Thread by @RichardHanania on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "The German economy is stagnant, so they're considering a radical solution: allow Sunday shopping. A store owner has to pay a $2,500 Euro fine for selling nonperishable food on Sunday, but does it anyway because it's worth it. It's funny Germans are so authoritarian that they've managed to maintain a theocracy without believing in God. But they have trouble enforcing the rules because…government employees also don’t work on Sunday! You can’t make this stuff up."
Interestingly, most of Europe has given up on the restrictions
Jordan Edwards on X - "I told a German I was expecting a package delivery on Sunday and she was quite surprised, which surprised me. I told her several companies do, and USPS sometimes. The concept of lots of players setting their own policies, forcing even the government to compete, was foreign."
Stagnant Germany Considers the Unthinkable: Sunday Shopping - WSJ - "Bedran Günes, 23, was manning the cash register at Ari Mini Markt, his grocery store, when two officers walked in, demanding to see his merchandise. After surveying his pyramids of cans, arrayed spices and stacks of noodle soup, they issued him a 2,500-euro fine, equivalent to around $2,866. His offense: selling nonperishable food on a Sunday. “I keep doing it because I would be out of business otherwise,” said Günes, who estimates he makes 40% of his sales on Sundays. The scene, which Günes said last took place two months ago, is a snapshot not from a stern theocracy ruled by capricious clerics, but from the capital of Europe’s largest economy. Large though it may be, Germany’s economy is far from healthy. Growth has been flatlining since 2019. Battered by U.S. tariffs and Chinese competition, manufacturers have been shedding thousands of jobs. A desperate government is grasping for ideas to get the engine going again... Legal experts distinguish between “work on Sunday,” which is generally banned, and “work for Sunday”—all the activities needed to ensure a smooth sabbath for the nonworking majority—which is allowed. Stores can sell cucumbers or cans of Coke because they qualify as snacks, but not zucchini or cans of beans, which can’t be consumed on the go. The Denns Bio Markt on Berlin’s Bernauer Strasse is open seven days a week. But on Sunday, shop assistants at the organic supermarket erect barriers through the store to guide shoppers to the bakery section and two cooling cabinets, and away from verboten goods. Heikai Briesenicc, 57, had stopped by Denns Bio Markt to buy potatoes last Sunday and was disappointed to find them off-limits. “Everyone should be able to do as they want,” she added. “No one who wants to open should be punished and no one who doesn’t want to should be forced.” Some states allow shops to open on a few Sundays a year to mark significant events like a marathon or a film festival. Yet trade unions have fought these exceptions in courts and judges have ruled that the festive event, not the shopping, should always be the main draw. Maxim Huet, 24, who was visiting from Paris last weekend, said he had no problem with the Sunday rules. Unlike in France, “it’s very strict, very square and I think it’s good,” he said, adding that the law still lets people buy essentials “like bread, water, and, uh, beer obviously.”... One Vietnamese shop owner in the Mitte district near the former Berlin Wall rolls down his shutter but leaves his door ajar for locals, who know to sneak in for milk and vegetables... One reason successive governments have shied away from revising the Sunday ban is opposition by a cross-party coalition of Christian churches and trade unionists... After a lawsuit by the Verdi trade union two years ago, a court banned automated shops that operate without personnel from opening on Sundays. Shortly after, the state parliament pushed back, enacting a law that allowed such shops to operate. “A work-free Sunday is an absolute social achievement,” said Silke Zimmer, a Verdi board member. “The fact that so many people can have time off simultaneously is a significant cultural asset.”... “There is a well documented and rather archaic disdain for my profession,” said Nils Busch-Petersen, head of the Berlin and Brandenburg retailers’ association. “It seems merchants are the source of all evil and vice and to be kept at bay.” Back at Denns Bio Markt, Golo von Engelhardt, a 28-year-old acting student who had stopped for an ice pop, said he wasn’t a fan of the seven-day working week, “but economically, it’s not ideal if everyone stops working at the same time.” “Maybe we should spread it out. I would be off on Wednesday while others keep the shops open. And then I would work on Sundays. That way, not everyone is off at the same time—and we may get away with a four-day workweek.”"
