, it is totally the government's business to be regulating capitalism. And the more of it , the better. Europe has been around a lot longer than the USA. They handled the pandemic a lot better than we did. They preserved jobs and businesses. We let people flounder because we did not have a strong enough government to step in and act when needed.

Then we tried to indiscriminately throw money at the problem. That helped, but it also hurt. Now we are wondering if the gain was worth the pain. Too bad we thought we knew better than more socialistic Europe. We have much to learn. Such a young nation.
No one, least of all me, has made the argument here that capitalism should be unregulated or somehow beyond the law. To claim otherwise is a tired straw-man from the far left.

The question is always how much regulation? And in my opinion your side goes way, way too far.
 
It’s not the same thing. Trump was a charlatan and crook promoting division, hate, and tribalism in the country for personal gain and just to get elected. Biden is a president dealing with some difficult issues.

Accurate descriptions on both parts.
 
No one, least of all me, has made the argument here that capitalism should be unregulated or somehow beyond the law. To claim otherwise is a tired straw-man from the far left.

The question is always how much regulation? And in my opinion your side goes way, way too far.
But not as far as Europe, which has fared better on coaxing an economy through the pandemic. This suggests we should have gone farther.
 
I stand by my point.
And it merely exemplifies how desperately we need to make government corruption illegal and get it out of our system.

The politicians are not inherently bad people. There are merely in positions which force them to do the things they do. The business tycoons have had it much easier. All they had to do was seek one goal: Increase wealth.

The politicians are in an impossible position, trying to please vast groups of poorly informed emotionally driven people who disagree with one another; not possible to do. So they merely become adept at doublespeak and go from explaining one hypocritical situation to another. And they have to remain popular or they lose public support; and then are replaced with someone else who will do whatever it takes to get and keep support of a hopelessly misinformed, heavily divided public.

The business tycoons prefer to stay out of the public eye and have much more realistic goals. Use X amount of dollars to produce Y ROI. It's nice when they are mature people who reach a point and decide to become philanthropists. They get it that, after a certain point, there is no point in simply seeking more wealth for the sake of seeking wealth. At some point it is much more rewarding to give something back to the society which made their good fortune possible.

People who make big money without screwing others to get it are far more admirable than crooks, con men and fraudsters. The good ones want to give back. The crooks just want to keep doing crooked things. Such as supporting the right wing agenda, like Trump.
 
Or done less and, as you agreed, target it better.
That would have actually required more bureaucracy.

And, oh darn, it creates more good secure jobs.
 
And it merely exemplifies how desperately we need to make government corruption illegal and get it out of our system.

The politicians are not inherently bad people. There are merely in positions which force them to do the things they do. The business tycoons have had it much easier. All they had to do was seek one goal: Increase wealth.

The politicians are in an impossible position, trying to please vast groups of poorly informed emotionally driven people who disagree with one another; not possible to do. So they merely become adept at doublespeak and go from explaining one hypocritical situation to another. And they have to remain popular or they lose public support; and then are replaced with someone else who will do whatever it takes to get and keep support of a hopelessly misinformed, heavily divided public.

The business tycoons prefer to stay out of the public eye and have much more realistic goals. Use X amount of dollars to produce Y ROI. It's nice when they are mature people who reach a point and decide to become philanthropists. They get it that, after a certain point, there is no point in simply seeking more wealth for the sake of seeking wealth. At some point it is much more rewarding to give something back to the society which made their good fortune possible.

People who make big money without screwing others to get it are far more admirable than crooks, con men and fraudsters. The good ones want to give back. The crooks just want to keep doing crooked things. Such as supporting the right wing agenda, like Trump.
Ah, but you’ve got a basic logic problem there. Government corruption is already illegal, and you’re talking about the people who literally define the law. The loopholes and carve outs that allow politicians to profit from the law will continue because they can.

Want to reduce the size and scope of government corruption? Reduce the size and scope of government.
 
Of course, this ruins the Republican 'blame Biden' narrative, but Republicans never let the facts get in the way of effective propaganda.

Inflation began in 2021 as a result of the pandemic, with an aside to climate change, but the Russian war on Ukraine has created a perfect storm of inflation.

None of this can be blamed on Biden.



Press Conference by Secretary-General António Guterres at United Nations Headquarters

If food and fuel inflation is wordwide and not limited to the USA, that means Biden didn't cause it.
Doesn’t matter who’s to blame if there is any blame. As long as presidents take credit for a good economy, they’re going to get blamed when it turns sour. While I agree, no president can control the economy, it’s cyclic. If a president could control the economy, we’d have all good times, all ups, no downs, no recessions or depressions. Biden getting blamed for inflation is because of all the past presidents who took credit for a good economy. Leaving the impression, the perception that presidents do have control of the economy or inflation in this case. Hoover was blamed for the depression, Carter for the misery index, the Democrats blamed Bush for the recession that took place in his 2nd term and rode that blame to take control of congress in 2006 and win the presidency in 2008.

Nothing new here for the party out of power blaming the party in power or the president for inflation, a downturn in the economy. It comes with the job. As long as presidents, the party in power take credit for a good economy, they’re going to get the blame when the economy goes south. That’s political reality.

