Get Off My Lawn! - The Mad Ramblings of a Gen X-er
"This is the true story of a Gen X-er picked to do a podcast and give his personal views on Pop Culture, Politics, Sports, News and more, So find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real. - ‘Get Of My Lawn’ As we grow into an ever changing world and new Generations are born, only one stays the same with their distain for all others - ‘Gen X’. We survived riding bikes without helmets, No cell phones, understanding you go home when the street lights go on. We lived through Hair Metal and watched the birth of Grunge. We witnessed ‘Two’ Bush’s become President (That’s what she said.) and the First African American take office. We watched in horror as the Towers fell and rejoiced at the Socialize Digital Age. (‘The Internet’ - Sorry Al you didn’t invent it.)But all in all, We lived our lives with the understanding that playing it safe is not the way to go through your existence. As the world is facing more turmoil than we have every seen before and as we witness a clear division of our Society a voice of ‘reason’ and ‘sanity’ needs to be heard. To bad that ain’t me … Hear me ramble daily about everything from Pop Culture, Politics, Sports, News and more and get the clear as ‘Mud’ perspective of this Rambling Gen X-er. Enjoy!
Get Off My Lawn! - The Mad Ramblings of a Gen X-er
Kamala Harris's Economic Moves: Curbing Inflation or Stifling Growth?
Is it possible to rein in corporate greed and inflation without causing more harm than good? Join us for a thought-provoking discussion as we scrutinize Kamala Harris's economic plan and its ambitious measures to control corporate pricing, particularly in the grocery sector. We challenge the feasibility of proving price gouging and consider the broader implications of Harris's proposed tax credits and healthcare initiatives. By drawing parallels with the economic landscape during Jimmy Carter's administration, we highlight the potential pitfalls of government intervention and question the practicality of these initiatives.
We'll also take a closer look at the recent inflationary pressures, including the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war, supply chain disruptions, and government stimulus measures. The episode explores whether Harris's plans to aid renters and expand housing supply can genuinely alleviate the ongoing housing market challenges. Moreover, we discuss the unsettling trend of corporations passing the cost of fines onto consumers, leading to further price hikes. As we wrap up, we'll leave you pondering an eerie phenomenon: a mysterious fish off the coast of California that some consider an omen. Stay tuned for Monday's episode where we'll dive deeper into this intriguing topic.
What you just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to. It is now dumber for having listened to it. You don't know what that ought is, mr Trash, I'd show you, but I'm too old, I'm too tired, I'm too fucking blind. If I were the man I was five years ago.
Speaker 2:I'd take a flamethrower to this place, do you understand?
Speaker 1:the words that are coming out of my mouth. You want answers. I think I'm entitled. You want answers, I want the truth.
Speaker 2:You can't handle the truth. We've said it once, we've said it a thousand times the truth shall always be free. This is Jim. Let's get off my lawn. I want to talk about the Kamala Harris economic plan. We've said it once, we've said it a thousand times the truth shall always be free. This is Tim. Let's get off my lawn the Mad Ramblings of a Gen Xer. I want to talk about the Kamala Harris economic plan. I want to talk about greedflation. Greedflation has always been a favorite term of mine. I remember back in the 70s this is what everything was going on with Jimmy Carter. We're not going to go into history because a lot of people don't even care about history. A lot of people don't even learn about history. A lot of people don't even learn about what happens with the gas lines, with inflation, with stagflation, everything that was under the carter administration, and we're kind of heading that way again. And greedflation is basically those evil corporations.
