Messages

RE: The Musk Effect

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No problem, Steve, and you're right on all counts.

You're also right about many retirement accounts being tied to the stock market and you're also right about the market thriving under Biden (to put it mildly).

The market returns under Biden are second best in modern history (going back to 1945). The only better performance (you guessed it) was under another Democratic president, Bill Clinton.

The annual market growth rate under Biden has been 14.1% as of November, 2024, so, yes, retirement accounts tied to the market have done great during Biden's watch. Can't you see the spit hitting the face of all those hard-working middle class Americans as they watch their retirement accounts grow substantially before their very eyes? I can tell you first-hand how dramatically mine has grown over the last four years.

Oh wait, I forgot, this is all just left-wing propaganda.

RE: The Musk Effect

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it actually fries my buttons how Trump casually repeats the slanders and no journalist or interviewer ever calls him on it.

Is fry my buttons a known phrase? If not I'm copyrighting it.

RE: The Musk Effect

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I think you own it. I like it.

And so true about the media. They have turned totally gutless. Did you hear what the NY Times tried to do to Krugman? They tried to censor him, so he told them to fuck off and quit. There are scant few left with any integrity. Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post is another.

RE: The Musk Effect

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I think you own it. I like it.

And so true about the media. They have turned totally gutless. Did you hear what the NY Times tried to do to Krugman? They tried to censor him, so he told them to fuck off and quit. There are scant few left with any integrity. Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post is another.

RE: The Musk Effect

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Hope you guys are enjoying your self-congratulatory back slapping. 🍌🐟 there are a bunch of threads so maybe you could link back to what you are talking about? I got distracted while publishing my latest Fanstory hit about gorilla strippers training for Valentines Day. Don't forget to link all your sources too, like I do.

RE: The Musk Effect

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Oi, Harambe, I'm still waiting for you to elucidate about 'the sort of persecution and extortion to be expected from left-wingers these days.'

So yo can't talk about your own legal woes, but you could certainly give us a rundown on the typical persecution and extortion that we nasty liberals are always getting up to. And it'll be a break from defending the most litigious president of all time. What's his latest? Suing a pollster because he didn't like her numbers or a news organisation for editing an interview?

RE: The Musk Effect

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It falls into the general category of making frivolous, expensive demands based on "minority" status and then hiring an army of hitmen when you don't bow down. I will not be elaborating further.

RE: The Musk Effect

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Alrighty 🍌🐟, ask and you shall receive. I have provided this information before, but the site seems to have wiped forum discussions older than 7 months. Inflation is the number one crime that a modern government commits against its working class. Throwing candy around does not make up for it.

Inflation was generally reported around 2% a year from 2016-2020, for 8% total. From 2021-2024 the non-weighted basket of goods has averaged around 5% a year for over 20% total, but the cost of goods and services for the poor and middle class (food, fuel, rent, child care) has increased MUCH MORE than 20%. Elite liberals, which include CNN fact-check dweebs, are completely out of touch with food prices imposed on the poor and working class because they don't even eat the same food. Their protein requirements are lower because they are less likely to be working physical jobs. Here is a random smattering of things that working-class Americans buy:

Butter: dropped under Trump from $2.24/lb to 1.35, a decrease of 40%. Increased 129% under Biden to $3.09 (the cost when I originally posted this). The cost of butter seems to rise in the summer so it is now down to $2.54, so Biden can be credited for only raising it 88%. Nice work, Mr. ex-President.

Potatoes: went up 2% under Trump. Went up 37% under Biden

Bacon: up 30% from 2020-2022

Eggs: up 89% from 2020-2022 (same source as for Bacon above). **2025 Update** I just checked again (in2023dollars.com) and eggs appear to have gone up 175% over the duration of Biden's presidency.

Coffee: $1.50/lb when Trump took office in 2017, down to $1.20 when he left (a decline of 20%). Now it's at $4, so it went up 230% under Biden.

Gas: averaged under $2.50/gal under Trump, $3.50 under Biden, a ~55% increase

Heating oil: averaged $1.69 under Trump, $2.67 under Biden for a 58% increase

I had to deal with these prices while I was doing hard physical labor at Amazon a couple years ago, and it was a real struggle to afford groceries. The vast majority of the blue-collar workers I worked with grew to absolutely hate Biden. Hardly any of his policies did a thing for them. You mentioned drugs, Medicare. These are perks for the elderly. Writing off student debt is a perk for those who sold themselves into debt. It doesn't do anything for working-class folks who either paid their own way through college to avoid debt, or passed up a university education for the same reason.

Again, every time the government hands out money to anyone, it causes inflation for everyone else. In fact, you have made the same argument. Our disagreement is simply about the efficacy of one tax policy vs another. We can talk more about that in another conversation.

Regarding market gains that you and Steve were just talking about:

When inflation is factored, the market gains are considerably lower. In fact, let's compare the S&P inflation-adjusted returns under Trump versus Biden:



I did this analysis for you. We could look at other exchanges if you want but for this exercise I only looked at the S&P. Biden's trick is to use inflation to tax you on a 66% return when you actually only got 37% after 4 years. With inflation, the actual investment returns under Trump were roughly double what they were under Biden.

RE: The Musk Effect

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Mugs

RE: The Musk Effect

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I hope you can do better than that for a response, 🍌🐟. By the way, if you are grateful that your 401(k) is not taxable, you can largely thank Republicans for that. but the IRS will be happy to accept your donations. You can also donate to the Trump presidential library.