Patrick Ruffini on X - "74% of Medicare for All supporters think it can fully paid for by taxing billionaires. Just 40% think it’s true it can only be paid for by broad middle class taxation. 🫠🫠🫠"
Corey Walker 🇺🇸 on X - "Progressive policies are always popular when you insist that other people are going to pay for it. The left rails against the "billionaire class" because it's an easy target and easy villain. No one wants to face the truth that nothing in life is without tradeoffs, and you have to actually pay for your own nice things."
Meme - Winter @Leftywinter: "Capitalism sucks."
"UNITED STATES (capitalism). NORWAY (social democracy)
HOME OWNERS 65% vs 80%
POVERTY 11,1% vs 1,0%
JOBLESS 4,2% vs 1,9%
HIGHER EDUCATION $11,000 per year vs Free or very low
HEALTHCARE $15,000 per year vs Free (tax-funded)
ECONOMIC GROWTH 2% vs 2,5%
DEMOCRACY Two-party system (capital dominates) vs Multi-party system (people participate)
PRISON POPULATION 530 per 100,000 people vs 70 per 100,000 people
MILITARY BASES 700+ worldwide vs 0 overseas military bases"
Readers added context to this image: "False dichotomy. Norway is capitalist w/ a strong soc-dem welfare state. Also, withdrawals from its sovereign wealth fund (world's largest) fund 20-25% of gov't spend. It ranks higher (8) than US (22) in the Index of Econ. Freedom, tracking how free-market an econ. is."
Of course, left wingers want to shut down the fossil fuel industry too.
Thread by @CynicalPublius on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "I just spent ten days in Norway and left literally yesterday. It's a beautiful country but is nevertheless full of the European acceptance of diminished living standards and a sense of cultural despair and cultural suicide. Nevertheless, some of the economic features mentioned below are correct. Not because of socialism, but because of two reasons: (i) they are drilling the Hell out of North Sea oil and selling it to the rest of Europe while the UK is busy divesting itself of the same due to "net zero" and (ii) their national population is less than 50% of the Los Angeles metro area. Norway is simply taking advantage of the green scam while pretending to support it. In other words, their prosperity is a function of capitalism. Explained.
BTW, before the discovery of North Sea oil, Norway was Western Europe's poorest nation, a socialist state dependent on selling dried cod to Italy. It is now Europe's 4th wealthiest nation, and that change happened virtually overnight upon the discovery of North Sea oil. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Almost the whole country is natively Norwegian and I did not see a single mosque the whole time I was there."
Meme - Noah Smith @Noahpinion: "The middle class actually isn't falling behind, they're getting ahead. But everyone thinks they're falling behind because they're constantly interacting with super-rich people online, and seeing rich people's lifestyles on Instagram."
"Real Median Personal Income in the United States *going up from just over $36,000 in 2000 to just under $44,000 in 2020*"
Renzo @fwrenzo1: "The "Middle Class" was a 50-year fluke designed to prevent a communist revolution during the Cold War. Now that the threat is gone, the elites are systematically dismantling it. You aren't "falling behind' you're being pushed back into the peasantry."
Meme - Rob @houellebecq_2: "Portland Leftoids be like "yeah it's just poverty that makes men assault random women in the street. Your frontal lobe isn't fully developed until you make $50,000 a year.""
Left wingers have a very dim view of "minorities"
Eric Crampton on X - "Up soon on Newstalk ZB talking compensation for plasma donation. NZ's ban on paid donation just means we import product derived from US paid donors, while underusing immunoglobulin. It doesn't make sense."
Thread by @cremieuxrecueil on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Because America has made the wise decision to compensate blood donors, it has ended up supplying some 70% of the world's blood plasma. This is one of America's top exports, and each year, America saves hundreds of thousands of lives because it does this.
Some people argue against plasma donation on the basis of it being disproportionately used by poorer people They say it's exploitative: they feel that selling something your body makes is wrong if disparate in ways they care about But it's a lifesaver! There's also research indicating that plasma donation can be healthy! (And there's more indicating that, with compensation, it might reduce crime in the local area.)"
Time to continue condemning the US while relying on it, as usual.
Meme - Andrew Follett @AndrewCFollett: "Defense is 8% of US government spending. Education 15%! Welfare is 47%!"