Speaker 1:They are going out and squilling the little man.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's the Kamala Harris plan right now. We're going to hear it today and, I believe, in Raleigh, north Carolina. All of her wonderful ideas and one of her first and I think it's the best idea she has, and of course, I'm being facetious she wants to create a. Okay, now, remember this the government right now is in control of Social Security, which is a hot mess. They're in control of the mail, which is a failing organization and a hot mess. They're in control of Medicare and Medicaid, which are all hot messes. Anything that the government takes over usually turns out to be a harbinger of doom, and that's kind of what we're looking at, because on day one, her priority is going to be that she is going to give the Federal Trade Commission and state attorney generals the ability to impose harsh penalties on companies for setting excessively high prices. So we're going to go after the people that make our food. We are going to go after the people that provide jobs. We are going to go after the people that do everything for this country to keep the economy rolling, because they are corporate evil. So we're going to go after all these guys. If you want to talk about Marxism this is 100% Marxism you actually are going to go after private corporations with the federal government and say to them you are charging too much. How are you going to actually fulfill this claim? How are you actually going to prove this claim?
Speaker 2:Remember when Biden came out about a year ago and said we have to go after the gas stations because they're gouging the prices? Well, no, majority of gas stations aren't price gouging. Majority of gas stations make pennies on the dollars on gas, because I know people that own gas stations. All their money is usually made through convenience stores. That's why the majority of gas stations you go into have a convenience store, because that's where they make their profits. They are not making the profits on the fuel on the ground. They charge based on what they are charged to purchase the gas. That's how that money, that's how that works, joe.
Speaker 2:So you're going to have to prove that these people, these evil corporations, are gouging the prices. It's Marxism. So you're going to give the control to the federal government to do this. We're going to keep up. We have a little chart here. It's grocery profit margin compared to market averages and I think, why am I even going to talk about the chart? We're just going to leave the chart up here. I don't know which side it's on because I haven't put the chart up yet, but we're going to just leave the chart here so you can see what's going on.
Speaker 2:Does anyone remember that back in the Soviet Union days they had price controls of groceries? The government did. Does anyone remember that? I know that's crazy to think of, but does anyone remember that?
Speaker 2:She's also talking about including a per child tax credit up to $6,000 for families, a tax credit for people without children who work no-transcript, and a health care tax providing $6,000 through the Affordable Care Act. This is all great. Who the fuck's going to pay for it? Oh, there's probably going to be some taxes on the corporations and the rich. That's what it's going to be. That's what it's going to be. That's what it's going to be. Now.
Speaker 2:I love it because the New York Times came out with an article and the New York Times is not what I refer to as a bastion of hope for Republicans, it's usually a very liberal paper and they even came out and said Harris plans to ban grocery price gouging. What does the evidence say? I love one egg farmer Because eggs shot up exponentially. And this one egg farmer said listen, there are less eggs and that's why the price. Do you remember back in the day when the government killed all those hens and chickens for bird and swine flu, even though a lot of the farmers came out and said none of our chickens or hens tested positive for avian flu, not swine flu Swine flu would be chicken for avian flu Even though none of them tested positive? But they killed all the hens and chickens, but they killed all the hens and chickens.
Speaker 2:So when you do something like that and you produce less of a product, it is a glitch or it is an issue in the supply chain. So what happens? When you have less of something? The demand goes up, the price goes up. I know this seems like basic economics to some, but it's evidently not.
Speaker 2:And when you have world supply chain issues which most economists are suggesting now are going to happen more frequently and you're including trade wars, geopolitical instability, climate change I love climate change Because climate change in some regards, the climate changes every year. Guys, I'm not a climate change denier. It changes every year. Most scientists will tell you that. But there are areas where you have droughts. You have areas where the precious resources that we need to literally create these products are in such high demand and the cost of fuel, the cost of manpower, the cost of machinery to refine, to dig, to get these minerals, has shot up exponentially as well.
Speaker 2:And the fact that you have, like, two countries who control the majority of these minerals in India and China. Because we don't want to do that, we don't, we. And when it comes to mining, the United States over the last 30 years has now not. Mining, of course, is not the cleanest operation, but over the last 30 years the United States has created an ability to mine ore at a much more efficient level for the environment. Places like China and India don't do that. So when we talk about our carbon footprint, we have reduced our carbon footprint by quite a lot, while China and India have increased theirs because they are building coal plants weekly, monthly, to produce energy, to refine these products, to make money, and we refuse to do it here because we are protecting the environment. But the problem is this we're also relying on our enemies in China not India, but in China to refine the products and manufacturers of the goods that we need. We learned that during COVID, but again, we don't learn the lessons of the past because we don't want to talk about that.
