Politics

[Rocked and Loaded]

Also makes it even more critical that we bring chip manufacturing in large scale back inside the US…

If we can. It’s obviously in Taiwan’s best interest to remain indispensable to us so they don’t end up like Ukraine.

 

[mdwest]

If we can. It’s obviously in Taiwan’s best interest to remain indispensable to us so they don’t end up like Ukraine.

We can reverse engineer anything.. and we’ve got the economy and tech to build anything…

Our challenge would be whether or not it would be affordable…

People think they deserve a “living wage” to work part time as a barista or flipping burgers at Wendy’s…

Imagine the labor rate for people working in chip manufacturing…

You’d have to invest deeply in an almost completely automated facility up front.. or you’d never be able to sell your chips in any volume… the labor costs would kill you…

 

[AJ Peacock]

I believe they will blow up the couple of places that make the chips if they do, but I 100% agree on the importance of the chips.
I believe China has a deep jealousy of Taiwan…
It will rock the world economy if China takes over the chips.
The US (both sides of the aisle) made huge mistakes letting us get into this position in the first place

I was working for Motorola Semiconductor in the late 90's, when they announced moving fab production to Taiwan (Taiwan Semi partnership) and it looked like all the wafer fabs and high tech was moving offshore, I bailed out. I thought then and said that it was a bad strategic decision from a USA and a company perspective. But alas, it was the way of all the semi's back then, looking short term and having no reason from a US perspective to stay onshore.

AJ

 

[Brent in Az]

A mega chip factory in the states to hedge against any future Taiwan issues, sounds like an opportunity for guys like Elon Musk.

 

[AJ Peacock]

A mega chip factory in the states to hedge against any future Taiwan issues, sounds like an opportunity for guys like Elon Musk.

A single wafer fab was around $1B 20 years ago. No idea what it would cost now from the ground up.

AJ

 

[Brent in Az]

Look back 5 years at the chip shortage the Automobile manufacturers experienced. Huge storage lots full of vehicles without chips that couldn't be delivered.
If China gets their evil claws on Taiwan.....

 

[Big_Easy]

Here’s a good example of what we get for our tax money. According to the Department of Education, it costs an average of about $16,000 per year to educate a K-12 student in the public school system. Meanwhile, a Catholic grade school education costs about $7,000 per year. Catholic High School costs about the same as the public school average….so a weighted annual average for Catholic schools is about $10,000…or $6,000 less per year. Here’s the kicker, Catholic school students test 1-2 grades higher than their public school counterparts. So poorer results for 60% greater cost per year. The gap is even greater for home schooling. So it would be obvious to any child, teacher’s union rep or bureaucrat that more money is needed to close the performance gap. Wait…….

Yes it's true that catholic schools do quite well by their students. But there is another factor you have not considered, and i think you may have your correlation and causation switched. Catholic schools require their students family to pay for it themselves. Ask yourself this question; what family has the money to send 3 kids to Catholic school in the first place?...Not ones at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. The students come from wealthier families to begin with when compared to the average public school student. 3 kids x $7000/yr is $21K per year. Most families don't have that much money lying around.

Those students come from families with greater means and resources, and that is a factor in their continued success. Also, those homeschooling studies are largely misleading as several of them that show great success with homeschooled students are not random samples, and use self-selected results. Resulting in a disproportionately larger amount of wealthy, highly educated homeschooling families, and do not represent the median student.

 

[Big_Easy]

if everyone paid taxes and saw how much the government takes from that pay or welfare check . They wouldn’t be as free spending any longer.

Leftists talk about a flat tax (say 15%) across all economic levels. Which would be great. Every citizen paying the same percentage.

You shouldn’t be punished for being successful and you shouldn’t get a free ride for not being successful.

And the leftist thinks it would be fair. but watch how quickly half of the population screams bloody murder that they now have to give up 15% of their pay and welfare check. And gets no tax refund in April.

The left seems to think a flat tax squares up the rules against the wealthy. They forget that most of the bottom percentage pays nothing and would scream bloody murder if they suddenly had to pay taxes.

The only leftists i know don't agree with a pure flat tax at all. Due to its regressive nature. They only partially support it if it comes with a rebate system for lower income families to offset the taxes paid on essentials. A progressive tax isn't punishing people for being successful, its realizing that a billionaire doesn't need to spend all of their money on essentials like someone making $30K a year does. The higher taxes make up for that.

Well the bottom pay taxes now, Trump's tariffs have seen to that.

 

[Big_Easy]

Vice President JD Vance reveals 186,000 dead people getting food stamps​

Read to the end of the article, regarding blockchain technology for identification purposes.

Vice President JD Vance reveals 186,000 dead people getting food stamps

Vice President JD Vance told a crowd at a campaign event for Representative Zach Nunn in Iowa that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had uncovered widespread fraud in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the federal food assistance program that serves roughly 42 million Americans at a ...

finance.yahoo.com

Which works out to 0.44%. Also, they haven't shared that data with anyone yet. Given this administration's long history of lies, I'll wait for some independent analysis before commenting further.

 

[Big_Easy]

Speaking of desperate measures. I think someone mentioned if the government were to confiscate all of billionaires money, it would fund the government only for a few months.