"US Total Government Spending Breakdown (Federal + State & Local)
Approximate FY 2025 Total ~S11.0 trillion
Focus on Interest, Defense, and Social Welfare (with refined "Other")
Social Welfare (Federal + State/Local) (47%)
Education (K-12 + Higher Ed) (15%)
Net Interest (Federal) (9%)
National Defense (Federal) (8%)
Transportation (5%)
Public Safety / Criminal Justice (4%)
Veterans Benefits (Federal) (4%)
All Other Government Spending (8%)"
Thread by @MattGlassman312 on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Among other things, falsely believing we spend more on defense than education is a product of focusing on federal expenditures and forgetting that the various levels of government in the federal system have very different budgetary responsibilities.
Even within federal spending, defense is only about 16% of the budget; many people mistakenly believe it's *half* of the budget, because it is half of all federal discretionary spending. But the vast majority of fed $ now foes to entitlement programs for seniors.To a first approximation, the federal government is a transfer program for seniors that happens to have a large standing army and does a handful of other small things. The profile of state and local government spending is wildly different, education being prominent."
Meme - "When a Leftist can't afford something.
*hand slapping* Blue button: "HUMAN RIGHT""
Meme - "Katie Wilson is the Communist Mayor of Seattle. When she was first elected (based on my research), I said she was the 'perfect' Democrat. She had never had a real job, and was financially supported by her parents. I WAS WRONG She did have a job. She was a political activist. She formed her own non-profit organization, and took donations. And then she paid herself $73,000 per year! Living off other people's money; while providing no services or added value. The absolutely 'PERFECT' Democratic Socialist!"
Brivael Le Pogam on X - "Biarritz a taxé à 60% les résidences secondaires.
Résultat : -1 million d'euros de recettes.
La mairie parle de "fraude massive". Non. C'est de l'économie de niveau CE2. Déroulons.
Principe premier : un être humain agit pour améliorer sa situation. Quand vous augmentez le coût d'un comportement, il y a moins de ce comportement. Ce n'est pas une opinion. C'est une tautologie. Donc quand vous taxez à 60% le fait de déclarer une résidence en secondaire, vous obtenez mécaniquement moins de résidences déclarées comme secondaires. Le fisc vient de découvrir, en 2026, l'existence de la courbe de Laffer. Félicitations. La mairie appelle ça "inverser sa déclaration pour échapper à la taxe". Le vocabulaire est intéressant. "Échapper" suppose que l'argent appartenait déjà à la commune. Avant même qu'elle l'ait perçu. Avant même que le contribuable ait agi. La taxe n'est pas un prélèvement, c'est une dette pré-existante que le citoyen aurait l'indécence de ne pas honorer. Ce glissement sémantique est tout le logiciel. L'État ne prend pas votre argent. Il récupère le sien que vous déteniez à tort.
Deuxième observation : la mairie est "surprise". Elle a voté une taxe punitive en pensant que les gens allaient docilement payer. Elle n'a pas modélisé la réaction. Elle n'a pas anticipé l'élasticité. Elle a appliqué la méthode de planification soviétique : décréter un résultat et attendre qu'il se produise. Le planificateur ne voit jamais les humains. Il voit des unités fiscales. Des chiffres dans un tableur. Quand les chiffres bougent, ce n'est pas que le modèle est faux, c'est que les unités se comportent mal.
Troisième observation, et c'est là que ça devient drôle : la mairie "dénonce une fraude" tout en "reconnaissant la difficulté à prouver l'occupation réelle". Traduction : nous accusons les gens d'un crime que nous sommes incapables de définir, encore moins de constater. Mais ils sont coupables. Parce que les recettes n'ont pas augmenté comme prévu dans notre tableur. C'est le moment Brejnev. Le plan n'a pas marché. Donc le peuple a saboté le plan.