Speaker 2:We don't want to talk about the fact that Biden overheated the economy with the economic rescue plan. Where, with those $1,400 payments to consumers. The economic rescue plan where, with those $1,400 payments to consumers. So then you now have consumers with money chasing smaller, little amount of goods, less amount of goods, which causes wait for it inflation. You are headed towards a Marxist country. When you're sitting there saying that you are going to allow the federal government to go after corporations for their greed, for their profits, for price gouging, even though you have no way to prove it. You have no way to prove that they are doing this and the fact that they could probably prove to you easier that they're not doing it.
Speaker 2:I remember when Biden was going after grocery stores. Grocery stores are charging too much. They are charging what they need to to survive because they have overhead, they have power, they have employment, they have health insurance, they have delivery fees, they have all these things, but it's going to be a message for the swing voters that there is the evil corporation boogeyman that is causing you all this pain. Factories shut down in 2021. We had supply chains issues. We had a rapid increase in inflation 2021-2022.
Speaker 2:Inflation went up even more during the start of the Russia-Ukraine war and I love it because it was the Putin price hikes. No, it was the fact that we're diverting resources and we get a lot of grain from Ukraine. But we don't want to talk about those things Because again, it's another supply chain issue. Talk about those things Because again, it's another supply chain issue. The consumer price index climbed to 2.9% through July and the data this week showed that inflation has dipped to 3% since 2021. But that's the rate of inflation. That's not inflation. Inflation on some goods are over 20-something percent. Now, of course, companies are able to rake in the big profits for a very simple reason Consumer demand was very strong.
Speaker 2:The Fed and congressional efforts to boast the household like I said, boast households during the pandemic, with that $1,400 payment, again helped overheat the economy. You have people with money chasing less goods, which causes inflation. And, like I said, when you have these shortages and higher costs of raw materials and it costs more to make manufacture something, the goods, the prices of the goods or services has to be passed on to someone. And if you have to have the evil corporate boogeyman and that's what most people are going to like, because it's going to be the more simplistic option for people. It's going to be. They can understand more that it's everyone's fault, but yours, it's everyone's fault but the federal government's I'm trying to find my notes here. I'm also watching the stock market at the same time, because the stock market's already down. We had a good week after that horrendous week.
Speaker 2:The Kamala Harris plan also is going to help cash-strapped renters by blocking data firms from hiking lease rates, by preventing Wall Street investors from buying homes in bulk and reselling them at a premium. Yes, some people have done that, but that's not one of the problems that is causing the housing issue. It's interest rates. It's the fact that there's an issue in reference to getting products to build homes. I'll give you a good example.
Speaker 2:We were going to move. We were going to move to another state a couple years back and we actually were in the process of building the house and we had a date that the house was going to start being built and they had a finish date, a completion date, but that completion date kept getting pushed back because of the fact that they couldn't get the lumber, they couldn't get the supplies, they couldn't get the roofing materials. Now, that house which a couple years back probably would have cost like $300,000, was selling for $490,000. And the builder had such an issue selling these homes. Like I said, they were doing everything they possibly could in reference to helping with mortgage payments and helping with closing costs that they were just giving stuff away, but the rate of the interest rate was just so high nobody was buying.
Speaker 2:So, under this, harris will call for the US to construct 3 million new housing units over the next four years. In order to facilitate that, she will call for new tax incentives for builders to construct starter homes. So they're going to give more tax incentives. So, in other words, we are giving out more money. The federal government's giving out more money. Our rate of debt right now is so insane we are going to go out and give more money.
