Elizabeth Warren and Anti-Corruption

UAH

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Like always, there remain a lot of questions. But frankly, investing in kids at an early age is probably the cheapest and best idea any country can have. Our current system sucks, frankly, so I think there's way more room upward than downward.

Why are so many responsible millennials not having kids? Because they're just too damn expensive. This isn't the 60's anymore. It takes a lot of effort and financial stability to afford rent/mortgage AND a child. That's a lot of certainty and security than many don't have until much later in life. Ultimately, it's not a good reflection on our society if the most educated among us are weighing the options and deciding that children simply aren't worth the financial burden. But that's exactly what's happening in my generation, and it's going to become a huge problem if we don't confront it.
I have written in earlier threads that I am surprised when walking on green way's in the Huntsville/Madison area how many young people are having large families. That may be due to the government funding that has flowed into Huntsville over the years and the corresponding much higher that average earnings in the area. It would seem an anomaly given the earnings potential for a significant percentage of millennials who lack the education to enter into the tech industry.

Having said that I agree that investing in children should be one of the primary indicators of an advanced society. The fact that we haven't done so for generations is a strong casual factor for many of the societal ills that plague us in the US.

I do believe that the US has moved well past its zenith in terms of its ability to generate a broad standard of living and the wealth creation enjoyed by the baby boomers. It seems folly to project a future for those moving into adulthood in the coming years based on history when we have basically mortgaged their future.

Without transformative leadership and problem solving we will, based on economics, enter into a period of cutting back and reducing the size of government by necessity. Expecting to add $1 trillion annually to our national debt we should begin to recognize that day of reckoning is much closer than we think.

Alas no one will be elected discussing such facts until we are all staring into the abyss. Sorry to be off topic but we need to evaluate our ability to fund current programs and begin to make spending cuts along with increased taxation of those earning significant income then reinvest in some of the ideas being discussed.
 

CharminTide

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But that isn't how it works.
That's actually how many expenses work. My family didn't pay tuition for my sixth grade education, for instance. We had the option of attending a private school, but publicly provided schooling/daycare has been a thing in this country for many years. And that's what Warren is talking about.

Also, I am interested in knowing which one of your three 1k expenses is optional. I am counting two optional expenses.
Cool, you think students loans are optional too. While that's true, we're talking from the perspective of someone who's in their late 20s and 30s, thinking about starting a family, and lacks the ability to reverse time.
 

CharminTide

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I wasn't shaking a finger at anyone. I was just pointing out that every generation has to find their way. I actually believe that young people today are fairly well equipped to figure it out. I think there will be a time when people have to do a cost/benefit analysis on their education expense as well. I've signed my name for the things I thought I needed over the years and had to tough it out and pay for it. The cost of education is artificially high in my opinion due to so many Professors on the payroll that don't teach. The way it has gone up in the last couple of decades is unreal. I hope all these things get worked out I do believe your generation will figure them out.
Sorry if my post seemed overly berating. I didn't mean it to sound so targeted to you. It's a common criticism I hear from older generations, though: that if we all lived a more spartan lifestyle without our fancy technogagets, young people could magically afford a house and raise a family. I'm pretty sure folks in the 1950s still sometimes splurged on petticoats and fedoras without falling into financial ruin, and I just don't agree with the double standard that us carrying a 3-year-old iPhone is the mark of personal irresponsibility.

As for my generation figuring out the solution to soaring education costs, wealth inequality, and climate change: why do we get stuck with all the crap jobs? ;)
 

cbi1972

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That's actually how many expenses work. My family didn't pay tuition for my sixth grade education, for instance. We had the option of attending a private school, but publicly provided schooling/daycare has been a thing in this country for many years. And that's what Warren is talking about..
You are still focusing on a specific category of expense. I am saying that child care is not worthy of special consideration in this area. For one, it cheapens the sacrifices made by everyone who did the responsible thing and had no more children than they were capable of supporting. I am saying that "wishing expenses away" isn't how it works, or else everyone could do it instead of just those people that want to have children they can't afford.

Cool, you think students loans are optional too. While that's true, we're talking from the perspective of someone who's in their late 20s and 30s, thinking about starting a family, and lacks the ability to reverse time.
I was talking from the perspective of someone who hasn't already made decisions creating obligations for themselves they would later deem too onerous.
 

CharminTide

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You are still focusing on a specific category of expense.
Correct, because that's the specific proposal under discussion.

Edit: I'm sorry that you feel cheapened if others are later given advantages that you were not personally afforded. But that mindset prolongs bad ideas out of a misguided sense of fairness. I'm more interested in discarding bad ideas and iterating on the good so that future generations can move forward.
 
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TIDE-HSV

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Don't worry, those in poverty are having plenty of children to offset the middle class millennials who are not having kids. The more kids you have, the bigger the check from uncle sam.
This is in fact not true. Without immigration, we are not even replacing ourselves. I really thought that was common knowledge, except with the rabid anti-immigration bunch...
 

seebell

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Good article on birthrates:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo...ar-low-sending-fertility-rate-to-a-record-low

The general fertility rate sank to a record low of 60.2 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44 — a 3 percent drop from 2016, the CDC said in its tally of provisional data for the year.The results put the U.S. further away from a viable replacement rate – the standard for a generation being able to replicate its numbers.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/562541/birth-rate-by-poverty-status-in-the-us/

Women in poverty do have the highest birthrates. Has a nice graph.
[FONT=&quot]This statistic shows the birth rate by poverty status in the U.S. from 2005 to 2017. In 2017, women in households with an income below the poverty threshold had the highest birth rate at 76 births per 1,000 women.[/FONT]
 

CharminTide

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twofbyc

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Pro-birth Republicans have never actually cared about helping poor children after birth. They only care about children inasmuch as they can be used to whip votes, and that utility ends at the cervix. After that, infants can find their own bootstraps.

Democrats will need to prioritize. They can't do everything on the grand wishlist, but if they win enough Senate seats, they can certainly claim the political support to push through one or two items fairly easily, IMO. Political finance reform would be my #1, as every issue ultimately circles back to money and corruption. One reason I like Warren is that I think this would be her #1 priority as well.
FIFY


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crimsonaudio

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I do believe that the US has moved well past its zenith in terms of its ability to generate a broad standard of living and the wealth creation enjoyed by the baby boomers. It seems folly to project a future for those moving into adulthood in the coming years based on history when we have basically mortgaged their future.
This is the crux, and it's not about 'free college' - the reality is we, as a society, have long rested upon our collective laurels instead of continuing to push to greater heights, and much of the rest of the world is / has caught up.

Unless / until we collectively get past the immediate gratification that plagues modern American thought, we're going to continue to slide...
 

NationalTitles18

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This is the crux, and it's not about 'free college' - the reality is we, as a society, have long rested upon our collective laurels instead of continuing to push to greater heights, and much of the rest of the world is / has caught up.

Unless / until we collectively get past the immediate gratification that plagues modern American thought, we're going to continue to slide...
This is true. "American Exceptionalism" is nothing but a lie of arrogance and complacency, yet it is right-wing doctrine. That doctrine will be our downfall and too many are too blind to see it.
 

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