• EinatYahav
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      171 year ago

      Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager charged with killing two people and wounding a third during racial justice unrest in Wisconsin last year, is continuing to rack up massive amounts of donations ahead of his November trial, according to a legal defense fund associated with his family which said Monday it has raised nearly $500,000 in the past three months. Forbes

      Support for Charles Littlejohn $48,685 USD raised of $250,000 goal GoFundMe

      To be fair though, Kyle Rittenhouse gets indirect funding from all the weapon manufacturers and conservative groups. Charles Littlejohn managed to piss off everybody who matters/makes decisions.

  • @[email protected]
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    51 year ago

    He leaked private information of an individual. People are bending over backwards to say how in this case being against privacy is actually good

    • @[email protected]
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      211 year ago

      How much privacy is expected of the POTUS? Precedent is established and in the case of the Presidency strictly adhered to until as of recently. Nah, the public was given what was owed to it.

        • @[email protected]
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          61 year ago

          Yeah, because the cunt doesn’t give a shit about serving the people he’s supposed to represent. Or do you also think Hitler was entitled to some privacy and the enigma code shouldn’t have been broken?

          • @[email protected]
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            11 year ago

            Hitler would deserve privacy if he were a United States private citizen. He was not, he was a foreign leader.

            • @[email protected]
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              1 year ago

              See no he doesn’t if he’s a public official. The task of governing a large population requires transparency. I can’t believe that you argue in good faith that either a murdering fascist or a two bit con from New York deserves access to privacy while handling the affairs of multiple millions of people. Privacy laws do not apply to heads of state. You’re still arguing that these people should be able to avoid accountability for very real crimes.

              • @[email protected]
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                11 year ago

                There’s still a right to privacy even if you do a job of public servant, unless the law specifically requires the release of those documents.

                Even a real criminal has a right to privacy, you don’t lose all your rights when you commit a crime

    • @[email protected]
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      171 year ago

      Because there are very few rules that should be universal. “Keeping tax returns secret so they don’t expose the benefits rich people get” isn’t one of them.

          • @[email protected]
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            1 year ago

            Yes, from the comments I see sentiments like the rich and Trump fans are not people. Just dehumanize your opponents and everything is permissible.

            • @[email protected]
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              71 year ago

              They are people. They’ve simply forgotten that we are people too, equal to them in every way except the size of our bank accounts.

              As for the Trump supporters, I understand why they supported him in 2016. I struggle to see why they still do after what he’s done since, ie: lowered taxes for the rich again.

            • @[email protected]
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              31 year ago

              Not dehumanizing them, taking away their private citizen status, because it’s right in the title “Public Official”.

    • @[email protected]
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      31 year ago

      Let’s make sure that neither cristofacists nor corporation-friendly libertarians economically-minded individuals come to power.

  • @[email protected]
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    901 year ago

    Biden if you were looking for a chance to prove you’re about reform and equality for working classes, now is your chance to pardon this guy and give him a position in department of treasurey.

      • @[email protected]
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        1 year ago

        As opposed to Trump, who’s only following the Hitler playbook and seeking to aid and abett Putin in dismantling the entire western world?

        Spoiler: Everyone is going to die. Not just the West. Everyone. Putin thinks so much less of everyone than Putin and Trump.

        • @[email protected]
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          11 year ago

          I wish trump was going to aid the dissolution of the west lol. You’re giving him too much credit. In actuality the only thing he would do differently is dominate the US’s allies slightly more and spread slightly more racist rhetoric. Considering the US empire will commit genocide in either case nothing justifies legitimizing it by participating.

    • @[email protected]
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      371 year ago

      It will never happen. Biden is owned by the same people as Trump. There’s only one party, the party of the Oligarchs. All of the petty shit about abortion, trans rights, gay rights, racial equality, gender equality, religion, second amendment, etcetera are all distractions to keep us all at each others throats while the rich cocksuckers figure out more insidious ways to fuck us all over.

      • RedFox
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        1 year ago

        The two party/mass media distraction machine working on the next big thing? 😄

        Trump even admitted to this stuff though, he said they all do it and they won’t change the tax laws. IEven Chappelle write a bit about it.

        He waves it in ‘average Joe’s’ face, and people are still voting for him. 🤯

        • @[email protected]
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          21 year ago

          Dude, Joe Biden is a career politician. He’s trash… But he’s still better than Trump. Trump is a fucking dumpster fire threatening to light this whole world on fire.