Quatrième niveau. Pourquoi les gens "fraudent" ? Parce qu'ils possèdent un bien immobilier qu'ils ont acheté, légalement, avec de l'argent déjà taxé, et qu'on leur explique maintenant que le simple fait de le posséder leur coûtera 60% de plus. Ils ajustent. Ils déménagent administrativement. Ils font ce que n'importe quel agent rationnel ferait face à une ponction confiscatoire. Le mot "fraude" suppose qu'il existe un usage légitime de leur propriété, défini par la mairie, auquel ils dérogent. Or la propriété, par définition, c'est précisément le droit d'en disposer librement. Si la mairie décide à votre place de l'usage de votre bien sous peine fiscale, vous n'êtes plus propriétaire. Vous êtes locataire de la commune.
Cinquième point. Le bilan comptable est exquis. Recettes espérées : positives. Recettes réelles : -1 million d'euros. Coût administratif des "contrôles renforcés avec le fisc" annoncés : non chiffré, mais croissant. Coût pour l'attractivité de Biarritz : non chiffré. Message envoyé aux propriétaires qui hésitaient encore à investir : limpide. La commune a réussi l'exploit de perdre de l'argent en augmentant un impôt, de détériorer son image, et de criminaliser ses propres administrés. Triple performance.
Sixième point, le fond. Cette histoire n'est pas une anomalie. C'est le fonctionnement normal d'un système qui croit que la richesse est un stock à redistribuer plutôt qu'un flux à produire. Quand vous croyez ça, taxer plus paraît toujours rationnel. Les gens ne sont que des contenants. Vous appuyez sur le contenant, l'argent sort. Sauf que les contenants ont des jambes. Et un cerveau. Et un comptable. Mises l'a écrit il y a un siècle : tout interventionnisme appelle un interventionnisme supplémentaire pour corriger les effets du précédent. La surtaxe n'a pas marché ? Renforçons les contrôles. Les contrôles ne marcheront pas ? Créons un registre. Le registre sera contourné ? Imposons une déclaration trimestrielle. Et ainsi de suite, jusqu'à ce qu'il ne reste plus personne à taxer parce que tout le monde est parti à Saint-Sébastien.
Dernier point. Le plus important. Cette histoire est instructive parce qu'elle est petite. Une ville, un million d'euros, une taxe locale. À cette échelle, l'absurdité est lisible. À l'échelle d'un pays, elle devient invisible. Mais c'est exactement le même mécanisme. À chaque fois qu'on entend "il faut taxer X pour financer Y", il faut entendre : "nous allons décréter que les gens se comporteront comme dans notre modèle, et nous serons stupéfaits quand ils ne le feront pas". Biarritz vient de produire la démonstration en miniature. Encadrez-la. Elle resservira."
A la fin, les gauchistes croirent que tous les biens appartenant a l'Etat
Meme - Cremieux: "Today's a great day to remind everyone: American workers are far and away the richest in the world!"
"Net Adjusted Household Disposable Income (NAHDI) Per Worker (AIC PPPs) As A Proportion of American NAHDI; Year: 2023
America 100%
Belgium 75% *every other country below this*"
Left wingers prefer that workers are poorer if they can "Eat the rich"
Time for left wingers to try to convince Americans that they're poor and that left wing policies like in the other countries where people earn less will make them richer
Do More Powerful Unions Generate Better Pro-Worker Outcomes? - "Labor unions are often evaluated through the wage premiums they secure at the bargaining table. Our study finds that although US unions have historically secured short-run pay gains, these victories often come at the expense of slower employment growth, fewer future job opportunities, reduced investment and productivity, and diminished firm growth and viability. Yet downstream job losses and firm decline can be traced not to the collective voice itself but to the statutory monopoly structures that amplify aggressive bargaining tactics and block alternative channels for cooperation. These trade-offs arise not because unions are uniquely “aggressive,” but because US labor laws promote a legally protected union monopoly that crowds out constructive representation and worker voice. Drawing on 147 studies, we find that when the monopoly face dominates and delivers seemingly “big wins” at the bargaining table, companies respond to wage pressure by trimming R&D, cutting capital, reducing company growth, and ultimately shrinking jobs for unionized workers—dynamics that explain roughly 55 percent of the decline in the Rust Belt’s share of manufacturing employment between 1950 and 2000. Cross-country evidence shows that systems permitting multiple forms of representation, voluntary unions, and flexible agreements retain the benefits of worker voice without the high costs linked to the downsides of monopolies. These findings show no link between greater union power and increased worker welfare: It is the structure of representation—not the presence of a collective voice—that determines whether unions help or harm workers. Policy reforms that relax monopoly privileges for labor unions in the US and encourage pluralistic forms of worker voice and moderate demands could preserve the gains of collective bargaining while mitigating its unintended costs."