Speaker 2:Now, of course, any of these changes that she wants to make is going to require congressional approval and it's really going to matter who controls both the House and the Senate. I love it because I love this. This came from a fact sheet of the Harris plan. As the supply of entry-heavy homes expands, the Harris plan would provide working families who have paid rent over time for the next two years and are buying their first home up to $25,000 and downpay our assistance with the more generous support for first-generation homeowners. Where are we getting this $25,000 from? Does anyone know? Bueller, bueller, where's this $25,000 coming from? Oh, it's going to be more taxes. She's also looking to expand the $35 cap on insulin and Medicare recipients. Let me see what else. She's also restoring the expanded child care credits, which first introduced during the COVID pandemic and a longstanding goal of the Biden administration. So we're going to extend those.
Speaker 2:But what are we going to do with the tax? What are we going to do with the Trump tax cuts? Because you know they're going to go after corporations. We had one of the highest tax levels for corporations in years until Trump came in and then, amazingly, after you cut that, inflation was almost nothing, you had jobs, you had an economy that was rolling. But you also put money back in. I know we talk about the evil corporations. We talk about the evil corporations, but we also don't talk about the fact that he also put money back into your paycheck, weekly money back into your paycheck, weekly. So if those tax credits expire, like they're supposed to, in 2025, that couple hundred dollars, you see a week extra in your check that you've probably forgotten about over the last three and a half, four or five years, is going to go away. And what are we going to do about gas prices? How are we going to keep stop relying on on on Venezuela, on OPEC, on Saudi Arabia and all these other countries Cause we were energy independent that last year on the Trump administration?
Speaker 2:So all these wonderful things that she wants to do, all these, all these Marxist ideas that we want to go after these evil corporations who only supply the services and the goods and the jobs and the money for people to live. We're going to go after all of them because they're evil. Remember that they are evil. If you want a Marxist, communist, socialist state, here you go, and she's going to do this within the first 100 days. She can't prove price gouging, she can't prove any of this, but she is going to allow the federal and local governments to go after corporations that they deem are gouging prices.
Speaker 2:This, this, this, this is, this is, this is so, this is. This is soviet union stuff. It's greedflation. This is soviet. This is Soviet Union stuff. It's greedflation. This is Soviet, union-type style government, and we saw how well it worked out for the Soviet Union. We saw the fall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. We saw how well that worked out for their economy for years. Get smart people, look into this. Don't just say oh, say oh, we're gonna do.
Speaker 2:All these great things, all these wonderful things that she wants to give, all these giveaways she wants to have, comes with a price, comes with a higher personal tax, comes with a higher corporate tax, and she'll say, well, we're not going to tax anyone making under 400,000, okay, but we also are not going to go after people with the IRS, even though we hired 88,000 additional. We're going to hire 88,000 additional agents because they're all going after the millionaires, even though there are probably more IRS agents than there are millionaires in this country. But that's okay. And where does it stop?
Speaker 2:You are now being taxed on things such as eBay, on the VEMU payments. You are now going to be taxed when you sell things on Etsy. You're being taxed at now. Before it was. Now, it's only $600. Before it was $20,000. You're going to be taxed on all that this year, guys, or we forget about these things. So who's to say that the government's not going to be taxed on all that this year, guys, or we forget about these things. So who's to say that the government's not going to say eBay, you're price gouging, we have to fine you.
Speaker 2:And when these corporations receive these fines, where do you think they're going to pass on the pricing to? The price increases too. Oh yes, the consumer. I get more and more worried every day. Price increases too. Oh yes, the consumer. I get more and more worried every day. There's more and more signs of the pending doom in the apocalypse. We're going to talk about that on Monday, especially that fish that just popped up off the coast of California, which is also referred to as the harbinger of doom. So stay tuned for that. Enjoy your weekend and remember there's a truth to all of us that you of Doom. So stay tuned for that. Enjoy your weekend and remember this is the truth. It's always such a free. This is Tim. It's got my law in the mad realm. He's a gen Xer and I'm out of here you.