        • @[email protected]
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          71 year ago

          I know that sounds dismissive, but if you have no healthcare and can’t afford a place to live, and your right to dissent is eroded every day, then all of the other differences won’t matter when we’re dead.

          • @[email protected]
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            21 year ago

            Your list of “petty shit” were either examples of or things that directly impact healthcare and living conditions.

      • RedFox
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        21 year ago

        I always liked the term boots on our necks, but it’s more like boat shoes or Armani?

      • EinatYahav
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        41 year ago

        Oh no, my trans kid is being discriminated against. Time to ship them off to a private villa in another country.

        Oh no, my daughter got knocked up. Impromptu vacation in Europe & private therapy.

        Oh no, my relative is the wrong skin color. Give them a job posting “we’re all in this together” memes in corporate PR.

      • @[email protected]
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        41 year ago

        Fuck this bullshit. There is a difference here, and what you’re spouting here is pure Propaganda.

        I agree the wealthy on both sides IS treated differently from all of the rest of us, but that doesn’t mean there’s no difference between fascism and the failure of progress.

      • BargsimBoyz
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        381 year ago

        This sounds a lot like the one party “they’re all the same” bullshit that right wingers like to propogate.

        Because make no mistake, one party is at least trying to push laws through that help (democrats), versus the other which just openly fucks people and doesn’t give a shit about helping out.

        • @[email protected]
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          51 year ago

          Yeah, yeah, just shut down any discussion with this canned response calling the other person a fascist. The drunk, neglectful mother is really the good parent because the father is verbally, and sometimes physically, abusive. We shall never criticize the mother because we are so fortunate to have her and that is the end of the discussion.

          • BargsimBoyz
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            21 year ago

            Wow this is an insane take. I don’t often speak to right wingers but this is pretty far from reality. None of what you wrote is accurate and I never called anyone a fascist.

            I’m just relying on the evidence that clearly doesn’t line up with whatever rhetoric you’re spewing. Jeez that’s vile though.

            • @[email protected]
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              1 year ago

              When you say:

              “One party is at least trying to push laws through that help”

              You’re getting closer to my point.You admit how ineffectual they are. The dems pretend to help while lettting themselves get steamrolled by the repubs. This is not accidental. How do I know this? Look at the shit that really matters to the war machine, that shit always passes: money for the war in Ukraine (that we instigated), money for Israel (who just happen to be committing genocide right now), money for the military budget (last year they gave them 50 billion extra that they didn’t even have to ask for). That’s 886 BILLION dollars to spread “democracy” to countries around the world. That’s more than the next 10 countries spent on their military combined.

              Either you’ve lived life under a rock to not notice the shit going on around you, or you’re a shill for the dems. Pull your head out of your rectum and look around. People are hurting, and if you’re not, good for you, you’re lucky. How long do you think your luck will hold out?

              • BargsimBoyz
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                11 year ago

                I’m not admitting how ineffectual they are. It’s just hard to push laws through when one party is clearly trying to stop you from doing the right thing.

                It’s like saying that people fighting for climate change are the same as those arguing against climate change because they’re not getting climate change law through.

                Your point either makes no sense or you’re arguing in bad faith. I wish it was the first but I’ve dealt with too many people who are just trolling and reporting right wing rhetoric.

                • @[email protected]
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                  1 year ago

                  Whenever dems start losing an argument these days, they’re quick to call it “right-wing rhetoric”. I take this as an ad-hominem attack since I’ve been a lefty all my life. I voted for Bill Clinton. I voted for Barack Obama in 2008. I would have voted for Bernie Sanders in 2016, but the lying, cheating fucks in the DNC stole the nomination, and we ended up with a clown-ass gameshow host as president.

                  Hey, guess what single entity in the world is the biggest polluter. The US fucking military. The same military that dems and reps overwhelmingly vote to give mountains of cash to every fucking year.

                  You say I’M arguing in bad faith? The other (literally Machiavellian) tactic that shit-libs like to use is to accuse the opposition of the thing they themselves are guilty of. I like how you glossed right over the whole funding the military aspect of my argument, as if murdering people for their resources is just business as usual. Obviously you’re not affected by it so why should you care?