Left wingers love unions not because they help workers, but because they can be used to push the left wing agenda
New York's Shrinking Millionaire Share Now Costs It Up to $12 Billion a Year, New Data Show - "New York’s share of America’s millionaire households fell from 12.7 percent in 2010 to 8.7 percent in 2022, the steepest relative decline of any state, according to the Citizens Budget Commission’s (CBC) Competitive NYS: Value Proposition Tracker, a nonpartisan think tank and watchdog. Had the state simply held its 2010 share, the watchdog estimates, personal income tax collections would have been roughly $10.7 billion higher in tax year 2022 alone. The National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF), a Washington-based advocacy group that campaigns for lower taxes, reached a similar conclusion in a May study. Using a 2013 baseline and counting both state and local taxes, it put the annual cost at $12.2 billion. The baselines differ; the direction does not. No state is shedding its slice of the nation’s million-dollar earners faster than New York... The fiscal exposure is unusually concentrated. A single New York millionaire pays as much state and local tax as roughly 39 average residents, according to the NTUF, while the Tax Foundation estimates the top one percent of earners contribute about 45 percent of state income tax receipts. Per capita state and local collections stand at $12,495, fully 78 percent above the national average and the highest in the country... The state’s economy, at roughly $2.5 trillion, remains the country’s third-largest behind California and Texas, and the city’s population rebounded in 2023 and 2024. The rebound, however, “was driven by international immigration, not returning high earners,” she says, leaving a heavier load on a narrowing base of top taxpayers. For the investment migration market, domestic relocation could prove the first link in a longer chain. The same households weighing Miami over Manhattan are increasingly the ones driving record American demand for golden visas and second citizenships, a trend Shah flagged to IMI as early as 2024, when she observed that even former EB-5 investors were beginning to look beyond the US."
Weird. Left wingers keep telling us that rich people will never move
Christina Henderson on X - "I wish more journalists would point out that Sen. McConnell is essentially on paid sick & medical leave. The same employment protection he has spent his career blocking other Americans from having."
Left wing logic: everyone needs to have an identical benefits package and giving employers the freedom to tailor theirs is the same as banning people from getting one. Left wingers hate choice and freedom so much
Austin city audit finds nonprofit contract performance shortfalls - "Austin paid nonprofit organizations millions of dollars for family, health and social services they did not fully deliver, according to a city audit that found contractors missed nearly half of the performance targets reviewed... The shortfalls were often substantial. More than half of the missed targets fell at least 40% below the amount nonprofits had agreed to provide... The nonprofit contracts audit focuses on the city’s oversight of nonprofit contracts rather than the amount of money devoted to social services. But its findings could sharpen questions about whether Austin is getting the services it pays for as council members weigh reductions to nonprofit funding and a major expansion of the city office overseeing homelessness policy... Contractors must explain missed goals, but the city does not consistently require corrective action, reduce payments or impose other consequences. “As a result, the city fully paid nonprofits that did not meet most of their performance expectations,” auditors wrote. The audit also found that departments do not consistently conduct detailed evaluations after contracts end or share performance problems with other city offices. Departments complete a basic closeout checklist, but auditors said it does not thoroughly assess the quality of the work, whether deadlines were met, whether the nonprofit provided good value or how well it corrected instances of noncompliance. Without a stronger evaluation process, the city could renew contracts or award new ones to organizations with known performance problems"
Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 on X - "Nonprofits have hollowed out our state capacity and corrupted the progressive project"
sonch on X - "‘corrupted’? The ‘progressive project’ *isn’t* to maximize gov’t outflows so that Smart, connected ‘progressives’ can use Nice Smart bureaucratic maneuvers such as ‘’’nonprofits’’’ to siphon sinecures for themselves off it?"
This doesn't stop left wingers hating profit and thinking it's responsible for all the problems of the world
Clearly, the problem was they didn't spend enough money, so the nonprofits need to get even more funding!
