To: sylvester80 who wrote (1112447 ) 1/22/2019 7:08:16 AM From: RetiredNow Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 1573029 We agree that inequality is rampant in this country. I'd go so far as to say inequality has risen to the point where we've eclipsed the 1920s. Why has this happened? This is where we disagree. The liberals think it's because tax rates on the rich are too low. The actual cause has nothing to do with tax rates, but rather, a Federal Reserve that was purpose built to benefit the biggest banks and a Congress that is captured by the corporations and who eliminated Glass-Steagall. I looked up Ocasio's main positions to see how ludicrous they are and actually agreed with a few of them, much to my surprise. Here is from an article:Aside from the Green New Deal and higher taxes on the rich, she favors Medicare for all, a federal guarantee of a job, abolition of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcementbureau, and tuition-free college or trade school. She also wants to slash military spending, ban assault weapons, and bring back Glass-Steagall, the Depression-era law that separated commercial and investment banks. - Bloomberg Ocasio's Positions: I disagree with all of these...Raise taxes; top tax rate of 70% - I disagree. Taxing the rich only brings tiny new amounts of revenue and doesn't attack the root causes of inequality.Medicare for All - I disagree. This solution will add $1-2 trillion per year to the deficit. We need to move back to more free market insurance alternatives, break down the barriers across state lines by introducing federally consistent laws, and push the government back out of intervention, which has done more to increase prices than anything else (see what gov't intervention has done to student loans).Federal job guarantee - This is the most stupid idea of all. This is what happened in Cuba and Venezuela and is the fastest path to destroying our economy and way of life. It will lead directly to corruption, because only the connected will get good jobs, and will lead directly to Dictatorship, since everyone becomes dependent on the beneficence of the government. Capitalism has an unblemished record as the greatest force of lifting the greatest number of people out of poverty and employing them than any other system ever devised. The most recent example is China's experiment with Capitalism that literally lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty. They opened the door just a tiny bit to Capitalism and the results were astounding in only 30 years.Abolition of ICE - The second most stupid idea of hers. A nation without secure borders will be destroyed within a generation. ICE is not the enemy. The enemy is a stupid Congress that doesn't know how to create a fast path to green cards and citizenship for hard working immigrants with no criminal record. Instead, we treat all immigrants as criminals. Trump is extreme on this issue, but Ocasio is the opposite extreme. There is a middle road that is the best road for immigration and neither are correct on this one.Tuition Free College or Trade School - Again, not the best idea. The problem with the cost of college is not that students can't afford it because it's not free, but rather too much government intervention. Everyone in Gen Z alive today remembers when college costs were very reasonable. In fact, most of us were able to work during college and only a couple years after to pay off any debt. The exact root cause of the problems with college debt now are when Obama decided to get the government to backstop student loans and dis intermediated the loan process from banks. All market incentives were lost, college realized they had a deep pocket and started charging a shitload more. Get the government out of it and put banks back in charge of underwriting student loans and the costs will come back down. I agree with all of these:Slash military spending - totally agree. We spend more than the rest of the world combined and we're not getting our money's worth. We are the most warlike country on earth and all of this is a terrible investment. We are not safer and we're significantly poorer. We are becoming the architects of our own demise. The sooner we retrench, save our money, and invest in the future through focusing on our economy, the better. No more war.Ban assault weapons - I grew up in Texas and believe in the 2nd amendment, but come on. No one needs an assault weapon. I don't need a machine gun to hunt deer. And the argument my friends give me is that we need guns to fight the government if the government becomes to tyrannical...well, this is a fantasy. If the US government becomes tyrannical, there is no way that civilians with guns will be able to fight them off in a revolution. The US armed forces is the most technologically advanced, most highly trained, most fierce fighting force the world has ever known. No civilian army stands a ice cube's chance in hell of successful armed rebellion. Let's get rid of assault weapons. We don't need them and they are dangerous to our most vulnerable, our kids.Bring back Glass-Steagall - 100% for this. This is one of the reasons we have massive inequality in this country. The TBTF banks are using the gov't guarantee of our commercial savings to backstop their investment banking speculative activity. Glass-Steagall would all the investment banks to fail and be sold off for parts, instead of bailed out, while protecting the savings of citizens in the commercial side of the house. The argument that banks need to be giant to compete globally is false. We don't want banks to be so competitive that they eclipse all other parts of the economy, because we get what we have today, corruption and the brightest minds flocking to become Wall Street parasites instead of inventing the next Apple or Google. I'm solidly behind Ocasio and Warren on this issue. Tame Wall Street and America wins. We don't need Wall Street to finance our world. In fact, we'd be far better off without those parasites being so large and their captured Federal Reserve and Treasury. Small and mid-sized banks have all but disappeared under the oligarchy of the TBTF banks, so we need to bring back free market competition to this area and do some trust busting among the TBTF banks.