Trump Administration Predictions

[Steve R.]

Trump is an entrepreneur, a salesman, and a disrupter. He is currently advertising several products for sale on the TV.
Given that, what are the chances that the inauguration may have commercial breaks to advertise Trump paraphernalia for sale?
After all we do have commercials for sports games such as football.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

what are the chances that the inauguration may have commercial breaks to advertise Trump paraphernalia for sale?

The news media will sometimes cover events and have commercials before or after some segment. If so, I can imagine that whatever group sells the Trump tchochke could legally buy a spot.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Congress doesn't take the money from SS, they borrow it. Big difference. It's one of those innumeracy things.

Actuaries are usually realllllly good at their jobs and get paid the big bucks. They calculate what needs to be contributed NOW and over time in order to provide a certain benefit at a later date. Unexpected blips in birth rates that last more than a year or two can create temporary windfalls and shortfalls. The Baby Boom was the largest of the blips we've ever seen. WHILE IT WAS HAPPENING, the actuaries knew full well that the piper would need to be paid but it wasn't until the 80's that the public became aware of the issue. There have been at least three PERMANANT fixes to ensure that there was enough money in the SS "fund" to cover the shortfall (payouts exceeding current income) when the time came. But, none of that money is actually "saved". There is absolutely NO reason that the first fix didn't actually fix the problem. We should never have needed TWO MORE. The actuaries knew the goal and calculated what needed to be collected so what happened? The excess money collected has gone into the general fund since the seventies and that means that the SS payments aren't coming from some lockbox as was envisioned, SS payments come from the general fund and the amount being collected every year from current contributions will no longer cover the payments in a few years. But, if Congress hadn't stolen my money, the excess the IRS collected to cover the projected shortfall should be coming from the lockbox but the lockbox is empty.

The Baby Boomers are now starting to die off. I am at the bleeding edge of the boom which lasted about 10 years. You should all be asking the government if they are planning on reducing current contributions by you youngsters when the blip is gone. The idea of SS was that the population would grow over time so that once the system was flowing, there would "always" be more current contributors than people at the end of the line collecting. The Baby Boom after WWII upset that ratio for a limited period of time and the excess contributions we were all asked to make since the 80's was supposed to stop the problem. Congress stole the money so we are currently in the bubble. All the Baby Boomers should currently be collecting SS and we don't have quite enough current contributors to cover the outflow. How is that my problem? Why are we not docking the pay of the Congress who created the problem?

 

[Pat Hartman]

Reducing the government work force will shrink the economy. I know you can't understand that concept, but it is a fact.

It will be painful but it needs to be done. It would have been far better if Congress had never let it get so out of control. Hopefully, Musk and Ramaswamy can work out a reduction cycle that will allow for a more graceful winding down of the departments that need to be cut. Importing tens of millions of illegal aliens has exacerbated the problem. There are way to many (by millions) of low wage workers so there will be no soft landing for most of the government workers.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

There are way to many (by millions) of low wage workers so there will be no soft landing for most of the government workers.

And if I may throw in a comment I hope you will find relevant, the way that "liberal education" has worked means we don't have enough S.T.E.M. graduates to fulfill current and projected needs. Which is another reason why we HAVE so many low-wage workers.

 

[Pat Hartman]

We are also importing STEM workers when we should be hiring our own college graduates. This actual practice started back in the 80's when I was managing teams across the country for a large consulting firm. They would scoop up H1b visas so they could hire cheap foreign labor and then rent them at American wage levels Huge instant profit. Ran to at least $30 per hour per worker. At the time, US people were being paid $25 per hour and the client was paying $80. The US people were also getting benefits so their fully burdened rate was closer to $40 per hour. The H1b's were being paid ~ $10 with NO benefits. And that was 5 times what they were earning at home so they were happy. They were here temporarily and were living 4 to an apartment to save on expenses and sending as much as they could home.

Certainly not illegal but far from fair to American workers especially since the H1b law specifically prohibited undercutting American wages. My company's practice was to place very specific job requirement ads in local papers for $10 per hour. We got no takers so we filled the slots with H1b visa holders. This practice still continues to this day if you were wondering. Congress gives benefits to big business at the expense of the American worker.