          • @[email protected]
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            21 year ago

            Buddy, I came from a household like that. The less abusive one is absolutely better.

            We, in America, are living that abuse right now. You either choose the less abusive, or watch the other one fuck entire world up.

            • @[email protected]
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              31 year ago

              I also came up in an abusive household, so here’s somerhing to think about: who’s worse, the abuser who only knows abuse because they were abused, or the one who allows it to happen even though they know it’s wrong? That’s what we have now. The reps suck, no doubt, but the dems sit back and twiddle their thumbs and allow the corporations to fuck us all over while pretending to give a shit. They don’t give a shit because they’ve sold us out for a little bigger piece of pie.

        • @[email protected]
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          261 year ago

          44 Democrat senators, 36 Republicans and Joe Biden all worked together to pass a law forcing a union to accept a contract it’s members had already voted on and rejected.

          Fuck all of them.

          • BargsimBoyz
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            1 year ago

            Wow. Thanks for cherry picking one thing out of hundreds to show your point! That’s a solid way of arguing.

            Would you like me to cherry pick an example of one which disproves you? Or would you like to examine the evidence as a whole and actually properly examine it?

              • BargsimBoyz
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                1 year ago

                Let me explain it to you since you don’t seem to understand.

                OP makes a statement that all democrats and republicans act the same and are equal.

                I say no, that’s not right.

                Other poster says well if you look at this one example, they voted together!

                I said looking at one example isn’t reflective of the whole picture. That I can just pick another example that shows they don’t vote together. You need to look at it overall instead of cherypicking facts that suit you.

                Do you understand the logic there and why what you wrote makes no sense?

                I can make it simpler perhaps if you need it.

                • @[email protected]
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                  31 year ago

                  OP makes a statement that all democrats and republicans act the same and are equal

                  Wrong. OP never wrote that - YOU made that statement as a strawman. You should try to be a more honest person.

                • HACKthePRISONS
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                  81 year ago

                  >OP makes a statement that all democrats and republicans act the same and are equal.

                  that is not what they said

          • BlanketsWithSmallpox
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            1 year ago

            It’s great that you picked the one option where Democrats were trying to help thos railroad workers but Republicans refused. Then when Democrats have to continue the literal working infrastructure of the United States, they get the blame for it… Rather than the company owners and Republicans lmfao. Democrats literally didn’t not have enough votes on their own.

            Sounds like Fox News is working to me. Because 90% of Lemmy does nothing but peddle it lol.

            • @[email protected]
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              51 year ago

              How about the public option with the ACA? The Democrats used their super majority to pass a Republican crafted bill that simply enshrined the shitty status quo into law, even going so far as to fine you if you didn’t participate in said system. We still pay the highest per capita amount for healthcare in the entire world. What did we really get out of that? The end of “pre-existing conditions” and the option to purchase the same expensive, bare-bones insurance coverage from someone besides your employer?

            • @[email protected]
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              1 year ago

              It’s great that you picked the one option where Democrats were trying to help thos railroad workers but Republicans refused.

              The railroad workers didn’t need the “help” of Democrats anymore than the UAW did. They were preparing to strike and would have gotten their demands.

              Democrats literally didn’t not have enough votes on their own.

              THEN THEY SHOULD HAVE STAYED THE FUCK OUT OF IT.

              Do not block strikes. End of story.

              Sounds like Fox News is working to me. Because 90% of Lemmy does nothing but peddle it lol.

              You need to pull your head out of your ass if you think there are zero people who voted for Biden in the 2020 general election and will refuse to vote for him in 2024 over this. The rail workers contract expires at the end of this year. The next president will be faced with the same choice. If Biden believes Trump to be the biggest threat we face then promising to veto any attempts to force a contract on the workers is a bargain.

              Make a fucking choice. You want to save Democracy? Here you go. Here’s the offer. Reject the offer and we’ll vote 3rd party. Stop thinking you can get us to vote for Biden by any other means.

              • BlanketsWithSmallpox
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                1 year ago

                The cognitive dissonance or prop washing is tangible lol.

                If you sound like a Fox News segment after typing something out, maybe rethink the reality of what you’re trying to say vs what you’re actually saying. Hell, you even agreed with what I said in ad many words lol.