So higher taxes of a select few is not the answer.

Half the country either does not pay taxes and/or gets welfare from the government.

A drastic solution, and only drastic because it would be unpopula as it would hit everyone. Do away with mortgage interest deduction AND implement a national sales tax.

"So higher taxes of a select few is not the answer."...It literally is. I've cited multiple examples of it's success already, in this country. Most notably after our public debt to GDP ratio was also over 100% after WWII. We paid that down considerably 30 years later after higher taxes on the rich. It worked quite well, and the middle class also flourished during this same period. We went from a ratio of over 100% down to 30% in 30 years.

 

[Big_Easy]

Agreed.

I would like to see all taxes abolished (income, property and all others).

A flat nation wide sales tax is the only fair tax. Everyone is a consumer, not everyone is a producer.

Life isn't fair.

 

[spike.t]

WOW........

 

[Big_Easy]

I too like a flat tax, but I'm not a Nobel Prize winning economist.

It was really hard to wrap my mind around Dr. Friedman's Negative Income Tax plan and it's harder for me to explain it, but it is sound.

In short, everyone above poverty pays tax. Everyone that makes more money is better off than if they were sitting home on the dole. Eventually, you become a producer rather than a consumer.

We already employ a pseudo NIT, it is the earned income tax credit (EITC). Unfortunately any good will Friedman had evaporated with his disastrous ideas around shareholder value theory, de-regulation, and free trade. Remind me again, weren't all of these free trade deals one of the two main things Trump has been complaining about for the past 10 years (the other obviously being immigration)?

Friedman was also for some policies that republicans don't like, he was against Nixon and Reagan's "War on Drugs."...He was pro-liberalization of drug policy. Kinda like when Republicans champion Ayn Rand, but then forget she was a pro-abortion Atheist. Anyways, if you're a blue-collar worker in America, especially if you work in manufacturing, Friedman should be your sworn enemy. Shareholder value theory and Republican free trade ideas devastated the manufacturing base in America. That combined with de-regulation irreparably damaged the American middle class.

 

[Brent in Az]

Senator Bill Cassidy defeated in Louisiana primary.
Fortunately, the voters didn't forget that he voted to convict Trump over the J6 nonsense

 

[Big_Easy]

Interestingly the so-called socialist countries like Denmark tax all income levels. Everyone has skin in the game.
Here in Dallas the low IQ voters pass every bond election because they don't have skin in the game. We recently had a bond election to build new schools. Right after the election, the local news was opining that declining enrollment would mean closing many schools. What??!!
At least with a sales tax, everyone pays, including visitors and tourists.

Totally leaving out the fact that a burger flipper there makes $22/hr due to strong collective bargaining rights, has healthcare, a pension system, roughly 6 weeks of vacation a year, and doesn't get bankrupted by education or medical debt.

 

[Big_Easy]

I believe they will blow up the couple of places that make the chips if they do, but I 100% agree on the importance of the chips.
I believe China has a deep jealousy of Taiwan…
It will rock the world economy if China takes over the chips.
The US (both sides of the aisle) made huge mistakes letting us get into this position in the first place

Thats the whole point in the CHIPS and Science Act. Thanks Joe Biden.

CHIPS and Science Act - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Big_Easy]

We can reverse engineer anything.. and we’ve got the economy and tech to build anything…

Our challenge would be whether or not it would be affordable…

People think they deserve a “living wage” to work part time as a barista or flipping burgers at Wendy’s…

Imagine the labor rate for people working in chip manufacturing…

You’d have to invest deeply in an almost completely automated facility up front.. or you’d never be able to sell your chips in any volume… the labor costs would kill you…

Thats no longer true. Its in the 5%-20% range now...Thanks in part to the CHIPS and Science Act.

AMD CEO says U.S.-made TSMC chips are more expensive, but worth it — costs 'more than 5% but less than 20%' higher than Taiwan-sourced alternative

AMD expects to receive TSMC-made chips by late 2025.

finance.yahoo.com

We haven't made things like that here because shareholder value theory reigns supreme in this country.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

Bill Cassidy was who I voted for. Smart, honest, independent minded Republican. Bill is a medical doctor too, having practiced medicine for 20 plus years prior to entering politics. Cassidy earned the wrath of Trump by voting for his impeachment.

John Fleming and Julia Letlow are in the runoff. Fleming was a four term congressman (4th District, now held by Speaker Mike Johnson). Fleming is a medical doctor and former Navy guy. Fleming has held a number of jobs in the Trump administration. Letlow won a congressional seat (5th district) in the House when her husband died during COVID. He was elected to Congress but died before taking office. Letlow was endorsed by Trump, but she has very little track record. Heck, she didn't even work for Fox news.

I wondered if his ouster is seen as a good or bad thing - are the other options better?

 

[coreydb]

If the people of the UK are soooo upset with the direction of their country, why did they vote for the PMs who allowed the country to go to hell. Only the people can make the change they want.

 

[mdwest]

If the people of the UK are soooo upset with the direction of their country, why did they vote for the PMs who allowed the country to go to hell. Only the people can make the change they want.

The same could be said in the US…

Who voted talib, omar, AOC, and the rest of the idiots in our house into office?