It probably only works out for low wage employers. It’d be a huge win for businesses where healthcare costs account for a significant portion of the compensation equation. Even at $15/hour and ~31k/year the 7% payroll tax (~2k) is likely much, much, cheaper than needing to purchase healthcare coverage in the open…

The lower half of the middle class has, on average, negative or near zero federal income tax liability. No one with no liability or negative liability deserves any sort of cut.

“Whatever happened to the States’ Rights and Small Localized Government talking points of the conservative movement? Shouldn’t they be promoting localities making decisions that suit their communities best?”

“You are living a lifestyle that no rich person even 40 years ago could have had and you have far more luxuries than even Rockefeller had.”

Cars are not at all an analogue for Vimes’ boots. Cars are money pits. Period. There’s a reason the “financial gurus” are constantly telling people to buy the inexpensive, used, car in cash. The cheap beater you bought that you think is always acting up and setting you back isn’t. It’s letting you off far easier than…

It’s what happens when people decide that things need to be accessible to everyone with no respect for the consequences. Our finance industry didn’t always offer credit to anyone with a pulse. A sub-prime rating used to get a “Well, there’s the exit” response rather than “Umm, well..., maybe we can do this at 29%.”

“It’s isolating”

“If your income isn’t equal or greater than your expenses through no fault of your own, you are always teetering on the razor’s edge of financial abyss.”

Doesn’t something have to be dead and/or gone before you memorialize it? White supremacy in America has never been dead/gone or in need of memorialization because white people have never seen fit to do anything serious about it. Benefits are too nice I suppose.

Private companies can have external investors too...

If that Ford email qualifies as harsh I understand why it’s so damn hard to get executives to be honest and why by the time they give any hint that something is a problem it’s already beyond repair.

How much is that worth to you? Exactly how much are you willing to spend to get that?

Youth focused media companies struggling ( dying prolonged, awkward, deaths is probably more accurate) at a time when young American consumers believe everything should be free.

“Does every single one of those 180 million people think their care is affordable?”

The average annual premium cost for an American that gets insurance through their employer across all plan varieties is $1400 for an individual and $5200 for a family.

“Tax wages more progressively.”

There are a handful of founder owned companies in my area that are relatively small ( < 50 employees), revenue in the 20-30m/year range, that would probably have valuations in or nearing the nine figure range.

Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security are a shitty deal for the people that actually have to pay for them. Your father is objectively right. It’s just an unusual perspective from someone benefitting from their unfair nature.

“it’s important that tech companies focus on hiring people with valuable skills, not just people with college degrees.”

The government should owe everyone with positive tax liability somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/12th of their 2019 return for the month of non-essential services we paid for that we aren’t getting.