                • @[email protected]
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                  1 year ago

                  you sound like a Fox News segment

                  Find me a Fox News article stating the rail strike should not have been blocked. I’ll wait.

                  EDIT: Five hours later and no article. Odd. It’s almost like people defending blocking the rail strike sound like Fox News watchers. Interesting.

          • @[email protected]
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            61 year ago

            This doesn’t mean there’s no difference between Biden and Trump. Don’t do the fascists favors.

            • @[email protected]
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              1 year ago

              People who voted for Biden in the 2020 primaries did the fascists a favor. They decided they’d rather risk losing to fascists a second time than compromise with leftists. Biden did the fascists a favor when he called on congress to block the rail strike.

              Fuck Joe Biden and anybody who voted for him in the 2020 primaries.

        • @[email protected]
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          21 year ago

          It absolutely is the same as the right winger rhetoric. Because it is right winger rhetoric. This is their new thing.

    • @[email protected]
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      1 year ago

      Biden if you were looking for a chance to prove you’re about reform and equality for working classes

      No. Shut up. Sit down. If you don’t vote for Biden, then you ain’t working class, Jack.

    • @[email protected]
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      21 year ago

      Another thing. If that were going to happen, why hasn’t he pardoned Julian Assange yet, hmm? Assange embarassed the elites and exposed their bullshit. Trump was his fan for a minute until his bullshit got exposed too. Turns out that Hillary has more ties with Russia than Trump. It’s the Machiavellian strategy: accuse your opponent of the thing you’re guilty of.

  • RedFox
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    1 year ago

    Everyone has well covered my frustration with both the tax ideas here and some miscarriage justice, so I have this question:

    Question:

    • What countries do you think are really good examples of what right looks like for taxation?

    • Any countries that rise above the rest for proper proportion of personal tax, corporate tax, etc?

    Why: The older I get, the more I feel like Americans are tought that capitalism good, else bad; rich are the reason the rest of us have it as good as we do, and we should thank them for it.

    I’d like to compare to other countries, that’s why I’m curious,.just trying to Google is a broad starting place.

    • @[email protected]
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      I’d start with a braoder picture first that will have the best chance of naturally funneling you to the information you seek.

      I’d start with looking up what merits are used to consider a government ran program successful.

      From there use those merits but look for examples of programs and the governments responsible for the programs that have been used as models for what happens when a program FAILS to meet each of those merits.

      Then look at what each of the failed programs cost to the taxpayers and what percentage of that goverment’s total the failed program accounts for.

      Divide those costs by the population of tax payering citizens and you will have what earch failed program cost each person.

      Do the same process for successful programs to form a picture of what efficient tax funded programs vs inefficient/failed programs look like.

      Ive done similar analysis cant remember what the reson specifically was for but the added bonus of doing the search yourself is eventually you’ll start finding similar researchers doing similar analysis and discovering methods, questions, variables you didnt even know you were missing.

      What I do remember from my similar search was finding several really good articles on the systematic failures plagueing government ran programs that exist accross many different government models and why they cant be fixed without a complete overhaul of how a governing body is structured.

      One of the things they broje down is how any government ran program is the same entity assessing the cost efficiency of a program is almost always the same entity making its budget proposals. Which is the same entity that usually advocated and proposed the program. Which is the same entity whose tenure is dependent on the success of the program.

      Its been a really long time since I read the article and did my best from memory but without finding the articles, ill admit I may have butchered explaining that example lol.

      Basically for a governing power to have longevity it needs to have redundancies to prevent burning out and those redundancies make gorernment ran programs incapable of having many of the natural variables of business to affect any government ran program.

      Again, full disclaimer I’m shooting from the hip and the take away should be the method that works for me to find answers for either really obscure topics or really specific topics.

      • RedFox
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        11 year ago

        Some of what you mentioned reminds me of the use it or loose is spending model of appropriated funds, and the automatic renewal of some funding year and year.

      • RedFox
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        41 year ago

        This seems like a very academic and thought intensive process. That’s not a criticism.

        I’ll have to fight my natural instincts of finding the easy button on this one.

        Thanks

  • mihies
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    1 year ago

    Well, nobody stood up for Assange or Snowden, rather the opposite, I’m not surprised of this outcome.
    Edit: typo

  • @[email protected]
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    1 year ago

    I just learned: In ancient times the government paid money to their citizens to get their fellowship. Only conquered countries had to pay taxes.

