US Politics

[Stirlingsays]

Nor wishing to overcomplicate your figures Stirling, but when Musk talks about financial savings (ie wages), then a lot of that might be shifted into pensions payouts (for those going to early retirement), or younger ones going on Social Security because they've lost their jobs. They lose income tax revenue from all those job cuts too.
There a probably some fat earners in there who are just taking wages fraudulently, in made-up jobs, with little actual work

It's like juggling 5 balls at once, and not dropping any.

However, big savings are in Foreign Policy, as you say. Most notably by giving Europe a wake-up call and getting them to pay for their own defence.

There are big changes by DOGE....but even bigger changes coming from AI and automation we are going to see lots of stress on social security while people change careers as the job market shifts.

While I think everyone supports the rooting out of fraud and waste I acknowledge the reality is that vulnerable people are always going to unfairly suffer from changes like these......just as they are going to here and across the west. Though personally I doubt that Musk and co will touch welfare spending that much because it's a massive vote base.

But all these spending changes are coming....It won't really matter that much whether the government is left or right......they will all do it eventually.

 

[Forest Hillbilly]

There are big changes by DOGE....but even bigger changes coming from AI and automation we are going to see lots of stress on social security while people change careers as the job market shifts.

While I think everyone supports the rooting out of fraud and waste I acknowledge the reality that vulnerable people are always going to unfairly suffer from changes like these......just as they are going to here and across the west. Though personally I doubt that Musk and co will touch welfare spending that much because it's a massive vote base.

But all these spending changes are coming....It won't really matter that much whether the government is left or right......they will all do it eventually.

It seems a bit like Thatcher, all over again. We are yet to see the social upheaval, but that might not kick in until 2026. Europe is trying to resist following suit, but eventually it will have to succumb, due to financial pressures. We really are Trump's bitches.

 

[Stirlingsays]

It seems a bit like Thatcher, all over again. We are yet to see the social upheaval, but that might not kick in until 2026. Europe is trying to resist following suit, but eventually it will have to succumb, due to financial pressures. We really are Trump's bitches.

Yep WW2 stripped us of everything and the US created the post war relationship in Europe because it was the west v soviet communism and thus in their interests to do so. We increasingly farmed out our security to the USA with bases and military guarantees and in return we implicitly became their client state along with the rest of Europe.

When the Berlin wall came down in 89 that dynamic changed, but you still had the neocons in charge in America until Trump.....Trump's an isolationist while Europe's dominated by liberal globalists (some of whom have parties with more communist sympathies than capitalist) and those liberals in Europe were still living the old model......It was never going to end well for us.

I've been complaining about our elites for a long time.....Most of them are group thinking gravy trained mediocracy who aren't there through merit but by patronage.

 

[Forest Hillbilly]

All of Europe's leaders have been passively riding the gravy-train for a couple of decades. Some a bit longer. Trump coming in is also re-shaping the world order.

I would love DOGE to come to the UK and weed out the underperforming politicians. Give them performance-related pay. Cut the nepotistic old-boys connections to industry. Jobs based on qualifications and experience, not who you're mates with. That should keep Musk busy, up to his retirement.