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Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.
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CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.
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Zohran Mamdani’s Real-World Constraints
- By Hentenza
- News & Current Events (Articles Required)
- 24 Replies
“Over the past 100 years or so, socialist experiments around the world unleashed a vast tide of tyranny, starvation, and mass murder on a scale never seen before in human history. Socialism was implemented in the Soviet Union, East Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Maoist China, Chavez-Maduro’s Venezuela, and other places. In every one of these places, it has failed. As American writer Joshua Muravchikobserves in his 2019 Wall Street Journal article on socialism, “It’s hard to think of another idea that has been tried and failed as many times in as many ways or at a steeper price in human suffering.”
Despite its demonstrated record of producing evils, however, the spirit of socialism is very much alive today even in the United States. According to a 2019 Gallup poll, as many as 49% of millennials and members of Gen Z (ages 18 to 39 in 2019) hold a favorable view of socialism. Socialists are fond of saying that socialism has not failed because real socialism has never been tried. In the eyes of today’s democratic socialists, the earlier socialist leaders failed because they were “authoritarian socialists” who believed in a strictly hierarchical, top-down bureaucracy and “perverted” socialism’s noble ideals—if, instead, our socialist government is led by public-spirited people whose beliefs are rooted in democratic principles, then we will achieve real socialism and all will be well. The problem, they argue, has never been the socialist horse, but the jockeys who rode it and led it astray.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. When today’s socialists talk about building a non-authoritarian socialist government rooted in democratic and humanitarian principles, they are far from original. In fact, that has always been what the earlier socialists said they would achieve. Aimed at improving the lot of the common people and creating a more egalitarian society, the early socialist movements emerged primarily as a reaction to the inhumane working conditions and yawning wealth disparities in industrialized Europe. Empowering working-class people, dismantling societal hierarchies, and ensuring a more equitable distribution of goods and services have always been among the many honorable objectives of socialist leaders. Socialist regimes have all ended in varying degrees of totalitarianism, to be sure, but there is no denying that earlier socialist leaders, just like today’s, generally started with good intentions.”
www.thecornellreview.org
Despite its demonstrated record of producing evils, however, the spirit of socialism is very much alive today even in the United States. According to a 2019 Gallup poll, as many as 49% of millennials and members of Gen Z (ages 18 to 39 in 2019) hold a favorable view of socialism. Socialists are fond of saying that socialism has not failed because real socialism has never been tried. In the eyes of today’s democratic socialists, the earlier socialist leaders failed because they were “authoritarian socialists” who believed in a strictly hierarchical, top-down bureaucracy and “perverted” socialism’s noble ideals—if, instead, our socialist government is led by public-spirited people whose beliefs are rooted in democratic principles, then we will achieve real socialism and all will be well. The problem, they argue, has never been the socialist horse, but the jockeys who rode it and led it astray.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. When today’s socialists talk about building a non-authoritarian socialist government rooted in democratic and humanitarian principles, they are far from original. In fact, that has always been what the earlier socialists said they would achieve. Aimed at improving the lot of the common people and creating a more egalitarian society, the early socialist movements emerged primarily as a reaction to the inhumane working conditions and yawning wealth disparities in industrialized Europe. Empowering working-class people, dismantling societal hierarchies, and ensuring a more equitable distribution of goods and services have always been among the many honorable objectives of socialist leaders. Socialist regimes have all ended in varying degrees of totalitarianism, to be sure, but there is no denying that earlier socialist leaders, just like today’s, generally started with good intentions.”
Yes, Real Socialism Has Been Tried—And It Has Failed Every Time
Over the past 100 years or so, socialist experiments around the world unleashed a vast tide of tyranny, starvation, and mass murder on a scale never seen before in human history. Socialism was impl…
www.thecornellreview.org
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So.....did your insurance premium go up?
- By wing2000
- American Politics
- 124 Replies
Come Nov 1st, if the current GOP legislation stands:
Article by KFF, outlining the impact by state...and age and poverty level:
"Without the enhanced tax credits, the out-of-pocket premium for an individual, age 40, with an annual income of $32,000, would rise by $122 per month, or about three times the premium payment with enhanced tax credits. This increase will happen in most congressional districts, except Alaska and Hawaii due to their different poverty level guidelines. In Alaska, monthly premium payments would increase from $15 out-of-pocket to $129 if the enhanced tax credits expire, a similar dollar increase but a jump of nearly 800%."
For a 60-year-old couple making $85,000, the congressional districts with the greatest increases per month:
www.kff.org
P.S. 60 year-old people tend to vote.
Article by KFF, outlining the impact by state...and age and poverty level:
"Without the enhanced tax credits, the out-of-pocket premium for an individual, age 40, with an annual income of $32,000, would rise by $122 per month, or about three times the premium payment with enhanced tax credits. This increase will happen in most congressional districts, except Alaska and Hawaii due to their different poverty level guidelines. In Alaska, monthly premium payments would increase from $15 out-of-pocket to $129 if the enhanced tax credits expire, a similar dollar increase but a jump of nearly 800%."
For a 60-year-old couple making $85,000, the congressional districts with the greatest increases per month:
- WY: 693% ($602 to $4,777)
- WV01: 654% ($602 to $4,540)
- WV02: 599% ($602 to $4,210)
- CT04: 537% ($602 to $3,833)
- IL12: 535% ($602 to $3,823)
- NY26: 110% ($602 to $1,265)
- NY23: 119% ($602 to $1,317)
- NY24: 142% ($602 to $1,457)
- NY22: 143% ($602 to $1,461)
- NY20: 150% ($602 to $1,505)
Which Congressional Districts Could See the Greatest ACA Premium Payment Increases?
If the enhanced premium tax credits expire this year, the impact on ACA enrollees’ premium payments will vary by income, age, and geography. Among the five congressional districts with the highest premium increases, premiums will increase by over 500%.
www.kff.org
P.S. 60 year-old people tend to vote.
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