    And in ancient times in Mesopotamia, there have been quite regular debt reset events. All private debts got null. Commercial debts still were valid.

    I‘m currently reading „Debt“ by David Graeber. Interesting to read how religion, money, guilt and debt are intertwined. How we are forced into the rat race by burden us with debts - with both, moral and financial debts.

    • @[email protected]
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      61 year ago

      I’m on my 2nd reading of Bullshit Jobs by Graeber, I’ll have to pick up Debt; I hear a lot of good things about it.

    • @[email protected]
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      91 year ago

      Only conquered countries had to pay taxes.

      “Debt: The First 5000 Years” is such a good book because it really exposes the dynamics of conquest.

      Conquered countries had to pay taxes in the coin of the realm. Coin was paid to the soldiers occupying the country. So in order to pay taxes, you were obligated to do business with the occupying soldiery. This system very quickly sorted the folks willing to accept conquest from the folks intent on rebellion, and it had a secondary benefit of enriching the defectors.

      The conception of currency as a means of delimiting who is and is not a part of your society is really a genius bit of social engineering.

  • ReallyKinda
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    301 year ago

    This guy obviously shouldn’t be in jail, can someone expand on the guy who the article says was forced into psychiatric care?

    Anyways this one legal loophole has been around for awhile—rich people can acquire really low interest loans against their assets so they do, and they use that to pay their expenses, and when it comes tax time they write down that they made some money but they also took out a massive loan so actually they’re in the red. If you own a house you could probably leverage this to some extent yourself. Maybe if everyone who could did it they’d close the loophole? Obviously you couldn’t get rates as low as a politician who chills with the Schwab CEO.

    • @[email protected]
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      111 year ago

      If you own a house you could probably leverage this to some extent yourself.

      That’s a mortgage. Most people use it to pay for the house itself, but you are free to use the money in other ways if you already own the house. It’s probably the only leveraged asset many people own, and the interest rate isn’t particularly low at the moment, but it’s the same thing as getting, say, a line of credit against your yacht.

      • @[email protected]
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        111 year ago

        It’s called a secured loan. And a house secured loan (aka mortgage) isn’t as good as a stock secured loan.

        Stock secured loans rates were basically zero for quite a few years. I think this is why all the venture capital suddenly dried up. Both owning a stock AND taking out a loan based on that stock at 0.25% APR is an insane deal. A year of interest on a million dollars is $2,500. And the stock you’re holding will outperform that. After a few years you just sell a bit of the stock to continue paying the interest of the loan.

        Now that the interest rates are 6-7% things are different. Suddenly your yearly payment on that million dollar loan is $65,000 instead of $2,500. And your stock may not make 6% this year to pay for it.

        It’s kind of a miracle this return to reality didn’t cause more of a collapse.

        • @[email protected]
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          11 year ago

          I agree that mortgage rates didn’t drop to that level, but the same sort of trick worked on them. House prices were rising at anything up to 10% per annum, well above the mortgage rate, so you could refinance regularly, probably reduce your Loan to Value level, and also free up more capital to pay off the upcomming interest payments.

          As you say, these methods have pretty much stopped working as the growth and interest figures have flipped. I don’t see much of a risk of a true market collapse though as there are simply too many powerful people and institutions with too much to lose if that happened. It could be rather turbulent for the rest of us though.

    • RedFox
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      1 year ago

      There are also equity based life insurance policies I think you can do similar things. My guy explained it to me as the justification for the policy and of course because I’m a stupid simpleton, I’ve never looked at actually trying to do something with it.

      Lol, I don’t want to even be in dept to myself.

  • @[email protected]
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    41 year ago

    How Taxes Steal For The Rich

    They have some really great medication for stroke victims. Get well soon.

  • @[email protected]
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    691 year ago

    His name is Littlejohn, and he’s fighting against rich people? It was his destiny! If that judge didn’t let him off he must be in bed with the aristocrats!

  • @[email protected]
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    2671 year ago

    Nevertheless, he added, “the judge gave him a max sentence, claiming it was ‘a moral imperative’ to punish him as harshly as possible.”

    This guy gets fried on ‘mOrAL iMpeRaTivE’ — but Trump and Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh continue to party on— while making a complete mockery of the ever apparent 2-tiered US justice system.