I think what has added to blaming Biden and company is that they basically ignored rising prices, empty shelves in some stores for the first year while he was in office concentrating on other issues to please the Democratic base. Only recently has Biden and company took notice, blaming it on the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. The thing is independents had already made up their minds that Biden and company weren’t paying attention to what they thought was this nation’s most important problem. Rising prices. That Biden and company had the wrong priorities. Hence, you have Biden’s low overall job approval and low approval on his handling of the economy.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president-biden-job-approval-7320.html

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_biden_job_approval_economy-7321.html
 
Re the OP, remember when inflation dipped ever so slightly last summer and somehow that change was a direct result of Biden’s good stewardship?

 
Ah, but you’ve got a basic logic problem there. Government corruption is already illegal, and you’re talking about the people who literally define the law. The loopholes and carve outs that allow politicians to profit from the law will continue because they can.

Want to reduce the size and scope of government corruption? Reduce the size and scope of government.
Well you know that all makes such basic sense, doesn't it? Simply rule out all else, equate government with corruption, assume it will always be there and that nothing can be done to reduce it or improve the situation. Then reason, very simply, that the only way to minimize corruption is to minimize government. How very simplistic our complex world actually is, we are supposed to believe.

And how convenient it is for those who profit from the corruption. to have everyone believe that nothing could ever be done about it because the very people who would decide what could be done are themselves in on the corruption, and it's legal because they themselves are the makers of the very laws they profit under.

And we have deep pocketed billionaires making millionaires out of the people's representatives in government, and since all the players on the take are enough to prevent any changes in the law which would reduce it, nothing will ever change, right?

I say no. That can change. And we the people are the only ones who can bring about that change. We need to share the idea that we can really do something share it wide. When we get enough minds in agreement, we can make change happen. It won't be easy. But it will be worth it. It can't happen quickly, it will take time, great time. But that is the only way to change it. Slowly. We can do it and we must. Delayed gratitude is truly finer.

Corruption is legal. Here's how we fix it.
 
Well you know that all makes such basic sense, doesn't it? Simply rule out all else, equate government with corruption, assume it will always be there and that nothing can be done to reduce it or improve the situation. Then reason, very simply, that the only way to minimize corruption is to minimize government. How very simplistic our complex world actually is, we are supposed to believe.

And how convenient it is for those who profit from the corruption. to have everyone believe that nothing could ever be done about it because the very people who would decide what could be done are themselves in on the corruption, and it's legal because they themselves are the makers of the very laws they profit under.

And we have deep pocketed billionaires making millionaires out of the people's representatives in government, and since all the players on the take are enough to prevent any changes in the law which would reduce it, nothing will ever change, right?

I say no. That can change. And we the people are the only ones who can bring about that change. We need to share the idea that we can really do something share it wide. When we get enough minds in agreement, we can make change happen. It won't be easy. But it will be worth it. It can't happen quickly, it will take time, great time. But that is the only way to change it. Slowly. We can do it and we must. Delayed gratitude is truly finer.

Corruption is legal. Here's how we fix it.
I really don’t have time to sit and watch a video pitched at an adolescent level. If you have ideas for how of fix the problem you describe, please summarize them here.
 
Nothing could be further from the truth. Government bureaucracy is a net job killer.
Something anyone is free to believe whether it is actually true or not.
 
I really don’t have time to sit and watch a video pitched at an adolescent level. If you have ideas for how of fix the problem you describe, please summarize them here.
Most proposed approaches to this problem require a new amendment, which renders them moot because it wouldn't get ratified.

This approach works within the existing Constitution, so it is far more realistic. The American Anti Corruption Act is a piece of model legislation designed to:

  • Stop political bribery by overhauling lobbying and ethics laws
  • End secret money by dramatically increasing transparency
  • Fix our broken elections by ending gerrymandering and modernizing voting and election funding laws. Wiki

This model legislation can be passed in local cities, towns, counties, anywhere that people want to make it an issue. It has already passed in Tallahassee, Florida. It needs to be passed in as many places as possible. And after all, when placed on the spot with the cameras running, what candidate for any office would wish to take a position in favor of corruption? We need to place every candidate for any office on public record for taking a position against corruption by supporting the Anti Corruption Act.

After it becomes a popular local issue, some of those candidates rise to the state level. Then we make it a state-level issue by keeping up the pressure, demanding that this be addressed by every candidate.

And finally, years into the effort, after people are happy with this at the state level, we make it an issue for candidates seeking national office. As time passes, eventually a majority is gained in the US Congress, and then we will be able to pass the AACA at the nation level.

It is a realistic path forward for reducing massive corruption in our government. Sure, it can't pass today. But we can and need to slowly create the conditions where it can and will pass in the future.

It's all too easy to give up and claim nothing can be done about something that we have never tried before. And it is a good thing the nation's founders didn't think that way.

We need more people with vision to be able to understand this, agree it is needed, and do what it takes to make it happen. Even if it doesn't happen in our lifetimes, anything we can do to spread the word around moves us one step closer to solving a huge problem for America and really making America more of what the founders envisioned it could be.

There is no rule that says we can't fix corruption if we try. And we have nothing to lose.

I want to hear reporters asking candidates: "Do you support or oppose government corruption?"

"Would you support new anti-corruption laws?"
 
Back
Top Bottom