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Reflections

Buy Me a Vote

Taraz@tarazkp (86)6h

I read something that might be called interesting (or perhaps insane) today, where Trump is "promising" (his promises and deals are worthless) to give $5000 dollar handouts to "every American adult citizen" if the Republicans win the House and the Senate. Remember the days when vote-buying was limited to making policies to benefit a group? Now, it is just unfettered and shamelessly direct.

Show me the money!

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I am sure that there are a lot of people who might switch their vote to get their hands on $5000 dollars when they are already experiencing additional cost of living pressures (facilitated by tariffs and war with Iran) in order to ease their struggles. Even with the caveat that they would "have to spend it in America", as if there is some way they can control that in place. But. let's have a little think about it though, because nothing comes for free.

Firstly, there are 270 million adult citizens in the US, which means the immediate "cost" of this promise would be around 1.35 trillion dollars. Just a week or so ago I wrote a post about big numbers that might be relevant. For perspective though, $1.35T would build 1,350,000 one-million-dollar homes. There are about one million homeless in America each night. Not that homeless people deserve any help - they brought it all on themselves, right?

So, about 1.35 million in direct cost.

The current US national debt is sitting at a little over 40 trillion (40 million, million-dollar-houses), which means that this one act of vote-buying would add an additional 3.375 percent to the total. At a time where the government is already fighting resistance to keep upping the debt ceiling in order to cover its current explosion in costs due to war and of course, the many tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. Which puts this promise on shaky ground economically, even if it wasn't coming out of Trump's mouth. Then there is the legal ramifications of attempted vote-buying, because this would of course be challenged in the courts and is unlikely to pass - but that would happen after the elections. So people would vote for the handout, and very likely not get it anyway.

And of course, there is also the fact that governments don't have ANY OF THEIR OWN MONEY. Not a dollar. Everything they have comes from the people, which means that a handout is just a transference of tax flow into pockets. Of course, people will argue that this "dividend" is a return on their investment, of a kind, but what it actually is, is a way to stimulate the economy and (surprise, surprise) make the rich, richer. This is even more blatantly the case with the stated "spend in America" statement that came with it. If this did happen, it would be a boon for American business, but will only really benefit investors and shareholders. You might say that an individual could for instance pay down their house loan with it, and that might be true - but all the evidence of the past suggests that most people will see it as "free money" and buy a bigger TV.

The best TV's are made in America. Everyone is saying it.

Obviously though, people don't care about any of this and will just vote in ways that they believe benefit them directly the most right now. Getting a handout benefits them directly now, even if it has a much higher cost down the road. But this is what governments do (albeit not as blatantly), they kick the can down the road so they can get what they want now. And for Trump, what he wants is to enrich himself and he is using his position to do so. That is the American way. The land of opportunity to be greedy and selfish at the expense of everyone else.

Having said all this though, I agree with taking on more government debt. The global economic system is fundamentally broken due in large part to the practices of the US economy, and that debt is never going to get paid off. That means it is bad debt, they know it and they are going to keep expanding it to the point that the rest of the world can no longer ignore it, and then we will end up wiping it clean.

With WWIII

We should just speed up the process and at a global level, all governments that can should be expanding their own debt models to the extreme and forcing the global economy into a meltdown that is so nuclear, nothing will survive. Maybe then, we can build something again. Or just be wiped from earth for a smarter creature to come along and take our place.

For now though, we are stack with the monsters of the swamp.

Taraz [ Gen1: Hive ]

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Comments · 9

  • @mortezayousefi(68)· 2h

    Trump does not need votes anymore, this is the last presidential termerm

  • @seattlea(78)· 2h

    This is not the first bribe of the voters. A couple weeks ago they were saying that if Republicans are re-elected this November they are going to adopt a new law where long term capital gains are indexed for inflation. That would be a giant tax cut, this would have saved me over two hundred thousand dollars in taxes just last year...

    I wonder why nobody thought of this brilliant idea in the last forty years? Times must be really desperate for Trump and his buddies...

  • @jhelbich(77)· 2h

    En mi experiencia, cuando veo la cifra de 1.35 billones de dólares que habría que gastar para dar $5 000 a los 270 millones de adultos, me recuerda la charla que tuve el otro día con mi familia sobre lo rápido que la deuda nacional puede dispararse. What I learned is that even if such a handout sounds politically tempting, the legal and fiscal hurdles would likely drown it before any voter sees the money 🤔

  • @preparedwombat(79)· 4h

    I read something that might be called interesting (or perhaps insane) today, where Trump is "promising" (his promises and deals are worthless) to give $5000 dollar handouts to "every American adult citizen" if the Republicans win the House and the Senate.

    Would that be before or after giving us the $5000 DOGE refund that he promised a year ago but has not yet been paid out?

  • @shanibeer(74)· 4h

    Well, now, I'd need to see the money in my account and have spent it beforehand 😎.

    I probably would spend it on a bigger tv or my equivalent, because it would be windfall money - in addition to what I've already accounted for etc.

    I don't mind them blowing us to smithereens providing its fast and painless, but from what I'm reading, generally you have to put up with a lot of disintegration and then a slow and painful death.

  • @molometer(72)· 4h

    It should read "Trump's war and tariffs" have got the world's economy in this place.

    Giving $5k to everyone is illegal but that hasn't stopped Trump before so who knows. He may do it and there are at least 80 million Americans that would gladly take it fueling inflation and making things worse.

    Those 80 million Americans are the reason we are in this pickle. Trump is just their mouthpiece and he knows how to mug them off.

    Can't argue with stupid people. A waste of breath.

  • @bozz(83)· 5h

    I hadn't heard about this at all, but I tend not to watch the news too much anymore. It's just a bunch of trash these days anyway. I feel like there are better ways to be spending my time and energy. I'm not counting on it at all, but if we did get the money, I would use it to pay off the loan I had to take out to get a new roof on our house.

  • @loveleenwrites(57)· 5h

    Oh!

    Vote buying? I thought this is only peculiar to Nigeria only.. Ours can be even more blatant.

    It's election season and politicians are already seen sharing bags of rice, cash, sewing machines, motorcycles, generators, or small cash handouts.

    During the election day, they will be sharing money at polling centres or through party agents in exchange for votes. There have even been elections where voters openly ask, “What are you giving us?” before deciding who to support.

    The tragedy is that politicians can give someone ₦5,000 or ₦10,000 today while presiding over policies that make that same amount practically worthless tomorrow through inflation, unemployment, insecurity, and poor public services.

    I won't even talk about threats from politicians; During campaign last week, a politician, sitting governor was heard telling his party agents to deal with anyone who doesn't vote his party.

    So whether it is a politician promising $5,000 to citizens or a Nigerian politician sharing ₦5,000 at an election, the principle is disturbing: when citizens are reduced to the price of their vote, democracy itself becomes a marketplace. And once vote-buying becomes normal, politicians have little incentive to deliver good governance because they can simply buy another four years.

    Quit sickening.

  • @fieryfootprints(74)· 6h

    Well damn my mana is too low so I hope I will remember to vote this post later.

    today, where Trump is "promising" (his promises and deals are worthless) to give $5000 dollar handouts

    I wonder why he is promising only 5k. The debt is not being paid and trump will not give that money. So...he could just as easily offer 50k or even more. After all that is money made of air.

    Or just be wiped from earth for a smarter creature to come along and take our place.

    dogs and crows(and most other animals) seem smarter already.