uspol, snark, gripe
While I support the values behind tweets like this, god they're getting on my nerves, because it's just such a weak-ass argument.
"If you could buy me a drink yesterday, why couldn't you buy me another one today and every day?"
Uh... because it costs money? And because doing it every day would cost a lot more money?
Deferring payments once in an emergency does NOT mean the same institution can afford to defer all payments forever. Delaying evictions because of force majeure does not mean that all evictions can stop forever. These things don't scale that easily.
The really maddening thing is that the criticism is still basically correct. All these things--housing, healthcare, education, debt--desperately need to be restructured. But that still doesn't make 365 days magically equivalent to one day.
re: uspol, snark, gripe
@Thaminga Oh, I agree with you there! It's not that the argument isn't basically correct--it's that it needs to be restructured in order to not be so laughably easy to shoot down. To extend the metaphor: It's not enough to say "but why can't you buy me a drink every day"--you gotta grab the motherfucker's wallet and fan through the $4,000 he still owes you after screwing you in a business deal where you did all the legwork. :)
re: uspol, snark, gripe
@Thaminga Or to restate it, it's not the fact that if they can do it once they can do it every day. That's not innately true for all situations, and doesn't make allowances for the fact emergencies and force majeure can sometimes require unusual activities.
It's the fact that not only do we know damn well they have the cash to do it every day, and it would have solved a lot of other problems that nobody gave a shit about compared to the Crisis Du Jour... the system that wouldn't allow it was built with OUR labor and stolen wages.
re: uspol, snark, gripe
@Thaminga (sorry btw if I'm way overexplaining, i am so caffeinated today and on a new dose of wellbutrin *caroms off walls* :D )
uspol, snark, gripe
Welcome to Modern Monetary Theory: money is created by the government whenever it wants, and can be destroyed whenever it wants via taxation, instead of still pretending it is immutable items like gold coins.
uspol, snark, gripe
@zebratron2084 Counterargument: literally just yesterday they threw $1.5 trillion at the stock markets for a rally that was gone in as many minutes as hundreds of billions of dollars, and ultimately achieved absolutely nothing at all, after years and years of the US "not having the money" to do anything about its problems.
I don't know about you at this point, but I *really* don't think "there's no money for it" makes for a valid argument against anything anymore.